In the last week alone, I’ve seen at least 10 LinkedIn posts from thought leaders hyping up the “latest buyer intent signals” you need to watch in 2025.
Typically, these include:
👉 Topics and keywords searched
👉 Website visits
👉 Pricing page views
👉 Firmographic changes
👉 Technographic changes
👉 People & fundraising movements
👉 Contact ID resolution
👉 Integrations combining all of these ^^^
These are all interesting and have a place in your strategy.
But they’re directional. They’re signs of life. But they’re not precise enough to act on effectively or efficiently.
When it comes to actually finding buyers who are ready to convert right now, they’re missing the mark.
Here’s why, and how you can fix it while still making great use of all these signals:
About the Author
Don Simpson has spent 25 years converting web visitors into revenue. From founding MarketLinc, which delivered millions in sales for brands like Xerox and Symantec and where he pioneered pay-for-performance live-chat sales, to Lift AI which he created in 2019. Lift AI, a model trained on billions of client-audited behavioral signals and hundreds of millions of purchases, now pinpoints high-intent buyers in real time for companies like Okta, Boomi, and Payscale.
The False Promise of Buyer Intent Data
Here are some common examples, and what’s wrong with each:
- “Oh, this account searched for “Project Management Software” last week, they must be interested”
Sure, someone at that company searched for a word that relates to what you sell. But was it the CFO doing research for next quarter’s budget? The marketing intern writing a blog post? And even if it was your buyer, it doesn’t tell you where they are right now in their journey with you. It’s a guess, not a real-time indicator that they’re sales ready.
- “They just raised funding — they must be shopping!”
Funding announcements are like a green light for sales teams everywhere. But just because an account has money doesn’t mean they’re spending it on you. Maybe they’re focused on hiring. Maybe they’re investing in infrastructure or marketing. Maybe your product isn’t even on their radar.It’s a great account-level indicator that they might be in growth mode. But it’s directional at best.
- “They visited our pricing page — they wouldn’t do that unless they’re about to convert!”
We’ve seen this play out time and time again. The pricing page myth is real. The truth is, the majority of high-intent buyers don’t even visit the pricing page — 88% to be exact. And for the visitors that do land on that page? Up to 94% aren’t in buying mode at all. They’re competitors snooping around. They’re customers looking for support or to cancel. They’re researchers gathering data. Just because they glanced at the pricing page doesn’t mean they’re about to sign a deal.
I could do this for every other signal on the market right now.
And if you’re using these signals to prioritize your sales team’s efforts, you could be losing sales while wasting time and money.
Why Is This Happening? The Limits of Traditional Buyer Intent Signals
Most of these signals come from third-party data vendors who cobble together bits and pieces of offsite data. It’s information that is directionally helpful, but it’s far from precise.
Why?
- They’re often inaccurate
These databases are often riddled with inaccuracies and outdated info. If you’ve ever tried to chase a lead only to find they’re no longer at the company — or worse, never worked there in the first place — you know what I’m talking about. - They’re not precise enough
Signals like “this company raised funding” or “someone searched for your category” tell you something, but they don’t tell you enough to piece together a genuine view of intent. They’re broad strokes. - You can’t just add them all together.
It’s tempting to think that if you combine enough of these signals, you’ll get a clear picture. But that’s not how data works. Piling up low-confidence data points doesn’t magically turn them into a high-confidence signal. - They only work for identified accounts and contacts.
And this might be the biggest limitation of all: these signals only work if you know who’s shopping you. If you can’t ID them, these signals are worthless. And considering that 70%+ of your website traffic is anonymous on any given day, that’s a massive blindspot. Plus, knowing who an account or contact is doesn’t magically mean they’re ready to buy…
The bottom line is that traditional intent signals are best for outbound prospecting and seeing signs of life — not for finding and converting actual buyers.
The real buyer intent — the kind that actually turns visitors into revenue — is already hiding right under your nose - on your website.
The Moment of Truth: Micro-Behaviors On Your Website Are The #1 Source Of Actionable Buyer Intent Data
Your website is the only place in your tech stack where you have a high enough volume of first-party data (data you own, data you control, data you can see behind) to draw statistically significant buyer intent data.
