How to Use the Sales Navigator Auto Connect

*Performance may slow down when email discovery is activated.

Before you start

• Awareness of safety limits:
  • LinkedIn caps connection requests at 100 per week.
  • For safety, we recommend sending about 20 invitations per working day, spread across several launches during office hours.
  • If you enable email discovery, cut this number in half.

Step 1: Choose which Sales Navigator profiles to invite

You can provide your profiles in three ways:

1. My Lists:
   Choose a saved LinkedIn Leads list you’ve already created in PhantomBuster.
2. A URL:
   • Paste a single Sales Navigator profile URL.
   • Provide a Google Sheet with Sales Navigator profile URLs (make sure it’s shared with “Anyone with the link”).
     → If you’re using a spreadsheet, the Phantom defaults to the first column (A). To use a different column, enter the column’s header name in the field “Name of column containing profile URLs.”
   • Upload a CSV file with Sales Navigator profile URLs (CSV upload is only available on paid plans).
3. My Phantoms:
   Use results from another Phantom as input.

Step 2: Connect your Sales Navigator account

To let the Phantom act on your behalf:

1. Install the PhantomBuster browser extension and connect your Sales Navigator session in one click.
2. If you’re not using Chrome or Firefox, you can retrieve your session cookie manually (see our cookie guide).

Check your browser user agent
Make sure your browser is up to date before connecting your account. 
→ If your Chrome or Firefox version is outdated, your session cookie may expire much more quickly, and you’ll need to reconnect often.

Step 3: Write and customize your connection request message

Enter your message:

• Write your message in the Your message field (up to 300 characters).
• Click on the tags listed below the message box to insert them automatically.
  → Keep in mind that placeholders expand into real text, which adds to your total character count. If your message + expanded placeholders go over the limit, the invite won’t be sent.
• Custom placeholders: If you’ve added your own columns in your input file, you can still type those manually (e.g. #customIntro#).

Watch the character counter in the bottom-right corner of the message box to track your usage. This helps you stay within limits and avoid your message being cut off.

• Placeholder tags:
  • All available tags appear at the bottom of the message box.
  • These include both standard tags scraped from profiles (e.g. #firstName#, #company#) and any custom tags you’ve added in your input file.
  • Click on a tag to insert it, or use the + icon to see the full list.
• Custom placeholders:
  • If your input file contains custom columns (e.g. customIntro, such as a personalized note or detail you want to include), they’ll be automatically detected and appear below the message box or under the + icon.
  • Placeholders that don’t have a value (empty cell, missing profile detail) will appear blank in your message.
  • Do not use #message# as a placeholder tag. This conflicts with the Phantom’s own message output column and may cause your text to be replaced or duplicated.
  • Likewise, avoid naming a spreadsheet column message unless absolutely necessary.
• Formatting restrictions:
  • Emojis are not supported.
  • Hyperlinks are not supported: any pasted link will appear as plain text.

Step 4: Configure connection limits and behavior

Define the number of invites to send per launch:

• Set the number in the Invitations to send per launch field.
• Default = 10 per launch.
• Maximum is 100, but we recommend keeping it well below that: Send 2–5 per launch, then schedule repeated runs during business hours to stay under LinkedIn’s weekly limit of 100.

Advanced settings (dropdown in setup)

• Simulate Sales Navigator’s dwell time (optional):
  • Enabled by default.
  • Wait ~1 minute at each profile visit.
  • Use this if you continue being logged out of Sales Navigator, even when following recommended limits.
• Save each profile picture as a JPEG (optional):
  • Exports profile photos.
  • You cannot download more than 1,000 images per ZIP file.
• Take a screenshot of the profile (optional):
  • Capture a full-page snapshot of each profile visited.
• Save the profile as a lead (optional):
  • Adds the connected profile to your Sales Navigator leads list.
• Extract additional details (optional):
  • Jobs
  • Schools
  • Skills
  • Company website

If you want to connect specifically with LinkedIn profiles, use the LinkedIn Auto Connect Phantom instead.

