How to Use the Google Maps Search to Contact Data

*For a Workflow targeting 10–20 businesses, the full process typically takes around 5–10 minutes total, including exporting search results and collecting contact data, plus a few extra seconds for the workflow to process.

Before you start

• Awareness of platform limits:
  • Each search only returns up to 120–200 results.
  • To go beyond this, split your searches into smaller areas (e.g. Restaurant Camden, Restaurant Waterloo) and run the Workflow separately.

Step 1: Provide your Google Maps searches

You can input your searches in one of the following formats:

1. A keyword:
   Type one or multiple keywords, like Restaurant Paris. This option is not recommended.
2. A URL:
   • The URL must start with: https://www.google.com/maps/search/...
     
     • Using a regular Google Search URL causes errors (“Invalid input”) or gives no results.
   • Paste a single Google Maps search URL.
   • Provide a Google Sheet with Google Maps search URLs or keywords (make sure it’s shared with “Anyone with the link”).

   • Upload a CSV file with Google Maps search URLs or keywords (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 searches.”

Step 2: Configure extraction limits

Control how much the automation processes during each run:

1. Browser's language (optional):
   • Select your preferred language from the dropdown list.
   • The automation will use this setting when browsing Google Maps, which can affect how results are displayed.
   • Default = English (United States).
2. Number of results to scrape per search (optional):
   • Default = 120
   • Google Maps caps searches at ~120 results (sometimes up to 200 depending on query).
   • To go beyond this, alter your query into smaller areas and use multiple search URLs (link to spreadsheet input guide).

Step 3: Choose which contact details to extract

After retrieving the search results, the automation will browse each business’s website and extract available contact data.

Tick one or more of the following checkboxes:

• Email addresses (selected by default)
• Facebook pages
• Instagram profiles
• Twitter profiles
• LinkedIn pages
• YouTube channels
• Phone numbers

You must select at least one type of data for the Workflow to run.

Select phone number formats (if extracting phone numbers)

If you select Phone numbers, an additional section appears where you can choose which country formats the Workflow should prioritize.

• Country phone number formats to look for

Currently, the available country formats are:

• United States
• France
• United Kingdom
• Australia
• Austria
• Bangladesh
• Belgium
• Brazil
• Canada
• Germany
• India
• Israel
• Italy
• Netherlands
• Pakistan
• Philippines
• Singapore
• Spain

If the country you’re targeting is not listed (for example, Switzerland), the Workflow may still extract those phone numbers as long as they're visible on Google Maps or on the business website. 
→ We recommend running a small test (5–10 businesses) to confirm results if your country isn’t included in the list.

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.

Proxies: highly recommended for Google Maps

Google Maps results vary depending on your location. PhantomBuster’s servers run from multiple regions, so without a proxy your results may shift between launches or show businesses from the wrong country.

You can configure proxies in the Workflow's Advanced settings, under the Proxies tab. 
From there, decide which proxy to use:

1. PhantomBuster proxy:
   • Select Maintain the same fixed IP for stability (as long as the proxy remains available).
   • Choose the proxy location closest to you (6 regions available).
2. External proxy:
   • If you need a location not covered by PhantomBuster, connect your own proxy in the same menu.
   • Configuration steps will differ depending on your provider.

You can also try running without a proxy at first, using both keyword + location in your query (e.g. Restaurant Paris). If your results aren’t consistent, add a proxy to lock the location.

→ Follow our full guide: Use a Proxy to Fix Login Issues or Get Location-based Results

Launch and results

When you’re ready:

• Toggle the ON/OFF switch to start your Workflow.
• This Workflow cannot be scheduled or customized to run automatically.
• Note that it doesn’t run continuously. It works in two steps:
  1. First, it collects businesses from your Google Maps search URLs.
  2. Then, it visits those businesses’ websites to extract the contact details you selected.

This means you won’t see emails, phone numbers, or socials appear right away, they only show up after the website extraction step.

Once all searches and websites have been processed, the Workflow automatically pauses. In its console, you’ll see confirmation messages such as:

• All searches have been processed
• All websites have been scraped

This behavior is expected and can sometimes look like the Workflow “turned off” immediately after launch, but it actually means the workflow finished successfully.

You can track progress in the Workflow's dashboard with the following performance metrics:

• Time saved
• Locations collected → The number of business listings successfully extracted from your Google Maps searches.
• Websites scraped → How many of those businesses had websites the automation was able to visit and extract data from.
• Contact data found → The total number of emails, phone numbers, and social profiles retrieved across all websites.

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

• Using an invalid URL → The input must be a valid Google Maps search URL starting with:
  https://www.google.com/maps/search/...
  Example: 
  https://www.google.com/maps/search/restaurants+in+london/@51.5141395,-0.1475018,14z/data=!3m1!4b1?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI1MDkxNS4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D
• Using a private spreadsheet (make sure it’s set to “Anyone with the link”).
• Expecting unlimited results → Google Maps caps searches at ~120–200 results. Use multiple smaller queries for full coverage.
• Expecting duplicates → The Workflow automatically skips duplicate results across searches.
• Inconsistent or “wrong region” results → fix this by setting up a proxy in Advanced settings.
• No custom scheduling → The schedule is fixed and cannot be changed.
• 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 Workflow. For step-by-step instructions, see How to Troubleshoot Errors in Workflows.

If you run into errors or account 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

After exporting contact data, you can:

• Enrich companies further → Use the LinkedIn Company Scraper or LinkedIn Company Employees Export on the LinkedIn company URLs provided.
• Deepen social insights → Run the Instagram Profile Scraper or Twitter Profile Scraper on the IG and Twitter URLs collected.
• Analyze and segment → Use the AI Advanced Enricher to better understand and structure the data you’ve gathered.