How do I track buyer intent without form fills?

Why are form fills no longer reliable for tracking buyer intent?

Form fills once served as the primary signal that a buyer was interested. But today, B2B buyers avoid forms entirely: 90% of buyers say they prefer vendor websites that offer self-serve resources without gating (Source: TrustRadius B2B Buying Disconnect). This means form-fill conversion rates continue to fall while early-stage research activity continues to rise—most of it anonymously.

Gartner reports that 83% of the modern buying journey happens before a buyer engages a sales rep (Source: Gartner Future of Sales). If your intent model is based on form fills, you’re missing the majority of the buying process. Buyers are telling you what they care about through their behaviour—not through submissions.

Intent tracking must shift from “capture their details” to “observe their actions.”

What types of behavioural signals indicate strong buyer intent?

Buyer intent is now defined by what people do—not what they submit. These behaviours offer rich insight into readiness, interest, and stage of evaluation.

High-value intent signals include:

• Pricing interactions: Revisits, plan comparison clicks, toggles, and calculators.
• Product exploration: Product-page depth, feature tabs, demo interactions.
• Video engagement: Branching choices, completion rates, replayed segments.
• Content depth: Reading solution pages, use case content, FAQs.
• Return visits: Especially to pricing, product, and integration pages.
• High-frequency behaviour: Multiple stakeholders from the same account interacting within days.

These signals correlate far more closely with pipeline than form fills ever did. They also occur earlier in the journey, giving teams more time to interpret and act on them.

How does interactive video generate richer intent signals?

Interactive video creates structured intent signals by prompting visitors to choose paths that match their goals, challenges, or role. Unlike passive behaviour—which can be ambiguous—interactive engagement reveals direct interest. Forrester notes that behavioural intent tied to self-directed choices is up to 3x more predictive of pipeline creation (Source: Forrester B2B Intent Benchmark).

Examples of high-value signals from interactive video include:

• Role selection: Identifies which persona is exploring your solution.
• Problem selection: Shows what pain point they prioritise.
• Path depth: Indicates how far they are in their self-serve research.
• CTA clicks: Reveals readiness for demo, pricing, or product tour.

These signals allow marketing and sales teams to understand buyer needs without requiring forms or manual qualification.

How do we translate anonymous activity into account-level intent?

Individual identity is less important than account behaviour. Companies that have adopted account-based GTM models track the collective behaviour of all visitors from the same organisation. Tools like Clearbit, 6sense, and Demandbase connect anonymous traffic to accounts using IP intelligence and behavioural mapping.

Account-level intent includes:

• Number of engaged visitors from the same company.
• Cross-role interaction: e.g., marketing + RevOps + IT exploring different content.
• Content sequences: Pricing → product → integrations = strong signal.
• Repeat engagement: Visitors returning within short timeframes.

This creates a picture of buying-group activation—a far more accurate indicator than an isolated form fill.

How should GTM teams act on these new forms of intent?

Intent is only useful if GTM teams have a process for responding to it. High-performing teams use intent to prioritise outreach, tailor messaging, and personalise website or outbound experiences.

Recommended actions include:

• Create prioritisation tiers: High, medium, and low intent based on behaviour.
• Alert SDRs automatically: When an account crosses a threshold of engagement.
• Personalise follow-up: Reference the specific content or video paths explored.
• Adapt nurture flows: Move buyers into mid-funnel content based on behaviour.
• Route accounts dynamically: Send technical evaluators to technical content and business buyers to ROI stories.

When intent is treated as a buying signal—not a form fill—SDRs spend more time on accounts that are actually ready.

FAQ

Do we still need forms at all?

Only for high-intent actions like demos or trials. Early-stage content should be ungated to maximise signal generation.

How do we capture intent from anonymous buyers?

Through behaviour: pricing visits, interactive video choices, product exploration, and repeated engagement.

Does this require new tools?

Not always. Interactive video platforms, analytics tools, and IP enrichment services provide most of the needed data.

Can this fully replace MQLs?

Yes. Intent, engagement, and account-based activity are now far more predictive than form-fill qualification models.