Intent signals playbook and glossary

Modified on Wed, 17 Jan at 9:11 PM

Playbook for combining intent signals, and glossary

Playbook for combining intent signals

Use the table and matrix below to understand how to engage companies demonstrating various combinations of intent within B2B Intent.

Click on any of the three intent signals in the table header to learn more about how they are calculated.

Engagement	Product Awareness	Purchase Intent	Action
High	High	High	Close the deal -This company is very familiar with your product and has a high probability of converting into a lead. -Pass these companies to the sales team immediately to engage.
High	Low	High	Steal the deal from competitors -This company is not as familiar with your product but has a high probability of converting to a lead. -Focus on differentiation and target with content that showcases your product’s unique capabilities in the market.
High	Medium	Medium	Progress the lead Continue to orient prospects to your product and drive urgency to increase their purchase intent. Nurture leads with content that highlights the benefits of purchasing software in your category and case stories from industry peers .
High	Low	Low	Educate the lead -Target contacts at accounts in the initial stages of their search with helpful content focused on industry-specific challenges your software helps to solve. -Don't force content that's very product-focused at this stage.

Glossary: intent signals overview

B2B Intent provides three main intent signals for all company records: Purchase Intent, Engagement, and Product Awareness. In general:

Engagement: the amount of time a company prospect has been in your subscribed categories.

Product Awareness: the amount of time a company prospect has been on your specific product page, or comparing your product.

Purchase Intent: likelihood that a company prospect wants your product, using a classification model based on historical conversions data.

B2B Intent signals can be one of many pick list values, such as "High" ,"Medium", and "Low". On a daily basis these intent signals are updated, and can go higher or lower based on the intent analyzed from the user traffic.

Engagement signal

The engagement score identifies how active an identifiable company has been on relevant pages across Gartner Digital Markets’ sites.

Relevant pages include:

Category pages where your product is listed
Product profile pages of products listed in your categories
Comparison pages where products listed in your categories are being compared
Content pages where products listed in your categories are referenced

Activity considers several factors including:

Number of relevant sessions
Number of relevant pageviews
Engagement within the above (e.g. time on site, any interactions the company undertook in those sessions, etc.)

How to interpret Engagement signals
Very High	-This company has recent activity within your categories, visiting multiple pages and spending more consideration time on our sites. -Prioritize faster sales follow-up for highly engaged companies while they are still in-market.
High	-This company demonstrated recent activity, and is actively researching the category, your product, and your competitors. -Ensure sales reaches out and starts demo conversations with these companies.
Medium	-This company has visited somewhat recently but was only moderately engaged with relevant pages on our sites. -Proactively reach out through targeting in your Account-Based Marketing with a strong call to action.
Low	-This company is likely just browsing quickly in your categories, but has not visited multiple pages or visited multiple times. -Continue to nurture with content based campaigns.
Very Low	-This company has not recently viewed your categories or product pages or may have not spent much time comparing options on any recent visits. -Score these prospects based on additional engagement with your outbound marketing campaigns (e.g. email nurture open and click rates, digital/social ad engagement, etc.) to warm them before routing to sales.

There is varying trailing time periods for each of these indicators. The higher the Engagement signal, the more recent the trailing time period considered.

Product Awareness signal

The product awareness score indicates how familiar the identifiable company is with your product.

Impressions we consider:

Has the company visited your category?
Has the company visited your product profile?
Has the company compared you in our comparison tool?
Has the company clicked-out (PPC) and/or been qualified (PPL) for you?

Activity considers several factors including:

Number of impressions
Combinations of impressions
How recent impressions are

How to interpret Product Awareness signals
High	-This company has seen your product frequently in recent sessions to our sites and is likely familiar with your brand. -Include the lead in outbound marketing campaigns and sales outreach.
Medium	-This company has seen your product in recent visits to the categories you are listed in. -This company might be checking out specific products and comparing yours to others in the space.
Low	-This company has visited your categories but has not seen your product in recent visits to the site -It may be less likely to include you in future considerations.

Compared to Engagement, there are longer trailing time periods to inform our Product Awareness classification.

Purchase Intent signal

The purchase intent score calculates the probability that a company prospect found on Gartner Digital Markets sites will convert to a lead for your product.

This scoring model takes into account historical data on various company prospects clicking on pay-per-click (PPC) product listings, and then completing the follow-up forms.

Purchase Intent also takes into account historical data on company prospects becoming qualified leads through our pay-per-lead (PPL) program.

Model considerations:

On-site activities
- Sessions, pageviews, impressions, clicks

Activity time frame

How to Interpret Purchase Intent Signals
Very High	-This company indicates that they are ready to make a purchase. -Loop in sales so they can reach out to this lead in a timely manner and secure a deal.
High	-This company is likely ready to schedule a demo and discuss specific needs with software providers in your category. -Include this lead in outbound marketing campaigns and sales outreach.
Medium	-This company might be researching specific products and comparing solutions in the space. -The lead would benefit from educational content such as blog posts, webinars, or white papers.
Low	-This company is likely just browsing the category and options for software. -The lead is likely developing a short list for consideration, but is not ready to connect with software providers.

This calculation is specific to the categories your product is listed in across Gartner Digital Markets sites.

Background on intent signals

B2B Intent generates a list of the most recent company records showing intent for your product listing, as well as intent signals for each of those company records.

This list is based on company user traffic on Gartner Digital Markets sites (Capterra, GetApp, and Software Advice),