--- title: "How to Use AI Leads to Source Contacts in FirstSales | FirstSales" description: "Describe your ideal customer in plain language and let the AI Leads harvester find matching people with work emails, on a recurring schedule, into a list." canonical: "https://firstsales.io/tutorial/create-ai-leads-campaign/" --- [Home](/)/[Tutorials](/tutorial/)/How to Use AI Leads to Source Contacts in FirstSales Campaigns # How to Use AI Leads to Source Contacts in FirstSales Describe your ideal customer in plain language and let the AI Leads harvester find matching people with work emails, on a recurring schedule, into a list. 9 min read·Intermediate·9 steps 1. 1 ## What AI Leads does **AI Leads** is FirstSales' AI lead-sourcing tool. You describe your ideal customer in plain language and it finds matching people — with work emails — and drops them straight into a contact list your campaign sends to. It's the fastest way to fill a campaign when you don't already have a list. Unlike a one-off scrape, AI Leads runs as a **recurring harvester**: it keeps topping up your list on a schedule you choose, so an Autopilot campaign never runs dry. 2. 2 ## Open the Harvester and pick AI Leads Inside a campaign's **builder**, open the **Contact Harvester** node ("Find & collect contacts"). It offers four sources — **AI Leads**, **Maps Scraper**, **File Upload**, and **Signal**. Click **AI Leads**, then toggle it on to reveal its config. Note AI Leads is available on **every campaign mode** (the Maps Scraper is Autopilot-only), so you can use it in Template and Autopilot campaigns alike. ![Open the Harvester and pick AI Leads](/tutorials/maps-scraper-01-harvester-tools.webp) 3. 3 ## Choose where results are saved The first field, **Save results to list**, is required — pick (or create) the contact list AI Leads should fill. Everything it finds lands in that list, tagged with the source **AI Leads** so you can always tell AI-sourced contacts from uploads or webhook leads in the Contacts table. 4. 4 ## Set volume and frequency Under **Search Settings**: * **Max results** — how many leads to pull, between **10 and 500** (default 100). The label follows your frequency ("per cycle / day / week / month"). * **Frequency** — **Per cycle**, **Daily**, **Weekly**, or **Monthly**. This is a recurring harvester, so it re-runs on this cadence to keep the list fed. Match volume to your real sending capacity — pulling 500/day into a campaign three mailboxes can't send is just burning credits. 5. 5 ## Use the AI recommendation Search Settings shows a **recommendation card** that suggests a results-per-cycle and frequency based on your setup — number of connected email accounts, daily send capacity, warm-up state, existing pipeline size, and the campaign goal. Click **Apply suggestion** to take it. It's the safest starting point if you're unsure how much to pull. 6. 6 ## Describe your ideal customer The heart of the tool is **Target Audience** — a plain-language description of who you want, up to **250 characters**. For example: _"YouTube creators in Pune for partnership meetings"_ or _"Heads of Growth at Series A SaaS in the US."_ As you type, FirstSales reads it and **auto-configures** job titles, seniority, and functional levels — shown as chips in an "Auto-configured from audience" panel. You can accept those or refine them in the filters below. ![Describe your ideal customer](/tutorials/ai-leads-01-config.webp) 7. 7 ## Refine with People, Company & Location filters Three collapsible filter sections let you tighten the search: * **People** — **Job Titles**, **Seniority** (Founder, C-Level, VP, Director, Head, Manager, Senior…), and **Functional Level** (Sales, Marketing, Engineering, Finance, Product…). * **Company** — **Industries**, **Company Size** (bands from 1–10 up to 50,000+), and **Company Keywords** (e.g. "SaaS, remote-first"). * **Location** — country, state, and city. The tighter and more specific these are, the higher-quality (and more relevant) the leads. 8. 8 ## Understand the cost The builder shows the cost inline: **1 credit per lead found**, plus **0.2 credits per contact for email cleaning**. Because it's recurring, credits are consumed each cycle as new leads come in — so your effective spend scales with Max results × how often it runs. Keep an eye on your credit balance if you set an aggressive cadence. 9. 9 ## Save and let it run Save the campaign. AI Leads starts sourcing into your chosen list and continues on its schedule. New contacts flow through your normal pipeline — cleaning, then the campaign sequence — and appear in **Contacts** with the **AI Leads** source. From there they're segmented into the campaign automatically. ## Pro tips Hard-won shortcuts that keep warm-up on track. 1 ### Be specific in Target Audience "Founders" is weak; "Founders of bootstrapped B2B SaaS in the US, 10–50 staff" is strong. The narrower the prompt, the better the auto-configured filters and the leads. 2 ### Let the recommendation size it The recommendation card factors in your mailboxes, warm-up, and send capacity. Applying it stops you from sourcing far more leads than you can actually email — which is wasted credit. 3 ### Match cadence to capacity AI Leads recurs. If your mailboxes send 150/day total, pulling 500/day just piles up unsent contacts and spends credits on leads you won't reach for weeks. 4 ### Check the auto-configured chips The chips derived from your prompt are a draft, not gospel. Glance at the People filters after typing your audience and prune any title or seniority that doesn't fit. ## Frequently asked questions Where is AI Leads? Inside a campaign's **builder**, in the **Contact Harvester** node. It's one of four sources (AI Leads, Maps Scraper, File Upload, Signal). Click it and toggle it on to configure. How do I tell AI Leads who to find? Write a plain-language **Target Audience** (up to 250 chars), e.g. "Heads of Growth at Series A SaaS in the US." FirstSales auto-derives job titles, seniority, and functional levels, which you can refine in the People/Company/Location filters. How many leads can it pull? Between **10 and 500** per cycle (default 100), on a **Per cycle / Daily / Weekly / Monthly** schedule. It's a recurring harvester, so it keeps topping up the list on that cadence. What does it cost? The builder states **1 credit per lead found**, plus **0.2 credits per contact** for email cleaning. Because it recurs, spend scales with your Max results and frequency. Where do the leads go? Into the **contact list you chose** in "Save results to list." They appear in **Contacts** with the source **AI Leads** and are segmented into the campaign automatically. How is AI Leads different from the Maps Scraper? AI Leads finds people by an ICP description (titles, seniority, industry, size, location) and works on **all** campaign modes. The Maps Scraper sources local businesses from Google Maps and is **Autopilot-only**. Different inputs, different use cases. Can I set my ideal customer once and reuse it? The Target Audience and filters are configured per campaign's harvester. Set them to match that campaign's ICP; for a different audience, configure AI Leads in that campaign's builder. ## Ready to put this into practice? Start your FirstSales trial and launch a warmed, authenticated mailbox in minutes. [Start for $1](https://app.firstsales.io) [All tutorials](/tutorial/)