Apify + OpenAI Podcast Lead Scoring Workflow (n8n)

Turn Podcast Discovery Into Qualified Leads—Automatically (Apify + OpenAI in n8n)

This Apify + OpenAI Podcast Lead Scoring Workflow automatically finds active, guest-friendly podcasts every week, scores each show against your expertise using OpenAI, logs results to Google Sheets, and drafts personalized pitch emails—then sends the pitch details to Telegram and creates Gmail drafts for hosts.

What this workflow does

• Runs weekly: scheduled to execute every Monday at 7am.
• Discovers podcast guests via Apify: sends your niche keywords and show criteria to the Apify Podcast Guest Finder Actor to discover active podcasts with contact emails.
• Prevents re-scoring duplicates: removes podcasts already processed in previous runs using Apple Podcasts show IDs.
• Scores fit with OpenAI: uses OpenAI (gpt-4o-mini) to score how well each podcast matches your talking points, and proposes an episode idea with a fit rationale.
• Normalizes results: includes guardrails such as capping high scores when the proposed talking-point keyword does not appear in the show title.
• Logs to Google Sheets: appends every scored show to a Google Sheets tab for tracking and review.
• Creates outreach assets for top matches: filters to shows above your minimum fit score with a valid email, then uses OpenAI to draft a tailored pitch email.
• Updates outreach channels: sends pitch draft details to Telegram and creates Gmail drafts addressed to each host (without sending).

Use cases

• SaaS operators who want a steady pipeline of podcast guest opportunities matched to their expertise.
• Automation engineers building repeatable outbound workflows with Apify, OpenAI, and n8n.
• Teams who need weekly lead scoring with auditable results in Google Sheets.

Technical details

• n8n nodes/integrations: set, gmail, limit, filter, telegram, sticky note
• External services: Apify (Podcast Guest Finder Actor), OpenAI (gpt-4o-mini), Google Sheets, Gmail, Telegram
• Core behavior: scheduled weekly run, Apify discovery, OpenAI scoring + pitch drafting, Google Sheets logging, Telegram notification, Gmail draft creation