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Guidance Needed for Consistent Single-Row Lookups in Campaigns | Clay

Guidance Needed for Consistent Single-Row Lookups in Campaigns

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Hello! We have an issue with single-row lookups in tables and would need some guidance. Some context:

Say we have 10 different campaigns in separate workbooks. Each collects people from different places, and need enrichment before we proceed.
We want to enrich these people, but we want to do it consistently across campaigns, so we have a centralized enrichment workbook
So the 10 campaigns first ADD the people to the enrichment workbook, and then LOOKUP these same people from the enrichment table.

The issue: The lookup behaves inconsistently: quite often there’s no match, or the data is incomplete. When we come back later and manually replay the lookup, it works fine. I guess there must be some sort of race condition where the enrichment is not yet ready for us (the row for this person has not fully run yet) when we request it. What’s your take on this ? Is it the right approach to centralize a process across multiple flows ?

If yes, then is there a way to make the lookup wait for the row to be completed before looking it up ? Or a way to “just wait” a couple minutes, and then perform the lookup ?
If not, do you have other architecture recommendation to manage a central process across multiple workbooks ?

6 comments

Channeled
APP
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Centralizing enrichment across workbooks can be an effective approach, but the inconsistent lookups you're experiencing are likely due to timing issues between adding data and looking it up. To address this, you can use conditional formulas to ensure lookups only happen after enrichment is complete: 1. Create a boolean formula in your enrichment workbook that checks if an enrichment has finished (e.g., checking if a key field is populated). 2. In your campaign workbooks, use this boolean in a conditional formula for your lookup to only run when the enrichment is complete. This creates a dependency where the lookup waits for enrichment to finish before attempting to retrieve data. For your lookup implementation, make sure you're using a unique identifier (like LinkedIn URL or company domain) to ensure accurate matching between tables. This approach also helps conserve credits by avoiding duplicate enrichments across workbooks.
Sources: Enrichments | Documentation | Clay University Guide: Ways to save Clay credits | Documentation | Clay University Enrichments | Documentation | Clay University
Jean R.
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Thanks for the additional details, that’s useful. Overall, would you say that’s the right approach to ensure centralized, consistent enrichment process across all campaigns, or would you recommend another architecture ?
Channeled
APP
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Centralizing enrichment in a single workbook with conditional lookups is a valid approach for ensuring consistency across campaigns, but there are alternatives to consider: 1. Using Recipes might be more efficient - these let you run multiple enrichments together in a pre-configured sequence, ensuring the same enrichment process is applied consistently across workbooks. 2. Conditional runs with proper timing controls can help address your race condition issues. Setting up conditions that verify enrichment completion before lookup attempts will prevent incomplete data retrieval. 3. For larger teams, consider a CRM-integrated approach where enrichments are set up once by your operations team and then auto-sync with your system, allowing campaign managers to trigger the same enrichments without duplicating setup work. The lookup approach can work well with proper conditional formulas, but recipes might offer a more streamlined solution with less manual coordination.
Sources: Guide: Ways to save Clay credits | Documentation | Clay University Guide: Ways to save Clay credits | Documentation | Clay University Enrichments | Documentation | Clay University How Teams Can Use Clay for CRM Enrichment
Jean R.
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what’s “Recipes” ?
Channeled
APP
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Recipes in Clay are reusable groups of columns that let you run multiple enrichments together in a pre-configured sequence. They're essentially packaged workflows that combine different data enrichment steps. For centralizing enrichment across campaigns, recipes are ideal because they: 1. Create consistency by ensuring the same enrichment process is applied across all workbooks 2. Save time by eliminating the need to manually set up the same enrichment sequence repeatedly 3. Allow team members to easily reuse complex combinations of columns (formulas, HTTP requests, AI enrichments) To use a recipe: 1. Select "Add enrichment" from your table 2. Navigate to "Recipes" in the top menu 3. Select your desired recipe 4. Save and/or run the enrichment This approach helps standardize your enrichment process across multiple workbooks while reducing duplicate work.
Sources: Enrichment recipes | Documentation | Clay University Enrichment recipes | Documentation | Clay University Enrichments | Documentation | Clay University
Channeled
APP
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