LinkedIn intent signals: What actions show buyer readiness

If you’re running marketing at a B2B tech company, you already know how messy the buyer journey is. The funnel isn’t linear. Much of it is invisible. And LinkedIn sits right in the middle of this mess.

It’s where your buyers follow your team, like your posts, comment under competitors, and share content that reveals what they care about. None of that shows up in your CRM. But it's not entirely dark either.

Some signals are public. Easy to track. And often ignored. This post breaks down the LinkedIn intent signals you can see, what they mean, and how to start using them to qualify interest and speed up your sales cycle.

Why LinkedIn matters for detecting buyer intent

You’re probably already tracking dark funnel signals. These are the hard-to-measure actions like podcast listens, word-of-mouth, or Slack group mentions.

LinkedIn lives between the dark and the visible. It’s not private like DMs or offline conversations. But it’s not captured by your usual attribution tools either. That makes it useful.

Your buyers are active here. They post about problems. They comment on competitors. They follow certain types of people. All of this is trackable if you know what to look for. These actions form a type of behavioral data that can reveal a prospect's interest before they take overt actions like filling out a form.

If you ignore these signals, you’re missing out on early indicators of a prospect's interest.

Introduction to intent data

Intent data is quickly becoming a cornerstone for modern sales and marketing teams. It offers a window into the online behaviors and purchase intent of potential customers, helping you understand not just who is out there, but who is actually in the market for your solution. By leveraging intent data, marketing teams can fine-tune their marketing efforts and sales and marketing strategies to better address the real needs and pain points of their target audience.

There are two main types of intent data: first-party intent data and third-party intent data. First-party intent data is collected directly from your own digital properties—think website visits, downloads from your marketing campaigns, or interactions with your content. This data is highly relevant because it comes straight from your audience’s engagement with your brand.

Third-party intent data, on the other hand, is gathered from external sources. This includes signals from review sites, job postings, and social media interactions—places where potential buyers are researching solutions, comparing vendors, or discussing industry challenges. By combining both first-party and third-party intent data, sales and marketing teams can build a more complete picture of their prospects’ purchase intent and tailor their outreach accordingly.

What are LinkedIn intent signals?

Not every LinkedIn like or comment means someone’s ready to buy.

But when you see a pattern across multiple actions, from multiple people at a company, it starts to signal real interest. These patterns are known as engagement intent signals, which are specific actions that demonstrate active interest in your brand or product. When such engagement is observed across several individuals from the same organization, it can also reflect company activity intent, indicating potential purchasing decisions or shifts in business strategy.

Here are some of the most common public LinkedIn intent signals:

1. Following your team

If someone at a target account starts following your founder, your head of product, or your marketing lead, pay attention. Especially if:

• They follow multiple team members

• They work at a company in your ICP

• Their job title matches your target persona (which means they fit your buyer persona and are more likely to be a qualified lead)

T
his often happens early in the journey. Before demo requests. Before even visiting your site.

What to do: Add the person to a “warm account” list. Watch if others from the same company follow next.

2. Liking or commenting on company posts

Obvious, but underused. If a buyer is engaging with your company posts—especially more than once—it’s a clear sign they know who you are. Even more so if the posts are about specific features, problems, or use cases. Engagement on product-related posts is more valuable than on generic culture posts.

What to do: Track repeat interactions. See which product or topic they engaged with. Monitoring intent topics and relevant topics can help you understand what is driving engagement and tailor your outreach accordingly. Use it to tailor outbound or trigger ads.

3. Engaging with employee content

Your team posts about use cases, product insights, hiring, or thought leadership. When someone from a potential buyer account starts interacting with those posts, it’s a solid intent signal.

This is often more valuable than engagement on company posts. It shows they care enough to follow people, not just your brand.

What to do: Set up alerts or use a tool to track this. Prioritize accounts where multiple employees get attention from the same company. Use these insights to craft personalized outreach to those accounts, tailoring your communication to increase engagement and conversion rates.

4. Comments on competitor posts

If someone is active under your competitor’s post—especially if they ask questions or complain—it’s a goldmine.

They’re interested in the category. Maybe even evaluating solutions. These kinds of comments are strong research intent signals, showing the prospect is actively seeking information about solutions.

What to do: Start a conversation. Don’t pitch. Just be helpful. It’s one of the highest-signal moments you’ll find.

5. Job changes and role shifts

This one’s easy to miss. Let’s say someone moves into a new role. For example, VP Marketing at a company in your ICP. Or a product manager becomes a Head of Product. These transitions often come with fresh budget and new tools.

What to do: Track role changes inside target accounts. Reach out with relevant use cases tied to their new responsibilities. These role changes often mark a new phase in the buyer's journey, making timely engagement crucial.

6. Company hiring patterns as first party intent data

If a company suddenly starts hiring for roles like “RevOps,” “Growth Marketer,” or “Platform Engineer,” that’s indirect intent. They’re investing in systems, processes, or products you may support. These hiring patterns can also reveal technographic intent signals, indicating shifts in the company's technology needs or technology stack.

