You're probably here trying to determine if Bombora is worth adding to your B2B tech stack. Well, you've come to the right place. As a sales technology advisor who has implemented numerous intent data platforms, I'll walk you through everything you need to know about the advantages and disadvantages of Bombora.
Table of Contents:
1. What is Bombora and How Does It Work?
2. Advantages of Using Bombora for B2B Sales
3. Disadvantages and Limitations of Bombora
4. How Bombora Compares to Other Intent Data Solutions
5. Implementing Bombora in Your Sales Strategy
6. Final Thoughts on Intent Data Investment
What is Bombora and How Does It Work?
Bombora is like that friend who tells you which companies are secretly shopping for what you sell—except it's based on data, not gossip. Essentially, it's an intent data platform that monitors B2B content consumption across its vast network of partner sites to identify companies showing increased interest in specific topics.
The magic happens through something called “Company Surge®” data, which tracks when employees at a specific company are consuming significantly more content about particular topics than their normal baseline. For example, if dozens of employees at a tech firm suddenly start reading about “CRM implementation,” Bombora flags this as a surge event.
This data is collected through their cooperative of B2B publishers who share anonymized content consumption insights. These publishers get monetization value from their content, while Bombora gets the raw data to analyze. It's actually quite brilliant when you think about it—everyone wins.
Most sales teams I've worked with integrate Bombora directly into their CRM or sales engagement platform. This means your reps get alerts when accounts in their territory show intent signals relevant to your solution. The timing is critical here—we're talking about reaching prospects when they're already evaluating solutions, not when they're just beginning their research journey.
Growth Hack
When setting up Bombora for the first time, start with 5-10 core topic keywords that perfectly match your solution. Monitor these for 2 weeks before expanding your topic list. This baseline approach prevents false positives and data overwhelm.
Of course, this is just the beginning. Intent data is powerful, but like any tool, it has its nuanced strengths and weaknesses. Let's dive deeper into what makes Bombora shine and where it might fall short for your specific needs.
Advantages of Using Bombora for B2B Sales
The competitive advantage of reaching prospects at exactly the right time cannot be overstated. I've seen conversion rates double when sales teams time their outreach with high-intent periods.
The data quality from Bombora is remarkably strong. With access to content consumption insights from thousands of B2B websites, you're getting signal rather than noise. Their artificial intelligence filters out random browsing behavior to focus on sustained topic interest.
The integration capabilities are impressive. Bombora connects seamlessly with most major CRMs and sales engagement tools. At EfficientPIM, we've seen clients create automated workflows that trigger specific outreach sequences when certain intent thresholds are reached.
Telemarketing teams particularly love Bombora. One of our clients at LoquiSoft reduced their call-to-meeting ratio from 45:1 to 12:1 after implementing Bombora's intent data. That's not just a minor efficiency gain—that's transformational for their bottom line.
Outreach Pro Tip
Reference specific surge topics in your outreach. Instead of saying “I saw you're researching CRM solutions,” try “I noticed increased interest in your team around CRM implementation best practices.” It shows you understand their current priorities.
The specificity of Bombora's topic library allows for precise targeting. You can track interest in highly specific products, implementation methodologies, or even competitor solutions. I've even seen teams use it to identify companies researching alternatives to their current providers.
Marketing teams benefit too. By understanding which topics are surging across your target market, you can create content that addresses actual interests rather than assumed pain points. This alignment between sales and marketing can significantly accelerate pipeline velocity.
The timing advantage fundamentally changes the conversation. When you contact a prospect during active evaluation, you're not interrupting—you're providing value at the exact moment they're seeking solutions. This shifts your position from “annoying salesperson” to “helpful resource.”
Account-Based Marketing (ABM) programs become significantly more powerful with Bombora. You can prioritize accounts based on real-time intent signals, dividing your target accounts into “high intent,” “medium intent,” and “monitor” tiers. Since implementing this approach with our clients, we've seen an average 32% increase in pipeline velocity.
Cost efficiency is another major benefit. By focusing limited sales resources on accounts with demonstrated interest, you waste less time chasing unqualified prospects. One financial services client reduced their cost per opportunity by 48% after implementing an intent-driven prioritization model.
Data Hygiene Check
Ensure your CRM account data is current before implementing Bombora. Intent signals are only valuable when tied to the correct company records and assigned to the right territory owners in your system.
The platform's data freshness is impressive. Intent data updates daily, unlike some competitive intelligence tools that provide weekly or monthly insights. In fast-moving sales cycles, this daily refresh can mean the difference between engaging first and showing up late to the party.
