Looking for plumbers in Manchester, real estate agencies in Austin or restaurants across an entire region? They are all on Google Maps already, with their address, phone number, website, rating and review count. Finding them is not the problem: turning a map into a usable lead list without hours of copy and paste is.
This guide covers the whole topic: what you can really collect from Google Maps, the three possible methods and their limits, a step-by-step walkthrough, tips for clean lists and, above all, the legal framework to prospect with peace of mind.
Why Google Maps is the best source of local leads
For local B2B prospecting, no paid database matches Google Maps, for three reasons:
- Coverage. Almost every business that serves customers has a listing: tradespeople, shops, independent professionals, practices, agencies, SMBs. Many appear in no commercial directory, but all of them want to be found on Google.
- Freshness. Listings are maintained by the businesses themselves, who have every reason to show the right phone number and opening hours. Closed businesses are flagged as such.
- Targeting. A "keyword + area" search gives you exactly the segment you want: "accountant Leeds", "gym Denver", "car repair Toronto".
Better still, every listing carries valuable qualification signals: a business with 4.8 stars and 300 reviews does not have the same needs as one with no website and no reviews.
What data can you collect from a Google Maps listing?
| Data | Availability | Use for prospecting |
|---|---|---|
| Business name | Always | Identification, personalisation |
| Category | Always | Segmentation by trade |
| Address | Very often | Geographic targeting, field visits |
| Phone | Very often | Cold calling |
| Website | Often | Starting point for enrichment (emails) |
| Rating and review count | Often | Qualification: size, reputation, needs |
| Opening hours | Often | Knowing when to call |
| Never on the listing | Obtained by enriching the website |
Remember that last point: Google Maps does not show email addresses. Any tool promising "emails from Google Maps" actually gets them elsewhere, ideally from the business's official website.
3 ways to extract leads from Google Maps
1. Manual copy and paste
It is free and anyone can do it: open listings one by one and paste the details into a spreadsheet. Count one to two minutes per listing. For 200 leads, that is half a day gone, with typos along the way. Fine to test a market on 20 businesses, not beyond.
2. The Google Places API
Google offers an official API to query its places database. It is built for developers: you create a project, manage a key, write code and watch the billing, since requests are paid beyond a monthly credit. Above all, it caps the number of results per search and returns no email or enrichment data. Great for adding a map to an application, much less so for building a prospecting list.
3. A dedicated collection extension
A Chrome extension such as ScrapLift works directly on the results you see in your browser: it scrolls the list, opens each listing, structures the information and stores it in your workspace. No code, no API key, and the records can then be enriched and exported.
| Manual | Places API | Extension (ScrapLift) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Setup | Immediate | Project, key, code | 2 minutes |
| Speed | 1 to 2 min per listing | Fast | Fast, in the background |
| Emails | Search by hand | No | Yes, by enriching the website |
| Large areas | Unrealistic | Capped results | Automatic splitting |
| Cost | Your time | Per request | Free plan, then subscription |
Step by step: extract your Google Maps leads with ScrapLift
Step 1: create your account and install the extension
Create a free account (no credit card), then install the Chrome extension from your dashboard. It links to your account automatically: the "Chrome extension" indicator switches to "Connected".
Step 2: start a "keyword + area" extraction
In Extractions, click "New extraction" and enter your search: a trade ("car repair") and an area (a city, a county, a region, or even a whole country depending on your plan). Be precise with the keyword: "chartered accountancy firm" returns better results than "accountant".
Step 3: filter while collecting
Filters stop you from collecting useless records: businesses with a website or phone only, minimum rating, minimum review count, targeted categories. A shorter but better-targeted list always converts better than a big catch-all file.
Step 4: start it and let it run
When you start, ScrapLift asks you once to allow data collection (this consent is recorded with its proof). The extraction then runs in a Google Maps tab that must stay open; you follow progress live from the dashboard and can pause at any time.
Step 5: enrich the records
Enrichment visits each business's official website (Contact, Legal notice, About pages) to find the professional emails it publishes, public social profiles and, for French companies, the SIREN number when displayed. Only information published by the business itself is kept.
Step 6: organise, export, prospect
Sort your records into lists and projects, tag them, then export them as CSV or Excel, or work them directly in the built-in CRM. See every module in detail on the Features page.
7 tips for truly usable lead lists
- Split large areas. A Google Maps search stops at around 120 results, so on a big city you miss most businesses. ScrapLift detects saturated searches and splits them into smaller zones automatically.
- Use several synonyms. "Car repair", "auto mechanic", "garage" and "body shop" do not return the same listings. Run one extraction per synonym to cover the whole market.
- Remove duplicates. The same business can show up in neighbouring searches. Work on a deduplicated list before exporting.
- Use reviews as a signal. Few reviews or an average rating: a business that may need help with its visibility. Many reviews: an established company with more budget.
- Spot missing websites. For a web agency, a listing without a website is an ideal lead. Filter for them rather than excluding them.
- Exclude chains and franchises if your offer targets independents: decisions are made at head office, not in store.
- Only enrich what you will contact. Qualify first, enrich second: you save credits and keep a clean database.
Prospecting by the rules: what the GDPR says
Collecting business data published online is not forbidden, but using it is regulated. For B2B prospecting in Europe, the key rules are:
- Relevance. Your message must relate to the professional activity of the person you contact. Offering quoting software to a tradesperson: yes. Offering them personal car insurance: no.
- Transparency. From the first contact, say who you are and where you got their details.
- Opt-out. Every email must offer a simple way to unsubscribe, and an unsubscribe must be honoured permanently. ScrapLift handles unsubscribes for you.
- Minimisation. Keep only the data useful for prospecting, and delete what you no longer need.
Rules vary by country (outside the EU, check the local equivalents such as CAN-SPAM in the United States). Also respect the terms of the services you browse, and favour reasonable volumes and personalised messages: it is more respectful and far more effective. To learn more, read our FAQ.
What next? Turning the list into meetings
A list is only worth the conversations it leads to. Segment it by trade and area, write a short message about your prospects' day-to-day reality, and track every exchange in your CRM. Start small, with 50 well-chosen businesses, measure your reply rates, then scale what works.
In short: Google Maps is the most complete source for finding local businesses. With an extension such as ScrapLift, you go from a search to an enriched, organised list in minutes, with no code, while staying in control of what you collect and how you prospect.
Try ScrapLift for free to run your first extraction, or compare plans on the Pricing page.