Google Places API gives you access to data on 200+ million businesses worldwide. For B2B sales in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, this is a goldmine — because German SMEs that don't appear in Apollo or Cognism are almost all in Google Maps.
Step 1: Set up Google Cloud
Go to console.cloud.google.com, create a new project (e.g., "Lead Generation"), and activate billing. You get $200 free credit per month — that's enough for 15,000–40,000 API calls, more than enough for any sales team.
Step 2: Enable Places API
Search for "Places API (New)" in the API Library and activate it. Create an API key under "Credentials" and restrict it to the Places API for security.
Step 3: Your first search
The Text Search endpoint is the most useful for lead generation:
GET https://places.googleapis.com/v1/places:searchText
{
"textQuery": "Tax advisory Munich",
"languageCode": "de",
"maxResultCount": 20
}This returns company names, addresses, phone numbers, websites, opening hours, and ratings.
Step 4: Scale the search
The real power comes from systematically combining search terms and regions:
- Industry: "Software company", "Tax advisor", "Architect"
- Region: "Munich", "Bavaria", "Stuttgart region"
- Combination: "Cloud software Bavaria" → 200+ leads
What anilead.io does automatically
Instead of programming all of this yourself, anilead.io manages the entire API integration. You enter a search query — the platform fetches the leads, enriches them with email addresses and scores them with AI. Result: qualified B2B leads within minutes.