TL;DR: 1st-party is your own data. 2nd-party is partner / network data. Account-intent is news about a company, inherited by the people found there. Zero-intent is a list or search you bring. Unstuck Engine handles all four through the same signals table, but each category has its own setup pattern.
1st-party
Signals from systems you already own. The data is yours; no third party intermediates.
Examples | Source
Replies to your outbound | Your sequencer, posting to an inbound webhook in any JSON shape
Demo views | Vidyard, Loom, Wistia, Mux
Form fills | Your forms, posted to the Webhook signal
Page views (high-intent pages) | PostHog, Segment, your analytics pixel
Custom events | Webhook
Setup: send the source's events to the webhook URL on the signal page, and pick which events become signals. 1st-party signals are the highest-converting category in most workspaces — the prospect already raised their hand somewhere.
2nd-party
Signals from partner and network sources — data the prospect produced in public or in a partner system Unstuck Engine has access to.
Examples | Source
Keyword posts | 11 networks: LinkedIn, X, Substack, Medium, Podcasts, YouTube, Slack, GitHub, Bluesky, plus Reddit and Hacker News
Job changes | LinkedIn
Setup: most 2nd-party sources are pre-wired; you just enable the signal and (in some cases) pick the LinkedIn account that authenticates the scraping. Privacy posture: only public information is captured — public LinkedIn posts, public job listings, public funding announcements.
Account-intent
Signals about a company — the company changed, and the people found there inherit the signal.
Examples | Source
Hiring signals | LinkedIn jobs, GitHub jobs
Funding events | Built in — no connection needed
Tech-stack changes | Wappalyzer, BuiltWith
News mentions | Google News, custom RSS
Setup: these are pre-wired too; you enable the signal and set its rule.
Zero-intent
Signals that start from a list or search you bring — no observed behavior, just the people or companies you point Unstuck Engine at.
Examples | Source
People from a search | A LinkedIn or Sales Navigator search URL (LinkedIn Search, Sales Nav)
People from a file | CSV Upload — each row resolves from a LinkedIn URL, work email, personal email, phone, or name plus company
Companies and people you name | Lookalikes, Connections
Setup: paste the search URL or upload the file.
Why the distinction matters
Three reasons:
- Source credentials live per category. 1st-party signals arrive as inbound webhooks from your tools; 2nd-party signals use Unstuck Engine's own partner credentials.
- Privacy posture differs. 1st-party is yours; you decide what to do with it. 2nd-party is public data; we capture only what's publicly available.
- Conversion rates differ. 1st-party > 2nd-party, typically.
Mixing categories
The most effective audiences blend categories. A canonical "hot audience" might require:
- A 2nd-party signal (LinkedIn post mentioning your category in the last 7 days) and
- A 1st-party signal (visited a high-intent page on your site) or
- Another 1st-party signal (replied to a sequence)
Build that audience inside the Audience Builder; Copilot can draft it from one sentence: > show me leads with any signal in the last 7 days from any source, ranked by engagement score.