What Is Intent Marketing?
A Complete Guide for
Performance Teams
Intent marketing reaches people based on what they are actively researching right now, not who a demographic model assumes they are. Here is how it works, and how to put it to work.
Intent marketing is a strategy that targets people based on behavior signaling they are actively researching a purchase, rather than on demographics or assumptions about who they are. By acting on real intent signals, marketers reach in-market buyers earlier in the journey and convert them more efficiently.
What is intent marketing?
Intent marketing is an approach that uses data about a person's purchase intentions to target and tailor marketing, rather than relying on broad demographic profiles. Instead of guessing who might want a product, you reach the people whose behavior shows they are already looking for one.
The distinction matters because of when it lets you enter the buying journey. Demographic and lookalike targeting answer "who does this person resemble?" Intent answers "what is this person doing right now?" That shift lets you reach buyers while they are still evaluating, before brand preference hardens and before they ever fill out a form.
You may also see this called intent-based marketing. The two terms mean the same thing and are used interchangeably. Both describe targeting prospects on observed intent instead of static profiles.
Why intent marketing works
Traditional campaigns spend a large share of budget reaching people who are not in the market. Intent marketing narrows spend toward people whose behavior says they are, which is where the efficiency comes from. A few reasons it outperforms broad targeting:
- Better timing. You reach buyers during active research, not after they have already chosen a competitor.
- Less waste. Budget concentrates on people with a genuine, current need, so cost-per-lead drops and return on ad spend climbs.
- More relevance. Messaging maps to where someone actually is in their journey, which is the personalization the majority of buyers now expect.
- Earlier influence. Reaching prospects before competitors do shapes the consideration set while it is still forming.
Active vs passive intent
Not every signal means the same thing. Intent generally splits into two types, and knowing which one you are seeing tells you how to respond.
Ready to buy soon
Specific buying-stage actions: searching exact product names, reading pricing, comparing vendors, requesting demos. Strong purchase signal that warrants direct, conversion-focused messaging.
Earlier in the journey
Broader research: browsing a category, reading explainers, exploring the problem space. Signals interest without immediate readiness, so it calls for educational nurture rather than a hard close.
Where intent sits in the funnel
Intent is the moment the journey turns from interest into evaluation. It is the stage where targeting pays off most.
B2B vs B2C intent data
Intent marketing works for both business and consumer audiences. The behavior you track and the way you reach people differ between them.
Businesses and decision-makers
Identifies companies and the people inside them researching solutions in your category. Useful for SaaS, services, and longer sales motions where you want to capture demand already flowing to competitors.
Individual consumers
Identifies people researching products for personal purchase. Useful for ecommerce and DTC brands looking to attract net-new customers searching category keywords.
With Untitled, both run from a single platform. B2B teams often start from a competitor's URL and let an LLM map the relevant intent topics, while B2C teams search keyword-driven topics across the full topic library.
Where intent data comes from
Buyer intent data is the digital footprint left as someone researches a purchase. It is assembled from several sources, and the strongest programs combine more than one:
- Search behavior, the keywords people use that map directly to a product or category.
- Content consumption, the topics and pages someone engages with across publisher sites around the web.
- On-site activity, how visitors move through your own pages, including pricing views and cart abandonment.
- First-party and CRM data, what you already know about customers and how new prospects resemble your best ones.
- Social and off-site engagement, interactions that signal interest beyond your own properties.
For a deeper reference, including a glossary and a provider checklist, see the Untitled intent data hub and the primer on what intent data is. Learn how to identify website visitors on-site activity.
How to run an intent marketing campaign
Putting intent to work follows a repeatable shape, whether you are a brand or an agency running it for clients:
- Define the signals that matter. Decide which keywords, topics, and competitor terms indicate someone is in-market for what you sell.
- Build the audience. Group the real people behind those signals into a targetable audience rather than a vague segment.
- Match the message to the stage. Use direct, conversion-focused creative for active intent and educational creative for passive intent.
- Activate across channels. Push the audience into the ad platforms where those buyers spend time, without manual list building.
- Measure and refine. Measure cost-per-lead and return on ad spend, then tighten the signal definitions based on what converts.
How Untitled puts intent marketing to work
Untitled gives performance marketers and agencies a direct path from intent signal to live campaign. Search 36,000+ intent topics by keyword, brand, or competitor, build a custom audience from real research behavior, and activate it in a few clicks.
Search 36,000+ topics
Find in-market buyers by keyword, category, brand, or competitor name across billions of live behavioral signals.
Build audiences with real people
Audiences are tied to 300M+ people-based records, not cookies or bots, so targeting holds up as third-party cookie data fades.
Activate instantly
Send audiences straight into Meta, Google, TikTok, and Streaming TV. No CSV exports, no manual syncing.
Target competitors
Enter a competitor URL and an LLM maps the intent topics tied to that business, portable across every paid channel.
Go beyond contextual
Layer in lookalike and ICP models built on enriched, people-based data to expand reach without losing precision.
White-label for clients
Agencies can white-label Untitled and deliver intent audiences under their own brand, with pricing set to meet their margins.
Frequently asked questions
Yes. The terms are used interchangeably and describe the same approach: targeting prospects based on observed purchase intent rather than static demographic profiles.
Active intent is transactional, specific buying-stage actions like searching exact product names or comparing vendors. Passive intent is broader early research, like browsing a category. Active intent signals readiness to buy soon, while passive intent signals someone earlier in the journey.
B2B intent data identifies businesses and decision-makers researching solutions in a category, useful for SaaS and services. B2C intent data identifies individual consumers researching products for personal purchase, useful for ecommerce and DTC brands. Both rely on observed research behavior.
Intent data comes from search behavior, content consumption across publisher sites, on-site activity, CRM and first-party data, and social engagement. Untitled indexes content across 300,000+ U.S. publisher sites and groups it into intent topics tied to real people.
Untitled lets teams search 36,000+ intent topics by keyword, brand, or competitor to build custom audiences from real research behavior, then activate them directly into Meta, Google, TikTok, and Streaming TV. Teams using Untitled have cut cost-per-lead by 37% and seen 4 to 6X average ROAS.
Turn intent into your next campaign
Build audiences from real buyer behavior and activate them across every channel. No credit card, no long setup.
