The Forrester Wave™: B2B Intent Data Providers, Q2 2023

B2B Intent Data Providers Vendor Product Comparisons 2023

Key features and pros and cons of top B2B Intent Data Providers products:

6sense - Leaders

Pros:

Deep analytics capabilities that deliver advanced insights at scale with minimal technical skills required
Exceptional technology infrastructure that excels at decoding anonymous traffic
Outstanding ecosystem of partner providers with 'bring your own data' strategy
Strong integrations and exceptional geographic coverage including intent capture in more than 40 languages
Scores at least on par with competitors in every category

Cons:

Roadmap focuses heavily on expanded ABM activation capabilities that fall outside core intent data scope

Bombora - Leaders

Pros:

Company Surge methodology has become the de facto industry standard for noise filtering
Exclusive co-op of more than 5,000 sites with exclusivity agreements negotiated with 87% of sites
Deep access to page details and reader activity difficult to replicate at scale through other collection strategies
Outstanding accuracy and differentiated means of capturing B2B intent
Strongest buying cycle analysis in the industry
Entire product roadmap dedicated to improving core intent offering

Cons:

Lack of ability to capture signals in languages other than English limits global delivery strategy
Data focuses exclusively on accounts, requiring pairing with another provider for contact-level targeting
Customers wished for more granular options at keyword level and greater signal volume in EMEA and APAC

Madison Logic - Leaders

Pros:

Ability to support a broad range of industries
Excellent support of customer marketing use cases
Strong options for data delivery
Unlimited access to intent data offering for clients regardless of media activation spend level
One of the strongest roadmaps including advanced AI capabilities, new data privacy and compliance module, and more developed reporting tools
Ability to deliver in niche markets and overall success in pipeline generation

Cons:

Reliance on licensed data for a significant portion of core intent offering
Intent data is not the primary focus - it supplements a larger base of licensed data from other providers

TechTarget - Leaders

Pros:

Ability to deliver opt-in contact-level intent, which is nearly unique in the market
Signals rarely duplicative among other providers given exclusive capture from owned media
Analytics capabilities exceed those of other walled-garden providers
Largest of the walled-garden providers delivering unique signals from users at scale that others cannot match
Significant activation capabilities more commonly found in ABM platforms or campaign execution firms
Outstanding customer service and support highlighted consistently by reference customers

Cons:

Narrow industry focus prevents serving as primary intent provider for organizations selling products outside those industry product categories
Roadmap focused almost exclusively on intent activation rather than enhancements to core intent data
Shares the limitation all walled gardens face with narrow industry coverage

Anteriad - Strong Performers

Pros:

Diverse set of captured intent signal types
Advanced noise filtering
Strong options for data delivery
Outstanding achievement in data security and privacy certifications
Innovation including advancements in future-proofed compliant capture of proprietary signals and strong B2B identity graph
Service and support, data accuracy, and level of granular detail available in campaign targeting

Cons:

Reporting capabilities currently lag the Leaders
Lack of geographic coverage may be a concern for global clients
Overall vision as a full-service provider is not differentiated
English-only signal capture limits ability to be primary provider for global organizations

Demandbase - Strong Performers

Pros:

Exceptional scale of data collection
Excellent accuracy and identity resolution
Strong buying cycle analysis
One of the most detailed and intent-specific roadmaps including significant advancements to inferred buying groups and next-generation web crawler capabilities
Praised by reference customers for both available volume and accuracy of intent signals
Success in capturing activity that others missed

Cons:

Lags in precision of intent geolocation (displaying signals only at level of country or census area)
Lacks non-English signals
Dependence on English-language signal capture limits ability to support global campaign needs in some countries

Intentsify - Strong Performers

Pros:

Sophistication of analytics including advanced buying cycle analysis
Unique application of natural language processing to provide weighted ranking of client's most critical keywords
Impressive roadmap of intent-specific development tied to established customer needs including advanced AI and deeper automation
Development of highly customized scoring models for each customer solution
Impressive success in targeting, willingness to customize, and ability to simplify complexities of managing intent

Cons:

Product lacks any contact or buying group analysis
Lags more mature competitors in achieving advanced data security and privacy certifications
Limited by English-only capture of intent signals
Needs to grow limited partner ecosystem and increase ability to deliver globally through expanded geographic coverage

MRP - Strong Performers

Pros:

Impressive geographic coverage capturing large volumes of intent signals from EMEA, APAC, and LATAM across more than 20 languages
Scale of signals it can leverage including enormous volume from custom models and competitor data from clients
Deep buying cycle analytics
Global team of local language speakers supports large international capability
Willingness to dig into specific markets and geographies to identify sources of intent

