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Intent & Influence

Find Intent Before It Becomes a Search.

Book a Demo Talk to MarketStorm

MarketStorm is an AI and data company that works in the marketing space.

Most marketing platforms are exceptionally good at capturing demand once consumers reveal what they want.

They search. They click. They visit. They fill out a form. At that point, intent has become visible and actionable. MarketStorm works earlier.

We use behavioral data, AI and custom algorithms to identify patterns that may suggest consumers are entering a problem, interest or consideration state—often before they make their final search or choose a brand.

We call this the Intent & Influence layer.

It is the part of the customer journey where intent is developing, consumers are researching and preferences are still being formed.

  1. A PROBLEM OR LIFE EVENT
  2. RESEARCH & DISCOVERY
  3. BEHAVIORAL SIGNALS
  4. EMERGING INTENT
  5. MARKETSTORM INTELLIGENCE
  6. INFLUENCE
  7. FINAL SEARCH OR ACTION
A smiling older man giving a thumbs up at his laptop.

Intent Doesn’t Begin With a Search

A customer journey rarely begins when someone types something into Google. It may begin with a problem. A life event. Something someone reads. A product they research. A competitor they consider. Content they consume. A change in behavior that suggests something new has become relevant.

Those behaviors can create signals. MarketStorm’s technology is designed to recognize patterns within those signals and use them to build audience intelligence. Because the opportunity isn’t simply to respond once demand becomes visible.

It’s to recognize what intent
may be forming.

Intent and Influence Work Together

Traditional marketing funnels suggest that consumers move predictably from awareness to consideration to purchase. Human behavior is rarely that orderly.

Intent makes someone more receptive to information. Information creates influence. Influence changes what someone researches and considers. That can strengthen, weaken or redirect intent. The consumer explores again, encounters another brand, compares another option and moves closer to—or farther away from—a decision.

The journey looks less like a funnel and more like a continuous interaction: 

A figure eight joining intent and influence. Research, discover, explore and compare sit on the intent loop; respond, experience, consider and re-engage on the influence loop. INTENT INFLUENCE

MarketStorm is designed to operate within that interaction. 

We aren’t waiting at the bottom of the funnel for someone to arrive. We are looking for opportunities to matter while the decision is still taking shape. 

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From ProtoSignal™ to Audience Intelligence

Traditional advertising often begins with a predefined audience: homeowners, parents, business owners, people within an age range or consumers placed into a third-party “in-market” segment.

MarketStorm starts with behavior.

Early behavioral patterns may suggest that a consumer is beginning to move toward a relevant need, problem, interest or decision. We call these ProtoSignals™. One action may mean very little. Patterns can tell us considerably more.

The MarketStorm Intelligence Engine™ uses AI and custom algorithms to help recognize meaningful patterns within those behaviors and identify consumers whose actions may indicate emerging intent. That allows us to build audiences around what people are doing now, not simply who demographics suggest they might be.

Three black boxes with blue edges in a row, a blue chevron between each.
  1. ProtoSignals™
  2. Emerging Intent
  3. Audience Intelligence

From Audience Intelligence to Human-Verified Intent Retargeting

Identifying a behavioral signal does not automatically put someone into a MarketStorm retargeting audience.

MarketStorm may first use those signals to serve an initial advertisement. Following that initial impression, we look for interaction signals that provide evidence of genuine human
activity rather than automated or non-human traffic.

A click to the advertiser’s website can be one of those signals,
but a website click is not required.

When sufficient post-impression human interaction signals are present, that consumer can become eligible for Intent Retargeting.

  1. Behavioral
    Signal
  2. Emerging
    Intent
  3. Initial Ad
    Served
  4. Human Interaction
    Signals
  5. Human
    Verified
  6. Intent
    Retargeting

Human verification does not mean someone at MarketStorm is manually watching individual impressions, nor does it mean we need to know the personal identity of the consumer. It is a technology-driven qualification step designed to improve the quality of the audience before we invest in continued influence. 

We don’t retarget a signal. 
We retarget a verified human. 

From Audience to Influence

Once we’ve identified a relevant audience, the next question isn’t simply, 
“Where can we place an ad?” It’s, “Where can we influence this audience next?”

The channel is not the strategy. 

The audience is the strategy. 
The channels are how we reach them. 

Consumers don’t experience their lives as marketing channels. They watch. Read. Listen. Research. Visit physical places. Compare. Search. Put their phones away and pick them back up. 

Our audience strategy is designed to move with them. 

The channel can change without losing the audience. 

A young woman looking at her phone on an escalator.

JourneyIQ™: Because Decisions Aren’t Linear

Consumers don’t move through the Intent & Influence Layer in predictable sequences.