Step 5: Enrich your leads with professional emails (optional)

You can choose to add verified professional email addresses to each LinkedIn profile.

Not every profile will return an email address. The match rate depends on the data available, so the number of verified emails may be lower than your credits used.

1. Click on the “Select your email discovery service” dropdown.
2. Choose one of the following options:
   • PhantomBuster credits (default option)
     • Each plan includes monthly email discovery credits.
     • 1 credit = 1 attempt to find and verify an email for one profile.
     • Credits reset monthly.
   • Third-party services
     • Connect your own account by entering your API key for:
       • Dropcontact.io
       • Hunter.io
       • Snov.io

Enabling email discovery means the Phantom will spend more time on each profile, since it needs to process both the message and the email lookup. This increases execution time per launch.

Step 6: Select launch frequency

Choose how often the Phantom should run:

1. Launch manually: Start the Phantom yourself whenever you need.
2. Launch once at a specific time: schedule a one-time run at a set date and time.
3. Launch repeatedly: schedule regular runs (e.g. once per day, several times during working hours).
4. Launch after another Phantom: chain automations together so this Phantom starts right after another finishes.
5. Advanced scheduling: customize the exact minutes, hours, days, or months when the Phantom should run.

→ For a complete walkthrough of scheduling options, see our guide to scheduling Phantoms automatically.

Step 7 (Optional): Advanced settings

Advanced settings are available if you want to fine-tune how your Phantom runs, but by default they’re already optimized for most use cases.

We recommend leaving them as they are unless a guide specifically instructs you to change something.

→ For a detailed overview of all advanced options (like execution limits, retries, email notifications, proxies, webhooks, and file management), see our Advanced settings guide.

Launch and results

When you’re ready:

1. Click Launch to start your Phantom.
2. Once it finishes, open the Results tab in the Phantom console to see the data collected.
3. Download your results as a CSV or JSON file, or view them as a dynamic list on the LinkedIn Leads page.

→ To learn how to export your data to Google Sheets, integrate with other tools, or reuse it in more automations, check our Access and Export your Phantom Results guide.

Export and input limits on the Free plan
If you’re on the Free plan or Free trial, some features are limited:
- CSV exports include only the first 10 rows of results.
- CSV download links (for dynamic viewing in Google Sheets or integrations) are not available.
- JSON exports are not available.
- CSV upload as an input method is not supported.
To unlock all features, you’ll need to upgrade to a paid plan.

What you give (Input) and What you get (Output)

This section gives you a detailed breakdown of everything you need to provide to run this Phantom, and everything you’ll receive once it completes.

What you give (Input)

What you get (Output)

Tips and troubleshooting

Common pitfalls

• Using a private spreadsheet (make sure it’s set to “Anyone with the link”).
• Forgetting LinkedIn’s weekly cap → Max 100 invites per week.
• Expecting all profiles to return emails → Email availability depends on both connection degree and the use of an Email Discovery Service.
  • For 1st-degree connections, emails saved on the profile are visible directly.
  • For 2nd- and 3rd-degree connections, an Email Discovery Service (PhantomBuster credits or a third-party provider like Dropcontact, Hunter, or Snov) must be enabled to attempt finding verified professional emails.

If you run into errors or account issues

• Check how to troubleshoot your phantom using Logs.
• Browse the Fix Issues & Troubleshoot Errors section for solutions to common problems.
• Review our Automation Rate Limits by Platform guide.
• Check our Best Practices for Social Media Automation guide.

Suggested automations

After sending connection requests, you can:

• Enrich new connections → Run Sales Navigator Profile Scraper for detailed insights.
• Track new connections’ activity → Use the LinkedIn Activity Extractor Phantom to monitor posts, shares, and updates.
• Engage with new connections → Like or comment on their posts with LinkedIn Auto Liker or LinkedIn Auto Commenter.