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Glossary entry

Intent signal

Generic term for any observable behavior or event that suggests a target account is researching a category — Bombora-style B2B intent data, G2 buyer-intent scores, website visit clusters, content downloads. Useful when correlated with other signals, weak when used alone: intent platforms have 30-60% false-positive rates because they conflate research with buying. Pair intent with a funding/exec/tech signal and the predictive power jumps.

Category: Signals Reading time: 2 min

01Definition

TLDR
Generic term for any observable behavior or event that suggests a target account is researching a category — Bombora-style B2B intent data, G2 buyer-intent scores, website visit clusters, content downloads. Useful when correlated with other signals, weak when used alone: intent platforms have 30-60% false-positive rates because they conflate research with buying. Pair intent with a funding/exec/tech signal and the predictive power jumps.

02Why it matters

Cheap to consume, easy to abuse. Most 'we used intent data' stories that fail are stories of intent used in isolation.

03Example

Worked example
Bombora shows spiking interest in 'data observability' + the account just hired a VP Data + posted 4 data eng reqs → high-confidence buyer.
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