You know that feeling when you’re trying to figure out who’s actually shopping versus who’s just window browsing? Yeah, that’s the whole game in B2B marketing these days.
Intent data helps B2B teams identify which companies are actively researching a topic, exploring solutions, or moving toward a purchase decision.
When paired with precise targeting, it enables smarter demand generation, more efficient account-based marketing (ABM), better lead prioritization, and more productive sales conversations.
But not all intent data platforms are built the same.
Some are optimized for surfacing broad, third-party research behavior at the account level. Others focus on first-party engagement signals, like website activity and asset downloads. A smaller group connects intent to deeper qualification signals that help teams understand not just what someone is researching, but why, how urgently, and where they are in the buying journey.
What Is B2B Intent Data (and Why It Actually Matters)?
At its core, B2B intent data is behavioral intelligence. It captures signals that indicate when a company, buying group, or individual is actively interested in a topic, product category, or solution.
This data typically falls into three categories:
First-Party Intent Data
This comes from your owned properties and channels:
- Website visits and page views
- Form fills and content downloads
- Webinar registrations and attendance
- Product interactions and trial usage
- Email engagement
First-party intent data is highly valuable because it’s directly connected to your brand and your digital ecosystem.
Second-Party Intent Data
This is intent data shared between partners. For example, a publisher, media partner, or event partner may share engagement data with your organization.
Third-Party Intent Data
This is intent data aggregated across a large network of websites and sources. It identifies patterns in content consumption and research activity across the market, often before prospects ever interact with your brand.
Why Buyer-Level Intent Data Matters More Than Ever
Here’s where things get interesting—and a little uncomfortable.
A major shift is happening in how buyers research solutions. Search behavior is changing, reducing traditional “clicks” and altering the visibility of intent signals.
Two trends are especially disruptive:
AI Overviews Are Changing Search Discovery
When search engines provide direct answers in the results, users may get what they need without clicking into a site. That means fewer sessions, fewer page views, and fewer opportunities to capture early-stage intent through traditional analytics.
Zero-Click Marketing Reduces Trackable Engagement
Coined by Amanda Natividad, zero-click marketing is content that delivers full value right where people already are—without asking them to click anywhere else.
- AI-generated summaries
- Social feeds
- Community forums
- Review platforms
- Dark social sharing
- Newsletter consumption without site visits
In this environment, the intent signals marketers used to rely on can become delayed, incomplete, or invisible.
That’s why buyer-level intent data becomes increasingly important.
What about Account-Level Intent?
Account-level intent is useful for prioritization, but it can still leave teams guessing about who is driving the research and what their specific needs are. Buyer-level intent data provides deeper clarity, including the role and context of the individual behind the behavior. It helps teams understand the “why” behind activity, not just the fact that it occurred.
Leading Intent Data Platforms in B2B
As traditional signals erode, the platforms that can deliver direct, buyer-level engagement data become even more valuable for targeting, qualification, and pipeline acceleration.
Below, we’ve broken down seven platforms that help B2B teams do exactly that. Each one offers something a little different, so let’s dig in and see where they shine.
1. Bombora
What They Do
Bombora built its reputation on third-party intent data pulled from a massive cooperative network of B2B publishers. Think of it as a neighborhood watch for content consumption—when a company starts binging articles on “cloud security compliance,” Bombora notices.
What Makes It Useful
Their Company Surge® scores flag when accounts are showing unusually high interest in specific topics. You’re not just seeing that someone downloaded something; you’re seeing that interest is spiking right now across an organization.
How It Helps You Target
You can filter by intent topics, company size, industry, and surge intensity. So instead of blasting everyone in the healthcare vertical, you’re zeroing in on mid-size healthcare companies that are suddenly researching HIPAA-compliant data platforms.
ABM Fit
Bombora integrates with most ABM platforms, CRMs, and marketing automation tools. It’s often the first signal in a multi-step workflow—”Hey, this account is warming up. Time to adjust our playbook.”
Why It Matters
Bombora’s strength is breadth. They catch signals early, often before buyers engage directly with you. For teams building account lists or refining messaging, it’s a solid starting point.
Plays Nice With
Salesforce, HubSpot, Marketo, 6sense, Demandbase, and most major ad platforms.
2. 6sense
What They Do
6sense combines intent data, predictive AI, and orchestration into one platform. It’s not just about identifying accounts—it’s about ranking them, understanding where they are in the buying journey, and automating what happens next.
What Makes It Useful
Their predictive scoring models look at firmographics, engagement history, and intent signals to tell you who’s most likely to buy. Then they help you act on it across ads, email, and sales workflows.
