You already know that feeling whenever you’re attempting to determine who’s truly procuring versus who’s simply window looking? Yeah, that’s the entire recreation in B2B advertising and marketing nowadays.
Intent information helps B2B groups determine which firms are actively researching a subject, exploring options, or shifting towards a purchase order resolution.
When paired with exact focusing on, it allows smarter demand era, extra environment friendly account-based advertising and marketing (ABM), higher lead prioritization, and extra productive gross sales conversations.
However not all intent information platforms are constructed the identical.
Some are optimized for surfacing broad, third-party analysis habits on the account stage. Others give attention to first-party engagement alerts, like web site exercise and asset downloads. A smaller group connects intent to deeper qualification alerts that assist groups perceive not simply what somebody is researching, however why, how urgently, and the place they’re within the shopping for journey.
What Is B2B Intent Knowledge (and Why It Really Issues)?
At its core, B2B intent information is behavioral intelligence. It captures alerts that point out when an organization, shopping for group, or particular person is actively considering a subject, product class, or answer.
This information usually falls into three classes:
First-Occasion Intent Knowledge
This comes out of your owned properties and channels:
- Web site visits and web page views
- Kind fills and content material downloads
- Webinar registrations and attendance
- Product interactions and trial utilization
- E mail engagement
First-party intent information is very precious as a result of it’s straight linked to your model and your digital ecosystem.
Second-Occasion Intent Knowledge
That is intent information shared between companions. For instance, a writer, media companion, or occasion companion could share engagement information along with your group.
Third-Occasion Intent Knowledge
That is intent information aggregated throughout a big community of internet sites and sources. It identifies patterns in content material consumption and analysis exercise throughout the market, usually earlier than prospects ever work together along with your model.
Why Purchaser-Stage Intent Knowledge Issues Extra Than Ever
Right here’s the place issues get fascinating—and a little bit uncomfortable.
A serious shift is occurring in how consumers analysis options. Search habits is altering, decreasing conventional “clicks” and altering the visibility of intent alerts.
Two tendencies are particularly disruptive:
AI Overviews Are Altering Search Discovery
When engines like google present direct solutions within the outcomes, customers could get what they want with out clicking right into a website. Which means fewer periods, fewer web page views, and fewer alternatives to seize early-stage intent by way of conventional analytics.
Zero-Click on Advertising Reduces Trackable Engagement
Coined by Amanda Natividad, zero-click advertising and marketing is content material that delivers full worth proper the place individuals already are—with out asking them to click on wherever else.
- AI-generated summaries
- Social feeds
- Group boards
- Evaluate platforms
- Darkish social sharing
- Publication consumption with out website visits
On this surroundings, the intent alerts entrepreneurs used to depend on can change into delayed, incomplete, or invisible.
That’s why buyer-level intent information turns into more and more vital.
What about Account-Stage Intent?
Account-level intent is beneficial for prioritization, however it might nonetheless depart groups guessing about who’s driving the analysis and what their particular wants are. Purchaser-level intent information gives deeper readability, together with the position and context of the person behind the habits. It helps groups perceive the “why” behind exercise, not simply the truth that it occurred.
Main Intent Knowledge Platforms in B2B
As conventional alerts erode, the platforms that may ship direct, buyer-level engagement information change into much more precious for focusing on, qualification, and pipeline acceleration.
Under, we’ve damaged down seven platforms that assist B2B groups do precisely that. Every one presents one thing a little bit totally different, so let’s dig in and see the place they shine.
1. Bombora
What They Do
Bombora constructed its popularity on third-party intent information pulled from an enormous cooperative community of B2B publishers. Consider it as a neighborhood look ahead to content material consumption—when an organization begins binging articles on “cloud safety compliance,” Bombora notices.
What Makes It Helpful
Their Firm Surge® scores flag when accounts are exhibiting unusually excessive curiosity in particular subjects. You’re not simply seeing that somebody downloaded one thing; you’re seeing that curiosity is spiking proper now throughout a company.
How It Helps You Goal
You possibly can filter by intent subjects, firm measurement, trade, and surge depth. So as a substitute of blasting everybody within the healthcare vertical, you’re zeroing in on mid-size healthcare firms which might be out of the blue researching HIPAA-compliant information platforms.
ABM Match
Bombora integrates with most ABM platforms, CRMs, and advertising and marketing automation instruments. It’s usually the primary sign in a multi-step workflow—”Hey, this account is warming up. Time to regulate our playbook.”
Why It Issues
Bombora’s energy is breadth. They catch alerts early, usually earlier than consumers have interaction straight with you. For groups constructing account lists or refining messaging, it’s a stable place to begin.
Performs Good With
Salesforce, HubSpot, Marketo, 6sense, Demandbase, and most main advert platforms.
2. 6sense
What They Do
6sense combines intent information, predictive AI, and orchestration into one platform. It’s not nearly figuring out accounts—it’s about rating them, understanding the place they’re within the shopping for journey, and automating what occurs subsequent.
