How to Automate B2B Lead Enrichment With Make.com and Perplexity AI in 2026

Generic cold email templates with tags like "Hey {{FirstName}}, saw your company {{CompanyName}} is doing great!" have virtually zero reply rates in 2026. B2B decision-makers immediately recognize robotic mail merges.

High-converting cold outreach requires hyper-personalized research: referencing recent funding rounds, new product launches, tech stack migrations, or hiring challenges.

However, researching 50 companies manually takes an entire afternoon.

In this tutorial, you will learn how to build an automated lead enrichment and email drafting pipeline using Make.com and the Perplexity AI Sonar API. When a new lead is added to your Google Sheet, the system automatically researches the company live on the web and writes a bespoke icebreaker.

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Architecture of the Automation Pipeline

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Step 1: Obtain Your Perplexity AI API Key

1. Log into your account at perplexity.ai.
2. Navigate to Settings > API.
3. Generate a new API key and add $5 to $10 in API credits. (This will be enough to enrich over 1,500 company leads).
4. Save your key safely.

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Step 2: Set Up Your Google Sheet

Create a new Google Sheet with the following column headers:

• A: First Name
• B: Last Name
• C: Company Name
• D: Company Website (e.g., acme.com)
• E: Enriched Company Summary (Filled by AI)
• F: Recent Company News (Filled by AI)
• G: Custom Cold Email Icebreaker (Filled by AI)
• H: Status (e.g., Pending, Enriched)

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Step 3: Configure the Scenario in Make.com

1. Create a free account on Make.com.
2. Click Create a new scenario.

Module 1: Google Sheets (Watch Rows)

• Choose Watch Rows on your spreadsheet.
• Set the trigger filter to run whenever Status = Pending.

Module 2: HTTP (Make a Request to Perplexity)

Add an HTTP module with the action "Make a request":

• URL: https://api.perplexity.ai/chat/completions
• Method: POST
• Headers: - Authorization: Bearer YOUR_PERPLEXITY_API_KEY - Content-Type: application/json
• Request Body (JSON):

Module 3: Google Sheets (Update a Row)

• Connect back to your Google Sheet.
• Map the Perplexity response output into Columns E, F, and G.
• Update Column H (Status) to Enriched.

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Economics: The Massive Cost Savings

Solution	Cost per 1,000 Enriched Leads	Live Web Data?	Custom Icebreakers?
Apollo.io Custom Enrich	$250.00 – $400.00	Stale Database	Basic template
Manual Virtual Assistant	$500.00 (50 hours @ $10/hr)	Yes	Human-written
Make.com + Perplexity AI	$7.50	Live 2026 Web Data	Highly Specific

By running this pipeline, a solo sales rep or agency founder can research 500 targeted prospects each week while paying pennies in compute costs.