It’s in the hundreds of “micro behaviors” demonstrated by every single website visitor in real-time, as they navigate through your website.
This is the key to understanding exactly who’s ready to buy right now — and who’s just window shopping.
Only machine learning can process this kind of data, and Lift AI is the only buyer intent technology on the market that can do it. It’s pre-trained on billions of data points and millions of sales to understand what patterns of behavior lead to purchase, and what don’t. It determines this with a “buyer intent score” which is assigned and updated in real-time.
But you might be thinking “we already have a website signal!” - let me explain what’s wrong with it first.
The Problem with ‘Website Visits’ and ‘Pricing Page Views’ as a Signal
Finding out that an account visited your website is helpful. But that’s a drop in the ocean.
So some tools take it one step further. They tell you if someone visited your pricing page.
I mentioned this earlier on the article, but it’s worth repeating because this is probably the biggest mistake happening in the buyer intent market right now:
- 88% of high-intent visitors never even visit your pricing page
- And up to 94% of pricing page visitors? They’re not actually buyers at all
So if you’re spending marketing and sales time (or retargeting $) on pricing page visitors, you’re wasting your time and money 19 out of 20 times.
And the same is true for any other page you consider “high intent”, like the product page.
The reality is that you have potential buyers across your whole website. The problem is that existing buyer intent tools aren’t sophisticated enough to find them accurately, because none of them are entirely modeled around micro-behaviors.
The Other Big Problem: Relying on ID Resolution
On average, 70% of your website visitors are anonymous - even if you’re running an ID resolution software to uncover accounts and contacts.
And without an ID resolution, NONE of your existing buyer intent data comes into play on your website.
These are the visitors your sales team never even sees.
But anonymous visitors are your biggest, easiest, and fastest source of pipeline and revenue right now - if only you could find and convert them.
Here’s The Irrefutable Proof
👉 Chronus uncovered 85% of their pipeline from completely anonymous visitors that their ABM tools couldn’t see
👉 Payscale uncovered 54% of their pipeline from completely anonymous visitors that their ABM tools couldn’t see, and they converted 9x more efficiently
If you’re only prioritizing visitors you can match to an account or contact, you’re ignoring the majority of your revenue potential.
So if you could do nothing else right now, you should use Lift AI to find and convert the anonymous buyers you’re completely missing right now.
But it’s more than that. Using Lift AI buyer intent scores to power your tech stack can get you results like:
🔥 Truckstop got a 3.8x ROI and $55k in new ARR month one, then a 27x ROI and $286k in new ARR by month five, while their sales team converted high-intent visitors at 9.72% (vs 3.28% for general traffic)
🔥 Fluke Biomedical found that only 6.3% of high intent visitors were going to the pricing page. After implementing based on intent, rather than pages, Fluke got a 246% increase in revenue per conversation and 345% increase in revenue per site visitor overall
🔥Loopio booked 733% more meetings in the first month after adding Lift AI to their conversational marketing tool
🔥RealVNC doubled their retargeting leads from the same budget, reducing their cost per lead by 67% in the process
And there’s many more case studies just like this on our website.
You Should Still Use Your Existing Buyer Intent Signals, But Prioritize What Matters
Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying you should ditch your ABM tools or your existing buyer intent data. Layer them in! They’re valuable at the account level. Simply add Lift AI’s buyer intent scores to your account data to make it even more precise, and actionable.
If you know that an account visited your website and has a high intent Lift AI score, you should ring the alarm bells and prioritize them immediately, while interest is at its peak.
Because when someone is on your website, Lift AI is the strongest possible buyer intent signal you can use to find and convert them.
If you’re not prioritizing this (if you’re still leaning on firmographics, keywords searched, pricing page views, etc) you’re missing the biggest opportunity you have to grow your pipeline and revenue right now.
Want to see what real buyer intent looks like in action?
Request a free 30-day Proof of Concept with Lift AI to see how you can turn anonymous traffic into pipeline, in real time, while adding it to your known accounts and contacts to get much stronger results.
