Make.com Tutorial: Build an Automated Lead Generation System from Google Maps (No-Code Guide 2025)

Picture this: all these leads right at your fingertips, just waiting to be collected. So much temptation just within reach! Yes, Google Maps is a business gold mine, but you don't just want to dig up treasure - you want to make smart investments with automated lead generation. And that's where things start to get interesting.

In the left corner, we have your Google Maps lead generator Scrap.io. In the right corner, the tool that lets you build an automated prospecting system: Make. What if we connected the two? What if I showed you exactly how to do Google Maps scraping automation right now?

Today we are diving into Make.com automation that will completely transform how you approach local lead generation.

Table of Contents

• Why Choose a No-Code Approach for Lead Generation?
• Understanding the Powerful Combination: Make and Scrap.io
• Setting Up the Integration: From Beta to Production
• Deep Dive: The Four Core Scrap.io Models
• The Complete Automated Prospecting System
• Database Integration with Airtable
• Testing the Complete System
• Make.com vs Other Automation Tools
• Frequently Asked Questions

Why Choose a No-Code Approach for Lead Generation?

Look, let's be honest here. Traditional lead generation is a pain in the ass - sorry for the language, but it's true! You either need technical skills, expensive tools, or you're stuck outsourcing to agencies that cost a fortune. With Make.com's no-code platform, anyone can build sophisticated automation workflows without programming knowledge.

This democratizes lead generation, making it accessible to:

• Small business owners without technical teams (that's probably you!)
• Freelancers looking to scale their prospecting beyond manual work
• Sales teams wanting to automate those repetitive, mind-numbing tasks
• Marketing agencies building client solutions that actually work

The beauty of no code lead generation is that you can test, iterate, and improve your workflows without waiting for developers or breaking the bank. You're in control, and that's exactly where you should be.

Understanding the Powerful Combination: Make and Scrap.io

Let's start with the basics. What exactly are Make and Scrap.io, and why do they work so perfectly together?

I'm going to assume you already know Make - our favorite ultra-flexible automation tool. By the end of this Make.com tutorial, you'll be able to build a fully automated prospecting system that runs completely on autopilot.

On the other hand, Scrap.io does exactly what its name suggests: it scrapes Google Maps data in just a few clicks. Each Google Maps scraping request can be broken down using up to five filters: activity, country, level one division, level two division, and city. We'll come back to that later, but for now, just keep it in mind.

But what's even more interesting lies behind the door - behind the user interface - the Scrap.io API. This powerful Google Maps scraping tool opens up endless possibilities for lead generation automation. If you want to give Scrap.io a try, start your free 7-day trial here with API access included. You're welcome!

Key Facts About Scrap.io:

• 200 million establishments indexed worldwide
• 5,000 queries per minute processing capacity
• Only solution that extracts all Google Maps listings for an entire country in two clicks, no code required
• 4,000+ categories available across 195 countries
• Real-time data extraction directly from Google Maps and associated websites

Oh, and one last thing - look at me, this is my serious face. Throughout this video, we will go through a bunch of tips and tricks. Just remember that some of these automation examples depend on your Scrap.io subscription plan.

Setting Up the Integration: From Beta to Production

All right, now that's out of the way, let's dive into the tutorial. At the time I'm recording this, the Scrap.io module for Make is still in beta testing, which means there is a small extra step to go through.

I invite you to click the link in the description, and if you are already logged into Make, all you have to do is click install - and that's it! If we head back to Make and search for Scrap.io, the app should now show up.

Looks like we will also need an API key. On Scrap.io, just go to profile, security, API keys, create a new key, and that's it!

Pro Tip: Scrap.io offers a free Make.com integration workflow that you can download directly from their website. This pre-built scenario includes Google Maps search automation, data enrichment, and CRM integration - saving you hours of setup time.

Deep Dive: The Four Core Scrap.io Models

Ladies and gentlemen, it's time to take a deeper look at what we can do on Make. I have three open tabs: Make.com, Scrap.io where I've created my API key, and Scrap.io API documentation.

We're going to discuss four core API features: search, search types, locations, and enrich. But before we jump directly into the tutorial, please remember that some of the options actually depend on your plan and subscription plan.

