There are different ways you can automatically launch a Phantom, so you don't have to do it yourself! Here we'll guide you through the steps to configure both manual and repeated launches, so you can efficiently run your Phantom and avoid hitting rate limits!
Check out this demo video or continue reading for the written tutorial:
On the "Launch Settings" step of a Phantom's setup, you'll find its "Launch" options:
- Once
- Repeatedly
- Repeatedly (advanced)
- After another Phantom
- Stop automatic launches
Once
If you’re a first-time user or you want to extract a bunch of data in one go (e.g. a search that contains hundreds of profiles), the manual launch is a good option.
Once you’ve selected “Manual“, save these settings, go to your Phantom's console page and click “Launch” to get it started. As it runs, you’ll be able to monitor the Phantom’s progress, see the results, or quickly notice any setup errors by opening your Phantom's logs.
Repeatedly
When you choose "Repeatedly," you can set the frequency of launches from a list of options, whether it's X times per hour, per day, per week, or within working hours only:
For non-English natives, "every other hour" means "one out of two."
Choosing X times per day will mean the Phantom launches this many times at equally-spaced intervals throughout a 24-hour period.
Working hours here are 9 am to 5 pm in your time zone (as set in the Workspace settings on your account), weekends included. This can be useful if you don’t want your leads to receive your message at 3am, and will look less suspicious to LinkedIn.
Repeated launches are a good choice for two reasons:
- Your plan is based on an execution time that you can use up on a monthly basis.
- Most networks (like LinkedIn) will limit your daily actions (whether you automate them or not).
For more on rate limits, check Automation rate limits.
It's important to keep these in mind when configuring your Phantom for repeated launches. So to give you a brief common example, consider LinkedIn:
In order to scrape, connect to, or message a LinkedIn profile, a Phantom must visit it on your behalf. On LinkedIn, you can safely perform around 80 profile visits per day with a regular account (150 for Premium or Sales Navigator users). We recommend not to perform more than 10 visits in a row (as explained above, by default Phantoms will restrict you to this recommended 10 per launch max).
When setting up your Phantom, make sure to respect these daily limits and stick to the maximum number of visits per day.
For example, to scrape 80 LinkedIn profiles on a daily basis, set up 8 repeated launches per day, as the Phantom will perform 10 visits each time it launches. It’s even better if you keep these within working hours.
Repeatedly (advanced)
If you want to be more precise with the times and dates of your launches, right down to the exact minute, you can use this advanced option. The "Hours" and "Minutes" refer to the exact time of day, so in the example below the launch is set for 40 minutes past the hour, every working hour, every day:
Don't forget to tick at least one box in every section.
After another Phantom
Set your Phantom to launch only after another specified Phantom has completed its task. This feature enables you to create a seamless flow of operations while preventing issues related to account parallelism. For instance, you can link the Company Inviter Phantom with the Search Export Phantom so that the latter automatically initiates once the former has finished. This functionality not only orchestrates the timing of each Phantom but also helps manage resource allocation effectively. By setting limits for each Phantom, you can ensure that the combined usage stays within your total daily allowance, preventing any single Phantom from exhausting your resources.
Stop automatic launches
Your Phantom will keep launching until you change its settings back to manual, even when it has already processed the input. In order to stop the automatic launches, go back into your Phantom's settings and change the automatic setting to manual. Don't forget to save! If not, your Phantom will keep launching.
And voilà! Now you can ask PhantomBuster to work for you all day long while enjoying your coffee breaks!
If you think this article does not address your issue, please contact Support directly. We are continuously improving, so your feedback means the world to us!