---
title: "Custom Buying Signals: Set Up Your Own Trigger | traxy"
description: "How to set up a custom buying signal, like companies expanding into a new market: describe it in plain English, research each lead and message each group."
canonical: "https://traxy.ai/blog/custom-buying-signals-outbound"
last_updated: "2026-11-12"
---

# Custom Buying Signals: Set Up Your Own Trigger | traxy

> How to set up a custom buying signal, like companies expanding into a new market: describe it in plain English, research each lead and message each group.

[Home](https://traxy.ai/) [Blog](https://traxy.ai/blog) [Buyer Intent & Signals](https://traxy.ai/blog/topics/buyer-intent-and-signals) 

Outbound

# Custom buying signals: describe any trigger in plain English and research every lead for it

How to set up a custom buying signal, like companies expanding into a new market: describe it in plain English, research each lead and message each group.

By the traxy teamPublished Nov 12, 202610 min read

![Custom buying signals: describe any trigger in plain English and research every lead for it — traxy blog](https://traxy.ai/assets/blog-covers/custom-buying-signals-outbound.jpg)

**In this article**[How do I set up a custom buying signal, like companies expanding into a new market?](https://traxy.ai/blog/custom-buying-signals-outbound#how-do-i-set-up-a-custom-buying-signal-like-companies-expanding-into-a-new-market) [What makes a good custom signal?](https://traxy.ai/blog/custom-buying-signals-outbound#what-makes-a-good-custom-signal) [How do you add a custom signal in traxy, or ask trax?](https://traxy.ai/blog/custom-buying-signals-outbound#how-do-you-add-a-custom-signal-in-traxy-or-ask-trax) [LinkedIn activity vs research on each lead: where a custom signal comes from](https://traxy.ai/blog/custom-buying-signals-outbound#linkedin-activity-vs-research-on-each-lead-where-a-custom-signal-comes-from) [Examples: market expansion, launches, partnerships, new leaders](https://traxy.ai/blog/custom-buying-signals-outbound#examples-market-expansion-launches-partnerships-new-leaders) [Keeping messages to what the research found](https://traxy.ai/blog/custom-buying-signals-outbound#keeping-messages-to-what-the-research-found) [Giving signal leads their own message variant](https://traxy.ai/blog/custom-buying-signals-outbound#giving-signal-leads-their-own-message-variant) [FAQ](https://traxy.ai/blog/custom-buying-signals-outbound#faq) [Related reading](https://traxy.ai/blog/custom-buying-signals-outbound#related-reading) [Open product docs](https://docs.traxy.ai/) 

**TL;DR: To set up a custom buying signal in traxy, describe it in plain English under Targeting > Signals or ask trax, the traxy agent, for example "companies expanding into a new market and looking for an agency." traxy finds high intent leads from LinkedIn activity on that topic, and for company facts such as an expansion, a campaign researches each lead for the signal, gives the leads where research found it their own message variant, and runs the LinkedIn and email outreach from your own connected accounts after you approve.**

_traxy wrote this guide about its own product. It was checked against the traxy docs on November 12, 2026. The examples are illustrations, not customer results._

## How do I set up a custom buying signal, like companies expanding into a new market?

Write the signal as one plain sentence, add it as a custom signal in traxy, then build a campaign that researches each lead for the proof and gives the leads where research found it their own message. Here is the full path, using market expansion as the example.

1.  **Write the signal in one sentence.** Name who, what changed and why it matters to your offer. For example: "B2B software companies expanding into a new country, where a local go-to-market agency could help them launch." If you can't say why the change matters to what you sell, the signal isn't ready.
    
2.  **Add it in traxy.** Open Targeting > Signals and add a custom signal, or describe it to trax in chat. Setup changes trax proposes show an approval card with the proposed values first, and nothing changes until you approve it.
    
3.  **Let traxy find the people.** traxy looks for people who like, comment on or write posts about the topics in your Signals, and for people who engage with the profiles, posts and company pages you track. A person only becomes a lead with a 50% or higher match to your ICP, and every lead shows the post, comment, like or repost behind it.
    
4.  **Save the leads you want to work.** Filter your leads and save them as a shared view. Campaigns use shared views as their audience.
    
5.  **Create a campaign and describe the research.** Go to Outbound > Campaigns > Create campaign, or ask trax. Give the audience, your offer and the fact to check on each lead, such as "Check whether the company announced a new country, region or office in the last six months, and record the source and date" ([create a campaign](https://docs.traxy.ai/campaigns/create) ).
    
6.  **Name the groups.** In the campaign brief, name a group for leads where research found the expansion and a fallback group for the rest. traxy groups leads by signal and each group gets its own message variant, personalized with the evidence.
    
