A new DemandScience report finds most B2B intent data is unreliable or inflated and that a quarter of marketing budget is wasted on signals that never convert. Because most intent data comes from the same sources, your competitors buy the same signals you do. For Australian marketers the answer is first-party data and grading signals on whether they predict a sale.
The Take: Most of the buying signals B2B marketers pay for are telling them what they want to hear. A new report finds most intent data is unreliable or inflated, and a quarter of marketing budget is burning on signals that never convert. For Australian marketers the fix is not buying more data. It is deciding which signals you will trust before you spend a dollar against them.
The mirage: DemandScience's 2026 State of Performance Marketing report found that 87% of organisations say their marketing produces unreliable or inflated intent signals, and that only 26% of those signals convert to a qualified opportunity, per DemandScience. Two in three leaders said their campaign metrics often look successful while failing to move revenue. Respondents put average wasted budget at a quarter of the total.
The commodity: Part of the trouble is that most intent data comes from the same handful of sources, so your competitors are buying the same signals you are, according to MarTech. When every rival chases the same accounts flagged by the same model, the cost to reach them climbs and the edge disappears. You are paying a premium for a list your rival already has. A signal your whole category can buy is not an edge. It is a queue.
The dependency: There is an Australian wrinkle. Much of this signal is behavioural data collected and resold by third parties, and Australia's privacy regime is tightening around exactly that practice, with the OAIC sharpening its focus on tracking and profiling. A marketing plan built on bought behavioural signals is exposed on two fronts at once, quality and compliance.
B2B marketers report a quarter of their budget is wasted on signals that never drive an outcome
For Australian operators: Trust your own data before you rent someone else's. First-party signals, what people do on your site, in your emails and with your sales team, are yours alone and far harder for a competitor to copy. Before you renew an intent-data contract, ask the vendor to prove conversion, not coverage. Grade every signal source by whether it predicts a sale, then cut the ones that only predict activity. The businesses that win here are not the ones with the most signals. They are the ones who know which few to believe.