​
TL;DR

  • Observable OpenFunnel Intent Signals vs. Black-Box Bombora Intent
  • OpenFunnel Leading Signals vs. Bombora Lagging Searches
  • OpenFunnel Custom Inferrable Signals in Natural Language vs. Rigit Pre-defined Bombora Keywords
  • OpenFunnel Signal to Contact Mapping vs Bombora Guesswork
Bombora Intent Data is a black-box keyword-surge score. You get a weekly number with no source to back it up. Bombora captures intent when the buyer is already researching and comparison-shopping and clicking whoever won the SEO. OpenFunnel’s reasoning & inference engine infers intent from observable actions - deep hiring activity and surges, linkedin and social interactions, deep research, tech-stack changes - then explains why each action matters. Every alert links to the original source, so your reps lead with evidence, not conjecture.

​
Head-to-Head Snapshot

OpenFunnelBombora Intent
Core Signal TypeObserved activities (deep hiring activity, linkedin activity, tech adoption, filings, tweets…)Keyword-based content-consumption “surges”
Reasoning LayerCausal reasoning & inference engine links company activity to intentNone
TransparencySource link for every signalBlack-box scoring; no underlying pages
Time-to-SignalReal-time streaming; pushes to Slack/CRM instantlyWeekly refresh (at best)
Custom TopicsPlain-English queries (“companies adopting LangChain”) or one-click browser agent on any siteLimited to Bombora’s pre-defined keyword taxonomy; custom terms require support ticket
Noise / False PositivesLow - action must occur in public dataHigh - SEO, press releases, and random blog posts trigger “interest”
Contact MappingAuto-matches buyers (titles, emails, LinkedIn)None - requires separate enrichment tool

​
Why GTM Leaders Replace Bombora

  • Evidence, Not Hunches - Reps can paste the source link and say, “Saw you just posted a GPU optimisation role - can help?”
  • Faster Than Weekly - Catch intent the day it happens, not a week after the RFP went out.
  • Beat the Research Phase - Bombora fires when prospects are already in Google results. OpenFunnel surfaces intent before they hit search - so you arrive first.
  • Leading Signals, Not Lagging Searches - OpenFunnel activities are leading indicators, often weeks before formal research begins.
  • Buyer Context Included - Signals arrive with mapped contacts, cutting out a tool and an extra step.

​
Example

Ask: “Fintechs that are looking to migrate from Snowflake to open-source DuckDB in the last 60 days.”
  • OpenFunnel returns: 7 companies, infra job post spike mentioning explicit migration, mapped to the right team.
  • Bombora requires: Pre-define a “DuckDB” keyword (if available), wait for a weekly surge score, then manually look up contacts.

​
Skip the Guesswork - Try Intent Signals You Can See

Book a 15-minute demo and watch a live, source-linked signal appear in your Slack before the call ends.