Signal Decay Half-Life

Signal Decay Half-Life is the working assumption that an intent signal loses most of its commercial value within days, not weeks, so the useful question is not whether a prospect is in-market but how long ago the signal fired. Agencies that treat intent as a static list end up pitching accounts that already bought, while agencies that timestamp every signal and route it inside a 72-hour window convert at materially higher rates. The framework forces three disciplines: record the signal date, define a contact deadline per signal type, and retire anything past its half-life. Community monitoring tools such as Agenmatic surface posts in real time, which only pays off if a reply goes out the same day. Web visitor identification from Leadfeeder behaves differently, since a company reading a pricing page on Tuesday is a colder contact by the following Monday. Pair the half-life rule with CRM deal stages so a signal that never advances past discovery gets flagged rather than recycled into next quarter's retainer reporting.