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B2B Intent Data and Buying Signals: Examples and Sources (2026)

Intent data tells you which accounts research your category. Buying signals tell you what just changed at an account. Where each comes from, what each cannot tell you, and 15 examples you can pull by API.

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Start FreeSee buying signals examples

Definition

What B2B intent data is, and what it is not

B2B intent data is behavioral information that suggests which companies research topics related to your product. When people at one company read much more than usual about “data enrichment platforms”, an intent provider flags the company as surging on that topic.

It is an inference built on reading activity, not firmographic, technographic or contact data. It answers one question: which companies show more research in our category right now?

It can tell you

  • Which accounts research your category, so you work a short list first.
  • Which topics surge, compared with the account's normal level.
  • Competitive research, when an account surges on a competitor's topics.
  • Where to spend ad budget for display, web personalization and ABM.

It cannot tell you

  • Why they research: a real evaluation, a student, an analyst or a competitor.
  • Who researches: most intent stops at the company.
  • What triggered it: a new round, a new leader or a failed tool. Signals answer that.
  • Something to quote: you cannot cite the article they read. You can cite a filing or a hire.

How it works

Where intent comes from and how a surge is scored

The source decides accuracy, freshness and privacy risk. The score is only as good as the baseline behind it. For vendors by source, pricing and a twelve-question checklist, read buyer intent data providers compared.

Five sources

  • Publisher co-opsCompany

    Member B2B sites share reading activity through a tag.

  • Publisher and review sitesCompany, sometimes the person

    One company records activity on the sites it owns.

  • BidstreamCompany

    Ad auction requests, mapped from IP address to company.

  • Your own website and productCompany and person

    Visits, downloads, trials and usage you record yourself.

  • Public business eventsCompany and person

    Funding, filings, hires, reviews and posts, each with a date and a source.

How a surge score is built

  1. 1

    Map pages to topics

    Each article, review page or download is tagged with topics from a fixed list.

  2. 2

    Count by company and week

    Readers are matched to a company, and activity per topic is counted.

  3. 3

    Compare with that company's baseline

    A surge means more than its own normal level. Market Pulse, for example, uses a 12-week baseline.

  4. 4

    Flag and decay

    Scores above a threshold are flagged. They fade as the research stops, so a surge is only news for a short time.

B2B buying signals

Buying signals examples

Each row is a buying signal, what it can mean for a seller, and the signal_types value that returns it from the Signal API. Where we publish a company page for that kind of event, the last column links a real example.

  • A company researches your category more than usual

    Active research on your category, often before a vendor is picked

    buyer intent · composite score 0-100, weekly

    Buyer intent signals →

  • Funding round or new Form D filing

    New budget and a plan to grow

    news · receives_financing; sec-form-d-funding · newFilingCompany

    SEC Form D funding →Flex

  • New executive hired or promoted

    New leaders review vendors and set new priorities

    news · hires, promotes

    News events →Apple

  • CEO, CFO or CRO change in an 8-K

    A leadership change the company had to disclose

    sec-8k · ceoChange, cfoChange, croChange

    SEC 8-K current reports →Microsoft

  • Your contact changes jobs

    A past buyer or champion lands at a new account

    work-milestones · jobChange, promotion

    Job changes →

  • Hiring in one department

    The team you sell to is growing

    hiring-trends · hiringSalesRoles (one subtype per department)

    Hiring trends →Nvidia

  • Hiring speeds up overall

    The company is in a growth phase

    hiring-velocity

    Hiring velocity →

  • Acquisition or merger

    Systems and vendors get consolidated

    news · acquires, merges_with; sec-8k · acquisitionAnnounced

    SEC 8-K current reports →Amazon

  • Layoffs or restructuring

    Cost focus: some tools get cut, some get bought to do more with less

    news · decreases_headcount_by; sec-8k · layoffs

    News events →Google

  • Priorities named on an earnings call

    Management states goals and spend areas in its own words

    earnings-transcripts

    Earnings transcripts →

  • Reddit post asking for a recommendation

    People compare tools or plan to switch. The signal names the company discussed

    reddit-company · buyingIntent, customerFeedback

    Reddit mentions →

  • New G2 review of a product

    Praise or pain with a current vendor, in public

    product-reviews

    G2 product reviews →

  • Executive LinkedIn post

    A leader names a problem or a goal in public

    linkedin-post-contact

    LinkedIn contact signals →

  • Podcast appearance

    An executive talks about pain points or buying criteria

    podcast-contact · painPointDisclosed, buyingCriteria

    Podcast appearances →

  • Federal contract award

    New funded work that the company must now deliver

    federal-contract-award

    Federal contract awards →

One signal is a hint. Two or three at the same account are a pattern: a Form D filing, then sales roles, then a new CRO is a company building a sales team. Combine signals with fit (industry, size, region) before you act. All 35 signal types and 700+ subtypes are in the signal catalog.

