Fix an empty lead queue

An empty queue is a result, not a failure. Embers will not invent names, so when nothing ranks there is a specific reason. Work through them in this order.

The scan has not finished

The onboarding scan runs on the server and keeps running after you leave onboarding. The processing screen only shows an empty result once the scan has settled; until then it reads Finding your first leads and you can leave the page. If you move to another page in the same tab, a notice appears wherever you are when the scan ends, and the Leads count in the sidebar updates.

After onboarding, agents run every 24 hours. A profile you added an hour ago has not had its next pass yet, and a person who engaged this morning appears on the next run.

The agents are not running

If the queue was filling and then stopped, check Agents (/agents). An agent that is Inactive (the trial ended), On hold (a trial reached its engager cap), or Paused scans nothing. See why your agents stopped scanning for each status and how to restart it.

Nobody engaged with the sources you chose

Embers reads public activity inside the lookback window, 12 months by default. Two of the empty results say exactly this:

• The scan completed, but there were no public posts to read. The profile had no public posts in the window. A recurring scan checks again as new posts appear.
• The scan completed, but nobody engaged with that public activity. Posts were found and collected. Nobody reacted or commented, so there is no audience yet. The Posts page shows which posts drew ICP engagers.

This is the most common result for a profile that rarely posts, or a watched profile that has gone quiet. Settings will not fix it; you need a source with recent public engagement. What the first scan reads explains the window.

Everyone who was found was filtered out

The other three empty results mean people were found and then removed:

• The scan completed, but no buyers cleared your ICP. Everyone was checked against your buyer description and none matched. A narrow or jargon-heavy ICP does this, and so does a source whose audience is peers rather than buyers.
• We matched buyers, but could not verify enough to show them. Some people cleared your ICP, but their public profiles were missing a name, role, company, avatar, or the engagement that surfaced them. Embers holds them back rather than showing a half-empty card.
• We found buyers, but none of their posts described a need you solve. Only a keyword scan ends this way. A keyword scan ranks the people who wrote the posts it finds, and people who fit your ICP did post about the keyword, but to sell, recruit, or chat rather than to describe a problem. Track a keyword your buyers use when they describe the problem, not the name of the category you sell, or watch a competitor whose audience is your audience.

Three more filters run all the time:

• A lead needs a score above zero and either an ICP match or your manual approval to show in the default view.
• You and your teammates are left out, and so are employees of a competitor you track.
• Anyone at a company on your company blocklist is removed everywhere, including Slack, HubSpot, webhooks, and exports.

Widen the sources

One quiet profile and no keywords give Embers a small window into LinkedIn. Broaden it:

1. Watch more profiles

   Add public profiles whose audience is your audience: competitors, influencers, investors, clients. Your own profile counts as one of them. See watch any public LinkedIn profile and the per-plan caps in plans and limits.

2. Add keywords

   Keyword tracking finds people posting publicly about your problem, whether or not they have ever seen you. Keywords start on Solo.

3. Turn on the agents you skipped

   Your profile, watched profiles, and keyword tracking each read a different surface. Running only one of them is a common cause of a thin queue.

The alternate scan during onboarding

When the first onboarding scan settles empty, Embers starts one alternate scan against a narrower source on its own: a keyword taken from your ICP, or a competitor your ICP names. The screen reads A narrower source scan is starting. If the card offers the alternate scan as a button instead, choose it. Correcting an input or an infrastructure retry does not use it up.

Once it has been used, the card says The alternate scan has been used. and offers Set up recurring scans, because a recurring agent watching new engagement is the honest next step.

When to ask for help

If the alternate scan ran, you widened the ICP, and you added sources, and the queue is still empty, there may be no public engagement to read. Email viraj@useembers.com with the sources you picked and we will tell you whether Embers has anything to work with.

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