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Account Suggestions will never be perfect — but with a few adjustments, 80–95% of what surfaces should be accounts you’d actually want to work. This page covers how to tune your searches when results are too broad, too narrow, or just slightly off.

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Providing feedback on individual accounts

When a suggestion isn’t a fit, click the X next to the account to reject it. WhiteWhale will ask you why — too big, too small, wrong industry, wrong signals. Based on your feedback, the system will prompt you to edit the search directly. For example, if you reject an account because it’s the wrong industry, WhiteWhale will open the industry filter so you can remove the one that doesn’t fit. Over time, this feedback loop tightens your results without you having to think about the filters separately. You can update any live search at any time. Click into the search and adjust your signal selections, time range, company size, industry, or location. The search will re-run automatically with the new parameters. WhiteWhale will also throw warnings in the search builder if your parameters are too narrow or too broad — and tell you what to fix.

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Common problems and how to fix them

Usually caused by one of these: Too many Must Have signals. If you require five signals, an account needs all five to appear. Four out of five won’t show up. Switch to Any Match (the light purple default) unless you have one specific signal that’s a hard requirement.Signals that don’t logically co-exist. If you require both VC funding and PE investment as Must Haves, that’s a rare combination that doesn’t make practical sense. Make sure your Must Have signals would logically appear together on a real account.Too few companies in the search pool. If you’re searching for software companies in Bermuda, there are only two. WhiteWhale can’t find 200 suggestions from a pool of two. Widen your location or industry filters to increase the pool. The sweet spot is somewhere between a few hundred and 20,000 companies.
Your search pool is probably too large. If WhiteWhale is scanning 800,000 or a million companies, it takes time to work through all of them. Results will trickle in rather than flood in. Narrow your filters — tighten industry, location, or company size — to bring the search pool down to the 20,000 or under range. You’ll see faster, higher-quality results.
Your firmographic filters need refinement.
  • Wrong industry — click reject on a bad account, tell WhiteWhale it’s the wrong industry, and it will prompt you to edit the industry filter directly
  • Wrong size — tighten the employee count range
  • Wrong geography — check your location filter for regions you don’t actually serve
The search finds accounts that match your signals — if the signals aren’t specific enough, the matches won’t feel relevant. Tighten up the signal descriptions or add context. See Improving Signals for a guide on making signals more precise.

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Experiment freely

There’s no limit on how many searches you can create. Run different variations — test different signal combinations, industries, and company sizes — and see what comes back. Keep the ones that produce good results. Delete the ones that don’t.
The best search setup is usually 2–3 signals set to Any Match, in the industries you win in most, with a company pool between a few hundred and 20,000. Start there and adjust based on what you see.

Giving Feedback on Suggestions

Reject suggestions to help WhiteWhale improve your search results.

Setting Up Account Suggestions

Create a new search from scratch.

Improving Signals

Better signals lead to better search results.