Most of today’s B2B customers conduct the majority of their buying journey through anonymous online research.
Any account-based platform worth investing in today uses intent data to shine a light on this activity and match it to specific accounts. Otherwise, you’re left with the 3% of website visitors who fill in forms and self-identify on your website. It’s important to note that the data is tied to accounts, not to individuals.
Intent data is a combination of signals that are generated when people search the web, visit your site, and visit third-party sites that share data. In the case of B2B buying groups, this combined data can reveal which companies are in-market for your solution (i.e., considering a purchase).
But is intent data GDPR-compliant?
First-Party Intent Data
First-party intent data is uncovered by activities on your website, or the data you already have in your CRM. To identify the activities of potential customers, your account identification solution will need access to this data.
To remain compliant, as the controller of PII, it’s up to you to follow the appropriate steps when sharing this data — including obtaining consent where required.
Third-Party Intent Data
What about the data generated when accounts are conducting research on websites that aren’t yours, such as online trade publications, blogs, forums, and communities?
Uncovering this third-party data is essential to better understand your in-market prospects. But whether or not that data is GDPR-compliant will come down to your account identification solution provider.
If you’re intending on using an account-based approach in Europe, always check that potential providers have the appropriate safeguards to process PII and source third-party intent data in compliance with GDPR.
Turning Data Into Insights
With the right safeguards in place, providers of intent data will match an intent signal to an account. For example, intent signals might show:
- Whether “Acme Industries” is conducting research on ABM
- What keywords were viewed
- When the research was conducted
The intent signal doesn’t identify anonymous visitors at the “person” level, but surfaces account-level activity, meaning there are no blurred lines with personal data.
