How to Scrape LinkedIn Data at Scale (Complete Guide)

If you want to grow your business, LinkedIn is one of the best places to start. It’s packed with professionals, companies, and decision-makers just waiting to be part of your network. 

Whether you’re targeting individuals or looking to gather company data, scraping LinkedIn can be an absolute goldmine.

The good news? There are ways to scrape LinkedIn data even if you’re not tech-savvy. If you’re comfortable with technology, there are options for you too. 

Let’s dive into both methods to help you decide which one works best for your needs.

And if you’re a tech savvy developer, you can jump ahead and learn how to scrape LinkedIn as a developer here. 

How to Scrape LinkedIn without Code

If you’re not comfortable with coding or don’t want to deal with APIs and scripts, tools like the LinkedIn Scraper from LeadLoft are a lifesaver. They’re built for people who just want results without the technical hassle.

How Scraping LinkedIn Works

LeadLoft simplifies LinkedIn scraping with an automated process. You don’t need any technical skills; you just log in, set your parameters, and let the tool do its magic. Here’s why it’s so effective:

• Finds Emails and Phone Numbers: LeadLoft doesn’t just scrape names and job titles. It goes a step further by using its email finder and phone finder.
• Verifies Data: Every piece of contact information is verified to ensure accuracy. No more bouncing emails or outdated numbers.
• Scrapes Company Information: For each contact, LeadLoft automatically pulls data about their company, including size, industry, and location.
• Cold Email & LinkedIn Campaigns: Once you’ve saved the data, you can directly enroll your contacts into cold outbound campaigns. It’s a seamless way to start outreach without switching tools.

Why This Method is Perfect for Most People

LeadLoft is great because it’s hands-off and user-friendly. You don’t need to worry about LinkedIn’s CAPTCHA challenges or account blocks, LeadLoft takes care of it all. 

Plus, it’s fast. You’ll have verified data ready to use in minutes.

Steps to Get Started with LeadLoft

1. Sign Up for LeadLoft: Create an account and log in.
2. Create a Playbook: You’ll need to create a new playbook and make the trigger “LinkedIn Scraper”.
3. Specify LinkedIn Scraper Settings: Define the type of data you’re looking for on LinkedIn, such as specific industries, job titles, or locations.
4. Start Scraping LinkedIn: Let LeadLoft scrape LinkedIn for you.
5. You’re All Set: From here, you can sit back and relax. And if you’d like, you can begin engaging the leads automatically or simply export the data once it’s done scraping.

For anyone who values simplicity and doesn’t want to spend hours learning new tools, LeadLoft’s scraper is going to be the simplest solution.

How to Scrape LinkedIn at Scale (For Developers)

If you’re a developer or someone who’s comfortable working with APIs, the ZenRows API offers a powerful way to scrape LinkedIn data. 

Unlike simpler tools, this method provides flexibility and scalability, allowing you to scrape hundreds of thousands of profiles if needed.

How ZenRows Works

ZenRows is designed to tackle LinkedIn’s biggest challenges, including CAPTCHAs, IP blocks, and rate limits. It’s an asynchronous scraping tool that lets you gather public LinkedIn data quickly and at scale.

Here’s what you can scrape:

• Basic Profile Information: Names, job titles, companies, and job experience.
• Public Data Only: ZenRows doesn’t discover private information like emails or phone numbers.
• Customizable Data: You can define exactly what information you want to scrape by specifying selectors in your API calls.

Why Use ZenRows?

ZenRows is perfect if you need a high degree of control and customization. It scales beautifully, allowing you to gather massive amounts of data quickly. 

It’s also great if you have specific scraping needs that other tools can’t address. But keep in mind, it only scrapes data that’s publicly visible on LinkedIn.

Steps to Use ZenRows for Scraping

1. Sign Up for ZenRows: Create an account to access the API.
2. Get Your API Key: ZenRows provides an API key that you’ll use to authenticate your requests.
3. Set Up Your Environment: Install any necessary libraries and set up your programming environment (e.g., Python, JavaScript).
4. Write Your API Calls: Define what data you want to scrape and send API requests to ZenRows.
5. Handle the Data: Process the JSON responses to extract and organize the information you need.

ZenRows is a fantastic tool, but it does require some technical know-how. If you’re comfortable with coding, it’s a powerful option that can scale with your needs.

Comparing the Two Methods

When comparing LeadLoft and ZenRows, the right choice depends on your needs and technical skills. If you want a tool that’s easy to use, LeadLoft is going to be for you. 

It requires no technical knowledge and automatically handles everything, including email and phone verification, data scraping, and even sending out email and LinkedIn messages. Which makes it ideal for anyone who isn’t a developer.

On the other hand, ZenRows is perfect for any developer who needs to scrape large amounts of data or for anyone struggling to scrape LinkedIn and bypass LinkedIn captchas. This is because ZenRows handles CAPTCHAs and scaling challenges for you, making it great for big projects that need to scrape millions of profiles and needs complete control over the scraping process. 

Just keep in mind that ZenRows only collects public LinkedIn data and doesn’t provide email or phone numbers.

LeadLoft focuses on simplicity and data verification, while ZenRows prioritizes flexibility and scalability. Choose the one that fits your workflow and objectives best.

Wrapping Up

Scraping LinkedIn is wildly useful and doesn’t have to be complicated. If you’re looking for simplicity, tools like LeadLoft’s LinkedIn Scraper make it easy to scrape and use high-quality data. But if you’re comfortable with APIs and need to scale up, ZenRows provides powerful scraping capabilities for larger-scale needs.

Whichever route you choose, scraping LinkedIn can be super useful for a variety of reasons. Regardless, if you’re looking to get started or need some help, feel free to book a time with my team. We’d love to share how you can scrape LinkedIn too.