Industry and keywords look like alternatives, and choosing wrong is the most common reason a list feels almost right but not quite.
Use industry when your market maps to a recognised category. If you sell to accounting firms, manufacturers or logistics companies, the industry label already describes your buyer, and it gives you consistent, standardized coverage across countries. Industry is also the more stable filter over time, because it does not depend on the words a company happens to use about itself.
Use keywords when your market is a slice of a category. If you sell only to accounting firms that handle payroll, or only to manufacturers doing contract work, no industry label will express that. A keyword will.
Use both when you need precision with a guard rail. The keyword finds the niche, the industry stops the keyword from wandering into unrelated markets that use the same words.
- Count is huge and the preview looks generic: your industry is doing all the work. Add a keyword.
- Count is tiny and the preview looks oddly specific: your keyword is too narrow or too literal. Loosen it or drop back to industry alone.
- Preview shows the right kind of company in the wrong market: keep the keyword, add the industry as a boundary.
Because counts and previews are free on every tier, you can test all three shapes in about two minutes before spending a single credit.