> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.alvahq.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Creating a Search Agent
> The three ways to search — local businesses, funded companies, and people — and how to set up an area-based company search.
A **Search Agent** tells Alva what to go and find. You describe what you're looking for, and the agent works through the search automatically, importing matches into your CRM ready for outreach.
## Choose how you want to search
When you click **Create New Search Agent** (under **Discovery → Search Agents**), you first choose *how* to search. There are three options:
Search for companies, then find the right contacts within them. Splits into two engines — see below.
Search for people by job title, regardless of company. See [People Search](/discovery/people-search).
Reusable contact-targeting for companies you import yourself. See [Enrichment Profiles](/discovery/enrichment-profiles).
### Two ways to find companies
If you choose **Find companies**, a toggle lets you pick the right engine for your target:
| Engine | Best for | How it matches |
| ---------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Local & service businesses** | Local, service, and bricks-and-mortar firms found by area — trades, shops, care homes, agencies (e.g. "roofers in Surrey") | Reads each company's website against your description, searching location by location |
| **Funded & high-growth companies** | Funded, tech, or high-growth companies found by profile (e.g. "Series B fintechs in London") | Structured filters — industry, funding stage, size, growth, listing status. See [Finding Funded & High-Growth Companies](/discovery/company-intelligence) |
Not sure which? If your targets might be small or local, use **Local & service businesses**. If you're targeting companies by funding, growth, or size band, use **Funded & high-growth companies**. You can also just ask Alva — it picks the right one for you.
The rest of this page covers the **Local & service businesses** engine.
## What an area-based Search Agent needs
* **Profile type** — what kind of relationship these companies are (customers, vendors, partners, suppliers, or competitors). See [Profile Types Explained](/discovery/profile-types-explained).
* **Description** — a natural language description of your ideal target
* **Geography** — which regions, countries, or cities to search in
* **Match threshold** — how closely a company needs to match to be included
Alva uses your description to work out what to search for, then systematically works across your chosen geography to find matching companies.
### Step 1: Choose your profile type
Select one of the five profile types:
| Type | Code | What it finds |
| ---------------------- | ---- | ----------------------------------------------------- |
| Ideal Customer Profile | ICP | Potential customers for your products |
| Ideal Vendor Profile | IVP | Companies that could sell or distribute your products |
| Ideal Partner Profile | IPP | Strategic or channel partners |
| Ideal Supplier Profile | ISP | Suppliers to your business |
| Competitor Profile | CP | Competitors in your market |
### Step 2: Describe what you're looking for
Write a short, natural language description of the type of company you're looking for. Keep it to **1–2 sentences** (50 words max).
The key principle: **describe what the company IS, not what it needs or why it would buy from you.** Alva finds companies by reading what a company says about itself on its own website — so your description should match the kind of language a company would use on its own About page.
* "Architectural firms working on residential or commercial projects"
* "Marketing agencies serving B2B technology companies"
* "Plumbing and heating contractors serving residential customers"
* "Mid market SaaS companies serving the healthcare sector"
* "Enterprise software companies in the financial services industry"
* "Companies that need CRM software" — needs/pain points aren't on websites
* "Companies with 50–100 employees" — specific headcount numbers aren't on websites (but broad tiers like "mid market" or "enterprise" are fine)
* "Companies using a particular software tool" — internal tech stacks aren't on websites
* "Businesses that are currently recruiting" — hiring status isn't on websites
* "SaaS companies with £10m+ annual revenue" — specific revenue figures aren't on websites
**Broader is better.** A broader description finds more companies — you can always filter and refine the results later. An overly specific description will reject most companies, even good prospects.
Think of it this way: "Would a company matching my description have these words on their About Us page?" If yes, it's a good description. If no, simplify it.
When you enter your description, Alva runs a **validation check** that flags any criteria that can't be matched — such as pain points, technology needs, or employee counts — and suggests an improved version.
Targeting by **funding stage, growth, or exact size band** can't be judged from a website — that's exactly what the [Funded & high-growth companies](/discovery/company-intelligence) engine is for. Use that engine when those attributes matter.
### Step 3: Choose your geography
Select the regions and locations to search across. Alva's database covers over **4.3 million locations** worldwide.
You can select:
* Entire countries
* Regions (e.g. South East England, California)
* Individual cities or towns
Alva spreads its search across your chosen locations rather than concentrating on one area, so results come through with good geographic diversity.
### Step 4: Review categories
After you submit your description, Alva works out the specific **categories** it will search for. You'll see these listed on the Search Agent page and can:
* **Delete individual categories** that don't look right
* **Re-extract categories** if you've updated your description
* **Reset to draft** to start over
### Step 5: Choose who to enrich
Tell enrichment **who to find** at each matched company — the job functions to prioritise and your ideal economic buyer — in the **People** section. You can also opt into deeper contact sourcing. See [Enrichment](/discovery/enrichment#controlling-who-enrichment-targets).
## Search Agent statuses
| Status | What it means |
| ------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Draft** | Created but not yet activated. You can still edit the description and categories. |
| **Active** | Alva is actively searching. New results appear in your queue. |
| **Paused** | Searching is temporarily stopped. You can resume at any time. |
| **Completed** | All searches have been executed across the chosen geography. |
## Activating a Search Agent
Once you're happy with the description, categories, and geography, click **Activate** to start the search. Alva begins finding companies immediately. Activation is what starts spending credits — creating a draft agent doesn't.
## How searching works
When you activate an area-based agent, Alva searches across your chosen geography automatically in the background — you don't need to do anything. You can watch progress on the Search Agent detail page, including how many searches have run and the overall completion percentage. Alva works through your geography systematically, spreading results across locations rather than exhausting one area before moving to the next.
## Managing active Search Agents
From the Search Agent detail page, you can:
* **Pause** — temporarily stop searching (useful if you need to review results before more come in)
* **Resume** — restart a paused agent
* **Edit** — change the description or settings (while in draft)
* **Delete** — remove the agent and all its results
* **Adjust match threshold** — change how strictly companies need to match
* **Adjust throttle speed** — control how fast searches run
* **Toggle auto-import** — automatically import high-confidence matches into your CRM
## Per-company billing
Each company discovered uses credits from your balance. The cost per company decreases at higher volumes — the more you discover, the less each company costs.
You can see your discovery costs broken down in **Settings → Usage**. For current pricing, visit **Settings → Billing** or [alvahq.com](https://alvahq.com).
You can also create Search Agents by asking Alva: "Set up an ICP for marketing agencies in the UK." Alva walks you through the options conversationally, picks the right search type, and checks that your description will work.