Intent data is information about the research behavior of companies and people that suggests interest in a product, service or topic. First-party intent comes from your own website and channels; third-party intent is collected across other websites and publishers. B2B teams use it to find accounts that are actively researching before those accounts make contact.
390
Google searches a month in the United States for "intent data", averaged over September 2025 to August 2026.
Source: DataForSEO keyword data (Google Ads search volume), retrieved 23 September 2026.
First-party intent data comes from activity you observe directly, such as visits to your website, content downloads and email engagement. Third-party intent data is collected by providers across many other websites and publishers, and shows research happening before a buyer reaches you. Many teams use both together.
They use it to prioritize accounts for outreach, to time campaigns to active research, to tailor messaging to the topics an account is reading about, and to spot existing customers researching alternatives. It works best combined with fit data, so effort goes to accounts that are both interested and a good match.
Intent data is one kind of buying signal, focused on research activity. Buying signals also include events such as funding rounds, hiring and leadership changes. Treating intent data as one input among several gives a fuller picture of which accounts are ready to talk.
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