Intent Signals Playbook
Stop guessing who's in-market. Learn to identify, prioritize, and act on buying intent signals across first-party, second-party, and third-party data sources.
First-Party
Website behavior, content downloads, demo requests, pricing page visits
Second-Party
G2, Capterra, review sites, comparison shopping behavior
Third-Party
Bombora, 6sense, Demandbase, cross-web research activity
Most B2B teams buy intent data and get disappointed because they treat it as a lead-gen tool. It's not. It's a prioritization layer — useful only if your pipeline, lifecycle, and outreach already work. Intent without CRM hygiene is noise with extra steps.
Before writing a check to 6sense, read why we fix your CRM before we spend and the case for middle-of-funnel marketing. Both are prerequisites for getting value out of intent data.
Intent Signal Taxonomy
Score signals by buying stage and strength:
| Signal | Stage | Strength | Response |
|---|---|---|---|
| Demo/pricing request | Decision | Very High | Immediate sales outreach |
| Pricing page (2+ visits) | Decision | High | Sales outreach within 24h |
| Competitor comparison page | Evaluation | High | Trigger competitor battle card email |
| Case study download | Evaluation | Medium-High | SDR follow-up + nurture |
| G2/Capterra profile view | Evaluation | Medium-High | Account-based retargeting |
| Product pages (deep) | Consideration | Medium | Nurture + retargeting |
First-Party Intent Setup Guide
1. Page-Level Scoring
Assign intent scores to key pages:
- /pricing → High intent (+15 points)
- /demo → High intent (+20 points)
- /vs-competitor → High intent (+12 points)
- /case-studies/* → Medium intent (+8 points)
- /product/* → Medium intent (+5 points)
- /blog/* → Low intent (+2 points)
2. Event Tracking (GA4 + HubSpot)
Track these custom events:
pricing_page_time→ Time on pricing page (>60s = high intent)video_watch→ Product video completion %scroll_depth→ Page scroll depth on key pagesreturn_visit→ Returning visitor to high-intent pages
3. UTM Taxonomy
Structure UTMs to capture intent by campaign:
utm_source / utm_medium / utm_campaign / utm_content / utm_term Example: linkedin / paid / demo-cta / video-ad / cfo-targeting
Third-Party Vendor Comparison
| Vendor | Best For | Price Range | Pros | Cons |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bombora | Topic-level intent | $30-60K/year | Largest co-op, topic granularity | Requires significant volume |
| 6sense | Full ABM platform | $60-150K/year | Account ID + intent + orchestration | Expensive, complex |
| G2 Buyer Intent | Software companies | $15-40K/year | High-signal review site data | Software/SaaS focused only |
| ZoomInfo Intent | Bundled with data | Bundled | Convenient if using ZoomInfo | Intent is add-on, not core |
We're skeptical of 6sense and Demandbase as platforms. They're fine data sources, but the orchestration layer rarely survives contact with a real CRM. For most B2B teams, Bombora topic data piped into HubSpot via Clay delivers 80% of the value at 30% of the cost.
Best-of-breed (Bombora + G2 + first-party events) beats the monolith. See the ABM Enrichment Playbook for the companion workflow.
Intent-to-Action Playbook
When You Detect High Intent:
- Alert sales immediately (Slack notification or task)
- Enrich the account with additional contacts
- Launch 1:1 retargeting to the account
- SDR outreach within 24 hours with personalized angle
When You Detect Medium Intent:
- Add to nurture sequence specific to their interest
- Launch account-based ads showing case studies
- Monitor for escalation to high-intent behavior
When You Detect Low Intent (Awareness):
- Add to awareness retargeting pool
- Include in broad nurture
- Do NOT send to SDR (waste of time)
ROI Measurement Framework
Prove intent data is working with these metrics:
| Metric | Formula | Target |
|---|---|---|
| Intent-Influenced Pipeline | Pipeline $ from accounts with intent signals / Total pipeline | >50% |
| Speed to Opportunity | Days from first intent signal to opp created | Baseline - 20% |
| Win Rate Lift | Win rate (intent accounts) / Win rate (non-intent accounts) | >1.3x |
| SDR Efficiency | Meetings booked from intent leads / Total meetings booked | >40% |