7.  **Test on sample leads.** The test prepares research and drafts on a few leads and sends nothing. Read the research, check that every claim has a source you can open, and ask trax to change the plan if it doesn't.
    
8.  **Review the launch and pick a delivery mode.** Before launch you see who joins, who is skipped (held by another campaign or contacted before), the sender, the steps and the delivery mode ([review and launch](https://docs.traxy.ai/campaigns/review-and-launch) ).
    

After that, traxy runs the outreach on autopilot: the campaign sends on its own once you approve it, or you approve every message in a review queue. Replies, unsubscribes and hard bounces stop the sequence. This is how traxy runs your entire LinkedIn GTM end to end, from finding high intent leads from social intent to enriching and researching each one, to running relevant, personalized [LinkedIn and email outreach](https://traxy.ai/linkedin-outbound)  to them.

One limit to set expectations: signals outside LinkedIn, such as an expansion, a launch or a funding round, come from research on each lead in a campaign, not from a live event feed. traxy finds what research can source for each lead. There is no promise that every company is covered or of how soon after an event it shows up.

## What makes a good custom signal?

A good custom signal is a specific fact that research can confirm or not from a public source, tied closely enough to your offer that you could explain in one line why it matters. Vague signals produce vague research and vague messages.

Check your sentence against these five points:

-   **It names something you can see.** "Opened an office in a new country" or "posted sales roles in a new city" can be checked. "Growing fast" or "ready to scale" can't.
    
-   **It connects to your offer without a stretch.** An expansion matters to a localization agency, a recruiter for the new market or a payroll provider. It matters much less to a tool that has nothing to do with the new market.
    
-   **It has a source you can open.** Ask the research to return the link, so you or a teammate can check it before it goes into a message.
    
-   **It comes with a date.** Ask for the date of the announcement or posting with the source, so you can judge whether it is recent enough to mention.
    
-   **It leaves people out.** If almost every lead would match, the signal is too broad to say anything about the person you are writing to.
    

Too vague

Better wording

Companies that are growing

Companies that announced a new office, country or region outside their home market, with the announcement linked

Companies launching things

Companies that announced a new product or product line, with the launch post or page linked

Companies open to partners

Companies that announced a reseller, agency or integration partnership with a named company

Companies with new leadership

Companies where a new head of sales or marketing started, per a company announcement or the person's own profile

Write the better version both ways: once as the custom signal in Targeting > Signals, and once as the research fact in the campaign. The Signals wording guides which people and activity count as relevant. The campaign wording tells research exactly what to confirm on each lead.

## How do you add a custom signal in traxy, or ask trax?

You add it in Targeting > Signals, or you tell trax in plain English and approve the change it proposes. Both end in the same place: your Signal Brief, which tells traxy which problems, topics and situations make a lead relevant.

### In the app

1.  Open **Targeting** > **Signals**. The Signal Brief there holds your business context, buyer pains, buying triggers, relevant topics, competitors, relevance rules and keywords ([signals docs](https://docs.traxy.ai/discovery/signals) ).
    
2.  Add a custom signal and describe it in plain English, the way your buyers would say it.
    
3.  Review any suggested topics before you save, and save the section you edited.
    

### With trax

Open trax and describe the signal and why it matters. For example:

> "Add a custom signal: B2B software companies expanding into Germany or the wider DACH region that may need a local go-to-market agency. Our offer is launch support for new markets."

trax shows an approval card with the proposed change. Read it, choose Approve or Decline, and check the result after approving. You can then ask trax to find new leads for that signal, which also shows an approval card with the capacity it will use before it runs.

### From your AI chat

With the traxy MCP connected to Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, Codex or Grok, you can read and update your ICP and Signal Brief from chat, with revision history. You can also run the campaign from there: draft it, test it on sample leads, launch it and manage sequences and senders, with the AI asking for your yes before anything sends or launches. See [the LinkedIn GTM MCP](https://traxy.ai/linkedin-mcp) .

### When the results look wrong

If the leads point to the wrong problem, change the signal topics. If the people themselves are wrong (wrong roles, wrong company size), change Lead criteria instead. If the right buyers gather around certain creators, competitors or posts, add those to Tracking.

## LinkedIn activity vs research on each lead: where a custom signal comes from

A custom signal comes from one of two places, depending on whether it is something a person does on LinkedIn or a fact about a company. traxy finds LinkedIn activity itself. Company facts come from research on each lead inside a campaign.

