🎣 Verify Google Sheets lead emails with Apify Email Verifier
⚡ 4 views · 🎣 Lead Generation & Enrichment
Description
Quick overview
Automatically verify email addresses in your Google Sheets lead list before launching campaigns. This workflow identifies unverified contacts, validates them in batches via SMTP handshake, catch-all and disposable checks, and writes detailed verdicts back to your spreadsheet.
How it works
- Reads unverified rows: Fetches leads from Google Sheets where the status column is empty, ensuring scheduled runs only process new contacts.
- Deduplicates and batches: Cleans whitespace, drops duplicate addresses to avoid duplicate charges, and groups emails into batches of 100.
- Live verification: Sends batches to the Apify Email Verifier API to perform syntax, MX, disposable, and SMTP catch-all checks without sending any emails.
- Maps verdicts back: Matches verification responses by email address (handling case-insensitivity and email tags) to maintain sheet integrity even when results return reordered.
- Updates sheet: Writes the final status, sub-status, quality score, catch-all flag, and disposable flag back to the matching row.
Setup
- Google Sheet preparation: Add the following column headers to your sheet: email, status, sub_status, score, catch_all, disposable, verified_at. Only the email column needs lead data.
- Apify credential: In n8n, navigate to Credentials > New > Header Auth. Name it Apify API, set Header Name to Authorization, and set Header Value to Bearer YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN (obtain from console.apify.com).
- Connect Google Sheets: Open both Google Sheets nodes (“Read Unverified Rows in Sheets” and “Update Sheets with Verdicts”), authenticate your Google account, and select your target document and sheet.
- Execute: Click “Test workflow” to verify your unverified leads and view live results populated in your spreadsheet.
Requirements
- Google Sheets account and credentials connected in n8n.
- Apify account with an API token (free tier available with monthly credits).
- An n8n Header Auth credential named “Apify API”.
Customization
- Change batch size: In the “Filter and Batch Rows” node, adjust BATCH_SIZE (default: 100) based on your list size and Apify plan.
- Custom column names: If your spreadsheet uses different header names, update EMAIL_COLUMN and STATUS_COLUMN constants in the Code nodes.
- Schedule trigger: Replace the “Manual Execution Trigger” node with a Schedule Trigger to run automated lead list cleaning on a recurring basis.
Additional info
• Cost: Uses the pay-per-event Apify Actor (sumitr_mardy/email-verifier). Free tier available. • Open-source repository, documentation, and additional templates (CSV cleaner, Signup webhook, AI agent tool): https://github.com/sumitrmardy/email-verifier-api
🔗 Nodes Used
Google Sheets, HTTP Request
📥 Import
Download workflow.json and import into n8n:
Workflow menu → Import from File