Custom topic creation is another powerful feature. While Bombora maintains extensive topic libraries, you can also create custom topics tailored to your specific niche. I worked with a client selling highly specialized manufacturing equipment who created custom topics around specific technical challenges their solution addresses. This precision targeting led to a 67% increase in engagement from manufacturers in their target vertical.
Disadvantages and Limitations of Bombora
The most significant limitation of Bombora is its dependency on its publisher network. If your target audience primarily consumes content outside Bombora's partner sites, you simply won't get comprehensive coverage of their intent signals.
The learning curve can be intimidating. I've seen teams get overwhelmed by the sheer volume of data alternatives and configuration options. Without a clear implementation strategy, it's easy to drown in the data rather than leverage it effectively.
Timing can be tricky. You're identifying companies in active evaluation mode, which sometimes means you're late to the process. By the time intent signals become strong enough to trigger alerts, some prospects may already be deep into vendor selection.
The cost can be prohibitive for smaller organizations. While the ROI can be substantial, the entry price point puts Bombora out of reach for many SMBs. This is where solutions like our B2B email scraper at EfficientPIM can more effectively deliver verified contacts for targeted outreach without the hefty subscription fees.
Data accuracy isn't perfect. Like any third-party data provider, there are instances of false positives—companies showing intent spikes that don't actually translate to buying opportunities. I recommend implementing a verification step before committing significant resources to high-intent accounts.
Quick Win
Start with a pilot program focused on 20-30 accounts. This allows you to refine your approach, test effectiveness, and build internal buy-in before scaling Bombora across the entire sales organization.
The topic selection process requires trial and error. Initially, you might select topics that seem relevant but generate too much noise. One client from Proxyle initially selected broad terms like “AI imaging” before refining to more specific phrases that better matched their solution's unique capabilities.
The window of opportunity can be surprisingly brief. Once you identify an intent spike, you have a limited time to engage before the evaluation process concludes. This requires highly responsive sales processes—a challenge for organizations with lengthy approval cycles or documentation requirements.
Bombora doesn't provide individual-level data. You'll know which companies are interested in certain topics, but not the specific decision-makers or influencers within those accounts. This means you'll need to combine Bombora with other tools to identify the right contacts—many of our clients use EfficientPIM to get verified leads instantly when they identify high-intent accounts.
Integration complexity varies depending on your tech stack. While Bombora offers connectors for major platforms, custom integrations can require development resources. Make sure you have the technical bandwidth available before committing to an implementation timeline.
The platform focuses on English-language content. If your target market primarily consumes content in other languages, the coverage may be incomplete. Several of our clients targeting Latin American markets found that they needed supplemental intent data sources to get complete coverage.
How Bombora Compares to Other Intent Data Solutions
The intent data landscape has become increasingly crowded, withBombora competing against several well-established players. Let's examine how it stacks up against alternatives you might be considering.
DemandBase takes a broader account-based approach, combining intent data with firmographics, technographics, and engagement analytics. While more comprehensive, this breadth comes at a significantly higher price point and often longer implementation timelines. For organizations focused purely on intent signals, Bombora's specialized approach often delivers better ROI.
6sense offers similar intent monitoring capabilities but emphasizes their AI-powered predictions for which accounts are most likely to buy. This predictive layer can be valuable, but I've found that some sales teams prefer the transparency of Bombora's direct intent measurements rather than relying on “black box” algorithms.
ZoomInfo recently added intent capabilities to their massive contact database. The convenience of integrated intent and contact data is appealing, but early feedback suggests the intent signals aren't as strong as specialized platforms. When Glowitone tested both, they found Bombora identified relevant intent spikes 37% more often than ZoomInfo.
Clearbit leverages IP-based data collection to identify companies visiting your website. This is valuable for understanding anonymous website traffic but provides a narrower window into the consideration process than Bombora's content consumption approach.
Implementation Note
When comparing platforms, run a parallel test with at least 100 target accounts. This direct comparison will reveal which provider identifies more relevant opportunities in your specific market.
For budget-conscious teams, tools like LeadFeeder offer basic visitor identification at a fraction of the cost. However, you're getting a fraction of the functionality too. The calculation is straightforward: if your sales team can convert even 2-3 additional deals per year with premium intent data, the investment typically pays for itself several times over.
Some organizations build DIY solutions using marketing automation data, publicly available conference agendas, and social listening. While innovative in theory, these approaches rarely match the depth and breadth of purpose-built intent platforms. One client attempted this route before ultimately investing in Bombora, reporting that their internal solution captured less than 15% of the intent signals Bombora identified.