For example, with the free plan - your 7-day free trial - you can scrape data based on a city. But if within this tutorial I'm showing you how to scrape data based on an entire country (because it's something you can do with Scrap.io), you will need another type of plan.

Model 1: The Search Function

We have four different features, four different models - let's say five if we take that one into account. The most obvious one is to make a search, meaning we are going to look for companies, restaurants, hotels, or whatever category you decide.

To begin with, we have to create a connection using our API. I insert my API key, click on Save, and we can move on. As you can see, we have access to plenty of different parameters, so let's take a look at some of them.

The first one is the number of results per page: it's 1, 10, 25, or 50. Not three, not 49, not 27, but really 1, 10, 25, or 50. We can use a cursor - that element is very important, but we will skip it for now.

The Google Maps type: restaurant - let's keep it this way. The country code is based on the ISO country code, so we will go for "US". Then we have admin one code, admin two code, and city.

For the city, we need to understand what that means: we have to insert the ID of the city to search for. But what does admin one code and admin two code represent?

If we take the US as an example, admin one codes are the states, and admin two codes are the counties. The point is that because Scrap.io is a universal tool or universal platform, we decided to pick up a generic name. The terms "states" and "counties" cannot really be universally translated.

So as a city, let's go for New York. We will see if this is the correct ID. For the postal code, I don't have to fill that. Google Maps main type - okay.

Advanced Filtering Options:
From now on, we can filter our data out. For example, let's assume I want to get Google Maps reviews count greater than or equal to, let's say, 10. What else? If the website has emails - so it's a Boolean. Actually, all of these features can be found in the documentation as well. Some of the parameters are required, some others not.

What I usually like to do is make it true to the following criteria: Google Maps main type. What has to be understood is when companies register themselves on Google Maps and Google Business Profile, they have to choose different categories (plural). So they pick up one main category but also multiple different subcategories.

So if Google Maps main type is equal to one, we make sure that within our search we only retrieve restaurants as the main activity only.

I think we are good to go. We click on Save and let's just run this model only. It's a success! And we have access to one bundle, meaning one result with a lot of data. Does it have an email? Email, email, where are you? Emails one, email two, emails three, emails four and five! We didn't ask for that much, but sure.

Model 2: Search Types

Another interesting model for us might be called "search types," meaning we search for a Google Maps type and retrieve its ID. Thanks to that model, I can search for IDs related to a specific Google Maps category.

So I can search for - yeah, let's go for restaurant. I mean, you can pick up another one: bakery, plumbers, strip clubs... wait, no! And if I click on Save and we run it, we have an incredible number of 300-something - 369 results! On Google Maps, you have access to a lot of different types of restaurants.

I can type "bakery" - in that case, I might end up with fewer results. Fortunately, five. Okay, that's still something. So now if I decide to change my search, well, this is my ID. So let's go for one. The Google Maps type is bakery, and we have one bundle: Café Davon. Oh, sounds French, located in New York. Good!

Model 3: Search Locations

We can search types, but we can also search locations. Let's do that, shall we?

Locations - we're trying to retrieve the ID of a specific location. The country code: US. The type of entity we are targeting: so city, admin one, or admin two. Let's go for city, and the search term, meaning my keyword will be equal to Nashville.

Let's run this model, and we have one bundle. So in that case, you see that the ID and the text are the same. Good to know! So now I can just change my search. Instead of New York, I can tag Nashville - Nashville, Tennessee. Good!

Model 4: Enrich - The Reverse Lookup

Finally, there is one last model which personally is my favorite. I add a model Scrap.io, and with that one, we might be able to retrieve Google Places related to the provided data: a domain, URL, email, phone - its domain or URL or email or phone - along with all their details.

So you got it! Basically, based on one of these four inputs, we might be able to retrieve the Google Maps data if available. Of course, if it's not available, well, the output is equal to zero. No big deal.

I personally go for the domain name. Here is my domain name. I save it, and let's see what it leads us to. We have one bundle with the data related to our keyword - our domain name.

Please note that in some cases, you might also end up with multiple bundles. For example, in case you are targeting like a very big company such as McDonald's, for obvious reasons, you might end up with quite a lot of results.