The difference

Intent data vs. buying signals

Intent data answers “who is researching?” Buying signals answer “what happened?” They do different jobs, and the best teams use both.

  • Question it answers

    Intent: Who is researching topics related to our product?

    Signals: What just changed at this company that creates a reason to buy?

  • What it is

    Intent: Research activity rolled up to the account over a time window

    Signals: Discrete events with a date and a source

  • Level

    Intent: Mostly account level

    Signals: Account level and person level (a new VP, an executive's post)

  • Use in outreach

    Intent: Hard to quote: "I noticed your team is researching CRM tools" sounds like surveillance

    Signals: Easy to quote: "Congrats on the Series C last week" is specific and checkable

  • Best for

    Intent: Ranking a large account list

    Signals: Timing, message and the reason to reach out now

How teams use both

  1. 1. Intent ranks the list. Acme surges on “revenue intelligence”.
  2. 2. Signals explain why. A new VP Sales, sales roles open and a funding round last month.
  3. 3. The message names the event, not the surge. “Congrats on the round and on the new VP Sales. New sales leaders often review the stack in their first months.”
Signal-based selling framework →

By API

Pull intent and buying signals from one API

One Signal API key returns both. The buyer intent endpoints return companies and contacts by topic, from Five by Five's Market Pulse co-op. The search endpoints return companies with the events you choose. AI SDR tools and research agents call the same data through the MCP server.

This call returns companies with a funding story, a new executive or a CEO change in an 8-K since September 1. Each company returned costs 2 credits; a call with no results is free.

curl -X POST https://signals.autobound.ai/v1/companies/search \
  -H "X-API-KEY: $AUTOBOUND_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "signal_types": ["news","sec-8k"],
    "signal_subtypes": ["receives_financing","hires","ceoChange"],
    "detected_after": "2026-09-01T00:00:00Z",
    "limit": 25
  }'
  • POST /v1/companies/search

    Companies with events of the types you pass. Reference

  • POST /v1/buyer-intent/companies

    Companies surging on up to 10 topics. Reference

  • POST /v1/buyer-intent/contacts

    Contacts showing intent on your topics. Reference

  • New accounts get 1,000 free credits. Pricing

  • API key

    Call the Signal API

    Sign up and get 1,000 free credits. You pay per result, and a call with no results is free.

    Start Free

  • MCP server

    Ask from Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor

    Add the Autobound MCP server and sign in with the same account. Your AI assistant can then search signals and intent for you.

    Use it in Claude via MCP

  • No key needed

    Browse free lists

    See the data before you sign up: lists of recent funding rounds, layoffs, executive changes and SEC filings, built from the same feeds.

    Open free data

FAQ

B2B intent data and buying signals: questions

What is B2B intent data?
B2B intent data is information that suggests a company is researching a product category. It comes from reading activity on publisher co-ops, activity on review sites, ad auction data and your own website. Providers roll the activity up to the account and flag accounts that research a topic more than their own normal level.
What are examples of buying signals?
Common buying signals are a funding round or new SEC Form D filing, a new executive, a champion who changes jobs, hiring in a department, an acquisition, layoffs, priorities named on an earnings call, a Reddit post that asks for a recommendation, and a new review of a current vendor. The table on this page maps each example to its Signal API signal type and a page with the full field list.
What are B2B buying signals?
B2B buying signals are events at a company that make a purchase more likely soon. Unlike an intent score, each signal is a fact with a date and a source, such as an 8-K filing or a news article. That makes it easy to check and to quote in outreach.
What is buying signals data?
Buying signals data is a structured feed of those events. Each record names the company or person, the signal type and subtype, the date it was detected and the source. Autobound delivers 35 signal types and 700+ subtypes through one Signal API, an MCP server for AI assistants, GCS or flat file.
What is the difference between intent data and buying signals?
Intent data estimates who is researching a topic. Buying signals record what changed at a company. Intent is good for ranking a large account list. Signals are good for timing and for the first line of a message, because the rep can name the event. Many teams use intent to rank accounts and signals to decide when and what to write.
How is an intent surge score calculated?
The provider tags pages with topics, matches readers to companies, counts each company's activity per topic per week and compares it with that company's own baseline. A score above a threshold is a surge. On Five by Five's Market Pulse, which powers Autobound's buyer intent endpoints, the composite score runs from 0 to 100 against a 12-week baseline, and 60 or more counts as surging.
Can intent data identify individual buyers?
Usually not. Most third-party intent resolves to the company. Some providers attach people to an account by job title, which is a guess, not an observation. Direct person-level evidence comes from your own site and product, from review sites where people are logged in, and from signals tied to a named person, such as a job change or a public post.
How do AI sales tools use buying signals?
AI sales tools and AI SDR agents read buying signals as structured data. A tool pulls new signals for its accounts, decides which ones matter for the seller's product, and drafts a message that names the event. The data must be machine-readable and dated, which is why these tools take signals by API or MCP rather than from a dashboard.

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