How to Scrape LinkedIn Comments and Qualify Leads Using Apify and Clay

If you’ve ever posted or seen viral LinkedIn content that asks people to comment a word to get a resource, you already know those comments can be gold for lead generation. But what if you could turn those viral comment threads—yours or someone else’s—into an automated, qualified outbound campaign?

In this guide, you’ll learn how to: - Scrape comments from any LinkedIn post using Apify - Enrich and qualify those leads in Clay - Automatically push them into a sequenced campaign with HeyReach

Let’s break it down.

Step 1: Scrape LinkedIn Comments Using Apify

Apify is a marketplace for automation and scraping tools. You'll use an "actor" called LinkedIn Comment Scraper by CuriousColor.

What You’ll Need:

  • A free Apify account
  • The LinkedIn Comment Scraper actor
  • Your LinkedIn session cookie

⚠️ Heads up: Scraping LinkedIn is against their TOS. Use caution and avoid doing it at scale from your main account.

How to Set Up:

  1. Install the Chrome extension EditThisCookie (or any cookie editor).
  2. Log into LinkedIn, open the extension, and export your session cookie.
  3. Paste your session cookie into the linkedinSessionCookie input field in Apify.
  4. Add the URL of the LinkedIn post you want to scrape.
  5. Optionally configure pagination, proxy settings, and wait time between requests to stay under the radar.
  6. Save and schedule the task to run at intervals (e.g. daily or weekly) using Apify’s cron support.

Step 2: Send Scraped Comments to Clay

Once your Apify actor runs, it stores all comment data in a dataset: commenter name, LinkedIn URL, comment text, location, and more.

Now pipe that data into Clay.

How:

  1. In Clay, create a new table or use a template.
  2. Add a column: Pull Data from Apify.
  3. Connect your Apify account with your API key.
  4. Choose the LinkedIn Comment Scraper actor and the correct task name.
  5. Run the column to import fresh comment data.

Step 3: Filter for Qualified Leads

Now that you’ve got the raw data, let’s qualify it.

Add These Columns in Clay:

  • Keyword Presence: Set a formula to flag whether the comment contains your target keyword (e.g. "GTM" or "program").
  • Public ID → LinkedIn URL: Use Clay’s formula tools to convert user IDs to full LinkedIn profile URLs.
  • Enriched Person: Use Clay’s LinkedIn enrichment to pull in job titles, company, email, etc.
  • Scoring Prompt: Use a GPT column with a prompt like:

    “Based on this lead’s title, company, and comment, score them 1-5 for fit with a GTM product for [your niche]. Explain why.”

Step 4: Automatically Send Qualified Leads to HeyReach

HeyReach is a LinkedIn outreach sequencer. Once you’ve scored and filtered your leads, send them into a campaign.

To Connect Clay → HeyReach:

  1. In Clay, create a column that sends a POST request to the HeyReach API.
  2. Include:
  3. Campaign ID (from your HeyReach dashboard)
  4. API key
  5. Lead data (name, profile URL, etc.)
  6. Add a run condition so it only sends leads with the keyword match checked and a score above your threshold.

You can now run personalized LinkedIn campaigns based on actual intent data from your or others’ viral posts.

Example Use Case

You post a LinkedIn thread asking “Comment GTM and I’ll send you my sales toolkit.”

  • 200 people comment.
  • You scrape those comments using Apify.
  • Clay pulls in those leads, checks who said “GTM,” enriches them, and scores their fit.
  • You auto-push qualified leads into a HeyReach campaign with 3 steps: view profile → follow → message.

Tools Recap

  • Apify – Scrape viral comment threads
  • Clay – Qualify, enrich, and score leads
  • HeyReach – Launch automated LinkedIn sequences

Final Thoughts

This workflow takes a high-signal, low-effort input—LinkedIn comments—and turns it into qualified outreach. It’s fast, scalable, and hits people at the moment they’re most engaged.

Just remember to: - Respect LinkedIn’s terms of service - Don’t over-automate without warming up your account - Always personalize your outbound