How to Use the LinkedIn Search to Lead Connection

*For a Workflow targeting up to 1,000 LinkedIn profiles (roughly one full LinkedIn search), the full process typically takes around 5–10 minutes total, including extracting profiles and sending connection requests. Running this Workflow on significantly larger searches can increase execution time and slow down each launch.

Step 1: Connect your LinkedIn account

To let the automation act on your behalf:

1. Install the PhantomBuster browser extension and connect your LinkedIn 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→ If your Chrome or Firefox version is outdated, your session cookie may expire much more quickly, and you’ll need to reconnect often.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 2: Choose which LinkedIn profiles to invite

Tell the Workflow where to extract profiles to invite.

1. Select the Input Type:
   • Regular LinkedIn Search
   • Sales Navigator Search
   • Or LinkedIn Group
2. Provide the profiles you want to target in one of the following formats:
   • Paste a single LinkedIn/Sales Navigator search URL or LinkedIn group URL.
   • Provide a Google Sheet with your LinkedIn/Sales Navigator search or LinkedIn Group URLs (make sure it’s shared with “Anyone with the link”).

   • Upload a CSV file with your LinkedIn/Sales Navigator search or LinkedIn Group URLs (make sure it’s publicly accessible, and note that CSV upload is only available on paid plans).

     → If you’re using a spreadsheet, the Workflow defaults to the first column (A). To use a different column, enter the column’s header name in the field “Name of column containing inputs.”

If you provide a Sales Navigator profile URL, connection requests and follow-up messages will still be sent through your regular LinkedIn account.

Advanced settings (dropdown in setup)

1. Specify the Number of results to extract per input:
   • Default = empty.
   • Leave this field empty to capture the full search, and use the daily invites setting to control how many profiles you actually contact per day.
   • For best performance, we recommend extracting no more than 1,000 profiles per Workflow run (roughly one LinkedIn search page set).
   • This Workflow is designed for quality-focused outreach, not for processing very large lead volumes in a single run.
   • You can only set this value when configuring the Workflow for the first time. Once your Workflow has finished retrieving results and shows the status "Search successfully processed", increasing this number won't extract additional profiles. The input (search or group) has been treated as complete. To pull more profiles, create a new Workflow with the same input and set the desired number (or leave it blank to capture the full search).
2. Specify the Number of invites to send per day:
   • Default = capped at 20.
   • LinkedIn limits you to 100 invitations per week.
   • To stay within this limit, the Workflow defaults to sending 20 invites per working day (Monday–Friday). You can lower this number if you want to be extra cautious.
3. Select the Times at which to send invites:
   • Weekdays during working hours → Sends steadily Monday–Friday in standard office hours.
   • Randomly throughout the day and week → Spreads invites unpredictably.
   • This Workflow does not include customizable Launch settings. You can’t change the frequency beyond these two options or set a different launch schedule.
4. (Optional advanced setting) Use your second Sales Navigator team instead of the first:
   • Enable if you’re on multiple Sales Navigator teams and want to select a different one.

Step 3: Customize your connection request

If you skip this step, invites will be sent without a message.

To add a personal message to your invite:

1. Enter your message:

   • Write your message. 
     – Free LinkedIn accounts are limited to 200 characters and 5 personalized invites per month.
     – Premium accounts allow the full 300 characters with unlimited personalized invites.

   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. Keep in mind that placeholder tags also count toward the limit, so leave room for both the tag itself and the replaced text.

2. Message customization rules and limits:
   When writing your LinkedIn connection or follow-up messages, keep in mind:

• Placeholder tags:
  • All available tags appear at the bottom of the message box.
  • Click on a tag to insert it, or use the + icon to see the full list.
• Formatting restrictions:
  • Emojis are not supported.
  • Hyperlinks are not supported: any pasted link will appear as plain text.

Step 4 (Optional): Advanced settings

Advanced settings are available if you want to fine-tune how your Workflow 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:

• Toggle the ON/OFF switch to start your Workflow.

Once it finishes:

• Invitations aren’t sent right away. The automation first gathers your leads from the LinkedIn search URLs you provided, then begins sending invites according to your daily limit.
• You can track progress in the Workflow's dashboard:
  • Leads tab → Shows the status of each lead being processed by the automation (e.g., Not invited yet, Invited, Accepted, Follow-up sent, Replied, or Could not invite). From here you can search, filter, and also download your results as a CSV.

  • Report tab → Displays performance metrics of your Outreach campaign, including:

    - Time saved
    - Profiles collected, invites sent, requests accepted
    - Performance progress over time (visual graph of collected vs. invited vs. accepted)

• The next worker agent (or Phantom) to launch is always visible in the Workflow Dashboard. 
  → Look for the line starting with “Next:” to know what’s coming up in the sequence.

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 Workflow, and everything you’ll receive once it completes.

What you give (Input)

What you get (Output)

Tips and troubleshooting

Common pitfalls

• Correct input type → This Workflow requires a LinkedIn search or group URL. If you already have profile URLs, use LinkedIn Outreach instead.
• Using a private Google Sheet → make sure it’s shared with “Anyone with the link.”
• No custom scheduling → This Workflow doesn’t have Launch settings. You can only choose between the two available options (Weekdays during working hours or Randomly throughout the day and week). It isn’t possible to set other times or frequencies.
• Invites aren’t instant → The Workflow first extracts leads from your search or group before sending invitations.
• No follow-ups → This Workflow only sends connection requests. To follow up with accepted leads, use LinkedIn Search to Lead Outreach.
• LinkedIn caps → Don’t exceed 20 invites per weekday. Going over can trigger restrictions.
• Processing very large searches → Running this Workflow on searches with several thousand profiles can cause: Much longer execution times per launch and slower overall progress. This Workflow isn’t optimized for handling thousands of profiles in a single run. For better performance and safer LinkedIn usage, split large searches into smaller batches and prioritize relevance over volume.
• Message length → Free accounts may be limited to 200 characters and 5 personalized invites per month.
• If the Workflow stops working:
  • Errors may not always appear in the Dashboard.
  • To check hidden errors and execution details, open the Logs section from the console page of your Phantom. For step-by-step instructions, see How to Troubleshoot Errors in Workflows.

If you run into issues

• 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

Once you’ve built new connections, you can:

• Expand into company-level research by using the LinkedIn Company Scraper. This lets you gather details about the companies your leads work at and refine your targeting.
• Use the AI LinkedIn Profile Enricher to analyze your leads and generate deeper insights from their existing profile data.
• Engage with them or keep track of their activity using LinkedIn Auto Liker, LinkedIn Auto Commenter, or the LinkedIn Activity Extractor.