Intent Data for ABM: Identify and Win Key Accounts

What Is Intent Data and Why Does It Matter for ABM?

Intent data is a type of market intelligence that informs marketers of how accounts research products. It identifies the content that accounts consume, identifying any challenges or solutions they’re searching for. 

Marketers can collect intent data through various first and third-party sources. When layered into your ABM strategy, intent data creates the perfect storm of targeting precision:

• Target the right accounts: Focus solely on businesses that match your ideal customer profile (ICP).
• At the right time: Engage when they’re actively researching relevant solutions like yours.
• With the right message: Address their specific interests and challenges.
• Through the proper channels: Reach decision-makers on platforms where they’re most receptive.

Approximately 98% of organizations currently use or plan to use ABM as a strategic tactic. At the core of each successful campaign is understanding the intent of your ideal buyer.

Types of Intent Data for ABM

To effectively leverage intent data in your ABM strategy, it’s essential to understand the different types available and how each contributes to your targeting efforts.

First-Party Intent Data

This is data you collect directly from your digital properties, including:

• Website visit patterns (pages viewed, time spent).
• Email engagement (opens, clicks).
• Content downloads (whitepapers, ebooks).
• Form submissions.
• Product usage metrics.
• Customer support interactions.

First-party data is highly valuable because it represents direct engagement with your brand. These individuals are already familiar with your offerings and are actively showing interest. Marketers will better understand their customer journey and can identify the accounts that are more likely to convert.

Third-Party Intent Data

Third-party data offers a broader view of your target audience. This is collected by external data aggregators across many websites and digital properties, then sold as a service. Examples include:

• Technographic data (such as from your technology stack).
• Search queries across the web.
• Content consumption across multiple publications.
• Social media post engagement.
• Forum and community participation.

Third-party data helps you identify accounts that show interest in your solution category, even if they haven’t visited your website yet. While third-party data may not be up-to-date or accurate, it can still provide valuable insights into your sales funnel and lead progression.

Behavioral Intent Data

This focuses on online activities in the customer journey that signal buying intent. Here are ways to collect behavioral intent data:

• Pricing page visits
• Competitor comparison research
• Multiple product demo views
• Sales-related content consumption (ROI calculators, buying guides)
• Multiple visits in a short timeframe

Contextual Intent Data

This examines the context surrounding engagement to determine the level of intent. Marketers can extract contextual intent data from:

• Content topic relevance
• Content consumption patterns
• Device and location patterns
• Time-of-day engagement patterns
• Seasonal or event-triggered research

Declared/Zero-Party Intent Data

This is information directly shared by your prospects. Marketers can retrieve this data from:

• Survey responses
• Preference center selections
• Purchase timeline indications
• Budget information
• Decision-maker identification

How to Use Intent Data in Your ABM Strategy

Now that we understand the types of intent data available, let’s explore how to implement them in your ABM strategy effectively to engage accounts and increase conversions.

Prioritize Accounts Based on Real-Time Purchase Intent

Real-time purchase intent signals include content consumption related to your product category, competitor comparisons, and problem-specific online searches, tracked across thousands of B2B websites and publications.

To capitalize on this intelligence effectively, create a weekly list of “hot accounts.” For example, Keboola, a self-service data management company, used Cognism to access Bombora’s intent data, selecting specific intent topics relevant to their data integration solution. 

They identified 20 companies per week that showed strong intent signals, using verified direct-dial mobile numbers to reach decision-makers at these companies. This strategy generated $125k in pipeline for Keboola, with intent data driving 60% of their demos.

Personalize Your Outreach

Fuel your entire outreach strategy with intent-driven messaging. Cold calling becomes significantly more effective when reps can reference the challenges prospects are actively investigating.

Intent data ensures your message arrives at the perfect moment with the exact context that resonates with decision-makers. For example, if you notice a target account is researching “improving marketing ROI” and “marketing attribution models,” you can tailor your outreach to address these specific pain points.

Align Sales and Marketing Around Intent-Driven Insights

One of the biggest challenges in ABM is ensuring sales and marketing teams work in lockstep. Intent data provides a shared foundation of actionable insights, which helps to bridge this traditional divide.

To align sales and marketing with intent data, create a workflow that allows both teams to access the same signals and coordinate their tactics based on account activity. Hold regular meetings to review high-intent accounts, ensuring everyone is focused on the same priorities.

