Write an ICP description that ranks contacts well

The paragraph you write in a campaign's Ideal customer profile field is what ICP fit is built on. A few habits make the difference between levels you can trust and a list where everyone sits at Medium.

Write about what Swimlane can read

Levels come from comparing your paragraph with what is written on each contact: headline, current job title, company name, LinkedIn About section, the Swimlane Analysis summary and your note. Describe people with words that appear in those places. Location, headcount, revenue or funding stage only help if people write them in their headline or About section, which is rare.

1. Start with the roles

The target role is the strongest signal. A contact whose profile never mentions one of the roles you target can't go beyond Medium. Name the roles first and give the usual variants yourself: "Head of Sales, Sales Director, VP Sales, Chief Revenue Officer". Swimlane adds synonyms and translations, but your list anchors them.

2. Add what separates a buyer from a lookalike

Then say which function, seniority, industry and type of company: "at B2B software companies", "managing a team of account executives". Context words refine a match; on their own, they never make someone High.

3. Spell out who is not a fit

Write your exclusions in plain words: "Not recruiters, not freelancers or consultants, not interns or students." Hard disqualifiers push a contact down to Very low. Restrictions such as "non-technical founders" or "not agencies" work too: vocabulary that contradicts them lowers the level.

4. One campaign, one target

A paragraph that mixes founders, HR managers and marketing leads produces a blurry matching profile. Split them into separate campaigns, each with its own list and paragraph.

5. Stay concrete

"Ambitious decision-makers who want to grow" matches everyone and no one. Use the words people really put in their LinkedIn headline.

Examples

Too vague

Decision-makers in growing companies who want to boost their results with a modern solution.

No role, no industry, nothing a headline would contain. Expect flat, meaningless levels.

Relies on data Swimlane doesn't read

SMEs with 50 to 200 employees and more than €5M revenue, based in Lyon or Paris.

Headcount, revenue and city rarely appear in a headline or About section.

Ranks well

Sales leaders at B2B software (SaaS) companies: Head of Sales, Sales Director, VP Sales, Chief Revenue Officer, or founders who still run sales themselves. They manage account executives or SDRs and own the pipeline. Not recruiters, not sales trainers or freelance consultants, not people in marketing or customer success roles, not interns or students.

Ranks well, with a restriction

Non-technical founders and CEOs of early-stage B2B startups who sell their product themselves. Not developers, CTOs or engineers, not agency owners, not investors.

Test your paragraph before a real campaign

Campaign steps can't be changed once a campaign is launched, so test the paragraph on a harmless campaign first.

1. Build a small list of about twenty people you know well: ten great fits, ten you'd never contact.
2. Create a campaign on that list. In Audience, switch on ICP match, paste your paragraph and keep Low match or better. In Flow Builder, add a single Add tag step: it only tags contacts inside Swimlane and sends nothing on LinkedIn.
3. Launch it, wait until it leaves Enrolling…, then open the list and read the levels.
4. If good fits sit at Medium, their headline probably uses a title you didn't list: add it. If poor fits reach High, add them as exclusions.
5. Delete the test campaign and create a new one with the improved paragraph. Once the levels look right, use the paragraph in your real campaign.

Help the matching with better records

• Contacts imported from post searches or a CSV file arrive with little profile data. Select them and use Enrich with LinkedIn so their job title and About section can be read.
• Your note on a contact is read too. A short note such as "runs sales, team of 6 AEs" helps when a headline is vague.