The Complete Automated Prospecting System

That's all you need to know regarding the four Scrap.io models. Now it's time to zoom out to see the big picture - to understand how all these Make.com automation models can fit together and form a complete automated prospecting system.

And you know what? We've got some good news for you, but don't go telling anyone - promise? Good!

We actually have already built it for you, and even better, we are actually giving it away for free! Big shout out to Seb who worked on it and fine-tuned every little detail. You can grab your ready-to-use Make.com scenario here - completely free with step-by-step setup instructions.

The Complete Workflow Breakdown

All right, let's take a look at what it looks like. The first thing we're doing is setting multiple variables - two variables. The first one is the number of results we want to retrieve. Remember: 1, 10, 25, or 50. Let's go for 50. And the other variable name is API Scrap.io, so we need to insert the appropriate value.

Then we have access to a summary of the four different Scrap.io models. As you can see, they are not really linked with our workflow. It's just to make Make try to search for types, to search for locations, to enrich the data, or to blacklist - meaning to add items to a blacklist by email, domain, Google ID, or place ID. This ensures that these items will not be displayed in future requests and will not be counted towards your credits.

Database Integration with Airtable

What's next? Airtable! To be honest, I've never used Airtable in my life, so I had to create an account for this tutorial. I hope it's going to be all right!

I create a connection. I finally found it - it was within the URL. What I've done basically is that I've connected my database to Make. So my very tiny database with four columns: the ID categories, the ID location, the status, and the next cursor.

The status has three options: to do, in progress, or done. The ID category - we have already talked about it. The ID location - obviously it has to be of the same nature, meaning we can't mix an ID location of a city with an ID location of a state.

Understanding Pagination with Next Cursor:
What about the next cursor? I'm pretty sure you have figured it out. If we wish to scrape 50 items but we end up with 300 results, we need a next cursor in order to scrape page number two. And then we'll end up with another different next cursor to scrape the third page, and so on, until we reach the final page. In that case, we will no longer have a next cursor, so the scraping will be over.

The Smart Filtering System

I search the records of these four columns. Now we have a filter that's interesting to notice: if the total number of bundles is not equal to zero, we move on. If at least we have one line within our database, we move on.

We search on Google Maps using Scrap.io. The result per page is equal to our first variable, meaning 50 in our case. The next cursor, the ID category, the country code - let's change it, let's say US. The admin one code, ID location, blah blah blah, and we can set up different parameters.

Let's go for Nashville, so the ID location will be Nashville, and the next cursor - let's keep it empty for now.

Record Management and Data Flow

If the total number of bundles is not equal to zero - in other words, if we end up with at least one result - we iterate within the data and we create a record. But in that case, we are targeting a different table. It will no longer be the targets database; it will be the leads table.

So we should end up with the name, email, and that's it. But we could have added much more columns, much more data fields. The name, the email - everything makes sense. And obviously, we map the result, so if we end up with 50 results, we will repeat the process 50 times.

You know what? On second thought, I'm not sure that targeting a bakery in Nashville is a good idea, so maybe let's go for restaurants instead.

Status Management and Pagination

If the bundle order position is equal to the result - in other words, once we have reached the final item - we update the record. What record? The target table. And we use the ID and we switch the status into "in progress." Once we have finished with that request, we add the next cursor in order to scrape the second page.

Finally, if the total number of bundles is equal to zero, or if the total count is less than the number of results - so if we end up with a request including 49 items and we have asked for 50, and the total number of bundles is equal to the bundle or the position - we make our request in any case. But once we reach the last item, what are we doing? We update a record, and in that case, the status is equal to "done," and we don't touch the next cursor anymore. It means there will no longer be a next cursor.

Testing the Complete System

Let's run it once. It is done, and we don't have any data in our to-do table. So what happened? Because we end up with a total number of bundles zero, it's because I'm an idiot! By default, it's an admin one code, not a city, right?

So you know what? We have to take the ID location and put it within the city input. The total number of bundles is equal to zero because the status is equal to done. We have to switch it into "to do." Let's run it again.

Oh, what now? Invalid permission. Let's correct that quickly. And now it looks like it is working! It's going fast - 50 perfect! In progress, the next cursor has been updated, and within our leads table, we have access to 50 data records.

