The Signal-to-Retainer Gap: Why Intent Data Only Pays Off When It Reaches the CRM

Intent data changes agency economics only when a signal triggers a documented action inside the client's pipeline, not when it lands in a dashboard nobody opens. The category's real leverage is prioritization: fewer accounts worked harder, with deal-stage validation closing the loop. Agencies that sell signal volume rather than signal-to-stage conversion will watch retainers compress as clients question what the data actually moved.