Overview
Check out the How to Use Waterfall Enrichment course from Apollo Academy for a guided video tour on waterfall enrichment setup, credit usage, and reporting.
Waterfall enrichment allows you to enrich contact emails and phone numbers in Apollo through a series of cascading data sources, giving you access to more actionable data.
Once you connect your preferred data sources, waterfall enrichment pulls data from each provider, in the order you define, until you have complete email addresses and phone numbers for your contacts. You can also choose to connect an email validation source or phone validation source to add an extra verification layer when you access contact emails or phone numbers.
Check out the following sections to learn how to:
- Configure waterfall enrichment settings and add data sources to your lineup.
- Run waterfall enrichment throughout the Apollo platform.
- Report on your team’s waterfall enrichment activity.
Check out Waterfall Enrichment Overview for answers to frequently asked questions, including questions about data sources and credit consumption.
Configure Global Waterfall Enrichment Settings
Before you get started, an Apollo admin needs to configure your team's global waterfall settings and data sources.
If you're an admin, waterfall enrichment runs by default for your entire team based on the settings you configure for email or phone enrichment. You're always in control of how enrichment works and can adjust your team's waterfall settings at any time. You can configure your settings to:
- Use Apollo-only data: Use Apollo as your sole data source for waterfall enrichment. Credit usage stays the same, but data coverage may be lower. You can remove all third-party data sources from your waterfall lineup to enable this option.
- Maximize data coverage with third-party data sources: Add third-party data sources to your waterfall lineup for broader data coverage. Credit usage depends on which data source successfully returns contact data.
- Maximize data quality: Connect an optional data validator for the highest data accuracy. This requires additional credits to validate data found during enrichment.
To access global settings for waterfall enrichment:
- Launch Apollo and click People.
- Apply filters to run a search.
- Next to the Emails or Phone Numbers column, hover over the waterfall enrichment icon. Click the gear icon in the pop-up to open waterfall settings for email enrichment or phone enrichment.
- In the global waterfall settings panel, click Add to search for your preferred data sources and add them to your lineup.
Want to learn more about your data source options? Check out Apollo's Integrations Marketplace to learn more about each third-party data source available for waterfall enrichment.
- Scroll through the list of data sources and use the checkboxes to select each source you want to add to your waterfall lineup. You can connect Apollo-integrated providers, which integrate automatically and use Apollo credits, or API-required providers, which require an external API key.
There are 2 ways to set up data sources for waterfall enrichment:
Apollo-integrated sources: These are providers with a native integration in Apollo that charge Apollo credits to run enrichment. You can add them to your enrichment lineup without having your own account or API key with the provider.
External integration via API key: These are third-party providers that require an API key to connect to Apollo. Use this type of connection if you already have a subscription with the provider. External sources set their own credit charges and don't consume Apollo credits. Learn more.
- If you connect an API-required data source, enter a key name and your source's API key, then click Save.
- Click Add sources to include them in your enrichment lineup.
- Click ⋮⋮ to drag and drop data sources and adjust their order in the enrichment lineup. Hover over a data source and click X to remove it.
Waterfall enrichment cycles through data sources from top to bottom. Note that Apollo always acts as your first data source and can’t be moved from the top spot.
- (Optional) Connect an email or phone validation source to add an extra layer of verification when enriching contact emails and phones. The validation source cross-checks information pulled from your connected data sources to uphold data accuracy and ensure you reach your ideal contacts. You can only connect 1 email or phone validation source at a time.
- For email enrichment, select whether enrichment ends when a verified email is found or when any email is found.
Apollo recommends sending outreach to verified email addresses to keep your domain reputation safe and to improve deliverability.
Searching for a verified email may cost more credits, depending on the number of providers cycled through during enrichment. Enrichment continues until a verified email is found. Connected providers charge credits for each unverified email found before locating a verified email.
When you search for any email, you’ll consume credits each time a provider finds an email, regardless of whether the email is verified or not.
