Automatically research new leads in your target area, structure the results with AI, and append them into Google Sheets — all orchestrated in n8n.
✅ What this template does
- Uses Perplexity to research businesses (coffee shops in this example) with company name + email
- Cleans and structures the output into proper JSON using OpenAI
- Appends the new leads directly into Google Sheets, skipping duplicates
Trigger: Manual — “Start Workflow”
👤 Who’s it for
- Sales & marketing teams who need to prospect local businesses
- Agencies running outreach campaigns
- Freelancers and consultants looking to automate lead research
⚙️ How it works
- Set Location → define your target area (e.g., Hershey PA)
- Get Current Leads → pull existing data from your Google Sheet to avoid duplicates
- Research Leads → query Perplexity for 20 businesses, excluding already-scraped ones
- Write JSON → OpenAI converts Perplexity output into structured Company/Email arrays
- Split & Merge → align Companies with Emails row-by-row
- Send Leads to Google Sheets → append or update leads in your sheet
🛠️ Setup instructions
Follow these sticky-note setup steps (already included in the workflow):
1) Connect Google Sheets (OAuth2)
- In n8n → Credentials → New → Google Sheets (OAuth2)
- Sign in with your Google account and grant access
- In the Google Sheets node, select your Spreadsheet and Worksheet
Example sheet:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1MnaU8hSi8PleDNVcNnyJ5CgmDYJSUTsr7X5HIwa-MLk/edit#gid=0
2) Connect Perplexity (API Key)
- Sign in at https://www.perplexity.ai/account
- Generate an API key: https://docs.perplexity.ai/guides/getting-started
- In n8n → Credentials → New → Perplexity API, paste your key
3) Connect OpenAI (API Key)
- In n8n → Credentials → New → OpenAI API
- Paste your OpenAI API key
- In the OpenAI Chat Model node, select your credential and a vision-capable model (e.g.,
gpt-4o-mini
, gpt-4o
)
🔧 Requirements
🎨 How to customize
- Change the Search Area in the
Set Location
node
- Modify the Perplexity system prompt to target different business types (e.g., gyms, salons, restaurants)
- Expand the Google Sheet schema to include more fields (phone, website, etc.)
📬 Contact
Need help customizing this (e.g., filtering by campaign, sending reports by email, or formatting your Google Sheet)?