In our previous article we wrote that Google Ads is becoming increasingly signal-based. It is no longer only the first conversion that counts, but what happens afterwards. Which leads get followed up seriously? Which accounts move towards pipeline? Which signals say something about real commercial value?
That is an important development. But there is a question sitting behind it. If B2B marketing increasingly revolves around signals, which signals actually matter? Because not every signal means the same thing.
A download is not buying intent. A webinar attendance is not a demo request. A website visit is not a concrete project. And a LinkedIn like does not mean someone is ready for a sales conversation.
Yet many marketing and sales teams still treat signals as though they carry equal weight. Someone reads a blog and lands in a sales flow. A prospect views a general page and gets a commercial follow-up straight away. A contact downloads a whitepaper and is treated as a “warm lead”.
To the buyer that usually feels premature. And for sales it creates noise. So the skill is not only collecting signals. The skill is interpreting them properly.
In this article we look at B2B buying signals by stage of the customer journey. Which signals point to early interest? Which show that an account is actively researching solutions? And which call for immediate follow-up by sales or business development?
For IT, tech and SaaS organisations this is crucial, because B2B buying processes are long, detailed and often spread across several people inside the same organisation. Signals are not isolated actions; they are points of context within a wider journey.
Key takeaways
- B2B buying signals are behavioural and data signals that can point to interest, need or buying intent.
- Not every signal carries the same weight. An early signal calls for different follow-up than a late one.
- Tying signals to the customer journey stops sales following up too early or too hard.
- Early-stage signals mostly indicate orientation and problem exploration.
- Mid-stage signals show that an account is actively researching solutions.
- Late-stage signals point to urgency, comparison and possible buying intent.
- Signal-based marketing helps you recognise, combine and act on signals.
- Stairoids can help make account behaviour visible and turn signals into something marketing, business development and sales can use.
- The best approach does not start with more data, but with better interpretation.
What are B2B buying signals?
B2B buying signals are signals that show a person or account may be interested in a theme, a solution or a supplier.
Some are unmistakable: a demo request, a contact form, a visit to a pricing page.
But signals are often more subtle than that.
An account visits the same service page several times. Several people from one organisation view content on the same topic. A prospect responds to a specialist’s LinkedIn content. Someone searches your brand name in combination with a specific service. A company returns to your website after a campaign.
On their own, these signals say little.
Together, they can show that an account is starting to move.
And that is exactly where the value sits.
In B2B it is rarely about a single moment. Most buyers move gradually. They recognise a problem, explore possible solutions, compare suppliers, and then bring colleagues into the process.
So you should not look at buying signals purely as “intent or no intent”. You have to read them in relation to the stage of the journey.
Why not every signal is the same
Many organisations make the same mistake: they treat every signal as buying intent.
Someone downloads a whitepaper? Hand it to sales.
Someone visits a service page? Start outbound.
Someone registers for a webinar? Into the pipeline.
But that is not usually how B2B buying behaviour works.
A marketing manager reading a blog may simply be learning. A commercial director watching a webinar may be researching a trend. An IT company visiting your website once may have arrived through an ad with no concrete need at all.
React too commercially to that and the follow-up quickly feels wrong. Not because following up is bad, but because the timing is off.
That is the difference between collecting signals and understanding them.
Signal-based marketing is not about jumping on everyone faster. It is about seeing more clearly where relevance emerges and which action fits.
- Sometimes that is sales follow-up
- Sometimes that is retargeting
- Sometimes that is extra content
- Sometimes that is nurturing
- And sometimes the best action is to do nothing commercial at all, for now
The three stages of B2B buying signals
To use signals well, it helps to tie them to three stages:
- Early signals: orientation and problem recognition
- Mid-stage signals: exploring and comparing solutions
- Late signals: urgency, decision-making and commercial action
This does not make your marketing more complicated. It makes your follow-up more logical.
Because you do not have to treat every signal the same way.
You can decide which signals are mainly for marketing, which are interesting for business development, and which are strong enough for sales.
Stage 1: early signals
In the early stage a buyer is usually not yet looking for a supplier.
Often no solution has been chosen. Sometimes the problem itself is not fully defined. The buyer is exploring a theme, reading about developments in the market, or trying to understand internally what is going on.
