How to Import Leads from Google Sheets

Design the sheet for import

A sheet that looks good in a browser may fail as an import. Merged cells, title rows, totals, empty columns and colour coding are display features, not data. The importer expects a table: a header row, then one row per contact.

Start with a new tab and a flat layout. Put the field names in row one and nothing above them. Keep one value per cell, and do not use line breaks inside a cell unless the field is a note.

A format that works

The columns most campaigns need are:

• email (required)
• first_name
• last_name
• company
• role
• country
• research_note

Everything else is optional. Add a phone or LinkedIn column only if the sequence uses it. Fewer fields mean fewer import errors and less data to maintain.

Keep the header names consistent across tabs and imports. If one sheet uses "First Name" and another uses "first_name", the importer may treat them as different fields.

Clean before you import

1. Remove duplicate email addresses.
2. Trim spaces and normalise case.
3. Split combined name fields if needed.
4. Remove rows without an email.
5. Check for multiple addresses in one cell.
6. Delete test rows and internal addresses.
7. Verify the email column.

A quick pass over the sheet catches most problems. For a larger list, export to CSV and use the process in how to clean a cold email list. If the sheet is the working list, add a column for the last contact date so a later import does not re-contact someone who already replied, and another for the outcome so the team can see what happened without opening the campaign. Keep the suppression list in a separate tab and apply it before every upload, following the import process rather than trusting memory.

Do not paste a report

A marketing report often has a title, a date range, a chart and merged headers. That is not a lead list. If you receive one, copy the underlying rows into a new tab and rebuild the header before importing.

The same applies to exports from CRMs: they may include system columns, owner names and activity notes that do not belong in a cold email import. Keep only the fields the campaign uses.

Keep the sheet and the campaign in sync

After import, the sheet and the campaign can drift. A contact who unsubscribes in the campaign still exists in the sheet, and a later import can bring them back. Export the suppression list or apply it during import so the two stay consistent.

If you update the sheet regularly, decide which system is the source of truth. For a one-off campaign, the campaign is. For a recurring programme, a database or CRM is usually better than a spreadsheet.

A worked example

A sales team keeps leads in a sheet with merged header cells, a colour-coded status column and duplicate rows from two exports. The first import fails on most rows. They rebuild the tab with seven clean columns, remove 300 duplicates, verify the addresses and export as CSV. The second import succeeds, and the campaign sends without a formatting error.

The data was fine. The sheet was not a table.

Google Sheets and tracking

If you use a sheet as the working list, add a column for the last contact date and the outcome. That turns it into a lightweight record of who was contacted and what happened, which matters when a prospect replies months later.

Do not store passwords, API keys or full payment details in a lead sheet. A spreadsheet is easy to share and hard to audit. Give access to the people who need to edit it, and keep a read-only copy of the original export so a bad edit does not destroy the source.

The short version

One row per contact, one value per cell, a clear header and no display formatting. Clean, verify and export as CSV, then keep suppression consistent between the sheet and the campaign.