- Click Save, then click Confirm Changes to confirm you want to apply to enrichment activities across your entire team's Apollo account.
You’ve completed global waterfall enrichment setup. You can repeat these steps to edit your enrichment settings at any time.
Now you and your team are ready to run waterfall enrichment in Apollo.
Run Waterfall Enrichment
Waterfall is enabled by default for a variety of activities throughout the Apollo platform and runs based on the team-wide settings configured by your admin.
However, you have full control over your enrichment settings and data sources at all times. If you prefer to use Apollo-only data, your Apollo admin can update your waterfall settings at any time to remove all third-party sources.
In addition, your entire team has the option to deactivate waterfall on a case-by-case basis for the following activities:
- Saving net-new contacts (individual and in bulk).
- Enriching saved contact emails and phone numbers.
- Enriching saved contacts with job changes.
- Enriching contacts from the contact profile page.
- Importing contacts via CSV.
- Enriching missing emails in the Data Health Center.
- Scheduling job change enrichment in the Data Health Center.
- Creating enrichment workflows.
- Saving contacts via the Apollo Chrome extension.
-
Enriching contacts via the Apollo API.
- Waterfall query parameters are set to
Falseby default. Manually set them toTrueto run waterfall enrichment via the API.
- Waterfall query parameters are set to
Learn how to run waterfall enrichment during the following activities in Apollo:
| Waterfall Enrichment Availability | ||
|---|---|---|
| People Search: Save Contacts | People Search: Access Emails and Phone Numbers | People Search: Enrich Emails and Phone Numbers |
| People Search: Job Change Enrichment | AI Research Templates | Data Health Center: Enrich Contacts with Missing Emails |
| Data Health Center: Schedule Job Change Enrichment | Contact Profile Page | CSV Imports |
| Apollo Chrome Extension | Enrichment Workflows | Apollo Enrichment API |
People Search: Save Contacts
You can run waterfall enrichment each time you save individual or bulk contacts from People. To do this:
- Launch Apollo and go to People.
- Apply filters to begin searching for new prospects.
- Check one or more prospects you want to save as a contact, then click Save.
- Under Add Enrichment, toggle on Find data via Waterfall for email enrichment and/or phone number enrichment. This allows Apollo to run waterfall enrichment for your selected prospects. Apollo also provides a credit usage estimate for enriching these prospects.
- Check Include catch-all emails to allow Apollo to return catch-all emails for your prospects during enrichment.
Organizations use catch-all emails to receive messages sent to anyone with the same domain name. Typically, catch-all emails help teams capture emails sent in error to the wrong email address or non-existent email addresses.
- Click Save to save your new contacts and begin waterfall enrichment.
- The enrichment process cycles through each connected data source in the order set by your team's admin. Enrichment ends when Apollo or another data source finds an email or phone number for your selected records. Your contact’s data appears after successful enrichment.
Waterfall enrichment may take a few moments, depending on the number of data sources needed to find an email or phone number.
- Repeat these steps for each contact record you want to enrich individually.
People Search: Access Emails and Phone Numbers
Waterfall enrichment runs by default, based on settings configured by an Apollo admin, each time you request to access an individual contact’s email or phone number during a search.
To do this:
- Launch Apollo and click People.
- Apply filters to search for contacts.
- Click Access email or Access mobile next to the contact record you want to enrich. Waterfall enrichment begins automatically, using Apollo and the other data sources you added.
- The enrichment process cycles through each connected data source in the order you set. Enrichment ends when Apollo or another data source finds an email or phone number for your selected records. Your contact’s data appears after successful enrichment.
Waterfall enrichment may take a few moments, depending on the number of data sources needed to find an email or phone number.
- Repeat these steps for each contact record you want to enrich.
People Search: Enrich Emails and Phone Numbers
You can run waterfall enrichment when enriching emails or phone numbers for your saved contacts, both individually and in bulk. To do this:
- Launch Apollo and click People.
- Click Saved. Apply filters to narrow down your saved contacts as needed.