Examples of early signals:
- A prospect reads a general blog about a trend.
- Someone follows your company or one of your specialists on LinkedIn.
- A contact subscribes to your newsletter.
- A target account views thought leadership content.
- A new decision-maker joins an account in your target group.
- A company responds to one of your LinkedIn posts for the first time.
Signals like these are valuable, but they are not buying intent. What they show is attention.
And attention matters. In B2B especially, trust is built long before a concrete enquiry appears.
What do you do with early signals?
At this stage you do not want to sell hard. The best follow-up is light, relevant and educational.
For example:
- Showing additional content through retargeting.
- Adding the account to an awareness campaign.
- Sharing a relevant blog, podcast or guide.
- Strengthening visibility with the right roles in the DMU.
- Building recognition around one specific theme.
The goal is not to force a conversation. The goal is to be top of mind by the time the theme becomes more urgent.
Stage 2: mid-stage signals
In the middle stage the behaviour changes. The buyer is no longer just learning, but researching possible solutions. The problem is clearer. They are looking at approaches, suppliers, cases and evidence. This is often where marketing and business development move closer together.
Examples of mid-stage signals:
- An account visits a service page several times.
- Several people from the same organisation view content on the same subject.
- Someone downloads a customer case.
- A prospect searches your brand name in combination with a solution.
- An account views content about a specific approach, such as signal-based marketing or marketing as a service.
- A company responds to several campaign touchpoints within a short period.
These signals are stronger than early ones. They show not just attention but active orientation. Even so, this does not automatically mean sales should go in at full strength. At this stage relevance matters more than speed.
What do you do with mid-stage signals?
Here you want to help people compare, go deeper and get clarity.
Good actions include:
- Putting a relevant case in front of them.
- Making a substantive connection on LinkedIn.
- Sending a low-threshold invitation to a webinar or event.
- Running a targeted campaign around the same theme.
- Having a business developer step in with a soft, content-led reason to talk.
- Flagging the account internally as worth monitoring.
Tone matters here.
Not: “Would you like a demo?”
But: “We see a lot of IT organisations working on this. This perspective might be useful.”
At this stage you mainly want to show that you understand the problem. For IT, tech and SaaS organisations that usually works better than direct selling. The purchase is technical, the DMU is broad, and trust comes from knowledge, recognition and evidence.
Stage 3: late signals
Late signals point to urgency.
The buyer is further along. Comparisons are being made. Several people are probably involved. There may be budget, an internal project or a concrete need.
Examples of late signals:
- Repeated visits to a pricing or contact page.
- Returning visits to one specific service page.
- Several DMU members from the same account showing activity.
- An account viewing customer cases and then a contact page.
- A prospect arriving through a high-intent search term.
- A target account responding to a direct mail campaign and then visiting the website.
- An earlier contact moment followed by fresh website activity.
These are the signals where follow-up can be faster and more personal. Not aggressive, but active.
What do you do with late signals?
At this stage you want to spend your commercial energy well.
Possible actions:
- Sales or business development receives a notification.
- A personal follow-up email is sent.
- A specialist or strategist joins with something substantive.
- The account is shown a specific case or proposition.
- You check whether an existing relationship or LinkedIn connection already exists.
- Sales is briefed on the behaviour, the theme and the likely need.
The difference from classic sales follow-up is context. You are not calling because someone is on a list. You are following up because visible behaviour matches a concrete need. That makes the conversation more relevant, and it stops sales losing time on accounts that had one interaction but show no real movement.
From isolated signals to signal stacking
A single signal is usually too weak to draw conclusions from. Which is why signal stacking matters.
Signal stacking means combining several signals to judge better whether an account is worth attention.
An example:
An IT company from your ICP reads a blog about signal-based marketing. A week later someone from the same organisation views a customer case. The account then returns to a service page. After that, a second person from the company responds to a LinkedIn post.
Taken separately these are small signals.
Together, a pattern emerges.
The account fits the target group. The theme is consistent. The behaviour repeats. Several people are probably involved. Momentum is building.
That is more interesting than a single form submission from a company that does not fit your ICP at all.
For B2B marketing, that is an important shift.
