60-Second Summary
An IP address uniquely identifies a device or network on the internet—public IPs expose a device to the wider web while private IPs connect devices inside a local network. IP enrichment and reverse lookups can map an IP to a company and firmographic data, and tools like Leadfeeder automate this to reveal company names, behaviors, and contacts for B2B ABM and sales.
Key takeaways: IP addresses can be resolved to organizations; public vs private addresses determine scope, and IP enrichment turns anonymous site traffic into firmographic leads for measuring market reach and feeding ABM pipelines.
Standout strategies & tactics: Start with manual lookups (ping, WHOIS, reverse DNS) to validate addresses, then scale with tools like Leadfeeder that match IPs to a large company/contact database, create custom feeds, and push visitor data into your CRM for automated outreach.
Real-world lessons & frameworks: Measure account coverage (how many target companies visit), score intent from on-site behavior, route qualified leads to sales quickly, and combine identification with IP targeting for B2B advertising to close the loop.
Privacy & limitations: Some analytics tools hide raw IPs and capturing IPs can raise legal issues (GDPR); prefer compliant vendor solutions and careful implementation to gain ABM insights without violating privacy rules.
*This summary was created with AI assistance, using our original content.
An IP (internet protocol) address is a unique set of numbers that identifies a device or network used to access the internet. It's equivalent to a house address, but for your computer. There are public IP addresses and private IP addresses.
“A public IP address identifies you to the wider internet so that all the information you're searching for can find you. A private IP address is used within a private network to connect securely to other devices within that same network. Each device within the same network has a unique private IP address.” -Avast.com
Just like you need to know someone's street address to send them a letter or phone number to call, networks need to know a computer's IP geolocation to send data. To go beyond the company name and get firmographic details, you need IP enrichment -- which layers additional data onto each resolved IP.
In this guide, you'll learn how to find a company by IP address step-by-step, including manual lookup methods and automated tools. IP lookup is one component of a broader website visitor tracking strategy that turns anonymous traffic into pipeline.
How to Find a Company’s IP Address
Every IP address is registered to the company or host that uses it. So, how do you find specific IP addresses for companies in real-time? There are a few ways.
Step 1: Open the command line
On Windows, open the search bar and type Command Prompt
On Mac, open Spotlight and search for Terminal
Step 2: Ping the website
Type the following command:
ping www.example.com
For example:
ping www.leadfeeder.com
Essentially, your computer sends a ping to the website and converts the IP address into a company name. You'll get a response, which looks like this:
How to Find a Company by Its Address
1. Use an IP lookup or WHOIS tool
If you already have an IP address, you can plug it into an IP lookup tool, like whoisthis, to find out what company the IP address is from, then look them up on LinkedIn.
This typically reveals:
Organization name
Network provider
Location
ISP information
You can see if they fit your ideal customer profile and go from there.
2. Run a reverse DNS lookup
You can also use a reverse DNS lookup, which is what Leadfeeder does. This identifies the domain name connected to an IP address. This method helps determine which company network the address is associated with.
However, these methods can be time-consuming and often don’t tell you what that company actually did on your website.
There’s also another limitation: most analytics tools don’t show you visitor IP addresses.
For example, Google Analytics tracks IP addresses but doesn't share them with site owners.
You can capture IP addresses using Google Tag Manager, but it's complicated to set up and could violate privacy laws, depending on where your traffic originates.
If only there were an easier way to identify companies by their IP address, and turn that information into data you could use.
Well, there is. This is where tools like Leadfeeder come in.
How Leadfeeder Identifies Companies by IP Address
Leadfeeder identifies visiting companies and matches them against a database of 60M+ companies and 400M+ verified contacts -- revealing company name, industry, size, revenue band, employee count, and the specific pages and behaviors on your site. You get the full picture of who visited and what they cared about.
Here's what you'll see when a lead visits your site.
1. Website Visit Insights
If your site is integrated with your email marketing platform, you can see exactly who visited your website and what pages they clicked.
Even without integrations, you’ll still see key firmographic information such as:
Company name
Pages viewed
Website
Industry
Location
Company size
This makes it easier to understand which companies are engaging with your content.
2. Contact Information for Potential Stakeholders
Leadfeeder also includes a “contact” section that provides details of potential stakeholders from companies visiting your website.
These contacts aren’t necessarily the exact individuals who visited your site, but they’re likely to be involved in the buying process.
Where possible, Leadfeeder also provides social profiles and email addresses to help your sales team connect with the right people.
3. Custom Feeds for Ideal Customers
With custom feeds, you can tell us exactly who your ideal customer is—their location, industry, revenue, even specific behaviors you want to track—and we'll notify you every time you get a visit from a company that fits your parameters. (Don't worry, you can customize these notifications!)
Even better, creating custom feeds takes less than a minute.
4. Automating Lead Management
You can also automate the lead management process by connecting Leadfeeder to your sales and marketing platforms.
For example, you can:
Send small-business leads directly to a specific sales representative
Notify marketing when someone downloads a whitepaper
Automatically push visitor data into your CRM
All of these features (and more) start by finding company IP addresses.
Now You Know How to Find a Company by Its IP Address, What’s Next?
Finding a company by its IP address provides access to more information than you might think. And, it doesn't violate privacy laws, including GDPR. Think of all the ABM possibilities — they’re endless. Sam O'Brien, VP of Marketing at Leadfeeder, makes that scale concrete:
"I can identify there's a hundred thousand companies in that market. What I want to do is be tracking how many of those hundred thousand are now visiting my website. How many are engaging with my content? How many are moving through the funnel?"
That’s the real advantage of IP-based identification — not just spotting individual leads, but understanding how much of your market you’re actually reaching.
The data can be used to qualify leads more effectively, speed up sales response times, and ensure your marketing tracking is on point. Leadfeeder sends data directly to your CRM. Beyond identification, the same IP data powers IP targeting for B2B advertising -- letting you serve ads directly to specific companies.
Leadfeeder identifies the companies visiting your site, scores their intent based on behavioral signals, and gives your team verified contacts to follow up with -- all in one place. Trusted by 15,000+ B2B teams. Try it free.
