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Apollo is one of the most powerful prospecting tools available — 275M+ contacts, 60M+ companies, and unlike Sales Navigator, it holds the actual contact data. Emails, phone numbers, company details — all in one place, ready to export directly into your sending tool.
It splits into two search modes: People Search (individual contacts) and Company Search (organisations). Most people use a handful of basic filters and wonder why their lists are full of people who'll never reply. This guide covers every filter, how it actually works, and the combinations that build lists worth sending to.
Always filter for Verified emails only before you export.
Apollo labels emails as Verified, Guessed, or Unavailable. Guessed emails are pattern-inferred — Apollo doesn't know for certain they're real, it's made an educated guess at the format. Sending to Guessed emails inflates your bounce rate and damages your sending domain reputation. A smaller list of Verified emails will always outperform a larger list of Guessed ones.
Apply this filter every single time before you export. No exceptions.
Apollo supports Boolean logic in the Job Title filter — which is actually more useful than it sounds, since job title is your most important filter.
| Operator | What it does | Example |
|---|---|---|
AND |
Both terms must appear | sales AND operations |
OR |
Either term appears | "head of growth" OR "growth lead" |
NOT |
Excludes a term | director NOT assistant |
" " |
Exact phrase match | "VP of Marketing" |
( ) |
Groups logic | (Director OR VP) AND Marketing |
To use Boolean in Apollo's Job Title filter, click "Advanced" inside the filter. That unlocks a text field where you can paste a full Boolean string.
Where Boolean works: Job Title (Advanced mode) and Keywords filter.
Where it doesn't: Industry, Location, Company Name — these are type-and-select or dropdown fields. To exclude entries in those, use the Exclude toggle that appears after selecting a value.