Why timing matters as much as intent
Journey-aware bidding and signal-based marketing have one thing in common: they only work if the feedback loop holds.
Marketing can create signals and make them visible. Sales can validate whether those signals are commercially valuable. Business development can test which reason to reach out actually works. Those insights then have to travel back to marketing, and where possible back into the advertising platforms as well.
That is how you build a system that keeps getting smarter.
If a particular signal regularly leads to good conversations, you want to build more campaigns, content and sales activity around it. If a signal rarely delivers, you have to weigh it differently. If a campaign produces plenty of leads but little pipeline, do not only change the ad — question the conversion definition as well.
This takes collaboration. Not marketing throwing leads over the fence. Not sales complaining about quality afterwards. One team looking together at account fit, timing, intent and pipeline.
The roles of marketing, business development and sales
Signal-based marketing only works when marketing and sales speak the same language.
Marketing usually sees the first signals: website visits, campaign engagement, content interaction, newsletter behaviour, LinkedIn activity.
Business development can turn those signals into low-threshold commercial actions: connections, light outreach, invitations or content-led follow-up.
Sales can step in when signals become more concrete. When behaviour repeats, when several DMU members are involved, or when an account visits clearly high-intent pages.
But that requires agreements.
- Which signals are interesting?
- Which are strong enough for follow-up?
- Which stay with marketing?
- When does business development get involved?
- When is it sales’ turn?
And how do sales and business development report back on which signals proved genuinely valuable? Without that feedback loop, signal-based marketing stays a marketing project. With it, it becomes a growth system.
How Stairoids makes buying signals visible
Most B2B organisations already have data. The problem is that it sits in pieces. Some in Google Ads. Some in LinkedIn. Some in the CRM. Some in marketing automation. Some in website analytics. And some simply in the heads of the sales team. That makes it hard to see which accounts are genuinely moving.
Stairoids helps make account behaviour visible and turns signals into usable insight. Not as a replacement for marketing or sales, but as an intelligence layer between data, behaviour and follow-up.
You want to be able to see:
- Which companies are visiting the website?
- Which accounts fit the ICP?
- Which themes are getting attention?
- Is the behaviour repeating?
- Which accounts show activity after a campaign?
- Which accounts deserve extra attention from marketing, business development or sales?
That insight means less steering on gut feeling. You spot movement earlier, prioritise accounts better, and match follow-up to timing and context. Which is exactly where signal-based marketing earns its value.
A practical model for B2B buying signals
A good way to start is by sorting signals into three categories.
1. Awareness signals
These point to early interest.
Examples:
- Blog visits.
- LinkedIn engagement.
- Newsletter sign-ups.
- Podcast listeners.
- General content consumption.
- Visits to topic pages.
Suitable follow-up:
- Nurturing.
- Retargeting.
- Thought leadership.
- Newsletter.
- Awareness campaigns.
Goal: build recognition, trust and interest in the theme.
2. Consideration signals
These point to active orientation.
Examples:
- Repeated visits to service pages.
- Case study views.
- Webinar registrations.
- Branded searches.
- Engagement from several people within one account.
- Content consumption around one specific theme.
Suitable follow-up:
- Targeted content.
- Soft outreach.
- An invitation to an event or webinar.
- Account monitoring.
- Sharing a relevant case or customer example.
Goal: help the account compare, and make your approach more relevant to them.
3. Decision signals
These point to urgency or concrete buying intent.
Examples:
- Contact page visits.
- Several high-intent sessions.
- Repeated activity within a short period.
- Several DMU members active.
- Demo requests.
- Contact form submissions.
- Repeated visits to pricing or proposition-specific pages.
Suitable follow-up:
- Personal sales follow-up.
- A business development notification.
- A direct reason to call.
- Substantive follow-up by a specialist.
- Proposing an introductory or consultancy session.
Goal: get the right person involved at the right moment, with the right context.
The biggest pitfall: reading too much into one signal
One significant risk of working with signals is overestimating them.
As soon as teams can see signals, the temptation is to attach an action to every one of them.
But not every signal deserves follow-up. A blog visit is useful, but it is not a sales trigger. A LinkedIn like is nice, but it is not buying intent. A whitepaper download can show interest, but it can equally be pure research. A pricing-page visit is strong, but it still needs context.
