Skip to main content

Using Autobound with Clay

Clay helps teams segment, enrich, and manage contact data efficiently. Autobound acts as Clay’s personalization engine, automatically generating full, multi-step sequences where each step is aware of the others.

Joyce Frias avatar
Written by Joyce Frias
Updated this week

By combining Clay’s enrichment capabilities with Autobound’s content generation, you can turn enriched contact records into high-quality, persona-specific outreach—without complex prompt chaining, agent orchestration, or manual research.
​

Autobound pulls from 350+ real-time insights such as job changes, funding rounds, tech stack, website content, and competitor mentions to create contextually relevant messaging instantly.
​

You can use Autobound inside Clay in two main ways:

  1. Using Clay’s built-in Autobound Enrichment Actions
    ​

  2. ⭐️Using HTTP + Webhook to push to Autobound’s Web app and back to Clay (more flexibility and control) - Recommended

Option 1: Clay’s Built-In Autobound Enrichment Actions

Clay includes three native Autobound enrichments that let you generate personalized content or retrieve insights directly inside your Clay tables. You can choose to run them using Clay credits or your own Autobound API key (recommended if your team already uses Autobound).
​

These enrichments are ideal for simple use cases and quick experiments. Clay sends your contact or company data to Autobound’s API and returns results directly into your Clay columns. You can:

• Generate single emails, multi-step sequences, LinkedIn messages, SMS, call scripts, or other custom touchpoints

• Retrieve contact and company insights only, if you prefer to use insights in other automations or workflows instead of generating content

It’s also possible to create multi-channel sequences directly in Clay, though it requires more complex prompting. You can use the contentToRewrite parameter to define the structure or mix of message types you’d like Autobound to generate.
​
Learn more about this parameter here.
​
When using Clay’s built-in enrichments, Autobound automatically leverages your Content Hub:

• If you connect with your Autobound API key, enrichments pull from your company’s Content Hub, including stored value props, sales assets, and writing styles.

• If you use Clay credits, Autobound generates a default Content Hub based on your company’s website and public data. You can override those defaults by entering your own value props or assets in Clay.


The built-in enrichments are powerful for most workflows. However, if you want step-level templates, more control over channel mix, or advanced configuration, use the HTTP + Webhook setup described below:
​
​


​Option 2: Recommended — Using HTTP + Webhook
​

This method gives you access to all of Autobound’s web app functionality, including value props, sales assets, writing styles, and sequence templates. It’s ideal for building multi-channel sequences that include email, LinkedIn, SMS, call scripts, and account briefs.

Step 1: Create an Autobound Campaign

  1. In Autobound, open AI Studio.
    ​

  2. Create a campaign or open an existing one.
    ​

  3. Select Actions → Add Contacts → Monitor from API request.
    ​

  4. Copy your campaign’s API endpoint and your API key.


Your endpoint will look like:
​

POST https://api.autobound.ai/api/workflows/campaigns/{campaignId}/execute/
Replace {campaignId} with your campaign ID.

Step 2: Build the HTTP POST Request in Clay

  1. Add a new HTTP Action in your Clay table.
    ​

  2. Set the method to POST.
    ​

  3. Paste your Autobound API endpoint in the URL field.
    ​

  4. Add your API key in the headers:
    ​

Minimum required fields:

  • contactEmail or contactLinkedinUrl
    ​

Recommended fields:

  • contactName
    ​

  • contactCompanyName
    ​

  • contactCompanyDomain
    ​

Optional seller fields (to generate on behalf of a specific seller or to add additional context or instructions):

  • sellerEmail
    ​

  • sellerName
    ​

  • additionalContext (notes, campaign goals, or custom research)

Step 3: Map Fields After Import

After your first successful API import, the data you sent from Clay will appear inside your Autobound campaign table in AI Studio.
​

To map or view the imported fields:

  1. Go to your campaign in AI Studio.
    ​

  2. Under the Source column, find the record associated with your imported contact data.
    ​

  3. Click the icon next to that record to open its details.
    ​

  4. Hover over any field to see the option “Add as column.”
    ​

  5. Select that option to map the field to an existing column or create a new one.

[video-to-gif output image]


​Note: Some columns may be hidden. You can expose them by clicking the Edit Columns button at the top of the table.
​

If you’ve already created new columns, head to the Settings tab on your table to map those columns to Autobound’s input fields. Proper mapping ensures contact resolution and data accuracy for content generation.


