What is the difference between first-party and third-party intent data?

First-party intent data is activity on properties you own, such as your website, emails and webinars. Third-party intent data is activity elsewhere: content consumed across publisher networks, or what buyers say and do publicly in communities, social networks and job boards. First-party data only covers buyers who already know you; third-party data finds buyers before they reach your site.

What are buying signals in B2B sales?

Buying signals are events that make a purchase more likely in the near term: a funding round, a new leader in the buying function, a hiring spree for a relevant team, a technology change, a public complaint about an incumbent vendor, or a direct request for recommendations in a community.

How do intent data providers differ?

Mainly by where the signal comes from. Publisher co-op providers such as Bombora measure topic research across a network of sites. Review-site providers such as G2 report category and competitor browsing. Predictive ABM platforms such as 6sense combine sources into account-level buying stages. Public-signal platforms such as Recepto read what buyers say and do in public — posts, threads, hires and announcements — and attach named decision makers.

Is intent data accurate?

Accuracy depends on the signal type. Topic-surge data is account-level and probabilistic, so it is best used to prioritise. Explicit public signals, such as a post asking for vendor recommendations or a job post naming a tool, are directly verifiable, so they can be acted on individually. Ask any provider to show the source evidence behind a signal.

How much does intent data cost?

Enterprise intent and ABM platforms are usually sold on annual contracts with custom pricing. Recepto publishes its prices: PlayList plans start at $1,199 per quarter, and an annual Enterprise plan with no lead limit is $24,999 per year. See recepto.ai/pricing for current details.

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Guide

B2B Intent Data: Types, Providers and Buying Signals

What B2B intent data is, the four kinds of intent signal (first-party, review-site, publisher co-op and public conversation signals), how providers differ, and how to choose one.

Recepto Updated October 18, 2026

What is B2B intent data?

B2B intent data is behavioural evidence that a company is researching, or getting ready to buy, a product in your category. It tells a sales team which accounts to call this week, and often who to call and what to say, instead of working a static list in alphabetical order.

The evidence comes from four places: your own website, review sites, publisher networks, and the public conversations buyers have on LinkedIn, Reddit, Slack communities, forums and job boards. Each source sees a different slice of the buying journey, which is why two providers can disagree about the same account and both be right.

The four kinds of intent data

Type	Where it comes from	What it tells you	Blind spot
First-party	Your website, emails, webinars, product	Which known accounts are engaging with you	Buyers who have not found you yet
Review-site (second-party)	Software review and comparison sites	Who is comparing vendors in your category	Only buyers who research on that site
Publisher co-op (third-party)	Content consumption across a network of B2B publishers	Accounts whose research on a topic is spiking above baseline	Account-level and probabilistic; no named person or reason
Public conversation signals (third-party)	LinkedIn, Reddit, Slack communities, forums, X, job boards, news	A specific, verifiable event or statement from a buyer	Only what is said or done in public

Most teams start with first-party data because it is free, then discover it only covers buyers who already know them. Third-party data exists to find the rest. The two third-party kinds answer different questions: a topic surge says this account is reading about the problem; a public signal says this person just said they need a solution.

Buying signals that matter

A buying signal is an event that makes a purchase more likely in the near term. The strongest ones are specific, recent and tied to a person who can act on them:

Funding rounds — new budget, and a board expecting it to be spent.
Key hires — a new leader in the buying function usually reviews the stack in their first 90 days.
Team expansion — a burst of job posts for a function signals new tooling needs.
Technology changes — adopting or dropping a tool creates adjacent needs.
Competitor complaints — public frustration with an incumbent vendor.
Recommendation requests — a direct question in a community: "what do you use for X?"
Expansion and restructuring — new offices, M&A, compliance deadlines.

A single signal is a reason to look. Two or three signals on the same account in the same month, from an account that fits your ideal customer profile, is a reason to reach out today.