The decision ultimately depends on your specific goals. If you're primarily focused on account selection and prioritization, Bombora's intent-first approach works beautifully. If you need broader account intelligence including firmographic data and predictive insights, a more comprehensive platform might be worth the additional investment.
Implementing Bombora in Your Sales Strategy
Successful implementation requires careful planning and alignment across your organization. I've seen companies purchase Bombora licenses only to let them sit unused because they didn't prepare their teams and processes properly.
Start with a clear definition of what constitutes relevant intent for your business. Work with your product team to identify the topics and keywords that correlate with potential purchases. This specificity prevents your sales team from pursuing tangential leads that won't convert.
Your CRM configuration needs attention upfront. Create custom fields to store intent data, establish automation rules for lead scoring adjustments, and design dashboards for monitoring intent-rich accounts. This technical preparation prevents implementation delays and data quality issues later.
Sales content should be tailored specifically for intent-based outreach. I recommend creating email sequences, talking points, and case studies that reference the prospect's research journey. For example, when LoquiSoft identified companies researching outdated technology stacks, they used messaging specifically about migration challenges they might be experiencing.
Marketing should align content creation with trending topics in your target market. Bombora provides aggregated insights about what topics are surging across your customer base. Use this intelligence to develop blog posts, webinars, and whitepapers that address these exact interests.
Your sales development representatives need specialized training. Engaging with high-intent prospects requires different skills than traditional cold outreach. Role-play scenarios where prospects are already knowledgeable about your solution category and likely evaluating multiple vendors.
Establish clear processes for intent data utilization across your sales funnel. Should accounts with high intent scores receive different follow-up cadences? At what point does an intent signal escalate to account executive involvement? These predefined workflows prevent inconsistent execution.
Consider implementing a tiered scoring system based on intent intensity. Not all surge events are created equal—10 employees reading one article carries different weight than 50 employees reading 15 articles over two weeks. Create a rubric that helps your team prioritize effectively.
Measurement Framework
Track these key metrics: meetings set with high-intent accounts, conversion rate by intent score level, and sales cycle length for intent-identified opportunities compared to traditional leads.
Don't forget about data governance. Establish regular reviews to ensure intent data quality remains high and topic definitions stay relevant as your market evolves. The team at Proxyle found that reviewing and refining their topic definitions quarterly improved precision by 42% over their initial configuration.
Integrate intent data with your existing account-based strategy if you have one. Many companies struggle to determine which accounts within their ABM list should receive immediate attention. Intent data provides exactly this prioritization mechanism, helping you focus finite resources where they'll have maximum impact.
Final Thoughts on Intent Data Investment
The decision to implement Bombora shouldn't be taken lightly—it requires financial investment, technical integration, and process refinement. However, for organizations with longer sales cycles and complex enterprise solutions, the competitive advantages can be transformative.
I've seen sales teams completely transform their performance when they move from reactive to prospect to proactive engagement based on intent signals. The ability to reach prospects when they're actively evaluating solutions fundamentally changes the sales conversation and dramatically accelerates pipeline velocity.
That said, Bombora isn't a magic bullet. Success requires complementary tools for identifying the right contacts within high-intent accounts and efficiently executing personalized outreach at scale. Many of our clients combine Bombora's intent intelligence with EfficientPIM's ability to automate your list building with verified contacts for the accounts showing buying signals.
The measurement approach should be rigorous but practical. Beyond tracking basic adoption metrics, focus on outcomes like accelerated sales cycles, higher conversion rates, and larger deal sizes compared to non-intent-sourced opportunities. For Glowitone, this analysis revealed that intent-sourced deals closed 34% faster with 18% higher contract values.
Remember that intent data works best as part of a coordinated go-to-market strategy. When sales, marketing, and customer success teams all have visibility into account intent, the entire organization can deliver a more cohesive and responsive customer experience.
The question isn't really whether intent data has value—it clearly does. The more important question is whether Bombora is the right solution for your specific market, budget, and sales process sophistication. For many organizations, the answer is a resounding yes.
As you evaluate your options, consider running small-scale pilots with multiple providers to measure effectiveness against your specific target accounts. The incremental cost of testing multiple solutions is insignificant compared to the long-term impact on your revenue engine.
Ultimately, the companies that thrive in today's competitive landscape are those that reach prospects with the right message at exactly the right time. Intent data platforms like Bombora give you the timing intelligence to make this possible, allowing you to focus your limited resources where they'll generate maximum return.