Where it comes from

LinkedIn activity

Research on each lead

What traxy uses

Posts, comments, likes and reposts on your topics; engagers with the people, posts and company pages you track; profile views

The facts you ask the campaign to check: expansion, launches, partnerships, hiring, funding, job changes, tool changes

Market expansion example

A founder comments on a post about launching a SaaS product in the US

The company's site announces a new US office, with the page linked

What it tells you

The topic is on this person's mind

The change happened, with a source

What it can't tell you

Whether the company is expanding

Whether this person cares about your offer

Where you set it up

Targeting > Signals, Tracking, social intent search

The research you describe in the campaign

The strongest leads have both: the person engaged with the topic, and research confirmed the change at their company. That pairing is covered in more depth in [engagement signals vs trigger events](https://traxy.ai/blog/engagement-signals-vs-trigger-events) .

You can also start from the LinkedIn side with [social intent search](https://traxy.ai/social-intent-search) : describe the person and the need in plain English, such as "founders talking about entering the UK market," and search 71M+ scanned LinkedIn likes, posts and comments. Each result comes with the post or comment behind it.

Each lead also carries a signal label that shows how strong the evidence is: Warm for a direct signal relevant to your offer, Related for contextual evidence, Activity for observed activity with a weaker connection, and ICP match for fit with no recorded signal of the other types. A missing signal does not prove someone has no interest.

## Examples: market expansion, launches, partnerships, new leaders

Each example below gives the signal sentence, what to look for on LinkedIn, the research instruction for the campaign and the angle for the message. They are illustrations of how to set it up, not customer results.

### Market expansion

**Signal:** B2B companies expanding into a new country or region, for an agency that helps companies launch in new markets.

**LinkedIn side:** founders and heads of growth who post or comment about entering a new market, hiring a first local team or localizing their product.

> "Check whether this company announced a new country, region or office in the last six months. Return the market, the source link and the date. Mark it not found if there is no source."

**Message angle:** reference the announcement, name one problem companies usually hit in that market and offer something small and useful, such as a short launch checklist. Local job openings are another strong proof of expansion; [hiring signals for outbound](https://traxy.ai/blog/hiring-signals-outbound)  walks through that research.

### Product launches

**Signal:** companies that launched a new product or product line, for a team that sells launch marketing, content or sales enablement.

**LinkedIn side:** people who post about their own launch, or who comment on posts about launch planning and go-to-market.

> "Check whether this company announced a new product or product line in the last 90 days. Return the product name, the launch page or post and the date."

**Message angle:** mention the launch by name and ask one question about what comes after it, such as how they plan to reach the first buyers.

### Partnerships

**Signal:** companies that announced a reseller, agency or integration partnership, for a partner-program tool or a services firm that works with partner ecosystems.

**LinkedIn side:** people who engage with posts by the partner company, which you can track as a company page or a profile.

> "Check whether this company announced a new partnership with a named company. Return the partner, the type of partnership and the source link."

**Message angle:** name the partner and the likely next step for the company, without guessing at numbers you can't see.

### New leaders

**Signal:** a new head of sales, marketing or operations, for an offer that new leaders often review in their first months.

**LinkedIn side:** the new leader's own posts and comments about what they are working on.

> "Check whether this person started a new role as head of sales or a similar title in the last six months. Return the title, the start date if shown and the source."

**Message angle:** congratulate briefly, then tie one sentence to the problem they posted about. The engagement is what makes the message about them rather than about the job change.

The same pattern works for tool changes, funding rounds and open roles. For what a research brief should establish and when to skip a lead, see [AI research agents for B2B sales](https://traxy.ai/blog/ai-research-agents-b2b-sales) .

## Keeping messages to what the research found

A message should only state facts the research found and linked. Everything the research did not confirm stays out of the message, even if it seems likely.

-   **Ask for the source and the date every time.** Each lead keeps the source of its signal. Open a lead's Signals tab and check the source and date before you use it in a message.
    
-   **Read the test, not only the drafts.** When you test the campaign on sample leads, check whether the research supports each claim, and look at the leads where research found nothing as well as the usable drafts ([review and launch](https://docs.traxy.ai/campaigns/review-and-launch) ).
    
-   **Decide what happens when research finds nothing.** When a required research fact isn't found, the lead stays in traxy, and in the campaign you can choose to skip it. You can also send it to a fallback group whose message makes no claim about the company.
    
-   **Treat "not found" as unknown.** No source does not mean the company isn't expanding. It means you can't say so in a message.
    
-   **Don't turn engagement into a company fact.** A like on a post about new markets is not an expansion. Write "saw your comment on entering new markets," not "saw you're expanding," unless research found the announcement.
    
-   **Ask, don't assume.** When the link between the signal and your offer is likely but not certain, phrase it as a question.
    

For a closer look at running a campaign on a few leads before anything sends, read [how to test an outbound campaign on a few leads](https://traxy.ai/blog/test-outbound-campaign-on-a-few-leads) .