Time Your Interventions Precisely

Intent data reveals when accounts are ready to make a purchase. These moments represent ideal opportunities for timely sales outreach. Set up alerts that show when there are sudden spikes in digital activity from the same account. 

According to Gartner, B2B buyers spend only 17% of their time meeting with potential suppliers. Intent data helps you target that critical window when prospects are most receptive.

Rescue Stalled Deals

Intent data provides early warning signals for stalled deals or when a lead is about to drop off. It does that by tracking various metrics, such as engagement rates. When engagement drops suddenly, you’re likely losing ground. When it spikes again months later, they’re back in the market–and possibly with your competitors!

Being the first to re-engage when new research begins gives you a significant advantage. Set up triggers for renewed intent from dormant accounts and acknowledge the account’s renewed interest with fresh messaging.

Intercept Competitor Evaluations

Intent data reveals when existing customers are researching alternatives, often before they even consider making a switch.

When signals indicate that a high-risk customer is exploring competitor solutions, your customer success team can proactively schedule a review to address concerns and highlight features that may solve their emerging needs.

For prospects comparing vendors, deploy targeted ads that direct them to purpose-built comparison pages. On these custom landing pages, directly address the advantages you offer vs. the exact competitors they’re evaluating.

Prioritize High-Intent Accounts for Ad Campaigns

Use intent signals to create highly targeted advertising audiences on platforms like LinkedIn, where you can upload account lists based on intent data. This ensures you concentrate your budget on accounts that are already showing interest.

At Single Grain, we’ve helped numerous clients implement this strategy through our paid advertising services, ensuring their ad spend is directed toward the most promising accounts.

Implementing Intent Data in Your ABM Program: A Step-by-Step Guide

Ready to incorporate intent data into your ABM strategy? Follow these steps to collect and analyze data, identify accounts, and target these leads with sales and marketing efforts.

Define Your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)

Before you can effectively use intent data, you need a clear understanding of who your ideal customers are. An ICP is a description of the accounts that are more likely to purchase your products or services.

Define your ICP based on:

• Industry/vertical.
• Company size (employees, revenue).
• Geographic location.
• Technology stack.
• Business challenges.
• Buying triggers.

This foundation will help you filter intent signals and focus on accounts that truly match your target profile.

Select the Right Intent Data Sources

Based on your ICP and business goals, choose one or more of the appropriate intent data sources:

• First-party tools: Implement robust website analytics, marketing automation, and CRM systems to capture and analyze your own intent data.
• Third-party providers: Consider platforms like Bombora, 6sense, Demandbase, or ZoomInfo to access broader intent signals across the web.
• Integration platforms: Look for solutions that can combine multiple data sources for a comprehensive view.

Our new Karrot.ai platform helps transform your LinkedIn ads with 1-1 personalized messaging based on intent signals, ensuring your ABM campaigns deliver maximum impact.

Establish Intent Signal Scoring

Not all intent signals are created equal. Develop a scoring system that weighs different demographics and behaviors, ensuring your accounts have buying readiness. Prioritize these factors:

• Assign higher scores to bottom-of-funnel activities (pricing page visits, demo requests).
• Consider the recency and frequency of signals.
• Factor in the seniority of the individuals showing intent.
• Weight signals based on their source reliability.
• How they engage with your content.

Create Intent-Based Account Segments

Segment your target accounts based on intent levels, such as:

• Hot accounts: Showing strong, recent buying signals.
• Warm accounts: Demonstrating some interest but not yet ready to buy.
• Cool accounts: Matching your ICP but not currently showing intent.
• At-risk customers: Existing customers showing competitor research patterns.

It’s also best to create goals and expected outcomes for each segment to better keep them in the sales funnel.

Develop Personalized Content and Campaigns

Marketers should use insights from intent data to personalize their strategies better. For each segment, create tailored content and campaigns that address their specific interests and stage in the buying journey:

• Hot accounts: Direct outreach with specific solutions to their researched challenges.
• Warm accounts: Educational content that addresses their pain points.
• Cool accounts: Brand awareness and thought leadership content.
• At-risk customers: Customer success check-ins and exclusive offers.

Implement Cross-Channel Marketing

Deploy your intent-driven campaigns across multiple channels for maximum impact, focusing on:

• Personalized email sequences
• LinkedIn and other social media advertising
• Direct mail
• Phone outreach
• Retargeting campaigns
• Custom website experiences

Our SEO services can help ensure your content is discoverable when target accounts are actively searching for solutions like yours.

