Glossary

Buyer Intent

Buyer intent refers to the likelihood that a prospect is currently in an active purchasing process for a product or service like yours. Intent is inferred from behavioral signals — research activity, content consumption, competitor comparisons, and review site visits — that indicate a prospect is evaluating solutions, not just browsing.

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Most companies in your target market are not actively buying at any given moment. Industry research suggests that at most 3–5% of your addressable market is in an active buying cycle at any time. Buyer intent data helps you identify that 3–5% and prioritize them for outreach — dramatically improving the efficiency of your sales effort by focusing on the moments when prospects are most receptive. Buyer intent signals come from multiple sources. First-party intent includes visits to your pricing page, demo requests, and free trial sign-ups — these are the clearest signals of active interest. Second-party intent includes activity on review sites like G2, Capterra, and TrustRadius, where buyers research and compare vendors. Third-party intent is aggregated from a network of publisher websites — data providers track which companies are consuming content related to specific topic clusters and surface this as intent data. Acting on buyer intent is most effective when speed and personalization are combined. A prospect who is researching your category today may have made a decision within two weeks. Outvid enables revenue teams to act on intent signals immediately — triggering a personalized video email at the moment a high-intent signal is detected, with content tailored to the specific problem the prospect appears to be researching. This combination of timing and relevance is what converts intent into pipeline.

What should I know about Buyer Intent?

Intent Narrows Your Addressable Market

Instead of treating all ICP-fit companies equally, buyer intent data lets you focus on the small percentage that are actively in a buying cycle — the accounts most likely to convert in the next 30–60 days.

Speed to Act Determines Outcome

Buyer intent has a short shelf life. A prospect actively researching today may have selected a vendor within two weeks. The team that responds fastest to intent signals wins a disproportionate share of the pipeline.

Personalize Based on What They're Researching

Intent data reveals not just that a prospect is researching, but what topic cluster they are exploring. This enables hyper-relevant outreach that speaks directly to the specific pain point driving their search.

How is Buyer Intent used in practice?

A team uses G2 intent data to find in-market buyers

G2 surfaces a list of companies that have viewed the company's G2 profile or compared them with competitors. The team immediately triggers an Outvid personalized video sequence for each company's decision-maker, referencing the specific category they appear to be evaluating. The campaign achieves a 15% meeting rate from accounts showing active intent.

A revenue ops team builds an intent-triggered outreach workflow

When Bombora surfaces an account with a surge score above 70 on topics related to their product, an automation immediately enriches the account, assigns it to the right SDR, and triggers an Outvid video sequence. By the time the SDR reviews the account, the first video has already been sent — capturing intent at its peak.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best source of buyer intent data?

First-party intent from your own website and product is the most reliable. For third-party intent, Bombora is the market leader for B2B, while G2 Buyer Intent is excellent if your buyers research solutions on review sites.

How accurate is buyer intent data?

Accuracy varies by provider and methodology. Third-party intent is probabilistic — it signals that a company is likely researching a topic, not that an individual has made a decision. Treat it as one prioritization signal among several, not as a definitive buying signal.

How is buyer intent different from a trigger event?

Buyer intent reflects active research behavior. A trigger event is a discrete observable event (funding round, leadership change, product launch) that creates a natural reason to reach out. Both are valid outreach triggers, often used together.

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Strike While Buyer Intent Is Hot

When intent signals fire, Outvid lets you send personalized video outreach instantly — reaching buyers at the exact moment they're ready to talk.