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Use Conditional Run Formulas
When optimizing your Clay credit usage, conditional run formulas are your best friend. When setting up an integration, you have the ability to run an integration only if certain data is present or not present.
This is where the Conditional Formula run is located.
TL;DR
- Use conditional run formulas to skip integrations when the required data is missing, so you only spend data credits on rows that actually need enrichment.
- When finding company domains, run Clearbit first (it's free and 98% accurate), then fall back to Google only when Clearbit returns no result.
- Use the native "Enrich Company" integration instead of Google Search to find company profiles. It delivers the same accuracy without the extra cost.
- Merge results from multiple columns using the
||formula operator to consolidate data cleanly after a waterfall lookup.
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Run an integration only when a result is present
A mistake we see all the time is people wanting to enrich social profiles so they can personalize an email to the contact, but there's no valid work email present. If you aren't going to email them, no point in enriching their profile right?
In this situation, we would want to check if a valid email exists in a column. If a valid email exists in a column, then we would want to run the Enrich Person enrichment.
To set this up, navigate to your Enrich Person integration and set up your inputs as you usually would except now scroll down to Conditional Formula.
To run a column only when data exists in another column in the same row, all you have to do is click on the column that you want to check for. That's it.
Run an integration only when a result is not present
Next, let's say you only want an integration to run if there is no data present. Say you have a list of emails that you want to verify and if they don't verify, you want to use the Clay email finder to find emails. This is also straightforward.
Just click "Edit as Formula" and add an exclamation mark (!) in front of the column ID. The {{f_VH7N31yLSWjv}} is representative of the column that we want to look check data for. We got this here by clicking on the token in the dropdown menu that appears when we click into the input bar. See below for reference.
Now you have set up the integration to run ONLY if data is not present in that cell.
If you have any other formula needs, check out our AI formula generator to build more sophisticated formulas.
Optimize finding websites from company names
Finding websites from company names is one of our most used functions because often, the websites unlocks your ability to find a ton of information about the company. There are two ways to find websites from company names in Clay and we suggest you use them both.
The first option is the Clearbit company name to domain search. The second option is the Google company name to domain search. There's a little bit of a difference between the two and if you want really good coverage on your lists, both of them will help out a lot.
The best part about the Clearbit company name to domain search is that it's free. So we recommend everyone starts with this integration to find company domains. The other reason we suggest to start with this integration is because it is coming from their database. If it is a match in their database, the likelihood that it is the right website for the company name is 98%. Clearbit will not have as many found websites as the Google Integration but they are highly accurate.
Google on the other hand is not using a database. It is performing a live Google search for the company name and returning the first site that comes back. Often, if a company has poor SEO performance, they will not show up in the search. Another site (usually sites with programmatic SEO) could rank above that site and mess up your search.
This is also the Google integration's superpower because it is not bound by a search. We suggest setting up 2 columns to find the websites. First, set up the Clearbit Integration to take the first pass at finding websites for the company names. Second, use a conditional formula to only allow Google to run it's integration after the Clearbit integration has no success. Also, use the exclude website section to exclude unwanted company domains from your search.
This is an example of what a table would look like set up properly.
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To finish this workflow, we need to combine the data. We will write a formula if the data is present in either column, we will merge them together. We can use the formula function to solve this. Just use || in between your two columns!
The {{f_PP5WWzlIrigQ}} and {{f_7PQBVWTRdDT6}} are both representative of the different columns that we are combining into our merged domain column.
See our formula below.
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Efficiently find company profiles
A mistake that we commonly see is that people will use the Google Search Integration to find company profiles. This is unnecessary as the "Enrich Company" integration has this function built in natively.
It says "Lower Accuracy" but it is the same accuracy as searching for the Company URL on Google.
Enter the website that you have and Clay will find theCompany page and enrich it for you.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a conditional run formula in Clay and how does it save data credits?
A conditional run formula tells an integration to only execute when specific data is (or isn't) present in a row. This prevents you from spending data credits on enrichments that would be wasted, for example, enriching a social profile when no valid work email exists for that contact.
How do I run an integration only when a cell is empty?
Click "Edit as Formula" in the Conditional Formula field and add an exclamation mark (!) in front of the column token. This tells Clay to run the integration only when that cell contains no data.
Why should I use Clearbit before Google for company domain lookups?
The Clearbit company name to domain search is free and pulls from a database, giving it roughly 98% accuracy on matched results. Google performs a live search and can return incorrect results if a company has poor SEO. Running Clearbit first and using Google only as a fallback gives you strong coverage without unnecessary data credit spend.
How do I merge domain results from two columns into one?
Use the formula function with the || operator between your two column tokens. If data is present in either column, the formula will merge them into a single combined domain column.
Is the "Enrich Company" integration more accurate than using Google Search for company profiles?
Yes, and it's more efficient. The "Enrich Company" integration finds and enriches the company page natively, with the same accuracy as a Google search for the company URL. Using Google Search for this task is redundant and costs extra data credits.
These are just a couple thoughts about how to optimize your credit usage in Clay. If you have any questions about your workflow, ask us in our support group on Slack. If you haven't joined, accept your invite at clay.com/slack. Happy building!