It’s not a LinkedIn post, but often shows up there first.

What to do: Add hiring signals to your account prioritization logic. Combine them with engagement data to spot high-potential accounts.

7. People sharing content about your category

Someone shares an article about product analytics tools? Or how to scale outbound?

Even if it’s not your content, that’s an indicator. They’re thinking about the space.

Bonus points if they add a personal take or tag colleagues.

What to do: Track category conversations, not just branded ones. Tools like Clearcue or Clay can help with this. Monitoring relevant content shared by prospects can help you identify emerging interests and tailor your engagement.

Types of buyer intent data

Not all buyer intent data is created equal. To get the most out of your intent data strategy, it’s important to understand the different types available and how each can inform your sales and marketing efforts.

• Search intent data captures what potential buyers are looking for online. When someone searches for keywords related to your product or industry, it’s a strong indicator of research intent and potential buying intent.

• Engagement data tracks how prospects interact with your content—whether they’re reading blog posts, watching videos, or downloading resources. These behavioral signals help marketing teams identify which topics or products are resonating most.

• Firmographic data provides context about the companies showing interest, such as their size, industry, location, and revenue. This helps sales and marketing teams prioritize accounts that fit their ideal customer profile.

• Technographic data reveals what technology stack a company is using, including software, hardware, and network infrastructure. Understanding a prospect’s tech environment can help you personalize outreach and position your solution more effectively.

By analyzing these different types of buyer intent data, sales and marketing teams can uncover actionable insights, identify high intent accounts, and develop more targeted marketing campaigns and sales outreach.

How to track LinkedIn buyer intent data at scale

Here’s the problem. LinkedIn doesn’t make this easy.

There’s no native way to monitor who from your ICP is engaging with what. The data collected from these engagements is crucial for understanding buyer intent and prioritizing outreach. And most CRMs don’t track this either.

You have three options:

Option 1: Manual tracking

Set up a spreadsheet. Monitor key posts. Note which accounts engage. It works, but doesn’t scale. Best for small sales teams and high-value accounts.

Option 2: Use a tool for sales and marketing teams

Tools like ClearCue, HockeyStack, or Clay can help you monitor LinkedIn intent signals. These tools can also streamline lead generation by surfacing high-potential prospects based on real-time engagement data. Some show you which companies are engaging with your content, even if the individuals aren’t known leads.

Others map engagement trends over time and alert you when intent spikes.

Best for mid-sized or scaling teams who need faster signals than web analytics provide.

Option 3: Build a repeatable process

Whether manual or tool-driven, you need a workflow. Here’s a simple one:

1. Define your ICP and key personas

2. Track interactions with company and employee posts

3. Tag signals (follows, likes, comments, shares, job changes)

4. Qualify accounts showing 2 or more signals

5. Trigger outbound, ads, or internal alerts

This doesn’t replace lead scoring or attribution. It adds another layer. This process enables your sales team to act on early intent signals and engage prospects before they enter the traditional funnel. One that sits in the “semi-visible” part of the funnel where buyers live long before they’re ready to talk.

Measuring success with LinkedIn intent signals

To get the most value from LinkedIn buyer intent, sales and marketing teams need to track the right metrics and use them to refine their strategies. LinkedIn offers a unique window into purchase intent, but measuring success goes beyond just counting likes or comments.

Key metrics to watch include engagement rates (how often your target accounts interact with your content), conversion rates (how many of those engaged prospects take the next step, like booking a demo or requesting more information), and return on investment (ROI) from your LinkedIn-driven sales and marketing efforts. By monitoring these data points, marketing teams can see which tactics are driving real buyer intent and which need adjustment.

Regularly reviewing these metrics allows sales and marketing teams to optimize their marketing efforts, double down on what’s working, and quickly pivot away from what isn’t. The result? More qualified leads, a shorter sales cycle, and a bigger impact on revenue.

What this looks like in practice

Here’s how a smart SaaS team might use LinkedIn intent signals:

• Marketing lead sees that three people from a target account followed their PM and liked a launch post. Sends a Slack ping to sales.

• Sales rep checks LinkedIn and sees one of them commented on a competitor post last week. Sales leaders can use these insights to guide their teams' outreach strategies. Sends a helpful DM, no pitch.

• Growth marketer adds the account to a retargeting campaign with tailored use case ads.

• CEO connects with the lead buyer on LinkedIn and shares a short note with a recent article.

All of this happens before the lead fills out a form. These coordinated actions help identify active buyers and capture buying signals based on active interest, allowing teams to engage prospects before traditional lead forms are completed.

Final thoughts

LinkedIn intent signals sit in a weird place. Not fully dark. Not fully visible. But very real.

They’re often early signs of interest. Before demos. Before site visits. Before pipeline. These signals often emerge from online research activities that precede direct engagement.

Most teams ignore them because they’re hard to track. But that’s the opportunity.

Start simple. Track what you can. Build a process. Focus on collecting first party data from your own LinkedIn engagement tracking efforts.

If you wait for form fills to act, you’ll miss half the buyer journey.