How It Helps You Target
Filters go deep: intent score, predictive propensity, account stage, historical behavior. You can build hyper-specific audiences for SDR outreach, nurture sequences, or LinkedIn campaigns.
ABM Fit
6sense is an ABM platform. It synchronizes intent with plays across every channel—personalized ads, email sequences, sales alerts. It’s built for coordinated, multi-touch account engagement.
Why It Matters
6sense doesn’t just tell you who’s in-market. It tells you how likely they are to convert and what to do about it. For teams focused on pipeline influence and conversion, that’s gold.
Plays Nice With
Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics, Marketo, Eloqua, HubSpot, LinkedIn, Bombora, G2, and programmatic ad platforms.
3. NetLine
What They Do
NetLine provides buyer-level intent tied directly to content engagement and demand generation. Instead of company-level signals, you get insights into which individuals are consuming what—and why it matters.
What Makes It Useful
Their HQL (Highly Qualified Leads) model goes beyond “someone downloaded your eBook.” It captures qualification context: job role, company fit, buying timeline, and behavioral signals that indicate actual interest.
How It Helps You Target
NetLine’s filters are extensive: demographic, firmographic, behavioral, content type, and engagement depth. You’re not just targeting accounts; you’re targeting the right people inside those accounts.
ABM Fit
NetLine’s buyer-level data fuels ABM by identifying which roles are engaging and when. You can tailor plays for specific personas and accounts based on real-time content signals.
Why It Matters
Most intent providers stop at “Company X is interested.” NetLine tells you who at Company X is interested, what they’re researching, and when they’re likely to move. That level of granularity changes how you engage.
Plays Nice With
CRM systems, Salesforce, Marketo, Demandbase, marketing automation platforms, and ABM tools for lead routing, scoring, and activation.
4. Demandbase
What They Do
Demandbase is a full ABM platform that combines intent, advertising, personalization, and account orchestration. It’s less of a point solution and more of an end-to-end system for running account-based strategies.
What Makes It Useful
Intent scoring, website personalization, DSP integrations, and attribution modeling—all in one place. You don’t need to stitch together five tools to run a coordinated ABM program.
How It Helps You Target
Robust filters for account attributes, intent topics, engagement scores, and firmographics. Build audiences for display, social, and nurture campaigns directly inside the platform.
ABM Fit
Demandbase is ABM. It’s designed for running plays across channels, personalizing content experiences, and measuring account-level impact.
Why It Matters
The real value is execution. Demandbase doesn’t just show you intent—it helps you act on it with ads, personalization, and measurement. For teams that want to close the loop from signal to conversion, this is the platform.
Plays Nice With
Salesforce, Marketo, HubSpot, Eloqua, DSPs, ad platforms, and third-party intent providers.
5. ZoomInfo
What They Do
ZoomInfo is a B2B intelligence platform built on deep contact and company data. Their intent offerings (through add-ons) signal when accounts are actively researching solutions.
What Makes It Useful
You get intent signals plus the data you need to act: verified contacts, direct dials, org charts, technographics, and firmographics. It’s a one-stop shop for outbound.
How It Helps You Target
Filter by intent topics, firmographics, technographics, engagement history, and buyer behavior. Build precise account and contact lists for SDR outreach or persona-based campaigns.
ABM Fit
ZoomInfo enriches ABM programs with clean data and intent signals. You’re not just targeting accounts—you’re targeting the right contacts at those accounts with personalized cadences.
Why It Matters
Intent without data is half the picture. ZoomInfo gives you both: signals that someone’s active and the details to reach them.
Plays Nice With
Salesforce, HubSpot, Marketo, Salesloft, Outreach, and Bombora (depending on package).
6. DemandScience
What They Do
DemandScience is a B2B data, intent, and activation platform that combines buyer intelligence with execution across digital channels. Offers a broader account-based experience (ABX) platform spanning intent identification, targeting, engagement, and measurement.
What Makes It Useful
Closes the gap between intent insight and activation, blends intent signals, identity resolution, and enrichment with Terminus’s account-centric engagement and advertising capabilities. Translates signals directly into executable audiences and campaigns.
How It Helps You Target
Filter by intent topics, firmographics, technographics, buyer attributes, and engagement behavior. Terminus acquisition allows users to dynamically adjust targeting based on real-time intent and engagement signals across the funnel.
ABM Fit
Terminus’s ABM and ABX capabilities are now core to DemandScience, enabling coordinated, multi-channel account engagement, including account-based advertising, orchestration across marketing and sales, and unified reporting tied to account progression.