​

Tip: Any column that already exists in your table acts as an input to Autobound’s content generation. If you simply want to display or store the imported data without using it as an input, consider creating a new column specifically for that purpose.

Step 4: Generate Content in Autobound

Once contacts are imported, Autobound will:

• Generate a complete, multi-step, multi-channel sequence in a single call

• Make each message contextually aware of surrounding steps

• Pull from 350+ insights along with your stored persona data, writing styles, and value props

• Output clean, formatted HTML subject lines and bodies ready to export

Example: Campaign table in AI Studio showing generated content and insight columns.

Best Practices for Refining and Testing Content

Before scaling, review the generated messages inside AI Studio to confirm that tone, structure, and persona mapping align with your expectations. You can refine results by:

• Adjusting value propositions or sales assets in your Content Hub

• Editing or re-running specific records to compare outputs

• Testing different writing styles or tones to find what performs best

• Using additionalContext fields to guide the AI toward specific campaign goals

Once you’re confident everything is working correctly, consider turning Auto Run on for generation. When Auto Run is enabled, any new record added to the table will automatically trigger content creation using your configured settings. This is ideal for continuous workflows or signal-based imports.

Step 5: Export Content Back to Clay

  1. In Clay, create a Webhook Action and copy the URL.
    ​

  2. In Autobound, open your campaign and go to Export via API.
    ​

  3. Paste the Clay Webhook URL and name your export.
    ​

  4. Turn on Auto Run or trigger exports manually.

This sends the contacts, content, insights, and anything else in your Autobound table back into Clay.
​

Step 6: View and Map Autobound Content in Clay

After Autobound exports content back to Clay, new data will appear in your table as structured JSON attached to each record.
​

To surface and organize it:

  1. Open your Clay table linked to the Autobound webhook.
    ​

  2. Locate the new JSON fields added by Autobound.
    ​

  3. Hover over a field, click “Add as column,” and select the elements you want to expose (e.g. subject line, email body, LinkedIn message).
    ​

  4. Map them to existing columns or create new ones for clarity.

Once mapped, your Autobound content will display in clean, usable columns—ready for review, sequencing, or export to other tools.
​

Why you might use the HTTP Method

Clay’s built-in enrichments are great for quick personalization or insight retrieval. The HTTP + Webhook setup unlocks full control:

• Manage all value props, sales assets, and writing styles inside the Autobound web app

• Create cross-channel sequences with contextual awareness

• Customize prompts and templates per step

• Review and edit content in Autobound before exporting back to Clay

Clay defines who and when to reach out. Autobound defines what to say—or simply why now, if you’re using insights only.

API Parameters and Resources

See the Autobound API documentation for full parameter details:

Common parameters:

  • numberOfSequencedEmails
    ​

  • contentToRewrite
    ​

  • additionalContext
    ​

Best Practices

  • Always include contactEmail or contactLinkedinUrl (recommended for best resolution).
    ​

  • Set value props, sales assets, and writing styles in your Content Hub before scaling.
    ​

  • Use HTML output when exporting to preserve structure.
    ​

  • Save field mappings and HTTP actions to reuse across campaigns.
    ​

  • Use insight-only enrichments to identify high-value contacts or accounts before triggering content generation.
    ​

Summary

You can connect Autobound and Clay in two ways:

  1. Built-in enrichments for quick personalization or insight generation
    ​

  2. HTTP + Webhook workflow for full customization, advanced sequencing, and access to your Autobound workspace

Clay manages enrichment and segmentation. Autobound powers research, personalization, and content creation—together forming a fully automated signal-to-send workflow.

Did this answer your question?