Think of intent signals as your early warning system; the data that tells you when an account is
actively researching solutions in your category, long before they’re ready to talk to sales. This
isn’t about monitoring a handful of obvious keywords but building a comprehensive strategy that
captures first-party signals from your website, third-party intent data from providers like 6sense
and Bombora, and second party sources like G2, TrustRadius, or industry review sites.
Remember that only a portion of your TAM shows any buying activity at a given time, while the
rest aren’t even thinking about your category. Intent signals are how you identify which accounts
are active, helping you avoid the classic mistake of putting too much budget toward accounts
that aren’t ready while missing those that are actively evaluating.
Intent and engagement signals also help to reveal buying stages. An account casually exploring
the category of education content with minimal activity on your website is likely in Awareness;
an account comparing vendor feature matrices and more activity on your website is likely in
Consideration. That distinction determines everything about how you should engage with them.
Building an effective intent strategy also means identifying the different types of themes that
prospects will search when they are top of funnel, middle of funnel, and bottom of funnel — then
using those themes to create a comprehensive content strategy to ensure your organization
offers the right content and messages to prospects.
The maturity progression breaks down like this:
Crawl
You’ve configured intent keywords and topics in your platform based on how buyers research
solutions in your category:
- Category keywords (broad terms for your solution type)
- Product keywords (specific features or capabilities buyers search for)
- Use case keywords (the problems you’re trying to solve)
- Competitive keywords (your competitors’ names and products)
These signals are successfully surfacing in your platform and revealing which accounts are
showing research activity.
Walk
You’ve integrated additional intent sources relevant to your buying process. For B2B SaaS
companies, this often means connecting G2 or TrustRadius data to see when accounts are
reading reviews or comparing vendors. You’re also beginning to weigh different intent sources
appropriately, recognizing which signals are stronger indicators that an account is in-market.
Run
You’re operating with a data-driven approach to intent strategy. You’re using platform
dashboards to analyze which keywords correlate with pipeline and wins versus which generate
lots of activity but few conversions. You’re refreshing your keyword strategy quarterly based on
this analysis, adding keywords for new features while removing ones that prove to be false
signals. You’ve established clear ownership and governance for keyword strategy — who owns
it, who reviews performance, and who approves changes.
Watch out for these common traps
Treating intent keywords as “set it and forget it” is the biggest mistake. Companies configure
hundreds of keywords during implementation, then never look at performance again. The result
is noise: accounts flagged as showing intent based on weak signals that don’t predict buying
behavior.
Thinking that keywords are like SEO terms is another mistake. Companies will sometimes
configure keywords based on all the conceivable ways people might search for their services
and features. That’s the wrong approach. Keywords should be grouped into clusters that relate
to specific pain points of your most important buyer personas. Signal activity within those
clusters can help identify the specific pain points animating people within the account.
Remember that not all intent signals are created equal. First-party intent (someone visiting your
pricing page) is fundamentally different from third-party intent (someone reading a generic
article about your category). Treating them the same leads to false positives where accounts
appear “hot” based on weak signals.
Don’t neglect competitive intent either. Many companies focus only on category and product
keywords while ignoring competitors’ names, but buyers research alternatives. Knowing when
an account is looking at competitors tells you they’re serious about change.
What you’ll need to make this work
A platform that:
- Supports custom keyword configuration
- Integrates with third-party intent providers like Bombora, G2, TrustRadius, PeerSpot,
TechTarget, and Gartner Digital Markets - Connects to other intent sources via API or native integration
The platform should let you organize keywords into groups, weigh different signal types, and
report on keyword performance at both keyword and account levels. It should also surface intent
in usable formats: dashboards marketing can review, alerts sales can act on, and fields in your
CRM that display intent data on account records.
Measuring success
At Crawl, validate that signals are configured and reveal in-market accounts by checking
whether accounts flagged as high-intent are actually in your ICP and whether the specific
keywords firing make sense for your business.
This use case depends on having your ICP defined (use case #1) because intent signals are
only meaningful for accounts that fit your profile. 6sense users will also need your website tag
implemented to capture first-party intent and your platform integrated with intent data providers.
Marketing owns intent strategy since they’re the primary user for campaign targeting, but sales
leadership should have input on which keywords matter because they understand buyer
language and competitive dynamics.