They research, stop, return, change devices, encounter another brand, investigate a competitor, ask someone they trust, search again and sometimes abandon the decision entirely before returning later.

JourneyIQ™ reflects the way MarketStorm thinks about intelligence across that nonlinear movement.

Instead of expecting the consumer to follow a predetermined funnel, we build the strategy around the journey consumers are actually taking.

Where MarketStorm Tends to Be Strongest

This approach becomes particularly valuable when the decision takes time. MarketStorm tends to be strongest in researched and high-consideration decisions where consumers compare alternatives, evaluate providers or products and develop preferences before they act.

The decision might take days. It might take weeks or months. The purchase may be expensive, complex, competitive, personally important or simply significant enough that the consumer wants to get it right.

That is why MarketStorm can work across industries that appear very different from one another.

We aren’t built around one industry. 
We’re built around a type of decision. 

The common denominator isn’t the product or service. 

IT’S THE DECISION JOURNEY

Influence Changes What Happens Next

Not every effective advertisement produces an immediate click. Influence often builds across multiple moments before a consumer takes a measurable action.

  1. 01 CTV Encounter a brand through CTV

  2. 02 Display Ad See it again through display

  3. 03 Streaming Audio Hear it through streaming audio

  4. 04 Research Research alternatives andconsider options

  5. 05 Search Search for the companydays later

The search platform may capture the final interaction. 
But the consumer didn’t necessarily begin the journey there. 

Earlier exposure can affect which brands consumers recognize, what they research, which alternatives they consider and what ultimately feels relevant when they become ready to act. 

THAT IS THE OPPORTUNITY WITHIN THE INTENT & INFLUENCE LAYER

Influence preference while preferences 
are still being formed.

Two Different Jobs in the Modern Customer Journey

The modern marketing ecosystem increasingly performs two different but complementary jobs: Intent & Influence and Demand Capture.

MarketStorm specializes in the first.

And we are designed to work alongside the platforms, agencies and technologies that specialize in the second.

We don’t compete with demand capture. We help influence what happens before it.

01 Intent & Influence

Recognize, build and influence before demand is visible.

  • Recognizes emerging intent
  • Builds relevant audiences
  • Creates Familiarity
  • Influences consideration while consumers are still deciding

02 Demand Capture

Responds when consumers are ready to act.

  • Search
  • Maps
  • Websites
  • Phone calls and forms
  • Stores and sales teams
  • Other conversion environments

The MarketStorm
Intelligence Cycle

  1. 01 Signal

    Recognize behavioral patterns that may indicate a relevant problem, interest or consideration state.

  2. 02 Intent

    Use AI, data and custom algorithms to identify meaningful patterns that may suggest emerging intent.

  3. 03 Audience

    Transform those signals into actionable Audience Intelligence.

  4. 04 Verify

    Following initial advertising exposure, use post-impression interaction signals to help establish genuine human activity before continuing with Intent Retargeting.

  5. 05 Influence

    Reach human-verified audiences across CTV, Display, Native, Streaming Audio, DOOH and other available programmatic environments.

  6. 06 Demand

    Build familiarity and influence consideration as consumers continue toward a decision.

  7. 07 Capture

    Consumers search, visit, call, book, buy or convert through the environments they choose.

  8. 08 Learn

    Measure what happens next and use relevant signals to improve our understanding of the audience and inform future strategy.

And the cycle continues.

AI Isn’t an Add-On. It’s How the
System Thinks.

Book a Demo Talk to MarketStorm

There is a lot of AI in marketing today. Much of it is used to automate
tasks—write an ad, adjust a bid, generate creative, choose a placement
or optimize toward a conversion. MarketStorm uses AI earlier. We use
AI to help understand audiences.

Data tells us what people are doing. AI helps identify meaningful
patterns within those behaviors. Custom algorithms help translate those patterns into Audience Intelligence. Human verification improves the quality of the audience. Programmatic technology gives us environments in which to influence it. Measurement helps us learn what happened next.

The technology came from the philosophy—not the other way
around. That’s why MarketStorm isn’t simply another programmatic advertising company.

We’re an AI and data company built to recognize developing intent, understand audiences and influence what happens next.

Get in Touch

Good to Know

Programmatic can be complicated. It doesn’t have to be. Here are a few things worth knowing.  

  • What is the Intent & Influence Layer?

    The Intent & Influence Layer is the part of the customer journey where a consumer’s need or interest is developing and information, advertising and other experiences can still affect what they consider.

    It often occurs before the consumer takes an explicit action such as searching for a provider, requesting a quote, visiting a location or making a purchase.

  • Is intent the same thing as a search?

  • Does MarketStorm create demand?

  • What is human verification?

  • Why is the Intent & Influence Layer particularly important for researched decisions?