This is all good for me! All that remains to do on your own is to download the free Make.com scenario from Scrap.io and customize it for your specific lead generation needs.

Make.com vs Other Automation Tools

Now, you might be asking yourself: "François, why should I choose Make.com over other lead generation automation tools like Zapier or Microsoft Power Automate?" Great question! Let me break it down for you:

As you can see, Make.com automation gives you the best bang for your buck, especially when combined with Scrap.io for Google Maps lead generation. Plus, their visual workflow builder makes it actually enjoyable to build automation workflows - and trust me, that's not something I say lightly!

Your Turn to Build

Of course, what we just saw was an example. Now it's your turn to imagine the system that works for you. The beauty of this Make.com automation integration lies in its flexibility - you can adapt it to target any industry, any location, any specific criteria that matches your business needs.

Whether you're a sales professional looking to automate your prospecting, a freelancer seeking local clients, an agency owner building targeted campaigns, or a growth hacker exploring new lead sources, this tutorial unlocks a smarter way to gather, filter, and manage your leads - all on autopilot.

Why This No-Code Automation Matters:
The combination of Scrap.io's powerful Google Maps data extraction and Make's sophisticated automation capabilities creates a system that works 24/7, constantly feeding your sales pipeline with fresh, qualified leads while you focus on what matters most: closing deals and growing your business.

This automated prospecting system can process thousands of leads per hour, filter them based on your exact criteria, and automatically feed them into your CRM or database. No more manual research, no more outdated contact lists, no more time-consuming data entry.

And hey, if you're wondering about the legality of scraping Google Maps, don't worry - Scrap.io only extracts publicly available data that businesses choose to display, making it completely compliant with data protection regulations.

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Frequently Asked Questions

How to generate leads through Google Maps?

To generate leads through Google Maps, you can use automated tools like Scrap.io combined with Make.com to extract business information including emails, phone numbers, and social media profiles. The process involves searching for specific business categories in your target location, filtering results based on your criteria (such as businesses with websites or email addresses), and automatically extracting the contact information into a database or CRM.

Is Make.com better than Zapier for lead generation?

Yes, Make.com automation offers superior Google Maps integration, more affordable pricing ($9/month vs $29/month), and better visual workflow building capabilities. While Zapier is simpler, Make.com provides more power and flexibility for complex lead generation workflows, especially when combined with Scrap.io's native integration.

Do I need coding skills to use Make.com?

No! Make.com is a no-code platform designed specifically for non-technical users. The visual interface lets you drag and drop components to build automation workflows without writing any code. That's the beauty of no code lead generation - anyone can do it!

How much does it cost to run this automation?

With Make.com's Basic plan ($9/month) and Scrap.io's Professional plan ($99/month), you can process 20,000 leads monthly for under $110 total - significantly cheaper than hiring a virtual assistant or using traditional lead generation services. That's about $0.005 per lead!

Can we automate Google Maps?

Absolutely! Google Maps can be automated for lead generation using tools like Scrap.io and Make.com. This automation allows you to scrape business data, extract contact information, and build targeted prospect lists without manual work. The automation workflow can process thousands of businesses per hour and filter results based on specific criteria like industry, location, review count, and digital presence.

How to extract leads from Google Maps for free?

While completely free extraction is limited due to Google's API restrictions, you can start with Scrap.io's 7-day free trial which includes 100 export credits and access to their API. For ongoing free extraction, you'd need to use programming languages like Python with libraries such as BeautifulSoup, though this requires technical knowledge and may violate Google's terms of service.

Can lead generation be automated?

Absolutely! Lead generation automation is one of the most effective ways to scale your business using lead generation automation tools. Using tools like Scrap.io and Make.com, you can automate the entire process from lead discovery to qualification and even initial outreach. The system can run 24/7, continuously finding new prospects, verifying their contact information, and adding them to your sales pipeline.

What tools automate Google Maps prospecting?

Several tools can automate Google Maps prospecting, including Scrap.io (the most comprehensive solution), Make.com for workflow automation, and various Chrome extensions. Scrap.io stands out because it offers real-time data extraction, supports 4,000+ business categories across 195 countries, and provides both API access and pre-built automation examples.