Intent data is information about which companies and individuals are actively researching topics, products, or categories relevant to your business. When a company is in an active buying cycle, they leave digital signals: visiting competitor websites, reading industry articles, searching for solution-category terms, and consuming content related to the problem they are trying to solve. Intent data platforms collect and aggregate these signals, making it possible for B2B sales and marketing teams to identify and prioritise accounts showing active buying intent before they reach out.
First-party vs third-party intent data
- First-party intent data: signals generated on your own properties. This includes website visits (tracked by your analytics platform), content downloads, webinar attendance, pricing page views, email engagement, and product usage data. First-party intent is the highest quality because it is direct and unambiguous: a company visiting your pricing page is demonstrating intent related to your specific product.
- Third-party intent data: signals aggregated across external properties by data providers. Platforms like Bombora, G2 Buyer Intent, TechTarget, and Demandbase track content consumption across thousands of publisher sites and B2B review platforms, then sell aggregated signals organised by topic and account. Third-party intent shows which companies are researching a topic category, even before they have found your website.
What intent signals look like
- A company visiting your pricing page three times in one week
- A company that has viewed your G2 profile and is comparing you against two competitors
- A company that has downloaded three pieces of content on "B2B lead generation" from various publisher sites in the past 30 days
- A company where three different employees have visited your product demo page
- A company that matches your ICP and has searched for terms like "cold email software" or "sales engagement platform" repeatedly
How B2B teams use intent data
- Prioritising outreach: SDRs work from a target account list, but not all accounts are equally ready to buy at any given time. Intent data allows SDRs to prioritise accounts showing active signals this week over accounts that fit the ICP but show no current buying activity.
- Triggering personalised campaigns: marketing teams use intent signals to trigger targeted campaigns. When an account spikes on intent for a relevant topic, they enter an ABM campaign with specific content and outreach sequences designed for that topic.
- Shortening sales cycles: reaching out to a company that is actively researching a category shortens the education phase of the sale. The prospect is already aware of the problem and looking for solutions; your job is to get in front of them before they shortlist competitors.
- Competitive displacement: third-party intent platforms can show which companies are researching your competitors. This enables proactive outreach to companies who are evaluating the market and have not yet committed.
Intent data providers used in B2B
Common intent data sources for B2B teams include: Bombora (the largest third-party B2B intent data co-op), G2 Buyer Intent (signals from companies researching your category or profile on G2), TechTarget (intent data from technology media properties), Demandbase (combines first-party and third-party signals), and 6sense (predictive intent platform that combines AI with intent signals to score accounts by stage). Many B2B CRM and sales engagement platforms (HubSpot, Salesforce, Apollo) have built-in intent features or integrations with these providers.
Frequently asked questions
- What is intent data?
- Intent data is information that signals which companies are actively researching topics, products, or categories related to your business. It comes in two forms: first-party intent (signals from your own website, content, and product) and third-party intent (signals aggregated from external publisher sites and review platforms by data providers like Bombora and G2). B2B teams use intent data to identify and prioritise accounts that are in an active buying cycle before those accounts have contacted them.
- What is buyer intent in B2B sales?
- Buyer intent in B2B sales refers to the signals that indicate a company or individual is actively considering a purchase decision in a specific category. High-intent signals include pricing page visits, competitor comparison searches, demo requests, and review platform activity. Lower-intent signals include reading category-level content or attending a webinar. Sales teams use intent data to sort their target account list by current buying readiness, prioritising high-intent accounts for immediate outreach.
- What is the difference between intent data and lead scoring?
- Lead scoring assigns a numerical score to a lead based on demographic and behavioural criteria, typically within your CRM or marketing automation platform. Intent data is a specific type of input that can feed lead scoring: it provides signals about in-market activity, particularly from third-party sources outside your own properties. Lead scoring is the system; intent data is one of the inputs. Many B2B teams use intent data to boost scores for accounts showing external buying activity, ensuring those accounts surface to the top of sales queues.
- Is intent data worth it for B2B?
- Intent data is most valuable for B2B teams that have: a well-defined ICP to match signals against, a large enough TAM that prioritisation is a meaningful challenge, and a consistent outreach motion (SDRs, sequences) to act on signals quickly. For early-stage companies with a small account list where every account gets touched anyway, intent data adds less incremental value. For growth-stage and enterprise B2B companies with hundreds or thousands of target accounts and a need to prioritise outreach efficiently, intent data typically delivers a measurable improvement in pipeline quality and outreach response rates.