Intent data

What is intent data?

Intent data is data suggesting a company is researching a topic or product, usually inferred from web activity on your own site or elsewhere. First-party intent comes from your own site: pages read, pricing visits, return visits. Third-party intent comes from elsewhere: search behavior, articles read on other sites and content downloads, usually tied to a company instead of a named person.

Why it matters to a revenue leader

Intent data promises to show who is in market before they reach out, so treat it as a hint. A Forrester analyst blog notes that conclusions drawn from it are inferences: one visit can be curiosity, and the case gets stronger with repeated visits over time and activity from several people at the same company. Privacy law also applies. California's exemption for business-to-business personal information expired on December 31, 2022, so personal information about business contacts is no longer carved out there. For a services company, a tip from a facility manager you know still beats an anonymous spike, so use intent data to decide where to look and let sellers confirm.

A commercial roofing company sees 11 visits in two weeks to its roof replacement pages from one property management firm, across four different people. The account manager, who already services three of the firm's buildings, asks the regional contact about plans and learns a capital budget is being set for next year.