How to Size and Price B2B Data API Use Cases (With Real Queries)

Most "use case" guides list ideas and publish a blended ROI figure nobody can reproduce. This one gives you the query, the free count and a formula, so the ROI number is yours.

We publish no benchmark here. A conversion rate belongs to your offer and your list. What we can give you is the cost side exactly: records spent, and what they return.

TL;DR

• Four use cases (outbound list build, CRM enrichment, account research, agent lookups), each sized with a free call before any records are spent.
• Takes about 25 minutes and spends about 60 records on the Free plan (1,000 records for life, no card).
• ROI = (meetings x deal value x close rate) divided by cost. You measure the first three. The API gives you the last one.

Prerequisites

• A LeadOcean account on the free plan: app.leadocean.io/register.
• An API key from the app, exported as $LEADOCEAN_API_KEY.
• curl and jq. Optional: an MCP client for Step 1 (the hosted server is at https://api.leadocean.io/mcp, 13 tools).
• Your own numbers: average deal value, close rate, meeting rate from a past campaign.

Step 1: Size the audience for free

Counting costs nothing, so size every use case before you buy anything.

Over the API, send count=true as a query parameter and limit 1 in the body. The body stays flat JSON and filters are arrays.

curl -s -X POST "https://api.leadocean.io/v1/people/search?count=true" \
  -H "x-api-key: $LEADOCEAN_API_KEY" \
  -H "content-type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "jobLevel": ["VP"],
    "jobFunction": ["Sales & Business Development"],
    "country": ["CA"],
    "limit": 1
  }' | jq '.meta'

In an MCP client, the same question is one tool call: leadocean_count_leads. Note that meta.total is capped at 100,000 on the API, and the count describes the mailable audience by default (verified, catch_all_valid and catch_all addresses).

Step 2: Build an outbound list (use case 1)

Pull the people your count described, a page at a time. Limit runs 1 to 100 and you follow cursor for the next page.

curl -s https://api.leadocean.io/v1/people/search \
  -H "x-api-key: $LEADOCEAN_API_KEY" \
  -H "content-type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "jobLevel": ["VP"],
    "jobFunction": ["Sales & Business Development"],
    "country": ["CA"],
    "limit": 25
  }' | jq '.meta, (.data | length)'

A page of 25 is 25 records. One search pages to 10,000 rows (meta.depthCapped tells you when it stops), so narrow the filters instead of walking the index. For files beyond a few pages, use POST /v1/exports: up to 50,000 rows a request and 500,000 a day. Bulk CSV export is not on Free.

Step 3: Enrich the CRM (use case 2)

Enrichment takes exactly one of linkedin_url, email, phone or person_id. There is no name plus domain lookup: search by domain first, then enrich by person_id.

curl -s https://api.leadocean.io/v1/people/enrich \
  -H "x-api-key: $LEADOCEAN_API_KEY" \
  -H "content-type: application/json" \
  -d '{"email": "jane.doe@acme.com", "reveal_email": true}'

A person we hold nothing for returns 404 and costs nothing. Since October 2026 the response also carries career history (resume_data: past roles, educations, certifications and awards, each when held). Past employers have no company_id yet.

Step 4: Research accounts and size the market (use case 3)

For account lists, count companies first. GET /v1/companies/count is free and takes the company-search filters.

curl -s "https://api.leadocean.io/v1/companies/count?industry=Software%20Development&hqCountry=CA" \
  -H "x-api-key: $LEADOCEAN_API_KEY" | jq '.total'

Then list the people at one account with GET /v1/companies/acme.com/people (it stops at 10,000 rows). Each person returned is one record.

Step 5: Give an agent live lookups (use case 4)

Connect an MCP client to https://api.leadocean.io/mcp. Sign-in is OAuth 2.1, so no key is pasted. The agent gets 13 tools. Seven are free: leadocean_count_leads, leadocean_count_companies, leadocean_list_filters, leadocean_list_enum_values, leadocean_get_account, leadocean_get_export and leadocean_list_exports. Search, get, phone and export tools spend one record per person or company returned.

A prompt that stays cheap:

Count VP-level sales people in Canada first. Show me the total and
the distinct company count. Do not pull any records until I confirm.

Step 6: Turn counts into ROI

Cost per outcome is records spent divided by outcomes. Paid plans have a fair-use pace instead of credits, so on Solo ($97 a month) or Agency ($497 a month) your cost is the plan, not a per-record price. Source: leadocean.io/pricing, October 2026.

cost_per_meeting = plan_cost_per_month / meetings_booked_per_month
roi = (meetings * deal_value * close_rate) / plan_cost_per_month

On the Free plan the cost is your 1,000 records. Spend 60 on a pilot, measure reply and meeting rate, then scale. Do not trust a blended benchmark that does not state its list, offer and sender.

What you get

The free count from Step 1, run on 2026-10-21 through the leadocean_count_leads MCP tool:

{
  "total": 5574,
  "totalIsExact": true,
  "totalAll": 18800,
  "distinctCompanies": 3873,
  "credits": 0
}

Filters: jobLevel VP, jobFunction Sales & Business Development, country CA. total is the mailable count (verified, catch_all_valid or catch_all). totalAll is the same filters with no email condition. The call spent no records.

A search page returns person objects. The shape below is the response shape from the API reference (api.leadocean.io/openapi.json, September 2026), with placeholder values:

{
  "data": [
    {
      "profile_data": { "profile_full_name": "Jane Doe" },
      "contact_data": { "has_email": true, "email_status": "verified" },
      "meta": { "source_ids": { "person_id": "<digits>" } }
    }
  ],
  "meta": { "count": 25, "limit": 25, "credits": 25, "nextCursor": "<cursor>" }
}

Troubleshooting

FAQ