Use Conditional Run Formulas
When optimizing your Clay credit usage, conditional run formulas are your best friend. When setting up an integration, you have the ability to run an integration only if certain data is present or not present.
This is where the Conditional Formula run is located.
TL;DR
- Use conditional run formulas to skip integrations when the required data is missing, so you only spend data credits on rows that actually need enrichment.
- When finding company domains, run Clearbit first (it's free and 98% accurate), then fall back to Google only when Clearbit returns no result.
- Use the native "Enrich Company" integration instead of Google Search to find company profiles. It delivers the same accuracy without the extra cost.
- Merge results from multiple columns using the
||formula operator to consolidate data cleanly after a waterfall lookup.
Run an integration only when a result is present
A mistake we see all the time is people wanting to enrich social profiles so they can personalize an email to the contact, but there's no valid work email present. If you aren't going to email them, no point in enriching their profile right?
In this situation, we would want to check if a valid email exists in a column. If a valid email exists in a column, then we would want to run the Enrich Person enrichment.
To set this up, navigate to your Enrich Person integration and set up your inputs as you usually would except now scroll down to Conditional Formula.
To run a column only when data exists in another column in the same row, all you have to do is click on the column that you want to check for. That's it.
Run an integration only when a result is not present
Next, let's say you only want an integration to run if there is no data present. Say you have a list of emails that you want to verify and if they don't verify, you want to use the Clay email finder to find emails. This is also straightforward.
Just click "Edit as Formula" and add an exclamation mark (!) in front of the column ID. The {{f_VH7N31yLSWjv}} is representative of the column that we want to look check data for. We got this here by clicking on the token in the dropdown menu that appears when we click into the input bar. See below for reference.
Now you have set up the integration to run ONLY if data is not present in that cell.
If you have any other formula needs, check out our AI formula generator to build more sophisticated formulas.
Optimize finding websites from company names
Finding websites from company names is one of our most used functions because often, the websites unlocks your ability to find a ton of information about the company. There are two ways to find websites from company names in Clay and we suggest you use them both.
The first option is the Clearbit company name to domain search. The second option is the Google company name to domain search. There's a little bit of a difference between the two and if you want really good coverage on your lists, both of them will help out a lot.
The best part about the Clearbit company name to domain search is that it's free. So we recommend everyone starts with this integration to find company domains. The other reason we suggest to start with this integration is because it is coming from their database. If it is a match in their database, the likelihood that it is the right website for the company name is 98%. Clearbit will not have as many found websites as the Google Integration but they are highly accurate.
Google on the other hand is not using a database. It is performing a live Google search for the company name and returning the first site that comes back. Often, if a company has poor SEO performance, they will not show up in the search. Another site (usually sites with programmatic SEO) could rank above that site and mess up your search.
This is also the Google integration's superpower because it is not bound by a search. We suggest setting up 2 columns to find the websites. First, set up the Clearbit Integration to take the first pass at finding websites for the company names. Second, use a conditional formula to only allow Google to run it's integration after the Clearbit integration has no success. Also, use the exclude website section to exclude unwanted company domains from your search.
This is an example of what a table would look like set up properly.
To finish this workflow, we need to combine the data. We will write a formula if the data is present in either column, we will merge them together. We can use the formula function to solve this. Just use || in between your two columns!
The {{f_PP5WWzlIrigQ}} and {{f_7PQBVWTRdDT6}} are both representative of the different columns that we are combining into our merged domain column.
See our formula below.
Efficiently find company profiles
A mistake that we commonly see is that people will use the Google Search Integration to find company profiles. This is unnecessary as the "Enrich Company" integration has this function built in natively.
It says "Lower Accuracy" but it is the same accuracy as searching for the Company URL on Google.
Enter the website that you have and Clay will find theCompany page and enrich it for you.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a conditional run formula in Clay and how does it save data credits?
A conditional run formula tells an integration to only execute when specific data is (or isn't) present in a row. This prevents you from spending data credits on enrichments that would be wasted, for example, enriching a social profile when no valid work email exists for that contact.
How do I run an integration only when a cell is empty?
Click "Edit as Formula" in the Conditional Formula field and add an exclamation mark (!) in front of the column token. This tells Clay to run the integration only when that cell contains no data.
Why should I use Clearbit before Google for company domain lookups?
The Clearbit company name to domain search is free and pulls from a database, giving it roughly 98% accuracy on matched results. Google performs a live search and can return incorrect results if a company has poor SEO. Running Clearbit first and using Google only as a fallback gives you strong coverage without unnecessary data credit spend.
How do I merge domain results from two columns into one?
Use the formula function with the || operator between your two column tokens. If data is present in either column, the formula will merge them into a single combined domain column.
Is the "Enrich Company" integration more accurate than using Google Search for company profiles?
Yes, and it's more efficient. The "Enrich Company" integration finds and enriches the company page natively, with the same accuracy as a Google search for the company URL. Using Google Search for this task is redundant and costs extra data credits.
These are just a couple thoughts about how to optimize your credit usage in Clay. If you have any questions about your workflow, ask us in our support group on Slack. If you haven't joined, accept your invite at clay.com/slack. Happy building!
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