Intent Data

Intent data is information about the behaviors and signals that suggest a person or company is actively researching a product, service, or category. It includes content consumption, search activity, and engagement patterns, and marketers use it to identify in-market buyers and time their outreach more effectively.

Intent data is usually grouped into two types. First-party intent comes from activity on your own properties, such as pricing-page visits, demo requests, or repeat content downloads. Third-party intent is sourced from external networks that track research behavior across many sites and report which accounts are surging on relevant topics. Teams feed these signals into lead scoring and account-based marketing programs to focus effort on accounts most likely to buy.

A common pitfall is treating intent signals as proof of purchase readiness rather than a prompt to investigate. Third-party intent in particular can be noisy or aggregated at the account level, so pairing it with first-party engagement and a clear ICP definition produces far more reliable prioritization.

Last updated: 14 June 2026

Intent Data

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