Intent Signals Explained

Intent signals are behavioral data points that indicate a company is actively researching a solution like yours. Not all intent signals are equal — understanding the hierarchy helps you prioritize accordingly.

First-Party vs Third-Party Intent

First-party intent comes from your own properties: website visits, content downloads, email clicks, trial signups, pricing page views. It's the highest-quality signal because it's direct evidence of interest in your specific product.

Third-party intent comes from external sources: G2 Buyer Intent (companies viewing your G2 profile), Bombora (aggregated content consumption across the web), TechTarget (content consumption on media sites), and similar data providers. It's broader but less specific — a company consuming content about "visitor intelligence" across multiple sites may or may not be evaluating you specifically.

The Intent Signal Hierarchy

1. Pricing/demo page visit (your site): Highest possible intent signal
2. Return visit to solution/feature pages: High intent
3. G2 profile view or competitor comparison: High intent
4. Organic visit to comparison content (your site): Medium-high intent
5. Third-party intent data match: Medium intent
6. Blog/educational content visit (your site): Low-medium intent

When Third-Party Intent Is Valuable

Third-party intent is most valuable for identifying in-market accounts that haven't yet visited your site — essentially, expanding your awareness of who's actively researching before they find you. Use it for top-of-funnel prospecting, not bottom-of-funnel prioritization (where first-party signals are far more reliable).