- Check each saved contact you want to enrich. Click Enrich, then select Enrich emails or Enrich mobile numbers.
- Use the toggle to enable Find data via Waterfall for selected records. This allows Apollo to run waterfall enrichment for your selected contacts. Apollo provides a preview of the data sources in your waterfall lineup and an estimate for the number of credits you might use to enrich your contacts.
- Switch the toggle off to enrich your selected contacts with Apollo data only. This won't impact your team's global waterfall enrichment settings.
- Click Enrich to begin waterfall enrichment.
- The enrichment process cycles through each connected data source in the order your team's admin set. Enrichment ends when Apollo or another data source finds an email or phone number for your selected records. Your contact’s data appears after successful enrichment.
Waterfall enrichment may take a few moments, depending on the number of data sources needed to find an email or phone number.
- Repeat these steps for each contact record you want to enrich.
People Search: Job Change Enrichment
You can run waterfall enrichment when you enrich saved contacts with job changes from the People page. Refer to Enrich Contacts with Job Changes to learn more.
AI Research Templates
Use AI research to quickly run email or phone enrichment for saved contacts. To do this:
- Launch Apollo and click People.
- Click Saved. Apply filters to narrow down your saved contacts as needed.
- Click Research with AI > View templates.
- Select Enrich email addresses or Enrich phone numbers.
- Apollo displays your waterfall enrichment settings for enriching emails or phone numbers. If you're an admin, you can edit these settings as needed. Note that this will update the waterfall enrichment settings for everyone on your team.
- Click Save & run, then select one of the following options. Please note that some of these options may or may not be available, depending on the number of saved contacts in your search results:
- Save & run selected row: Run waterfall enrichment on your selected saved contacts. You need to check 1 or more contact to see this option.
- Save & run first 10 rows: Run waterfall enrichment for the first 10 rows of saved contacts.
- Save & run 25 rows on current page: Run waterfall enrichment for all saved contacts on the current search page.
- Save & run on empty or error rows in view: Run waterfall enrichment only on saved contacts that are missing data or have outdated information. This option only appears when saved contacts on your current search page are missing data.
- Save & run on all rows in the view: Run waterfall enrichment for all saved contacts that meet your filter criteria. You can run enrichment on up to 5000 contacts at once.
- When you run waterfall enrichment, the enrichment process cycles through each connected data source in the order you set. Enrichment ends when Apollo or another data source finds an email or phone number for your selected records. Your contact’s data appears after successful enrichment.
Waterfall enrichment may take a few moments, depending on the number of data sources needed to find an email or phone number.
- Repeat these steps for each set of contact records you want to enrich.
Data Health Center: Enrich Contacts with Missing Emails
You can run waterfall enrichment from the Data Health Center to manually enrich contacts with missing emails. To do this:
- Launch Apollo and go to Data enrichment.
- Under Missing emails, click View contacts.
- Check each contact you want to update, then click Update selected.
- Toggle on Find data via Waterfall for selected records to run waterfall enrichment on your selected contacts. Admins can click Waterfall setting to review and edit connected data sources and enrichment settings.
- Click Enrich contacts to run waterfall enrichment and locate each contact's missing email.
- The enrichment process cycles through each connected data source in the order set by your team's admin. Enrichment ends when Apollo or another data source finds an email or phone number for your selected records. Your contact’s data appears after successful enrichment.
Waterfall enrichment may take a few moments, depending on the number of data sources needed to find an email or phone number.
- Repeat these steps for each contact you want to enrich.
Data Health Center: Schedule Job Change Enrichment
Use waterfall enrichment to broaden data coverage in your job change enrichment schedules. When enabled, each scheduled enrichment will search for available job change data via Apollo and your team's connected data sources.
Refer to Enrich Contacts with Job Changes to learn how to set up waterfall enrichment for scheduled job change updates.
Contact Profile Page
You can run waterfall enrichment for saved contacts from the contact profile page. To do this:
- Launch Apollo and click People.