Cons:

Reporting capabilities and data delivery lag others evaluated
Customers cannot purchase intent data as a standalone feed
Partner ecosystem is limited
Much of roadmap focuses on enhancements to intent activation outside scope of evaluation
Requires resources to invest in highly customized solution

ZoomInfo - Strong Performers

Pros:

Strength in account identity resolution
Outstanding flexibility for data delivery
Diverse range of collection methodologies
Large market footprint and extensive partner ecosystem
Comprehensive functionality of data platform and willingness to develop and launch requested features
Roadmap includes attractive new features like cross-topic clusters and deeper insights leveraging sales performance

Cons:

Least unique method (bidstream) makes up majority of available data
While providing diverse collection methodologies, the data differentiation is limited

DemandScience - Contenders

Pros:

Diverse mix of data sources
Effectiveness in demand generation and ability to scale efforts to drive pipeline
Recent enhancements to user platform
Ability to serve large enterprise clients while offering appealing fit for SMB market
Promising roadmap including support for intent in multiple languages and new platform

Cons:

English-only intent capture and lack of strong partner ecosystem are limiting factors
Less sophisticated UI
Lack of geographic coverage
References paired DemandScience with other intent providers for broader industry and geographic coverage
Unlikely to be primary intent provider for larger enterprises
New platform did not release in time for consideration in evaluation

Foundry - Contenders

Pros:

Intriguing mix of proprietary signals from publishing properties
Solid multilanguage intent capture
Inferred intent at the contact/buying group level
Strong international support
Solid partner ecosystem
KickFire ID resolution service leveraged by other providers
Granular data in the IT space and diverse sources of signals

Cons:

Lags others in expanding reporting and data delivery options
Narrow focus beyond technology-related industries
Undergoing transformation from acquisitions with unclear roadmap
Considered by reference customers as part of larger mix of intent sources, not sole or primary provider
Recency of major acquisitions still cloud the roadmap

G2 - Contenders

Pros:

Highly differentiated set of signals
Addresses existing customer use cases well
Outstanding partner ecosystem
Strong data integration strategy
Ease of slicing and dicing data inside the platform
Important late-stage, highly qualified signals for software shoppers

Cons:

Narrow industry focus limits potential customer base
Decision not to offer direct contact-level intent signals despite walled-garden community is a missed opportunity
Not positioned as primary source of intent
Intent-specific roadmap less developed than others evaluated
Limited to software industry

Spiceworks Ziff Davis - Contenders

Pros:

Differentiated intent data set from activity on owned media properties including Spiceworks editorial content, IT tools, and opt-in community
Enticing vision as unique provider of proprietary intent signals in technology and communications space
Highly detailed data in technology space according to references of other providers who are also SWZD customers

Cons:

Vision is still largely a work in progress
Limited reporting capabilities or partner integrations compared with competitors
Chose not to demonstrate current offering, focusing instead on new platform under development
Did not provide current references
Requires more effort to activate than providers with more developed platforms
Full potential still unrealized

TrustRadius - Challengers

Pros:

Simple, direct presentation of late-stage buying behavior that other providers will not likely capture
Valued source of unique signals as second or third intent provider
Data set additive to those from other sources
High-quality late-stage buyer intent

Cons:

Offers little advanced analytics or reporting
Has not yet pursued opt-in contact-level intent
Intent data production is not core to vision; it's a byproduct
More established walled-garden competitors already offer enhancements on current roadmap
Bare-bones strategy

FAQs

Q: Which vendors are Leaders in 2023?

A: 6sense, Bombora, Madison Logic, TechTarget

Q: What does "Leader" mean in Forrester Wave terms?

A: Leaders in the Forrester Wave are vendors that offer the strongest current product offerings and strategic visions in the market. In this B2B Intent Data Providers evaluation, Leaders demonstrate excellence across multiple dimensions including: depth and breadth of intent data coverage, sophisticated analytics capabilities, strong accuracy and noise filtering, comprehensive data delivery options, differentiated collection methodologies, and the ability to serve as a primary intent provider for organizations with diverse use cases across marketing and sales. Leaders scored at or near the top in both current offering (vertical axis) and strategy (horizontal axis) dimensions.

Q: How do I interpret a Forrester Wave?

A: https://www.forrester.com/policies/forrester-wave-methodology/

Report:

Top Vendor Products for B2B Intent Data Providers in 2023

B2B Intent Data Providers Vendor Product Comparisons 2023

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FAQs

Q: Which vendors are Leaders in 2023?

Q: What does "Leader" mean in Forrester Wave terms?

Q: How do I interpret a Forrester Wave?

Reference