What is Intent Data?
Definition: Behavioral signals that indicate a company or individual is actively researching a product category, generated from content consumption patterns across publisher networks, review sites, and web activity.
Intent data tells you who's shopping before they raise their hand. It tracks anonymous browsing behavior across thousands of B2B publisher sites and review platforms. When employees at Acme Corp start reading articles about "CRM migration" and visiting G2 comparison pages, intent data providers surface Acme Corp as an account showing buying intent for CRM software.
Two main flavors: first-party intent (your own website visitor data, tracked via tools like 6sense or Clearbit Reveal) and third-party intent (aggregated browsing data from publisher co-ops, primarily Bombora). First-party intent is more accurate but limited to companies already aware of you. Third-party intent captures the broader market.
6sense and Bombora dominate this market. 6sense bundles intent with a full ABM platform ($30K-$100K+/year). Bombora sells raw intent data feeds that plug into your CRM or enrichment workflows ($25K-$50K/year). For most startups and mid-market companies, the price tag puts intent data out of reach.
GTM Engineers who work at companies with intent data budgets use it to prioritize outreach. Instead of cold-emailing 1,000 random accounts, you email 100 accounts that are actively researching your category. Response rates jump 2-3x because you're reaching people with active interest. The ROI math works at enterprise price points when each deal is worth $50K+.
Free intent signals exist for teams without enterprise budgets. G2 buyer intent (included with a G2 profile) shows which companies are comparing you to competitors. LinkedIn Sales Navigator alerts flag when target accounts post about relevant topics. Job postings on LinkedIn and Indeed signal buying intent: a company hiring a "Salesforce Administrator" is likely evaluating CRM tools or expanding their CRM usage. Google Alerts for competitor mentions surface accounts in active evaluation. Cobbling together these free sources won't match 6sense's coverage, but it gives you something actionable at zero cost.
Intent data has a decay curve. A signal from 7 days ago is 5x more valuable than a signal from 60 days ago. The company that was researching CRM migration two months ago may have already signed a contract. Setting up automated cadences that act on intent signals within 24-48 hours of detection captures the timing advantage that makes intent data valuable. If you're processing intent data in weekly batches, you're losing most of the value. Build your pipeline to trigger outreach within hours of a signal firing, or the timing edge disappears.