Decoding the 7 types of Intent data
In today’s competitive B2B landscape, leveraging Intent data has become a game-changer for marketing, sales, and data science teams. But not all data is created equal. Understanding the different types of Intent data and their ideal use cases can help you make smarter decisions and drive better results. Here’s a breakdown:
1. First-party Intent data
This type of data is collected directly from your customers and prospects from a variety of sources, such as your website, email campaigns, or content downloads. It provides deep insights into how prospects engage with your brand, helping you understand their behavior and level of interest.
First-party data is highly reliable because it’s directly tied to your audience’s actions. It allows for precise segmentation and personalization, ensuring your outreach resonates with prospects already interacting with your brand. For example, if a visitor downloads a whitepaper and revisits your pricing page, this Intent signal can alert your sales team to prioritize outreach, potentially turning interest into a sale.
2. Second-party Intent data
Second-party data refers to someone else’s first-party data that you access through partnerships. This could include Intent signals from co-branded webinars or shared audience insights, providing valuable information about potential customers. This type of data is particularly useful for expanding your reach to similar audiences.
Leveraging second-party data allows you to gain insights into potential customers who might not yet be familiar with your brand but are actively researching solutions in your space. Partnering with an industry publication could provide access to data on users engaging with relevant content, enabling you to design highly targeted campaigns to capture their interest.
3. Third-party Intent data
Third-party data is collected by external companies tracking a user’s online activity across multiple platforms. Data providers aggregate and organize this data into actionable insights, making it a valuable resource for understanding market trends and prospect behavior.
This data is ideal for identifying in-market accounts and scaling demand generation campaigns. By leveraging third-party data, businesses can identify new prospects and expand their total addressable market, ensuring a wider reach and more targeted engagement. For example, if a third-party provider detects increased interest in “cloud security solutions” among companies within your ICP, your sales team can proactively engage with those accounts with targeted, relevant messaging to capitalize on their interest.
4. Co-op Intent data
Co-op Intent data, a type of third-party data, is created through a collaborative approach where multiple companies or organizations share aggregated data insights. This shared pool of data can include customer behaviors, content interactions, and purchasing signals across various industries, offering a comprehensive view of market trends and opportunities.
Bombora has built a one-of-a-kind Data Cooperative consisting of leading publishers, brand websites, and premium data providers all contributing research behavior and events that reflect the full spectrum of B2B consumption. From this data, Bombora derives actionable insights that make it possible for brands, agencies, and publishers to identify, understand, and reach their prospects and customers, throughout the buyer and user experience, across their activation platforms of choice.
5. Bidstream Intent data
Bidstream data, unlike co-op data, is scraped from websites via ads and shared on ad exchanges. This data relies on keywords present on a page to determine intent and provide insights into user behaviors, such as the websites they visit or the content they consume.
This type of data is effective for advertising and identifying overarching trends. While bidstream data offers a vast amount of behavioral information, it often requires additional filtering to ensure relevance and precision for targeting. An advertiser could use bidstream data to identify users interested in cybersecurity solutions based on their browsing history and then retarget them with tailored ads.
6. Behavioral Intent data
Behavioral Intent data, a subset of third-party data, focuses on specific actions, such as repeated visits to competitor websites, searches for product reviews, or extended time spent exploring industry-related topics.
This type of data is particularly valuable for competitive intelligence and triggering real-time sales outreach. By analyzing these nuanced signals, businesses can gauge a prospect’s readiness to buy or their interest in alternative solutions. As an example, if a prospect frequently visits competitor comparison pages, this behavior signals an opportunity for your team to highlight your product’s unique differentiators, potentially swaying their decision in your favor.
7. Contextual Intent data
Contextual data reveals what topics are capturing your audience’s attention by connecting Intent signals to specific content types or topics, offering insights into areas of interest based on broader industry trends.
It is especially useful for content personalization and informing thought leadership strategies. By understanding the topics that matter most to your audience, you can craft messaging that resonates deeply, improving engagement and strengthening your brand’s relevance.
Matching Intent data to your goals
Now that you’ve learned about the different types of Intent data, consider which type, or types work best for your business needs. When looking for an Intent data provider, it’s important to keep your specific goals in mind.
Many organizations find success by layering Intent data sources, such as combining first-party and third-party insights, to gain a comprehensive view of their prospects’ behavior and preferences.
When evaluating Intent data providers, think about the following:
- Data Accuracy: How reliable is the data, and does it align with your target market?
- Coverage: Does the provider offer insights into your ideal customer profile (ICP) or industry?
- Integration: Can the data be seamlessly incorporated into your CRM or marketing automation platform?
- Support for Your Goals: Does the provider specialize in the areas most critical to your strategy, such as account-based marketing or lead prioritization?
Why Bombora?
Discover the difference of Bombora data. Powered by our one-of-a-kind B2B Data Cooperative, we provide unmatched insights to help you identify, understand, and engage your prospects. Gain a comprehensive view of account behavior and activate your strategies seamlessly across platforms. Ready to connect with your in-market prospects? Get in touch.