Ad engagement signals
Ad engagement signals show which accounts see, watch, and click your ads, and which companies are starting, stopping, or changing their own advertising. They decide who moves from the ad audience into outbound, and when.
7 ad engagement signals
All B2B signalsAd engagement from a target account
People at a target account see, click, or engage with your LinkedIn ads.
Good · Within a week of the engagement · LinkedIn outreach, Email, CRM
Watched most of your video ad
An ICP person watches most of a video ad or a promoted founder video.
Early · Within 2 weeks · Ad audience, LinkedIn outreach
Opened a lead form, did not submit
Someone opens your LinkedIn or Meta lead form and closes it without submitting.
Good · Within a few days · Ad audience
Searching for the problem you solve
People search for the keywords that describe your problem, matched to their job title and company before they ever reach a sales cycle.
Good · Within a week of the search · Email, Ad audience, Content
Topic surge in third-party intent
An account’s research on a topic spikes across publisher networks, measured by third-party intent data.
Early · The weeks the surge lasts · Ad audience, Email
Started advertising on a new channel
A company runs ads on a channel for the first time, such as LinkedIn, Reddit, YouTube, or connected TV.
Strong · The first 90 days on the channel · Email, Ad audience
Ad spend stopped suddenly
A company that ran ads steadily for months stops running them on a channel.
Good · The 60 days after ads stop · Email, CRM
FAQs about ad engagement signals
Ad engagement signals show which accounts see, watch, and click your ads, and which companies are starting, stopping, or changing their own advertising. They decide who moves from the ad audience into outbound, and when.
“Started advertising on a new channel” is rated Strong, which means worth acting on this week on its own. The rest are worth a play when stacked with a second signal on the same account.
Each signal routes to the channels that fit it. Across the 7 ad engagement signals, the most common plays run through email, ad audience, and linkedin outreach. Each signal page lists the play it triggers on every channel, with an example opening line.
Understory Agency tracks them in Clay, most often with Clay, LinkedIn Ads, Fibbler, Meta Ads, LinkedIn Ad Library, and Meta Ad Library. Each signal page lists the steps to detect it, the tools, and the play it triggers when it fires.
Other kinds of signals
People signals
Who just arrived, moved up or left, at the accounts you sell to.
Hiring signals
What a company is hiring for, which tells you what it is about to build.
Company event signals
Funding, launches, expansion and the other moments that reset budgets.
Tech stack signals
What a company installs, removes or outgrows.
Website visitor signals
Who is reading your pages, and which pages they read.
Product usage signals
Sign-ups, usage and limits inside your own product.
Social and content signals
What buyers post, like, comment on and ask in public.
Event signals
Who is going where, speaking where and showing up to what.
Competitor signals
Your competitors’ customers, audiences and bad weeks.
Public record signals
Filings, permits, contracts and other records anyone can read.
Custom scrape signals
Signals nobody sells, built for one market with Claude Code and Apify.
CRM and network signals
The relationships and history you already own.
Tell us who you sell to
Bring your best customers, and we'll show you the ad engagement signals we would start with and the plays they would trigger. Signals run through our outbound and GTM engineering practice.