The cheapest way to get B2B buying signals in 2026
Public triggers and first-party signals cost $0 to about $300 a month. Third-party intent costs $20K to $100K+ a year. Here is what each tier costs in 2026, where the free stack breaks, and when paying makes sense.
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- The cheapest B2B buying signals are public trigger events like job posts, funding news and leadership changes, which cost nothing except the time to watch them.
- First-party signals such as website visitors and LinkedIn engagement cost between $0 and roughly $300 a month in 2026 and are the next step up.
- Third-party intent data from providers like Bombora runs $20K to $100K+ a year and only pays off once you have a process for acting on signals quickly.
- Manual monitoring with Google Alerts and LinkedIn holds up for about 20 to 50 accounts, and beyond that the labor cost becomes the real price.
- A free signal is worthless if nobody acts on it, so fix your follow-up process before you pay for more data.
The cheapest way to get B2B buying signals is to collect public trigger events and your own first-party signals before paying for third-party intent. Job posts, funding news, leadership changes and LinkedIn engagement cost nothing but time. Free tiers from Google Alerts, Crunchbase, Leadfeeder and RB2B cover a small account list. Third-party intent, the Bombora-style research data, runs $20K to $100K+ a year in 2026. It only pays off once you have a system for acting on it.
The three price tiers of buying signals
Most articles on this question blur three very different products together. They are not the same thing and they do not cost the same.
| Tier | What it is | Examples | Typical cost (2026) |
|---|---|---|---|
| A: Public triggers | Events anyone can see | Job posts, funding rounds, exec hires, news, SEC filings | $0 plus labor |
| B: First-party signals | Activity on your own properties | Website visitors, G2 profile views, engagement on your LinkedIn posts | $0 to about $300/mo |
| C: Third-party intent | Anonymous research behavior across publisher sites | Bombora and similar co-op data | $20K to $100K+/yr |
If someone quotes you a five-figure annual contract, you are looking at Tier C. If you are a team of fewer than 20 people, the advice from even the intent vendors is to start with first-party signals and add third-party data only once you have a way to act on it. For the longer version of that argument, see first-party vs third-party intent data.
What is the cheapest way to get B2B buying signals?
Tier A. It costs nothing in software. Here is the free stack and what each piece actually catches.
Hiring signals from job posts
Job postings are public, free and updated daily. A company hiring several people into the team you sell to is putting budget there now. One vendor uses 10+ open roles in a department as its threshold. That is a rule of thumb, not a study, so set your own bar based on your deal size. We cover how to read job posts in detail in hiring signals from job postings.
Funding, acquisitions and leadership changes
- Crunchbase free tier for funding alerts on companies you follow.
- SEC EDGAR for public company filings. Free, no account needed.
- Owler emails an alert when one of fifteen trigger events happens at a company you follow, including funding, acquisitions and leadership changes. We could not confirm the current free tier limits, so check before you build around it.
- LinkedIn itself for job changes. Follow your champions and watch for moves. The job-change trigger playbook covers what to do in the first 90 days.
You will see a claim that newly funded companies are 8x more likely to buy. It traces back to UserGems, a vendor that sells this kind of tracking. We could not find the original study, so we would not build a forecast on it. Funding is still a useful trigger. Our notes on that are in funding announcements as a sales trigger.
Google Alerts and its limits
Pair each target company name with phrases like "new funding", "executive hire" or "market expansion". That costs $0. Know the limits:
- There is no API. Alerts arrive by email or RSS feed.
- It reports new search results. If a page you already know about changes, such as a pricing page, it usually stays silent.
- Talkwalker Alerts is a close free alternative. F5Bot watches Reddit, Hacker News and Lobsters for keywords.
Page-change monitors for pricing and careers pages
To catch edits that Google Alerts misses, use a page monitor. Prices as published in 2026:
| Tool | Free tier | Entry paid plan |
|---|---|---|
| Visualping | 5 pages | $10/mo on its own site ($14/mo in one third-party comparison) |
| Distill | 25 monitors, 5 in the cloud | $15/mo |
| ChangeTower | 3 pages | $12/mo |
Point these at a target's careers page or a competitor's pricing page. For under $15 a month you get alerts no news feed will send you.
