LeadOcean + Smartlead: Export, Split by Email Status, Push to Campaigns

You get a repeatable pipeline. Search people in LeadOcean, export two CSVs by email status, and load each into its own Smartlead campaign over the API. Verified addresses go to your main sequence. Catch-all addresses go to a separate campaign, so one risky domain cannot drag down a clean send.

Use this when your cold email team wants the list decided before the first send. LeadOcean returns an email_status for every address. Smartlead then runs each group with its own mailboxes, schedule and reporting.

Related: the integrations hub, Salesloft, Reply.io, Outreach and pricing.

How it works

Two exports, one script, two campaigns. You build it once and rerun it for each new filter. Smartlead takes up to 400 leads per request (Smartlead Add Leads to Campaign, September 2026).

1. Get keys. Create a LeadOcean key at app.leadocean.io and copy your Smartlead API key. Free LeadOcean keys get search and enrich scopes.
2. Size the list. A search with count=true and limit=1 is free. Check the total before you spend records.
3. Export verified. Create an export with emailStatus set to verified.
4. Export catch-all. Run the same filters with emailStatus set to catch_all_valid and catch_all.
5. Create two campaigns in Smartlead and note each campaign id from the URL.
6. Run the script below once per file. It posts leads in batches of 400.
7. Start the verified campaign first. Run the catch-all campaign small, then read its bounce rate before you scale it. Smartlead shows bounces per campaign, so the two groups never blur together.

Keep the files separate from the start. A merged file means filtering on email_status again, and that is how a catch-all address ends up in the main sequence by mistake.

Bulk CSV export is not on the Free plan. On Free, call search, then enrich each person with reveal_email set to true to get the address.

Configuration

The export request. Several values inside one filter join with OR.

curl -X POST https://api.leadocean.io/v1/exports \
  -H "x-api-key: $LEADOCEAN_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"name":"smartlead verified","filters":{"jobLevel":["VP"],"jobFunction":["Sales & Business Development"],"country":["CA"],"emailStatus":["verified"],"emailType":["work"]},"limit":1000,"columns":["person_id","profile_first_name","profile_last_name","profile_url","current_job_title","current_company_name","email_N_address","email_N_status"]}'

curl -H "x-api-key: $LEADOCEAN_API_KEY" https://api.leadocean.io/v1/exports/EXPORT_ID
curl -H "x-api-key: $LEADOCEAN_API_KEY" -o verified.csv https://api.leadocean.io/v1/exports/EXPORT_ID/download

For the second file, set emailStatus to ["catch_all_valid","catch_all"] and the name to smartlead catch-all. The load script is ours. The 400-lead batch is Smartlead's documented maximum.

import csv, os, sys, requests

CAMPAIGN_ID = int(sys.argv[2])
URL = f"https://server.smartlead.ai/api/v1/campaigns/{CAMPAIGN_ID}/leads"
PARAMS = {"api_key": os.environ["SMARTLEAD_API_KEY"]}

leads = []
for r in csv.DictReader(open(sys.argv[1])):
    if not r["email_1_address"]:
        continue  # email is the only required field
    leads.append({
        "email": r["email_1_address"],
        "first_name": r["profile_first_name"],
        "last_name": r["profile_last_name"],
        "company_name": r["current_company_name"],
        "linkedin_profile": r["profile_url"],
        "custom_fields": {
            "job_title": r["current_job_title"],
            "email_status": r["email_1_status"],
            "leadocean_id": r["person_id"],
        },
    })

for i in range(0, len(leads), 400):
    body = {"lead_list": leads[i:i+400]}
    print(requests.post(URL, params=PARAMS, json=body).json())

Run python load.py verified.csv 123 where 123 is the campaign id. Smartlead reads the key from an api_key query parameter, so keep the script out of shared logs.

Field mapping

Smartlead requires email. Every other field is optional (Smartlead docs, September 2026). Custom fields take up to 200 key-value pairs per lead.

Column ids come from GET /v1/exports/columns. Email status has 13 values. risky, unknown and invalid stay out of both files.

Cost at 10,000 rows

For 10,000 rows, LeadOcean costs Solo at $97 a month, or Agency at $497 a month for teams. Smartlead sells plans by contacts stored and emails sent. Base lists 2,000 contacts and has no API, so this recipe needs Pro at $94 a month, or $78.30 a month billed yearly. Pro lists 30,000 contacts, 90,000 sends, and API and webhooks (Smartlead pricing, October 2026).

An export reserves records up to limit and bills one record per row written. There are no credits and no overage invoice. Mailboxes and sending domains are extra on the Smartlead side. Its pricing page lists them as add-ons, so budget for them before you load 10,000 leads.

The cheapest LeadOcean test is the Free plan. Pull up to 1,000 people through search and enrich, load them into one campaign, and read the reply and bounce numbers before you pay for LeadOcean.

Troubleshooting

FAQ