Learn how to build a targeted watchlist in lemlist so you can track companies hiring for the roles and geographies that matter most to your outreach.
By the end of this tutorial, you’ll know how to create a hiring-based watchlist, refine it with inclusion and exclusion criteria, choose the segment to monitor, set a daily identification limit, and decide how identified signals should be processed.
Why this matters
A hiring watchlist helps you spot companies that are actively investing in specific roles, which is often a strong buying signal. Instead of manually checking job boards, you can automate discovery and focus your outreach on accounts that are more likely to be ready for a conversation.
Prerequisites
You should already know how to navigate the Signals section in lemlist.
You should already have a clear idea of the job titles, keywords, or locations you want to monitor.
You should already understand which companies or regions you want to include or exclude from tracking.
Core lesson — step-by-step workflow
Phase 1: Start a new watchlist
Go to Signals, then click New watchlist to open the watchlist builder. This is where you define the type of signal you want lemlist to track for you.
Select Company hiring a specific role, then click Next. Choose this option when you want to identify companies showing hiring intent for particular positions, which can indicate growth, team expansion, or budget allocation.
Phase 2: Configure the hiring signal
Enter a clear watchlist name so you can quickly recognize its purpose later. A descriptive name is especially helpful if you plan to manage multiple watchlists for different markets or ICPs.
Under Inclusion criteria, add the job titles and hiring geographies you want to track. You can also add hiring post keywords if you want to narrow results even further. This step defines what counts as a relevant hiring signal for your use case.
Under Exclusion criteria, add any job titles, keywords, or geographies you want to filter out. Use exclusions to remove irrelevant markets or regions and keep your signal quality high. For example, if you only want to monitor the United States and France, you might exclude Canada.
Tip: Start with broader inclusion criteria, then use exclusion criteria to eliminate noise. This usually gives better results than making your inclusion criteria too narrow from the start.
Phase 3: Choose which segment to monitor
Select the type of segment you want to monitor: All segments, Company list, or Specific segment. This determines whether lemlist should search broadly or only within a defined set of accounts.
If you choose a more targeted segment, fill in the available criteria such as Companies, Locations, Industries, and Company sizes. These filters help you align hiring signals with your ideal customer profile and avoid tracking accounts that are outside your target market.
Set the maximum number of signals identified per day using the slider or preset options. This controls how many companies can be surfaced daily and helps you manage credit usage more predictably.
Phase 4: Decide how signals should be processed
Choose how you want identified signals to be handled. You can manually process them or automatically create a task for follow-up. If your team works from task queues, selecting Create a task for the identified signals makes it easier to operationalize new opportunities quickly.
If you create tasks automatically, configure the task details such as task type, owner type, fallback owner, priority, title, and instructions. This ensures every signal is routed clearly and consistently to the right person.
Phase 5: Review and confirm
Review the Watchlist summary before finishing. Confirm the monitored signal, inclusion and exclusion lists, billing impact, and signal processing method. This final review helps you catch mistakes before the watchlist goes live.
Practical application
Here’s a simple real-world example: imagine you sell sales enablement software and want to identify growing companies that may need support for new commercial hires. You could create a watchlist for companies hiring roles like Sales or Key Account Manager in the United States and France, while excluding Canada.
That setup helps you focus on companies showing expansion in your target regions. Once signals are identified, you can assign follow-up tasks to your team so reps can reach out while hiring activity is still fresh.
Troubleshooting & pitfalls
Issue: The watchlist returns too many irrelevant companies
Root cause: Your inclusion criteria may be too broad, or you may not be using exclusions effectively.
Narrow your monitored job titles.
Add hiring post keywords to improve relevance.
Use exclusion criteria to remove unwanted geographies or segments.
Issue: You’re not seeing enough signals
Root cause: The criteria may be too restrictive or the monitored segment may be too narrow.
Expand your job title list with close variants.
Broaden geography filters.
Check whether you selected a very limited company list or specific segment.
Issue: Credit usage is higher than expected
Root cause: Your daily identification limit is set too high for your current workflow or budget.
Reduce the daily signal cap in the identification limit section.
Start with a small daily number and increase it once quality is validated.
Review the billing summary before finalizing the watchlist.
Issue: Signals are found, but no one follows up
Root cause: Signal processing may be set to manual, or task routing may not be configured clearly.
Select Create a task for the identified signals.
Assign an owner type and fallback owner.
Add clear instructions in the task configuration so reps know what to do next.