This workflow turns a trade and territory into a clean contractor prospect list. The Google Maps Business Leads Actor returns business names, phone numbers, websites, ratings, review counts, categories, addresses, hours, place IDs, and coordinates. A second public Actor can verify selected California and Oregon contractors against their state licence boards.
Each task opens with working input and exports to JSON, CSV, Excel, XML, or RSS from the Dataset tab.
Start with one service category and one market. Narrow inputs produce a list that is easier to evaluate and less likely to mix unrelated trades.
{
"search_query": "roofing contractors",
"location": "Austin, Texas",
"max_items": 100,
"include_details": true,
"min_rating": 4.2,
"require_website": true,
"exclude_closed": true,
"category_exact": ["Roofing contractor"]
}
The filters are applied before the result count, so filtered-out rows are not billed. Use category_exact only after checking Google’s displayed category for the trade; an overly narrow category can exclude good prospects. For broader prospecting, omit it and filter the exported CSV yourself.
Use place_id as the primary deduplication key and place_url as the fallback. Keep these fields in the first-pass export:
name, category, phone, phone_unformatted, and websiteaddress, city, state, postal_code, latitude, and longituderating, reviews_count, open_state, and opening_hoursplace_id, place_url, and search_url for traceabilityA practical qualification score can reward a working website, a public phone number, a rating above your threshold, and enough reviews to make the rating meaningful. Keep missing data as missing rather than treating it as a negative fact.
Google Maps is a business directory, not a licensing authority. For California or Oregon, send the best prospects by business name to the US Contractor License Search Actor:
{
"search_query": "Example Roofing",
"states": ["california"],
"max_items": 10,
"include_details": true
}
Review source, business_name, license_number, status, and city. With details enabled, you can also inspect classifications, bonding, insurance, workers’ compensation, disciplinary history, and issue or expiry dates when the board publishes them. Match names and cities deliberately; a similar name is not proof that two records describe the same company.
import os
from apify_client import ApifyClient
client = ApifyClient(os.environ["APIFY_TOKEN"])
run = client.actor("captainhandsome/google-maps-business-search").call(run_input={
"search_query": "roofing contractors",
"location": "Austin, Texas",
"max_items": 100,
"include_details": True,
"min_rating": 4.2,
"require_website": True,
"exclude_closed": True,
})
leads = list(client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items())
With Apify Public Data MCP installed:
Find 25 commercial electricians in Dallas with phone numbers, websites, addresses, ratings, and Google Maps URLs. Return a CSV-ready table.
The agent calls google_maps_search(search_query="commercial electricians in Dallas, TX", max_results=25). Follow with us_contractor_license_search for individual names that need licence verification.
The Google Maps Actor charge is $0.0025 per returned business plus a $0.001 start charge. A 100-result run is therefore capped at about $0.251 in Actor charges. The multi-state licence Actor is $0.003 per returned licence record plus $0.0005 per start. Live Store prices are authoritative.
Public contact data is not blanket permission for unsolicited outreach. Apply the laws and platform rules relevant to your location, channel, and audience, and give recipients a clear way to opt out.