What Makes It Helpful
Their predictive scoring fashions have a look at firmographics, engagement historical past, and intent alerts to let you know who’s most certainly to purchase. Then they make it easier to act on it throughout advertisements, electronic mail, and gross sales workflows.
How It Helps You Goal
Filters go deep: intent rating, predictive propensity, account stage, historic habits. You possibly can construct hyper-specific audiences for SDR outreach, nurture sequences, or LinkedIn campaigns.
ABM Match
6sense is an ABM platform. It synchronizes intent with performs throughout each channel—customized advertisements, electronic mail sequences, gross sales alerts. It’s constructed for coordinated, multi-touch account engagement.
Why It Issues
6sense doesn’t simply let you know who’s in-market. It tells you how seemingly they’re to transform and what to do about it. For groups centered on pipeline affect and conversion, that’s gold.
Performs Good With
Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics, Marketo, Eloqua, HubSpot, LinkedIn, Bombora, G2, and programmatic advert platforms.
3. NetLine
What They Do
NetLine gives buyer-level intent tied on to content material engagement and demand era. As a substitute of company-level alerts, you get insights into which people are consuming what—and why it issues.
What Makes It Helpful
Their HQL (Extremely Certified Leads) mannequin goes past “somebody downloaded your eBook.” It captures qualification context: job position, firm match, shopping for timeline, and behavioral alerts that point out precise curiosity.
How It Helps You Goal
NetLine’s filters are in depth: demographic, firmographic, behavioral, content material sort, and engagement depth. You’re not simply focusing on accounts; you’re focusing on the proper individuals inside these accounts.
ABM Match
NetLine’s buyer-level information fuels ABM by figuring out which roles are partaking and when. You possibly can tailor performs for particular personas and accounts primarily based on real-time content material alerts.
Why It Issues
Most intent suppliers cease at “Firm X is .” NetLine tells you who at Firm X is , what they’re researching, and when they’re more likely to transfer. That stage of granularity adjustments the way you have interaction.
Performs Good With
CRM techniques, Salesforce, Marketo, Demandbase, advertising and marketing automation platforms, and ABM instruments for lead routing, scoring, and activation.
4. Demandbase
What They Do
Demandbase is a full ABM platform that mixes intent, promoting, personalization, and account orchestration. It’s much less of a degree answer and extra of an end-to-end system for working account-based methods.
What Makes It Helpful
Intent scoring, web site personalization, DSP integrations, and attribution modeling—multi function place. You don’t have to sew collectively 5 instruments to run a coordinated ABM program.
How It Helps You Goal
Strong filters for account attributes, intent subjects, engagement scores, and firmographics. Construct audiences for show, social, and nurture campaigns straight contained in the platform.
ABM Match
Demandbase is ABM. It’s designed for working performs throughout channels, personalizing content material experiences, and measuring account-level influence.
Why It Issues
The actual worth is execution. Demandbase doesn’t simply present you intent—it helps you act on it with advertisements, personalization, and measurement. For groups that wish to shut the loop from sign to conversion, that is the platform.
Performs Good With
Salesforce, Marketo, HubSpot, Eloqua, DSPs, advert platforms, and third-party intent suppliers.
5. ZoomInfo
What They Do
ZoomInfo is a B2B intelligence platform constructed on deep contact and firm information. Their intent choices (by way of add-ons) sign when accounts are actively researching options.
What Makes It Helpful
You get intent alerts plus the information that you must act: verified contacts, direct dials, org charts, technographics, and firmographics. It’s a one-stop store for outbound.
How It Helps You Goal
Filter by intent subjects, firmographics, technographics, engagement historical past, and purchaser habits. Construct exact account and phone lists for SDR outreach or persona-based campaigns.
ABM Match
ZoomInfo enriches ABM packages with clear information and intent alerts. You’re not simply focusing on accounts—you’re focusing on the proper contacts at these accounts with customized cadences.
Why It Issues
Intent with out information is half the image. ZoomInfo provides you each: alerts that somebody’s energetic and the main points to succeed in them.
Performs Good With
Salesforce, HubSpot, Marketo, Salesloft, Outreach, and Bombora (relying on bundle).
6. DemandScience
What They Do
DemandScience is a B2B information, intent, and activation platform that mixes purchaser intelligence with execution throughout digital channels. Gives a broader account-based expertise (ABX) platform spanning intent identification, focusing on, engagement, and measurement.
What Makes It Helpful
Closes the hole between intent perception and activation, blends intent alerts, identification decision, and enrichment with Terminus’s account-centric engagement and promoting capabilities. Interprets alerts straight into executable audiences and campaigns.
How It Helps You Goal
Filter by intent subjects, firmographics, technographics, purchaser attributes, and engagement habits. Terminus acquisition permits customers to dynamically modify focusing on primarily based on real-time intent and engagement alerts throughout the funnel.
ABM Match
Terminus’s ABM and ABX capabilities are actually core to DemandScience, enabling coordinated, multi-channel account engagement, together with account-based promoting, orchestration throughout advertising and marketing and gross sales, and unified reporting tied to account development.