How intent data providers differ

Providers are best compared by the signal they are built on, not by their feature lists:

Publisher co-op data (for example Bombora) measures topic research across a network of B2B publisher sites and flags accounts whose consumption surges above their historical baseline.
Review-site intent (for example G2 Buyer Intent) reports which accounts are browsing your category, your profile or your competitors' profiles.
Predictive ABM platforms (for example 6sense and Demandbase) combine several sources into account-level buying stages for marketing and ad targeting.
Contact databases with intent add-ons (for example ZoomInfo) attach intent topics to a large contact and company database.
Public-signal platforms (for example Recepto and Common Room) read what buyers say and do in public — posts, threads, hires, announcements — and tie each signal to an account and a person.

For a provider-by-provider comparison, see the best intent data providers for B2B.

How to choose an intent data provider

Start from the motion. Ad targeting and ABM programmes need account-level coverage; outbound SDR teams need a named person and a reason to reach out.
Ask for the evidence. For any signal, can the provider show the source — the post, the job ad, the article? Signals you cannot verify are hard to personalise.
Check freshness. A buying signal decays in days. Ask how quickly a new signal reaches your CRM.
Check ICP filtering. A surge from an account outside your ICP is noise. The provider should filter before you see it, not after.
Price on outcomes. Prefer pricing tied to the leads you actually use over a flat licence for data you may not work.
Run a pilot against pipeline. Two to four weeks, measured on meetings and pipeline created, not on the number of signals delivered.

Where Recepto fits

Recepto is a public-signal platform. It monitors LinkedIn, Reddit, Slack communities, forums, X, job boards and news for 60+ buying signals, filters them against your ICP, scores each lead 0–100 on signal strength and fit, and attaches up to 10 named decision makers with verified contact details. Results sync to HubSpot and Salesforce, and outreach can run from the same place.

It comes as two products. PlayList runs the signals you choose across your whole market and tells you who to put in the funnel this week. WatchList tracks the accounts you name, exhaustively, so deals already in your pipeline close faster. Prices are published on the pricing page.

Recepto is not a website-visitor tracker or a static contact database. Teams often run it alongside first-party tracking: first-party data covers the buyers who found you, Recepto finds the ones who have not.

See plans and pricing · Read case studies · Talk to us

Frequently asked questions

What is B2B intent data?: B2B intent data is behavioural evidence that a company, or a person at it, is researching or preparing to buy a product in your category. It comes from activity on your own website, on review sites, across publisher networks, and in public conversations such as LinkedIn posts, Reddit threads, Slack communities and job posts.
What is the difference between first-party and third-party intent data?: First-party intent data is activity on properties you own, such as your website, emails and webinars. Third-party intent data is activity elsewhere: content consumed across publisher networks, or what buyers say and do publicly in communities, social networks and job boards. First-party data only covers buyers who already know you; third-party data finds buyers before they reach your site.
What are buying signals in B2B sales?: Buying signals are events that make a purchase more likely in the near term: a funding round, a new leader in the buying function, a hiring spree for a relevant team, a technology change, a public complaint about an incumbent vendor, or a direct request for recommendations in a community.
How do intent data providers differ?: Mainly by where the signal comes from. Publisher co-op providers such as Bombora measure topic research across a network of sites. Review-site providers such as G2 report category and competitor browsing. Predictive ABM platforms such as 6sense combine sources into account-level buying stages. Public-signal platforms such as Recepto read what buyers say and do in public — posts, threads, hires and announcements — and attach named decision makers.
Is intent data accurate?: Accuracy depends on the signal type. Topic-surge data is account-level and probabilistic, so it is best used to prioritise. Explicit public signals, such as a post asking for vendor recommendations or a job post naming a tool, are directly verifiable, so they can be acted on individually. Ask any provider to show the source evidence behind a signal.
How much does intent data cost?: Enterprise intent and ABM platforms are usually sold on annual contracts with custom pricing. Recepto publishes its prices: PlayList plans start at $1,199 per quarter, and an annual Enterprise plan with no lead limit is $24,999 per year. See recepto.ai/pricing for current details.