Intent Signals Playbook

What is an intent signal?

An intent signal is any observable behavior that tells you a company is actively experiencing the problem you solve - right now, not in theory. The goal is not a large list of companies that look like your ideal customer. The goal is a smaller list of companies that are in the moment of pain.

Signal Tiers

P0 - Highest Priority (act within 48-72 hours)

1. Job Posting Signals

Signal: Company actively hiring for a role that implies your solution.

Roles to track (UGC/content example):

• "UGC Content Creator" - wants content volume, hasn't found AI solution
• "Paid Social Manager" or "Performance Creative Strategist" - testing creatives at scale
• "Social Media Manager" (first hire at startup) - inconsistent posting, wants ownership
• "Creative Operations Manager" - production pipeline is broken
• "TikTok Ads Manager" - needs 10-15 native videos/week minimum

Signal decay: Job postings older than 30 days lose urgency. Act within the first 2 weeks.

Sources: LinkedIn Jobs (public guest API, no auth required), Wellfound, Lever, Greenhouse

Weekly volume: 100-300 unique companies

2. Competitor Churn

Signal: Company posted a negative review of a direct competitor.

Why it's P0: They're already sold on the category. They just need a better solution. They're actively shopping right now.

Competitors to monitor:

• Creatify (Trustpilot, G2)
• Arcads (Trustpilot, G2)
• HeyGen (Trustpilot, G2, App Store)
• MakeUGC (Trustpilot)

What the reviews signal:

• "I was paying for the privilege to beta test someone's poorly executed brilliant idea." - pitch reliability
• "Videos look nothing like their ads - clearly AI." - pitch quality
• "Used up my credits, 3 videos, $80." - pitch pricing
• "No support email anywhere." - pitch response time

Sources: Trustpilot, G2, App Store (requires Playwright or Apify)

Weekly volume: 20-60 new reviews across all competitors

P1 - High Priority

3. Twitter/X Pain Posts

Signal: Founder or marketing team publicly posting about the problem.

Queries that work:

• "need ugc creator" OR "looking for ugc creator"
• "ugc ads" (struggling OR need OR help)
• (creatify OR arcads) (cancel OR disappointed OR alternative)
• "creative fatigue" ("need more" OR refresh)
• "content creator" hiring (ecommerce OR DTC OR brand)

Sources: twitterapi.io (~$0.001 per search)

Weekly volume: 50-150 unique accounts

4. YouTube Content Drought

Signal: Small brand channel hasn't posted in 14-30+ days.

Filter parameters:

• Subscriber range: 300K-500K
• Last upload: 14+ days ago
• Niche: DTC/ecommerce, consumer brand, lifestyle

Sources: YouTube Data API v3 (free, 10K units/day covers ~300 channel audits)

Weekly volume: 20-50 channels

5. Ad Library Creative Fatigue

Signal: Brand running the same creative 60-90+ days on Meta or TikTok.

What to look for:

• Same creative 60-90+ days - fatigue, needs a refresh
• 10+ active ad variants - testing at volume, needs more creative faster
• No UGC-style content in ad library - early education opportunity

Sources: Meta Ad Library (free), TikTok Creative Center (free)

P2 - Supplementary Volume

6. Funding Trigger

Signal: Company raised a seed or Series A in the last 60 days.

Sources: Crunchbase, TechCrunch, LinkedIn news, Apollo

Weekly volume: 50-150

Signal Stacking

Leads hitting multiple signals simultaneously are your highest-priority targets.

Volume Summary