“Intent data is a deep dive into a target group.” – An interview with Canio Martino

Canio Martino is Chief Operating Officer and Chief Digital Officer at the B2B Media Group. In an interview with cmoatwork.com, he reveals exactly what intent data entails in the B2B sector and how it boosts data-driven marketing.

The scattergun approach is becoming increasingly rare in online marketing. Instead, more and more marketers are deploying targeted advertising using intent data. What exactly does this involve?

Well, first of all, let’s define the term “intent data” for the B2B sector, as it’s used in various ways and can often be misunderstood. Intent data makes it possible to generate digital profiles for decision-makers in the B2B sector. By collating this intent-driven data, B2B decision-makers can be identified and addressed on a long-term basis. Intent data thus makes it possible to reach decision-makers – particularly those in the B2B sector – more accurately than ever before, by using their current and personal interests.

In the world of business, strategic decisions are often taken using the traditional purchase decision-making process. It can therefore be useful to identify the various purchasing phases and provide decision-makers with the information they need for the respective phase.

Many companies face the difficult task of marketing highly complex products. This means that classic sales arguments simply aren’t effective. How can intent data help with this?

Intent data is a deep dive into a target group. Quite often, critical topics for decision making are defined too restrictively in advance, or are dismissively overlooked. Indeed, every company and decision-maker operates according to their own decision-making matrix. It’s worth researching this matrix and adapting to it.

It goes without saying that decision-makers need to be addressed differently in different stages of the process, as they need different information at different times. At the start of the process, more general, strategic matters might be more prevalent. As the evaluation process continues, the focus switches to technical and commercial aspects. Effective modern marketing campaigns and processes should bear this in mind. Furthermore, campaigns should be aligned with the corresponding content strategy – a decisive factor for intent data marketing and general data-driven marketing. 

So many people surf the Internet. How can you distinguish an online B2B decision-maker from a regular Internet user?

This is one of the trickiest issues for B2B marketing. The context or environment is often used to make this determination, but marketers do have to contend with a certain degree of fuzziness. At this point, our approach (Editor’s note: the B2B Media Group) goes further: we verify B2B decision-makers on their web journey using a multi-stage criteria catalogue. By using parameters such as the content type, touchpoint environment and frequency, we ensure that we only address B2B decision-makers.

What should companies watch out for when choosing intent data – and importing the data from an external source?

No two pieces of intent data are the same. What’s important is that the intent data provider records and validates the data consistently. We advise our clients on the approach to take with intent data, in terms of the target audience and campaign objective. In doing so, we help to define target groups and their intentions. Our clients’ success shows that we’re on the right path: in the display marketing segment, we’ve seen performances improve between ten-fold and thirty-fold.

The EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is placing even greater emphasis on protecting personal data. What implications does this have for intent data? 

No personal data is collected when intent data is collected. The data gathered from cookies is anonymous. 

Thank you for the insightful interview, Mr Martino.