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Support and best practices for bi-directional Google Sheets integration with Clay | Clay

Support and best practices for bi-directional Google Sheets integration with Clay

·Jan 30, 2026 12:23 AM·

I've a customer workflow that looks like this: 1. Event leads come into an email alias inbox from event organizers. 2. A Google Apps Script:

Detects incoming emails
Extracts data from the attached files
Applies fuzzy logic
Outputs a standardized Google Sheet (with formulas) into a Google Drive folder.

3. Once standardized, the customer wants Clay to:

Periodically read new/updated files from that Drive folder
Load the data into a Clay table
Run enrichments
Write back an enriched Google Sheet into Drive.

4. After enrichment, the customer:

Manually adds a new column to the enriched sheet (after internal sales review)
Does not want to make this update directly in Clay.

5. Clay should then:

Re-read the enriched sheet on a cadence
Pull the manually added column back into the Clay table
Continue downstream processing
Activate the final data into Marketo.

Qs:

1.
Is this kind of back-and-forth Drive / Google Sheets setup supported today?
2.
What’s the cleanest way to implement this without overcomplicating the workflow?

49 comments

· Sorted by Oldest

Clay Support
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This back-and-forth Google Sheets workflow is partially supported, but requires some workarounds since Clay doesn't have native periodic file monitoring.
What works today:
Clay can read from Google Sheets using the "Lookup row" action [1]
Clay can write enriched data back to Google Sheets using "Add row" or "Lookup, add, or update row" actions
Google Apps Script can push data to Clay via webhooks
Cleanest implementation approach:
1.
Initial data flow: Use Google Apps Script to send standardized data to Clay via webhook (instead of Clay reading files)
2.
Enrichment & export: Clay enriches data and writes back to Google Sheets automatically
3.
Manual column sync: After your sales team adds the manual column, use another Google Apps Script trigger to detect changes and push updated rows back to Clay via webhook
4.
Final processing: Clay processes the updated data and sends to Marketo
This webhook-based approach is more reliable than trying to monitor Drive folders. The Google Apps Script can handle the file detection and change monitoring, while Clay handles the enrichment and downstream processing.
Before diving into the technical setup, I'd recommend trying our built-in AI tool Sculptor (top-right corner) to help design this workflow - it's free and great for complex automations like this. Let me know if Sculptor helps or if you need more specific implementation details!
Clay Support
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Was that helpful?
Clay Support
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If you still need help with setting up your Google Sheets workflow or have questions about using Sculptor, I’m here to assist. Would you like to provide more details about what you’re trying to achieve or any specific challenges you’re facing?
Sugantha K.
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1.
We're talking about 50+ events/ year, so its easily 50+ files that needs to be processed into clay. But the caveat is, customer doesn't want to process all those into one clay table, they want leads from each event into separate clay table. So how can Webhook calls handle this use case?
2.
Clay has the enriched data in columns, so can those be passed to google sheet as column for matching rows?
3.
They may not know the marketo program end point until they create it, so I assume for each table at once leads are ready to be activated, customer has to manually set marketo program endpoint for push?
They are looking for a solution with 0 human intervention at all stages
Clay Support
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For 50+ separate tables: Your Google Apps Script can dynamically create new webhook tables by calling Clay's API. Each event gets its own webhook URL and table. [1]
For Google Sheets column matching: Yes, Clay can write enriched data back to specific rows using the "Lookup, add, or update row" action based on matching criteria like email or ID. [2]
For Marketo automation: You can pre-configure Marketo actions in each table template, then use conditional formulas to only run when the program endpoint is populated. This allows zero-touch activation once endpoints are set. [3]
The main challenge is the "zero human intervention" requirement - someone still needs to set Marketo program endpoints for each event table. Consider using Sculptor to help design this multi-table automation workflow.
Clay Support
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Did that answer your question?
Sugantha K.
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Yes, but someone has to manually configure the end point into each table for activation, right? There is no way it can be automated in my understanding
Clay Support
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You're correct - Marketo program endpoints need manual configuration per table. However, you could potentially automate this using Clay's HTTP API capability to programmatically update table configurations. [1]
Another approach: use conditional formulas in your Marketo actions that only run when specific criteria are met (like when a program endpoint field is populated). [2] This way you can pre-configure the Marketo integration in table templates, then just populate the endpoint when ready. [3]
For true zero-touch automation, you'd need your Google Apps Script to also handle setting the Marketo endpoints via Clay's API when creating each event table.
Clay Support
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Was that helpful?
Sugantha K.
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Okay, let me give this a try and get back
Clay Support
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Take your time. I'm here whenever you're ready to continue or if you have any more questions.
Clay Support
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If you need any more help with your workflow setup or have questions about automating the Marketo endpoint configuration, I’m here to assist. Would you like to share more details about what you’re trying to resolve or understand next?
Sugantha K.
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Adding on top: #1 https://university.clay.com/docs/webhook-integration-guide - Per this, only 50k leads can be processed via Webhook into one table. Is there a way to configure in the app script that each event file gets to have its own clay workbook/ table created automatically in Clay?
Clay Support
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You're correct about the 50k limit per webhook table. [1] Unfortunately, Google Apps Script can't automatically create new Clay tables/workbooks - Clay doesn't have an API endpoint for programmatically creating new tables.
Your options are:
- Pre-create tables: Set up 50+ webhook tables in advance, each with its own webhook URL
- Use Write to Other Table: Have your script send all events to one webhook table, then use Clay's "Write to Other Table" action to automatically distribute leads to separate tables based on event criteria [2]
- Enterprise auto-delete: If you upgrade to Enterprise, you can use passthrough tables that auto-delete processed records, allowing unlimited throughput on a single table
The Write to Other Table approach might be cleanest - one webhook receives all events, then Clay automatically routes each lead to the correct event-specific table based on your criteria.
Clay Support
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Is that what you were looking for?