I provide an overview of Apollo's new feature, PowerUps, integrating AI for account and contact list building and personalization. This feature brings the power of custom AI prompting directly into Apollo.io, instead of using Clay or other tools and integrations. For this demo we create a custom account field, build a PowerUp AI prompt to find information about an account that used to be done manually, and use that to segment the account list and personalize messaging.

• ‍00:00 Apollo.io's new PowerUps feature - Clay replacement
• ‍1:20 PowerUps Demo Example using Custom Account field
• ‍02:49 Custom AI PowerUp Prompt in Apollo.io
• ‍05:30 Other Apollo.io PowerUps Use Cases

Overview of Apollo.io PowerUps for Personalization and Targeting

Introduction

Apollo recently launched a new feature called PowerUps—bringing ChatGPT and AI deeper into Apollo.

Previously, if you wanted to do advanced account research or personalization, you had to use outside tools like Clay, Zapier, or ChatGPT directly, then push the results back into Apollo. Now, much of this functionality is built directly into Apollo, making it far easier to:

• Build better account lists
• Find the right contacts faster
• Automate personalization at scale

In this tutorial, I’ll show you how I’ve been using PowerUps with one of my clients and why this feature is a game-changer.

Why PowerUps Matter

Manually researching accounts to see if they’re a fit is time-consuming. Sales teams often:

• Visit company websites
• Look for specific signals (e.g., product offerings, integrations, features)
• Decide if they match the ICP

PowerUps automate this process. By creating custom prompts, you can have Apollo’s AI scan company websites, identify key buying signals, and automatically update custom fields inside Apollo.

Example: Payment Processors Targeting SaaS Companies

One of my clients, Propeller Payments, competes with Stripe. They target SaaS companies that embed payments into their platform.

This is a tricky market:

• Many SaaS companies use Stripe, Square, or similar tools internally.
• But not all of them resell payment processing to their customers.

Previously, the only way to confirm this was manual research—visiting SaaS websites one by one and checking product pages.

With PowerUps, we now automate this process at scale.

Step 1: Writing a Custom Prompt

We created a custom ChatGPT-style prompt inside Apollo:

• Input: Company name + company website
• Task: Determine if the company provides billing and subscription payment services for their customers
• Output:
  • Yes → If payments are offered
  • No → If payments are not offered
  • No → If uncertain

We also included context on what “good” and “bad” signals look like, along with relevant keywords.

Like most AI prompts, the first draft wasn’t perfect. We had to iterate and refine until it consistently returned accurate results.

Step 2: Running the PowerUp

We then created a custom account field in Apollo called Payments.

• If a company fits the criteria, the PowerUp marks the field as Yes.
• If not, it marks it as No.

Running the PowerUp across a test list of 10 accounts:

• 2 accounts were flagged as “Yes” (good fits)
• 6 accounts were “No”
• 2 errored out

For example, one company identified was a field service solution with invoicing features—a strong fit because invoicing often means embedded payments.

Step 3: Prioritizing Accounts

Once the PowerUp has run, you can filter in Apollo by the custom Payments field.

This allows you to instantly pull up:

• Only accounts that offer embedded payments
• High-value accounts that match your ICP
• Prioritized lists for your sales team

What used to take hours of manual research now takes just a few clicks.

Other Use Cases for PowerUps

While this example focused on payments, PowerUps can be applied to many scenarios:

• Account Research → Scan websites for signals like hiring trends, product launches, or customer types
• Contact-Level Personalization → Review LinkedIn profiles for role-specific insights
• Message Crafting → Generate personalized email openers based on company or persona data
• Segmentation → Score accounts based on product fit, stage, or industry signals

The flexibility of custom prompts makes it possible to tailor PowerUps to almost any outbound strategy.

Conclusion

Apollo.io PowerUps make it dramatically easier to research, personalize, and prioritize accounts without leaving the platform.

By combining AI-driven website analysis with Apollo’s CRM fields and workflows, you can:

• Build better-targeted account lists
• Automate personalization
• Save hours of manual research

If you’re already using Apollo, PowerUps should be a core part of your workflow for account targeting and outreach.

‍

Work with SaaSBoost.io, an Apollo.io certified agency. We can set Full Apollo.io setup packages - take your ICP, Messaging, Content, CTA and build an outbound lead engine in Apollo.io.

Read more