Using Industry Plus in Lead Generation

Industry Plus is a three-level industry classification - Industry → Category → Sub-category applied to every company in Similarweb's database. It lets you move from a broad sector like Beauty and Cosmetics down to a specific niche like Hair Care Products, all inside the Industry filter you already use in the Lead Generation tool. That extra depth means you can filter and find the best-fit prospects in a very granular way, instead of working through a broad list of companies that only loosely match your ICP.

What Industry Plus Includes

Industry Plus organizes every company into three levels of specificity:

The taxonomy spans 27 industries, 436 categories, and thousands of sub-categories - broad enough to segment an entire sector, and specific enough to isolate a single niche.

This depth is what lets you separate accounts that a single label would otherwise lump together. Under Beauty and Cosmetics, for example, L'Oréal sits under Hair Care Products, Clarins under Skincare Products, and Christian Dior under Fragrances and Perfumes - three very different sales motions, one category.

How the Taxonomy Is Built

Every website's content is analyzed and matched against a fixed, curated set of official categories, level by level - a site's Category always sits under a valid Industry, and its Sub-category always sits under a valid Category. Low-confidence matches are discarded rather than forced, which keeps the tree clean and consistent instead of cluttered with near-duplicate or made-up labels.

Classifications refresh monthly and are merged with the prior month's results, so a company doesn't jump categories over minor noise - the taxonomy stays stable enough to track trends over time. Analysts can also manually adjust a site's classification when needed, and every adjustment is checked against the official taxonomy before it goes live.

How to Use Industry Plus in Lead Generation

1. Open Lead Generation and expand the Industry filter.
2. Use the search box inside the picker - type a term like hair or fragrance to jump straight to the matching sub-categories.
3. Select at any level: choose an entire category (all of Beauty and Cosmetics) or a single sub-category (only Hair Care Products).
4. Use Include or Exclude to combine selections - for example, target hair care brands while ruling out fragrance houses.
5. Your active selections show up as chips (e.g., Beauty and Cosmetics (12)), so you always know exactly what's applied.

The Companies table also includes an Industry Plus column showing each company's full classification path, for example:
 

The path is truncated in the table - hover over a cell to see the full breakdown, so you can tell similar-looking accounts apart at a glance, without opening each profile.

Switching to Industry Plus

Today, both the existing Industry filter and Industry Plus are available. If your admin moves your account over to Industry Plus, you'll see the new view by default. Until then, or if you'd like to try it yourself first, it's an opt-in upgrade inside the existing Industry filter:

1. In the Industry filter, look for the Updated badge.
2. Click Switch to the new view in the banner to load Industry Plus.
3. While you're exploring, saving and exporting are paused until you're ready to commit.
4. If you'd rather not switch yet, click Return to the old industry filter at any point to restore the previous list - the upgrade banner stays available, so you can switch again whenever you're ready.

Try It Out

Head to Lead Generation, expand the Industry filter, and start filtering by sub-category with Industry Plus.

FAQ

Does Industry Plus apply to the Websites, Apps, or Contacts tabs? 

Not currently. Industry Plus applies to the Companies tab.

What happens to my existing saved searches that use the old Industry filter? 

They continue to work as before. Moving a saved search to Industry Plus is a separate step.

How accurate is the classification? 

Precision is above 90% for Industry and Category, and above 85% for Sub-category, with coverage across the large majority of active companies.

How often does the taxonomy refresh? 

Monthly. Each refresh is merged with the prior month's classifications to avoid unnecessary category-jumping.

Is Industry Plus free? 

Yes, Industry Plus is free.

Can I access Industry Plus classifications via the API or CRM enrichment?

Yes, you can access Industry Plus classifications via the API or CRM enrichment.