Unlocking the Power of Company Lookalikes with Ocean.io and Clay

Using Company Lookalikes in Clay

One of the most powerful ways to grow your business is to build on your existing customers. If you know a certain type of customer already loves your product or service, then it’s likely true that other companies like your customer(s) will too!

Enter: Company lookalikes. 

Company lookalikes help you find businesses similar to those in your existing dataset, allowing you to expand your outreach and improve targeting. In Clay, you can leverage Ocean.io to generate company lookalikes in two ways:

1. As a source: Start with a set of companies and generate lookalikes
2. As an enrichment: Find lookalikes for companies already in your table (recommended for most workflows)

In this lesson, we’ll walk through both methods and explore how to structure and refine your lookalike data for the best results.

How It Works: Watch The Guided Demo

Watch the full guided demo below, or skip ahead for a step-by-step breakdown.

Lookalikes as a Source

When you're starting from scratch or want to build a list based entirely on lookalikes, using the Ocean.io integration as a source is your go-to option. Here's a quick overview:

1. Select the Ocean.io integration
2. Choose your Clay account
3. Input up to 10 domains as your seed companies

This method allows you to kickstart your list with lookalikes of your core target companies.

Enrich Exiting List With Lookalikes

To get scalable lookalikes, integrate them into your existing Find Companies workflow. This approach is particularly useful when you want to expand on a list you've already curated.

1. Go to Your Companies Table – Open the dataset where you want to add lookalikes.
2. Select the Lookalikes Integration – Add Ocean IO’s lookalikes to your table.
3. Choose a Source Identifier – Use company domain as the primary matching field.
4. Set Additional Filters:
   
   • Exclude specific domains (if needed).
   • Restrict lookalikes to certain countries (e.g., only U.S. companies).
   • Match lookalikes by company size (e.g., only 200+ employees).
   • Filter by industry (e.g., software companies only).
5. Run on a Small Sample First – Start with 10 rows to verify results before scaling.

Once the integration runs, you’ll receive at least 10 lookalikes per company, expanding your dataset significantly.

After running the integration, you'll notice that your list expands significantly. For example, starting with 10 companies might result in a list of 90+ lookalikes. Each lookalike comes with valuable data, including similarity scores and company details.‍

Organizing Your Lookalike Data

The raw data from Ocean.io is comprehensive but can be unwieldy in its initial format. This is where Clay's "Write to Table" feature comes in handy. Here’s how: 

1. Use the "Write to Table" function
2. Select "New Table" if you don't have an existing one
3. Choose the fields you want to include, such as:
   
   • Company name
   • Domain
   • Similarity score
   • Company size
   • Industry
   • Source lookalike company

Refining Your Lookalike List

Once you've created your new table, consider these steps:

1. Rename columns for clarity (e.g., "Lookalike Source", "Lookalike Company")
2. Deduplicate the list to remove redundant entries
3. Add a lookup to ensure lookalikes aren't in your original list

Strategic Use of Lookalikes

One of the most effective strategies we've seen is using lookalikes to double down on your existing successes. Here's how:

1. Identify your most successful customers
2. Find lookalikes for these customers
3. Segment the lookalikes by relevant categories (e.g., marketing agencies)
4. Craft compelling outreach that references your success with similar companies

This approach allows you to leverage your existing wins to create highly targeted, relevant outreach campaigns.

Congrats!

By using Ocean.io's lookalike feature within Clay, you're not just expanding your list – you're strategically growing your potential customer base with companies that closely resemble your ideal clients. This targeted approach can significantly boost your outreach effectiveness and, ultimately, your conversion rates.

Remember, the key to success with lookalikes is to use them as a tool for precision, not just expansion. By focusing on quality matches and leveraging your existing success stories, you can create outreach campaigns that resonate deeply with your prospects.

Next up: Finding job sources and enrichments in Clay.

‍

‍

‍