Measure, Learn, and Optimize

Continuously monitor the performance of your intent-based ABM efforts by measuring these KPIs:

• Track engagement rates across channels
• Measure pipeline velocity for intent-identified accounts
• Compare conversion rates between intent-driven and traditional approaches
• Calculate the ROI of intent data investments

Use these insights to refine your approach and improve results over time.

Real-World Success: Intent Data ABM Case Studies

Case Study 1: Tech SaaS Company

A B2B software company implemented an intent-driven ABM strategy with these results:

• Identified 250 high-intent accounts that matched their ICP.
• Created personalized outreach campaigns addressing the specific challenges these accounts were researching.
• Achieved a 47% meeting booking rate with target accounts.
• Reduced sales cycle by 35% for intent-identified opportunities.
• Generated $2.3M in pipeline within the first quarter.

Case Study 2: Professional Services Firm

A consulting firm specializing in digital transformation used intent data to:

• Identify when target accounts were researching specific transformation challenges
• Deploy thought leadership content addressing those exact challenges
• Alert account executives to timing windows for outreach
• Increase engagement rates by 78% compared to previous campaigns
• Convert 23% of high-intent accounts into qualified opportunities

Case Study 3: Manufacturing Equipment Provider

An industrial equipment manufacturer leveraged intent data to:

• Monitor when target accounts researched competitor products
• Deploy comparison content highlighting their unique advantages
• Alert sales when accounts showed purchase-ready signals
• Increase win rates against competitors by 32%
• Reduce customer acquisition costs by 41%

Challenges and Best Practices

While intent data offers tremendous potential for ABM success, there are challenges to be aware of. Here are the best practices when using intent data.

Common Challenges

Here are typical issues surrounding intent data:

• Data quality issues: Not all intent signals are equally reliable.
• Integration complexity: Combining multiple data sources can be difficult for those without technical expertise.
• Signal interpretation: Distinguishing between casual research and genuine buying intent.
• Privacy regulations: Navigating GDPR, CCPA, and other data privacy laws.
• Organizational alignment: Getting sales and marketing teams to act on intent insights.

Best Practices

Here are the best ways to use intent data to engage your accounts:

• Start small: Begin with a pilot program focusing on a specific segment or use case.
• Combine data sources: Use both first-party and third-party data for a complete picture.
• Establish transparent processes: Define exactly how teams should respond to different intent signals.
• Maintain data hygiene: Regularly clean and update your data to ensure accuracy and reliability.
• Test and iterate: Continuously experiment with different approaches and refine based on results.
• Invest in training: Ensure all teams understand how to interpret and act on intent data.

The Future of Intent Data in ABM

Intent data is already integral for refining ABM campaigns. As we look ahead, several trends are shaping the future of intent data in ABM.

AI and Machine Learning

Advanced algorithms will increasingly help identify patterns and predict buying behavior with greater accuracy. These technologies will move beyond simple signal detection to provide predictive insights about which accounts are most likely to convert and when.

Intent-Based Personalization at Scale

The ability to deliver hyper-personalized experiences based on intent signals will continue to evolve. Tools like Karrot.ai are already enabling marketers to create personalized ad experiences at scale, increasing customer engagement. This capability will expand across all customer touchpoints.

Privacy-Compliant Data Collection

As privacy regulations tighten globally, intent data providers will develop more sophisticated, consent-based data collection approaches. This will emphasize the importance of first-party data and transparent data practices.

Integrated Intent Platforms

We’ll see greater integration between intent data, marketing automation, CRM, and advertising platforms, creating seamless workflows that automatically trigger the right actions based on intent signals.

Intent Data for ABM Can Boost Your Strategy

Intent data has transformed ABM from a broad-based targeting strategy to a precision instrument for identifying and winning key accounts. This technology reveals which accounts are actively in the market for your solutions, so you can focus your resources where they will have the most significant impact.

As you implement intent data in your ABM program, remember that success requires more than just data—it demands a strategic approach, cross-functional alignment, and continuous optimization. Start with clear objectives, select the right data sources, establish processes for acting on intent signals, and measure results to refine your approach over time.

With the right intent data strategy in place, you’ll be well-positioned to identify and win the accounts that matter most to your business.

Ready to supercharge your ABM efforts with intent data? Don’t forget to check out Karrot.ai for personalized LinkedIn ABM ads that convert!