How to Use the Sales Navigator Search Export

Before you start

• Keep in mind that Sales Navigator displays only:
  • Up to 2,500 people results per search.
  • Up to 1,000 account results per search.
• Awareness of safety limits:
  • We recommend extracting a maximum of 2,500 results per day.
  • To reach more leads, split searches using filters like location, industry, job title, or connection degree, then run the Phantom on each search separately.

Step 1: Choose which Sales Navigator searches to extract

You can provide your searches in three ways:

1. Paste a single search URL directly from Sales Navigator.
2. Enter keywords to search for directly in the setup (e.g., CEO, Paris, Fintech).
3. Provide multiple searches via Google Sheets or CSV (CSV upload is available on paid plans only):
   • In your Google Sheet or CSV, place all Sales Navigator search URLs in the first column (column A).
   • Make sure your Google Sheet is shared with "Anyone with the link," or upload your CSV.
   • If you want the Phantom to use a different column, enter that column’s header name in the field “Name of column containing searches” in the setup.

If you’re using spreadsheets, the Phantom reads data from the first column by default, unless told otherwise. Column names are the titles in row 1 (e.g., Search URLs), not letters like A or B.

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→ If your Chrome or Firefox version is outdated, your session cookie may expire much more quickly, and you’ll need to reconnect often.

Using multiple Sales Navigator accounts

This Phantom supports connecting and running with multiple Sales Navigator accounts at the same time. This lets you:

• Safely extract more results per day (e.g., 3 accounts = 3,000 results).
• Scale without duplicating automations.
• Keep everything in a single result file.

→ See our full guide: Use Multiple LinkedIn or Sales Navigator Accounts to Extract more Leads in one Automation.

Step 3: Specify how many results to extract

Control how much data the Phantom processes during each run:

1. Results per search:
   • Limit the number of leads extracted per Sales Navigator search.
2. Results per launch:
   • Define how many total results the Phantom extracts in one run. If it doesn’t finish, it will resume where it left off next time (no duplicates).
3. Spreadsheet rows per launch:
   • If you’re using a spreadsheet, set how many search rows (queries) to process per run.

Platform limits:

• People searches: max 2,500 results
• Account searches: max 1,000 results

To go beyond these limits, create multiple targeted searches with filters (e.g., by industry, seniority, or location):
→ Place each search URL into a single Google Sheet (one per row in column A), then use that sheet as input for the Phantom. 
→ This way, the Phantom will process each search in sequence during its runs, instead of requiring you to repeat the setup process for every search.

Advanced settings (dropdown in setup)

1. Remove duplicate profiles between different searches (optional)
   • Ensures the same profile isn’t exported more than once.
   • Learn more in our guide: Avoid and remove duplicates from your Phantom results.
2. Use your second Sales Navigator team (optional)
   • If you belong to more than one Sales Navigator team, check this box to pull data from your second team instead of the default one.

Result file settings (dropdown in setup)

1. Name your results file (optional)

   • You can customize the file name.

     If you rename the file between launches, the Phantom will create a new results file and start processing inputs from scratch.

2. Fields to keep (optional)
   • Export only the fields you care about by listing them (comma-separated).
     Example: profileUrl, currentJob, location.
   • This generates a second CSV file with just those fields.
   • Learn more in our guide: Customize how your Phantom results files are saved.

Step 4: 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 5 (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”).
• Expecting more than 2,500 people or 1,000 accounts per search → not possible due to platform limits.
• Wanting more detailed data than basic search results → pair this Phantom with Sales Navigator Profile Scraper (for profile details) or Sales Navigator Account Scraper (for company details).
• Using a Sales Navigator List URL as input → this Phantom doesn’t support list URLs. Instead, use the Sales Navigator List Export Phantom.

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 exporting Sales Navigator leads, you can:

• Enrich with Sales Navigator Profile Scraper → Get detailed individual profile information.
• Enrich with Sales Navigator Account Scraper → Get detailed company information.
• Engage with outreach using the LinkedIn Outreach Phantom → Send personalized connection requests and automated follow-up messages.
• Warm up leads → Interact with their content using the LinkedIn Auto Liker or LinkedIn Auto Commenter Phantoms.