So always weigh a signal against three questions:
- Does the account fit the target group?
- Does the behaviour match a clear stage in the journey?
- Is there enough context to make follow-up relevant?
If the answer to those is yes, action makes sense. If it is no, nurturing is usually the better move.
From signals to pipeline
Ultimately, signal-based marketing is not about building a prettier dashboard.
It is about making better commercial decisions.
- Which accounts deserve attention?
- Which campaigns produce valuable movement?
- Which content actually helps buyers?
- Which signals turn out to predict good conversations?
- Which accounts still need nurturing?
- Which accounts are ready for follow-up?
That takes more than tooling. It takes a clear ICP, explicit agreements, reliable data and collaboration between marketing, business development and sales. But once that foundation is in place, something valuable appears. Marketing no longer steers on clicks, leads or forms alone. Sales is not handed loose leads over the fence. Business development gets better openings. And management gets more grip on pipeline.
B2B marketing then becomes not only more visible, but measurably better.
Conclusion: not every signal calls for the same action
The shift towards signal-based marketing is clear.
Google Ads looks increasingly at signals further along the journey. Marketing teams want to understand better which accounts are genuinely moving. Sales wants less noise and more relevant context. And B2B organisations want to know which marketing activity contributes to pipeline.
But the next step matters just as much. You should not only collect signals. You have to understand what they mean.
- An early signal calls for education.
- A mid-stage signal calls for depth.
- A late signal calls for personal follow-up.
Draw that distinction and you stop sales stepping in too early — while also making sure valuable accounts do not go unnoticed for too long.
For IT, tech and SaaS organisations there is a real opportunity here. Stop steering on isolated leads. Work with account behaviour, timing, context and commercial relevance. That is where B2B buying signals genuinely earn their keep, and where signal-based marketing turns from an interesting concept into a practical growth system.
Ready to make better use of your buying signals?
Want to know which accounts in your target group are showing movement, and which signals are relevant for marketing, business development and sales?
Leadgate helps IT, tech and SaaS organisations put signal-based marketing into practice. From ICP and campaigns through to data, intelligence and follow-up.
Book a discovery call and find out how to get from isolated signals to measurable pipeline impact.
FAQ
B2B buying signals are behavioural or data signals that can indicate a person or account is interested in a theme, solution or supplier. Think website visits, content interaction, branded searches, case study views, demo requests, or activity from several people within the same account.
B2B buying processes are long and complex. A single form submission says very little about real buying intent. Buying signals help you understand which accounts are showing interest, where they are in the journey, and when follow-up is appropriate.
Early signals mostly indicate orientation and interest, such as a blog visit or LinkedIn engagement. Late signals more often indicate urgency or buying intent, such as repeated visits to a contact or pricing page, or activity from several DMU members.
No. Not every signal is strong enough for sales follow-up. Early signals are usually better suited to nurturing or retargeting. Sales follow-up only makes sense once there is enough context: account fit, repeated behaviour and activity around a concrete theme.
Signal stacking is combining several signals to judge better whether an account is worth attention. One blog visit says little, but repeated website visits, case study consumption, LinkedIn engagement and activity from several people within one account together can point to serious movement.
Stairoids helps make account behaviour visible and turns signals into usable insight, so marketing, business development and sales can judge better which accounts are relevant, which themes are live, and when follow-up makes sense.
About the author
Robin van Zeijl
Robin Steehouwer-van Zeijl is an Online Marketing Strategist at Leadgate, advising IT, Tech and SaaS organizations on positioning, content strategy and digital growth. She translates complex propositions into clear online strategies that contribute to visibility, authority and long-term impact.
Want to discuss your online strategy or content approach? Schedule a 30-minute session with Robin or connect with her on LinkedIn
Sources
This article was partly inspired by the Intelligent Resourcing blog “Which Signal-Based Triggers Matter at Each Stage of the B2B Buying Journey“, which draws a clear distinction between early, mid-stage and late signals in the B2B customer journey.
It also builds on our earlier Leadgate article on how advertising platforms are moving towards optimising for quality, context and customer journey data.