## Giving signal leads their own message variant

Name each signal as its own group in the campaign brief. traxy groups leads by signal, and each group gets its own message variant, personalized with the evidence on each lead. LinkedIn and email steps run in the same campaign.

For the market expansion campaign, the groups could look like this:

Group

Who is in it

What the first message opens with

Expanding and engaged

Research found the expansion and the person engaged with a related post

Their comment or post, with the expansion as the reason for writing now

Expanding

Research found the expansion, no related engagement

The announcement, with its source, and one question

Engaged only

Related engagement, research found no expansion

The post or comment only, no claim about the company

Not found, skipped

Required fact not found and you chose to skip

Nothing; the lead stays in traxy for later

Each group's sequence can have several steps across LinkedIn and email, and waits can depend on events such as a connection being accepted. Replies, unsubscribes and hard bounces stop the sequence, and replies from both channels land in one inbox. Sending uses the LinkedIn accounts and mailboxes you connect as senders, with their own limits and active hours.

You can run many campaigns at once on different signals: one for market expansion, one for launches, one for new leaders. If a lead is already held by another unfinished campaign or was contacted by a completed one, the launch review shows it as skipped, so the same person doesn't get two messages. For the full campaign flow from Signal Brief to approved launch, see the [signal-based outbound playbook](https://traxy.ai/blog/signal-based-outbound-playbook)  and the [signal-based outbound](https://traxy.ai/signal-based-outbound)  overview.

## FAQ

### Can traxy alert me the moment a custom signal happens?

No. Signals outside LinkedIn come from research on each lead in a campaign, not from a live event feed, and there is no promise of how soon after an event research finds it. LinkedIn activity on your topics is something traxy finds itself through discovery.

### What happens to a lead when research does not find the signal?

The lead stays in traxy. In the campaign you can choose to skip it, or put it in a fallback group whose message only references what the person did on LinkedIn.

### Can I run more than one custom signal at once?

Yes. You can add several custom signals to your Signal Brief, name several signal groups in one campaign, and run many campaigns at once on different signals.

### Does traxy send messages without my approval?

No. Nothing sends until you approve the launch. After that, you choose whether you approve every message in a review queue or let the approved campaign send on its own, from your own connected LinkedIn and email accounts.

### Can I set up a custom signal from Claude or ChatGPT?

Yes. With the traxy MCP connected, you can read and update your Signal Brief from your AI chat and run the campaign from there, with the AI asking for your yes before anything sends or launches.

### Is a custom signal proof that someone will buy?

No. A signal is a reason to look closer and a specific thing to reference. The ICP match score measures fit, not the chance of a purchase, and engagement alone is not a decision to buy.

## Related reading

-   [Engagement signals vs trigger events](https://traxy.ai/blog/engagement-signals-vs-trigger-events) 
    
-   [Signal-based outbound playbook](https://traxy.ai/blog/signal-based-outbound-playbook) 
    
-   [AI research agents for B2B sales](https://traxy.ai/blog/ai-research-agents-b2b-sales) 
    
-   [Hiring signals for outbound](https://traxy.ai/blog/hiring-signals-outbound) 
    
-   [Test an outbound campaign on a few leads](https://traxy.ai/blog/test-outbound-campaign-on-a-few-leads) 
    
-   [LinkedIn and email outbound with traxy](https://traxy.ai/linkedin-outbound) 
    

[Back to all articles](https://traxy.ai/blog) 

## Keep reading

[All Buyer Intent & Signals guides](https://traxy.ai/blog/topics/buyer-intent-and-signals) 

[Buyer intent7 min read

## Buyer Intent Signals (2026): What Buying Signals Are, Examples by Type and How Sales Teams Act on Them

Buyer intent signals explained: what buying signals are, examples by type, how reps act on each one and a simple scoring framework to prioritize accounts.

Updated Nov 12, 2026Read article](https://traxy.ai/blog/buyer-intent-signals-complete-b2b-guide) [Buyer intent18 min read

## Social intent search examples: what to search for to find buyers on LinkedIn

What to search for to find buyers on LinkedIn: the person plus the need, with example search wording for founders, agencies, recruiters and sales teams.

Updated Nov 13, 2026Read article](https://traxy.ai/blog/social-intent-search-examples) [Buyer intent19 min read

## How to keep other consultants, vendors and recruiters out of your LinkedIn leads

Why LinkedIn leads fill up with other consultants, vendors and recruiters, and how to filter them out with exclusions, better sources and fit feedback.

Updated Nov 13, 2026Read article](https://traxy.ai/blog/keep-peers-vendors-recruiters-out-of-leads) 

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