• by Tony Silber , November 24, 2021

B2B media operators have intensified their focus on data in the last half decade, seeking to enhance their ability to understand audience behavior, convert anonymous visitors to known users and report performance and intent information to their advertisers.

Now Bombora, the aggregator of intent data through the largest co-op of its kind, is rolling out an analytics suite called Company Surge Insights for Publishers. It enables publishers to see and act on data from visualizations that require no specialized knowledge to understand.

Publishers such as Forbes are already using the product to help B2B advertisers get more value out of their audiences. “The ability to show the business makeup of our entire audience is invaluable,” said Forbes senior vice president, digital operations and strategy Alyson Williams in a Bombora press statement.

“The graphics from Company SurgeInsights show us quickly what we need to know. We can easily identify whether  our campaigns overindex on C-suite, enterprise or public-sector professionals, or which categories particularly interest that audience, and where the intent trends are, by company or industry and more.”

Bombora built its Company Surge data from its proprietary, privacy-compliant cooperative of thousands of business websites. The data co-op measures more than 20 billion monthly content-consumption events. It has long informed marketing and sales leaders about who is researching products or services they and their competitors sell.

The company is applying that same technology — learning which of more than 8,000 business topics suddenly interests the employees of millions of organizations — to help publishers gain a deeper understanding of audience purchase intent.

Company Surge Insights for Publishers includes Visitor Insights, a set of visualized reports that unveil demographic and firmographic attributes, as well as topics of interest for a customer’s web visitors. Market Insights reveals broad content trends around topics, industries and accounts. These insights enable publishers to identify unknown users, prepare thorough media kits and sales collateral, identify segments for media planning and learn research interests for editorial, audience development, and events.

Indeed, the technology is used for branded-content as well.

“We can share trending intent topics with our clients to inform not only their program, but also their broader content marketing efforts,” said Claire Robinson, Forbes vice president, content partnerships.

“Now publishers can unlock monetization previously inaccessible without rich audience profile buyer intent data. By demonstrating the full value of their audience beyond their own first-party data, publishers are able to connect their audience to advertisers looking to engage specifically with it,” added Bombora CEO Erik Matlick.