Why It Issues
Delivers end-to-end intent-to-activation workflows, serving to groups determine in-market accounts and act on these insights at scale, which means fewer handoffs between information, focusing on, and execution.
Performs Good With
Salesforce, HubSpot, advertising and marketing automation platforms, DSPs, promoting platforms, and ABM workflows from Terminus.
7. Cognism
What They Do
Cognism gives international, GDPR-compliant contact intelligence enriched with intent alerts. It’s constructed for groups that want clear, compliant information—particularly in Europe.
What Makes It Helpful
Intent alerts tied to verified contacts, firmographics, and technographics. Plus, information hygiene options that hold your CRM clear and compliant.
How It Helps You Goal
Create segmented audiences utilizing intent, firmographics, technographics, and phone attributes. Helps each inbound enrichment and outbound prospecting.
ABM Match
Cognism provides depth to ABM by supplying compliant information and intent alerts that inform outreach timing and message relevance.
Why It Issues
For international groups or privacy-sensitive markets, Cognism delivers intent and compliance. You’re not selecting between good information and authorized information—you get each.
Performs Good With
Salesforce, HubSpot, Salesloft, Outreach, advertising and marketing automation platforms, and information ops instruments.
8. Intensify
What They Do
Intensify focuses on buyer-level intent alerts derived from actual engagement throughout B2B media, communities, and content material environments. As a substitute of relying solely on aggregated account habits, it seems at how precise consumers work together with subjects and content material.
What Makes It Helpful
Intensify emphasizes human-level engagement, not simply account-level tendencies. The platform reveals which roles are partaking, what content material they’re consuming, and the way that habits alerts shopping for readiness. This provides readability when account-level intent alone feels obscure or noisy.
How It Helps You Goal
Section audiences by purchaser position, matter engagement, firm attributes, and behavioral patterns. Goal particular personas inside accounts who’re actively researching related options, not simply “accounts exhibiting curiosity.”
ABM Match
Intensify enriches ABM packages with buyer-level context. This makes it simpler to align messaging, content material, and outreach with the individuals truly driving analysis and affect inside goal accounts.
Why It Issues
As shopping for teams develop and alerts fragment, realizing who is partaking issues as a lot as realizing which firm. Intensify helps groups give attention to actual consumers, which improves personalization and downstream conversion.
Performs Good With
Salesforce, HubSpot, advertising and marketing automation platforms, ABM instruments, and promoting platforms for persona-based activation.
9. Lead Forensics
What They Do
Lead Forensics identifies nameless web site guests and ties them again to firms. Even when somebody by no means fills out a type, you’ll know they had been there.
What Makes It Helpful
Behavioral alerts tied to website exercise: pages visited, frequency, time on website. Actual-time alerts when accounts are partaking.
How It Helps You Goal
Filter on engagement patterns, pages seen, go to frequency, and firmographics. Construct scoring fashions and outreach triggers primarily based on precise habits.
ABM Match
Lead Forensics expands account consciousness by surfacing accounts that engaged however didn’t convert. It helps groups deliver extra prospects into customized follow-up performs.
Why It Issues
Most net site visitors is invisible. Lead Forensics makes it seen. For firms with excessive site visitors and low conversion, it’s a strategy to reclaim misplaced alternatives.
Performs Good With
Salesforce, HubSpot, Marketo, Slack, and analytics platforms.
What This All Means for Entrepreneurs
Intent information isn’t magic. But it surely is the closest factor we’ve got to studying consumers’ minds earlier than they present up in our inbox.
Right here’s what these platforms truly make it easier to do:
- Spot In-Market Accounts Earlier
Intent reveals analysis exercise earlier than conversion occurs. That’s a head begin you may’t get some other manner. - Prioritize Who Will get Your Consideration
Not all leads are created equal. Intent-informed scoring helps gross sales give attention to accounts which might be truly shifting. - Personalize With out Guessing
Intent subjects let you know what consumers care about proper now. Your messaging can mirror that as a substitute of defaulting to generic pitches. - Activate Throughout Each Channel
Intent platforms combine with advert platforms, advertising and marketing automation, and CRMs. You’re not simply realizing extra—you’re doing extra.
The very best intent platforms don’t simply hand you alerts. They offer you filters, integrations, and workflows that flip these alerts into motion.
The Backside Line
We’re in a second the place conventional alerts—type fills, demo requests, chilly calls—are dropping floor. AI-driven search summaries, zero-click content material, and self-serve analysis are altering the sport.
Purchaser-level intent is the way you keep forward. It’s how who’s researching, what they care about, and when they’re prepared to have interaction.
Whether or not you want broad market protection (Bombora), predictive AI (6sense), content-driven insights (NetLine), full ABM orchestration (Demandbase), wealthy contact information (ZoomInfo), compliant international intelligence (Cognism), or nameless customer monitoring (Lead Forensics)—there’s a platform that matches.
Pair intent with exact focusing on, and also you’ve bought a repeatable system for reaching the best accounts, on the proper time, with the best message.
That’s not hype. It’s simply good advertising and marketing.
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