What do first-party signals cost?
Tier B is activity on things you own. It is more specific than news, because the person is looking at you.
| Tool | What it does | Free limit / price (2026) |
|---|---|---|
| Leadfeeder (Dealfront) | Company-level ID of site visitors by IP | Free Lite: up to 100 companies from the last 7 days. Paid Discover from €79/mo billed annually, €99 monthly |
| RB2B | Person-level ID of US site visitors | Free plan. Pro+ at $129/mo |
| G2 Buyer Intent | Who views your G2 profile, pricing and comparison pages | G2 Starter is $299/mo in year one. Buyer Intent is a quote-only add-on, estimated by one vendor at $10K to $25K/yr |
| Apollo | Contact database with basic intent | Free plan. Paid from $49/user/mo. Intent sits on higher tiers |
Two cautions. Leadfeeder's match rate of up to 45% of visiting companies and RB2B's 70 to 80% US person-level match rate are vendor claims. We have not seen independent tests. And G2 vendors with a profile can see a limited free Bombora feed in the my.g2 dashboard. That may be the cheapest route to any third-party intent at all, but we could not confirm its scope. Check it directly.
The other free first-party signal is engagement with your own LinkedIn posts. Everyone who comments on a post about the problem you solve has raised a hand. Here is how to turn post likes and comments into leads.
How much does third-party intent data cost?
Tier C is $20K to $100K+ a year. It tells you which companies are reading about a topic across a network of publisher sites, usually at the account level, without names. It can be useful for big ABM programs. For a small team it is usually the wrong first purchase. You pay for volume you cannot work.
Where does the free stack break?
Manual monitoring holds up for about 20 to 50 accounts. Past that, three things go wrong:
- Labor. Nobody has published a good figure for rep hours per account. We don't know the number for your team. Time yourself for two weeks and you will.
- No contact data. A funding alert tells you the company. It does not tell you who to message or how to reach them.
- Speed. One vendor suggests acting on high-priority triggers like funding or a champion's job change within 24 to 48 hours. That is an opinion, not a study, but a digest you read on Friday will miss it. More in speed to lead for buying signals.
The cheapest signal is still expensive if it sits unread. Most teams do not need more data. They need to act faster on what they already have.
When should you start paying?
Pay when the free stack is clearly the bottleneck, not before. A sensible order:
- Run Tier A by hand on your top 20 to 50 accounts.
- Add free tiers of Leadfeeder or RB2B on your own site.
- Track engagement on your LinkedIn posts and your competitors' posts.
- Move to paid first-party tools when you have more signals than you can work by hand.
- Consider Tier C only when you have a team and a process that acts on signals within days.
Where Saava fits
Saava covers one slice of this: LinkedIn engagement signals, scored against your ICP, with outreach sent from the LinkedIn account or email you connect yourself. It does not identify website visitors and it does not sell Bombora-style third-party intent. It is a paid tool, so if you are working fewer than 50 accounts, the free stack above may be all you need. If you want to compare it with a visitor-ID tool, read Saava vs RB2B.
FAQ
Is there any free B2B intent data? Yes, in a limited sense. Public triggers like job posts and funding news are free. Leadfeeder and RB2B have free plans for website visitors. G2 vendors with a profile can see a limited free Bombora feed, though we could not confirm its scope.
Is Bombora worth it for a small team? Usually not as a first purchase. Third-party intent costs $20K to $100K+ a year, and even intent vendors advise teams under 20 people to start with first-party signals.
How many accounts can I track manually? About 20 to 50, according to vendors who sell automation. Beyond that, labor and slow response times cost more than a tool would.
Which is cheaper, website visitor ID or G2 Buyer Intent? Visitor ID. Leadfeeder starts at €79/mo billed annually and RB2B Pro+ is $129/mo. G2 Buyer Intent is a quote-only add-on on top of a $299/mo Starter plan.
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