Easily Generated Leads in 4 Steps using Apify & n8n

With n8n and Apify you can get 50 high quality leads with a website, email, phone number in < 2 minutes for only $0.21.

In this tutorial, we will create a simple tool you can use today to get more clients. 

Objective

Generate high-quality business leads from Google Maps using Apify and cleanly export them into Google Sheets — all automated with n8n.

Tools

• Apify — pre-built actors for scraping structured data (Google Maps, TikTok, LinkedIn, and more).

• n8n — the workflow automation engine.

• Google Sheets — final export and storage of your leads.

👉 Sign up for Apify here: Apify.com

Framework

To build an effective lead generation pipeline, you need to:

1. Capture the right data — decide your niche (e.g. dentists in Los Angeles).

2. Run a reliable scraper — Apify actors are plug-and-play, and cheap (my last run cost just $0.21 for 50 enriched leads).

3. Clean the results — normalize phone numbers, emails, and profile data for consistency.

4. Export to Google Sheets — your ready-to-use lead database.

Tutorial Steps

YouTube video for the visual learners is below.

Step 1 — Form Submission

We begin with a simple input form in n8n. This is where you specify the query:

Example

Search term : Dentists, Los Angeles, California

Location : Dentists, Los Angeles, California

This becomes the search string that we’ll pass into Apify’s Google Maps actor.

Step 2 — Run the Apify Actor

Apify makes scraping point-and-click simple.

• Set up an Apify account and connect it to n8n via OAuth2.

• Use the Google Maps Scraper Actor → copy its Actor URL from Apify.

• Paste it into the n8n HTTP Request node.

• Provide the JSON body with your search query. (This tutorial flow already includes it for free).

• Optionally bump memory to 4GB to avoid out-of-memory issues for larger runs.

Run the node → n8n waits for Apify to finish the scraping job.

💡 Typical output includes:

• Business name

• Address

• Website

• Phone number

• Email (if public)

• Reviews count

• “Claimed” status (whether the business has claimed their Google profile)

Step 3 — Clean the Data

Raw data isn’t fun to use. That’s why we add a JavaScript Function node:

• Lowercase business names for consistency.

• Strip symbols (+, spaces, dashes) from phone numbers → export just digits.

• Normalize emails.

• Ensure review counts are numbers, not strings.

This step ensures your dataset is campaign-ready before exporting.

Step 4 — Export to Google Sheets

Finally, connect your cleaned output to a Google Sheets node. Here’s the Gsheets template.

Each row in the sheet = one lead.

For example, after scraping dentists in Los Angeles, you’ll immediately see:

Snapshot of scraped data

This is a gold mine: unclaimed profiles are often lower in search rankings, making them excellent SEO outreach targets.

Conclusion

With n8n, Apify, and Google Sheets, you can spin up a fully automated lead generation engine in under an hour. The workflow is cost-efficient, scalable, and easy to adapt to any niche.

• Need dentists in Los Angeles? ✅

• Plumbers in Toronto? ✅

• Restaurants in Berlin? ✅

The same flow applies.

Try the n8n workflow here and start building your own lead lists today.

Remember, converting one of these clients for a service will pay itself many times over with future work.