Intent data is behavioral signal information that indicates a buyer is actively researching a purchase decision. It is called intent data because the behaviors it captures — reading comparison articles, visiting pricing pages, downloading evaluation guides, searching for specific product category terms — reveal buying intent before the buyer raises their hand.
In 2026, the B2B buyer intent data market is worth an estimated $4.5 billion, growing at a 15.9% CAGR. Teams using signal-qualified leads report 47% better conversion rates, 43% larger deal sizes, and 38% more closed deals compared to those relying on traditional lead scoring.
First-Party vs. Third-Party Intent Data
First-party intent data is captured directly from your own channels:
- Pricing page visits
- Product page engagement duration
- Demo request form completions
- Webinar registrations and attendance
- Content downloads (guides, case studies, comparison sheets)
- Email open and click patterns
- Chatbot interactions
First-party data is the highest-quality intent signal because it reflects direct engagement with your brand, not inferred behavior from external sources.
Third-party intent data is aggregated from external sources by providers like Bombora, G2, and TechTarget:
- Topic surge data (a company's employees are collectively reading a high volume of content on a specific technology topic)
- Review site activity (employees browsing your category on G2 or Capterra)
- Content consumption patterns across B2B publisher networks
Third-party data has more coverage (you can detect buying behavior before a prospect has engaged with your site at all) but lower signal specificity.
The Signals B2B Teams Act On in 2026
The most actionable intent signals in 2026 are layered:
- Funding announcement + tech stack match — a target account just raised a Series B and runs the tech stack your product integrates with
- Leadership change + relevant job opening — a new CRO just joined and the company opened three RevOps roles
- G2/Capterra browsing + your competitor page views — someone at the account is actively comparing solutions in your category
- Webinar attendance + pricing page visit — a prospect engaged with your content and checked your pricing within the same week
The combination of signals is more predictive than any single signal alone.
How Intent Data Powers Event-Led Pipeline
LinkedOtter uses intent signals to time event invitations: accounts showing topic surges in your solution category, combined with leadership changes or job postings, are the highest-priority targets for a webinar invitation. The event then generates a new first-party intent signal — live attendance — that triggers the sales follow-up.
This is the intent data flywheel: third-party signals identify which accounts to target, the event invitation warms those accounts, attendance generates the strongest first-party signal, and the follow-up converts intent into a qualified meeting.
754 webinar signups in 26 days, 100+ from target accounts. 43 qualified meetings in 60 days. Intent-timed event invitations are a core part of how that result gets produced.
Take the free 60-second check to see how LinkedOtter uses intent data to build event-led pipeline.