Why It Matters
Delivers end-to-end intent-to-activation workflows, helping teams identify in-market accounts and act on those insights at scale, meaning fewer handoffs between data, targeting, and execution.
Plays Nice With
Salesforce, HubSpot, marketing automation platforms, DSPs, advertising platforms, and ABM workflows from Terminus.
7. Cognism
What They Do
Cognism provides global, GDPR-compliant contact intelligence enriched with intent signals. It’s built for teams that need clean, compliant data—especially in Europe.
What Makes It Useful
Intent signals tied to verified contacts, firmographics, and technographics. Plus, data hygiene features that keep your CRM clean and compliant.
How It Helps You Target
Create segmented audiences using intent, firmographics, technographics, and contact attributes. Supports both inbound enrichment and outbound prospecting.
ABM Fit
Cognism adds depth to ABM by supplying compliant data and intent signals that inform outreach timing and message relevance.
Why It Matters
For global teams or privacy-sensitive markets, Cognism delivers intent and compliance. You’re not choosing between good data and legal data—you get both.
Plays Nice With
Salesforce, HubSpot, Salesloft, Outreach, marketing automation platforms, and data ops tools.
8. Intensify
What They Do
Intensify focuses on buyer-level intent signals derived from real engagement across B2B media, communities, and content environments. Instead of relying solely on aggregated account behavior, it looks at how actual buyers interact with topics and content.
What Makes It Useful
Intensify emphasizes human-level engagement, not just account-level trends. The platform shows which roles are engaging, what content they’re consuming, and how that behavior signals buying readiness. This adds clarity when account-level intent alone feels vague or noisy.
How It Helps You Target
Segment audiences by buyer role, topic engagement, company attributes, and behavioral patterns. Target specific personas within accounts who are actively researching relevant solutions, not just “accounts showing interest.”
ABM Fit
Intensify enriches ABM programs with buyer-level context. This makes it easier to align messaging, content, and outreach with the people actually driving research and influence inside target accounts.
Why It Matters
As buying groups grow and signals fragment, knowing who is engaging matters as much as knowing which company. Intensify helps teams focus on real buyers, which improves personalization and downstream conversion.
Plays Nice With
Salesforce, HubSpot, marketing automation platforms, ABM tools, and advertising platforms for persona-based activation.
9. Lead Forensics
What They Do
Lead Forensics identifies anonymous website visitors and ties them back to companies. Even if someone never fills out a form, you’ll know they were there.
What Makes It Useful
Behavioral signals tied to site activity: pages visited, frequency, time on site. Real-time alerts when accounts are engaging.
How It Helps You Target
Filter on engagement patterns, pages viewed, visit frequency, and firmographics. Build scoring models and outreach triggers based on actual behavior.
ABM Fit
Lead Forensics expands account awareness by surfacing accounts that engaged but didn’t convert. It helps teams bring more prospects into personalized follow-up plays.
Why It Matters
Most web traffic is invisible. Lead Forensics makes it visible. For companies with high traffic and low conversion, it’s a way to reclaim lost opportunities.
Plays Nice With
Salesforce, HubSpot, Marketo, Slack, and analytics platforms.
What This All Means for Marketers
Intent data isn’t magic. But it is the closest thing we have to reading buyers’ minds before they show up in our inbox.
Here’s what these platforms actually help you do:
- Spot In-Market Accounts Earlier
Intent reveals research activity before conversion happens. That’s a head start you can’t get any other way. - Prioritize Who Gets Your Attention
Not all leads are created equal. Intent-informed scoring helps sales focus on accounts that are actually moving. - Personalize Without Guessing
Intent topics tell you what buyers care about right now. Your messaging can reflect that instead of defaulting to generic pitches. - Activate Across Every Channel
Intent platforms integrate with ad platforms, marketing automation, and CRMs. You’re not just knowing more—you’re doing more.
The best intent platforms don’t just hand you signals. They give you filters, integrations, and workflows that turn those signals into action.
The Bottom Line
We’re in a moment where traditional signals—form fills, demo requests, cold calls—are losing ground. AI-driven search summaries, zero-click content, and self-serve research are changing the game.
Buyer-level intent is how you stay ahead. It’s how you know who’s researching, what they care about, and when they’re ready to engage.
Whether you need broad market coverage (Bombora), predictive AI (6sense), content-driven insights (NetLine), full ABM orchestration (Demandbase), rich contact data (ZoomInfo), compliant global intelligence (Cognism), or anonymous visitor tracking (Lead Forensics)—there’s a platform that fits.
Pair intent with precise targeting, and you’ve got a repeatable system for reaching the right accounts, at the right time, with the right message.
That’s not hype. It’s just good marketing.