- Click Saved. Apply filters to narrow down your saved contacts as needed.
- Click on the saved contact you want to enrich to open their contact profile.
- Under Contact information, click +. Select Enrich phone number or Enrich email.
- Use the toggle to enable Find data via Waterfall for selected records. This allows Apollo to run waterfall enrichment for your selected contacts. Apollo provides a preview of the data sources in your waterfall lineup and an estimate for the number of credits you might use to enrich this contact.
- Switch the toggle off to enrich your selected contacts with Apollo data only. This won't impact your team's global waterfall enrichment settings.
- Click Enrich to begin waterfall enrichment.
- The enrichment process cycles through each connected data source in the order you set. Enrichment ends when Apollo or another data source finds an email or phone number for your selected records. Your contact’s data appears after successful enrichment.
Waterfall enrichment may take a few moments, depending on the number of data sources needed to find an email or phone number.
- Repeat these steps for each contact you want to enrich.
CSV Imports
You can run waterfall enrichment while importing contacts via CSV to Apollo.
CSV imports include optional data enrichment settings that tell Apollo whether to enrich contact emails and/or phone numbers during the import process. Click the toggle to enable waterfall enrichment and broaden your enrichment data coverage.
Refer to Import a CSV of Contacts to learn how to set up waterfall enrichment during CSV imports.
Apollo Chrome Extension
Waterfall enrichment helps you access more actionable contact data when you prospect with the Apollo Chrome extension. When enabled, waterfall enrichment runs automatically any time you or your team request access to a prospect's email or phone data via the extension.
Make sure to install the Apollo Chrome Extension and pin it to your browser!
You can enable or deactivate waterfall enrichment locally from the extension. To do this:
- Launch the Apollo Chrome extension from your browser when prospecting on a corporate website, your CRM, Gmail, or Google Calendar.
- In the extension, click Settings.
- Scroll to Data sources, then select Waterfall-source to allow the extension to run waterfall enrichment when you access prospects' email or phone data. Select Apollo-source to access contact data via standard Apollo enrichment.
Apollo flags that waterfall enrichment is on from the main extension screen. Any time you access info for prospects via the extension, Apollo runs waterfall enrichment automatically.
Enrichment Workflows
You can add waterfall enrichment to access broader data coverage in automated workflows with the following actions:
- Enrich emails
- Enrich phone numbers
- Enrich contacts with job changes
Refer to Create a Workflow to learn more.
Apollo Enrichment API
You can use waterfall enrichment query parameters to access broader data coverage when calling the People Enrichment and Bulk People Enrichment endpoints of the Apollo API.
Visit our Developer Hub to learn more about running waterfall enrichment via the Apollo API, including setup requirements and example use cases.
- Reference Docs:
- Tutorials:
Apollo alerts you when you don't have enough credits to complete waterfall enrichment for your selected contacts. Before enrichment begins, you'll be prompted to continue with partial enrichment or purchase additional credits to complete the full enrichment run.
Click Enrich X records to continue with partial waterfall enrichment. Based on your remaining credits, enrichment runs for some (but not all) of your selected contacts. Enrichment ends when you've run out of credits.
If you're an Apollo admin, click Buy more credits to purchase additional Apollo credits. If you don't have admin permissions, click Send request to admin to ask your Apollo admin to purchase more credits for your team.
Report on Waterfall Enrichment
Admins and non-admins on your team can report on waterfall enrichment activities by accessing:
- An analytics dashboard for a quick glance into key waterfall enrichment metrics, including a summary of your Apollo credit usage and the quality of the data you enriched via waterfall. You can also apply filters to track dashboard metrics by user or data source.
- A system-wide enrichment log for all waterfall activities across your organization. This gives you more transparency into your team’s waterfall enrichment activities to help you monitor credit usage. Go to Settings and click System activity > Data requests > Waterfall to see the entire history of waterfall enrichment runs completed by your team.
