Intent data vs hiring signals
Both predict who's in-market — but they're built from very different evidence.
Intent data
Intent data typically infers interest from content consumption — which companies are researching a topic across the web. It's broad and early, but noisy and often anonymous at the account level, and you rarely see the underlying evidence.
Hiring signals
Hiring signals observe a concrete commitment: a company spending money to staff an initiative. They're public, verifiable (you can read the job posting), and map cleanly to a specific need. The trade-off is that they fire when a company is building capacity, which is often exactly when they buy.
Which should you use?
They're complementary. Intent data can widen the top of your funnel; hiring signals give you specific, defensible, well-timed triggers with evidence attached. For outbound that needs a credible "why now," hiring signals are hard to beat.
Frequently asked questions
- Are hiring signals more accurate than intent data?
- They're more concrete and verifiable because each signal is backed by a public job posting. Intent data is broader but noisier and usually anonymized.
- Can I use both together?
- Yes. Many teams use intent data to widen the funnel and hiring signals to prioritize and time outreach with a credible reason.