• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, April 5, 2022

Few ideas have drawn as much comment over the past several years as intent data. But how many firms are using it — and are they good at it? 

Relatively few have put an intent data program into place, but those that have are effective, judging by The Outlook On Intent Data, a study by Ascend2.  

On the positive side, 69% rate themselves as somewhat successful at using intent data, and 20% rate it as best in class. Only 11% say they are unsuccessful.  

But a mere 15% say their effectiveness has increased significantly in the past 12 months, versus 67% who report moderate improvement. And 18% say it has decreased, 2% significantly. 

Their biggest challenge seems to be deciding on a plan: 

• Creating an overall strategy — 47% 
• Integrating with other data — 39% 
• Deriving meaningful insights — 39% 
• The right intent data solution — 38% 
• Obtaining the data — 35%
• Taking action on insights — 28%
• Maintaining data privacy compliance — 26% 

Perhaps because of these issues, relatively few firms are fully utilizing intent data:  

• We have intent data implemented and integrated into our overall strategy — 25% 
• We are currently in the process of implementing intent data into our strategy — 19% 
• We plan to implement the use of intent data in the next 12 months — 17% 
• We would like to use intent data but have not started the process — 19% 
• We do not use intent data and have no plans to — 18% 
• We used intent data and stopped — 2% 

But budgets are going up: 12% expect their intent data spend to rise by more than 10%, and 42% expect it to increase by up to 10%. Another 40% foresee no change, and 6% are eyeing decreases, with 2% expecting it to decline by more than 10%. 

Email is one of the top two most actionable ways to use intent data: 

• Delivering targeted ad content — 52% 
• Email marketing — 47% 
• Personalization — 44% 
• Crafting messaging/content — 36% 
• Events/field marketing — 23% 
• Account-based initiatives — 21% 
• Creating landing pages — 20% 
• Informing automation campaigns — 17%

But most are at least hopeful that intent data will help them achieve their marketing strategy goals in the next 12 months:

• Confident — 38% 
• Hopeful — 40% 
• Indifferent — 6% 
• Cautious — 15% 
• Doubtful — 1% 

Of the companies polled, 51% use a combination of in-house and outsourced resources, 44% use in-house resources only, and 5% outsource to a specialist.  

Ascend2 surveyed 337 marketers between March 20, 2022 and March 28, 2022. Of these, 25% were B2B, 45% B2C and 30% were B2B and B2C equally combined.

In addition, 64% were in companies with fewer than 50 employees, with 24% in those with 50 to 500 and 12% in firms with more than 500 employees.