- An individual enrichment report with more granular details for each completed waterfall run. Click on any row in your enrichment log to open the enrichment report for a single waterfall enrichment activity.
Waterfall analytics and enrichment reports provide credit usage data for Apollo credits only. This means that you can report on credit usage via Apollo and natively-integrated data sources, but not the credits charged by data sources connected via an API key.
To learn more about credit charges via API-connected data sources, reach out to your connected data providers.
Check out the following sections to learn more about waterfall enrichment reporting.
Waterfall Enrichment Analytics Dashboard
Use the Waterfall Enrichment Performance dashboard to gather quick insights into your team’s top waterfall enrichment metrics, including:
- # of waterfall enrichment attempts
- Waterfall enrichment activity by user
- Waterfall enrichment activity by third-party data source
- Email and phone enrichment performance
- Apollo credit usage
To access this analytics dashboard:
- Launch Apollo and go to Analytics > Dashboards.
- Type Waterfall into the search bar, then click Waterfall Enrichment Performance.
- Your dashboard automatically runs the latest data. You can apply a timeframe or any other filters to view the data you need. Your dashboard metrics update immediately when you select a filter.
- Review the dashboard widgets to access waterfall enrichment metrics. Click … to take one of the following quick actions on each individual widget:
- View Report: Open the full analytics report used to populate this data.
- Duplicate: Duplicate this widget to use in a custom dashboard or report.
- Copy Link: Copy a link to share the report used in this widget with your team.
- Export to CSV: Export this widget’s data to a CSV file.
Check out Use Analytics Dashboards to learn more about Apollo’s pre-built dashboards and how to create custom analytics dashboards.
Waterfall Enrichment Report
The waterfall enrichment report gives you insight into your team’s waterfall enrichment history. This includes granular details on enriched records, third-party data sources that provided enrichment data, and how many Apollo credits you or your team used to complete each enrichment run. Use this report for full transparency into your team’s overall waterfall enrichment usage.
Admins and non-admins alike can access your team’s entire waterfall enrichment history and the enrichment reports for each waterfall run. To do this:
- Navigate to Settings > Data Requests > Waterfall.
- The activity log displays enrichment runs in chronological order, with the most recent enrichment listed first. Click on any row to open the enrichment report for an individual enrichment run.
- In the enrichment report, you can review quick stats for the following metrics:
- # credits used
- # of contacts enriched
- # of contacts verified
- # of contacts unverified
- # of contacts unavailable
- You can also view a list of all the contacts you just enriched. This gives you a more granular look into which data providers located new contact data and how many Apollo credits you used to enrich each contact record.
- Click More actions > Export to CSV to export your list of enriched contacts to a CSV file.
- Click More actions > Add to sequence to add enriched contacts to a sequence.
Deactivate Waterfall Enrichment
Waterfall enrichment runs by default across the Apollo platform for your entire team and can only be deactivated on a local, case-by-case basis for some activities.
However, you have full control over the data sources used in waterfall enrichment. If you prefer, you can remove all third-party data sources and use Apollo as your sole data source during waterfall enrichment. This means that only Apollo data will be used to enrich your contacts' emails or phone numbers when waterfall enrichment runs.
To do this:
- Launch Apollo and click People.
- Apply filters to run a search.
- Click the Emails column > Edit field to open email enrichment settings or the Phone numbers column > Edit field to open phone enrichment settings.
- Remove every third-party data source from your lineup to use only Apollo data for enrichment. Hover over a data source and click X to remove it.
- Click Save.
Going forward, you'll use only Apollo data to find or enrich emails and phone numbers for your selected contacts.
All users can also deactivate waterfall enrichment locally for different activities. This allows you to turn off waterfall enrichment on a case-by-case basis without impacting your team's global waterfall settings. You can enable or deactivate enrichment locally for the following activities:
- Saving net-new contacts.
- Enriching saved contacts.
- Enriching contacts from the contact profile page.
- Enriching missing emails from the Data Health Center.
- Saving contacts via the Apollo Chrome extension.