The Intent Signals Hiding in Plain Sight and Why They Outperform Awareness

At 9:47 p.m., nobody is in “brand discovery mode.” They’re hungry, tired, and staring at a phone that’s already decided the next move. The query is short, impatient, and specific: “tacos near me open now.”

This is the part of the customer journey most marketing teams say they want. Demand is already present. The shopper is asking for help choosing, not being convinced to care. Yet many brands still put the bulk of their budget into awareness motions that hope to create interest later.

High-intent searches like “open now,” “near me,” “best option for,” and “what should I buy” are the closest thing to an invitation a customer will ever send you. The brands that win these moments are not louder. They are clearer, faster, and easier to choose.

The Overlooked Moment

Most “intent signals” are obvious once you look for them. They show up as modifiers. Words that reveal urgency, location, comparison, or a specific job-to-be-done.

BrightLocal’s consumer research suggests many consumers consider a large share of their searching to be local in nature. In one survey, two in five consumers estimated that at least 41% of their searches are dedicated to finding information about local businesses.

That’s a massive pool of demand. The mistake is treating it like a local SEO issue only. It’s a growth issue.

What Intent Signals Actually Look Like

Here are the most common intent patterns that get undervalued because they don’t look like “campaignable” marketing. They look like utility.

“Open Now” and “Near Me Now” Time Is the Conversion Accelerant

Google has reported sharp growth in mobile searches that combine proximity with immediacy. Examples include “___ near me now,” “___ near me tonight,” and “Open” + “now” + “near me.”

These queries are telling you two important things:

• The customer is ready to act quickly.

• The customer will switch quickly if you are inconvenient, unclear, or closed.

For restaurants and c-stores, this is the difference between being chosen and being skipped.

“Best Option For” The Customer Is Already Shopping, They’re Filtering

“Best” searches are not top-of-funnel fluff. They are often the moment where a customer narrows the set.

Examples:

• “best cold medicine for a sore throat”

• “best protein bar for low sugar”

• “best coffee near me for studying”

• “best gas station car wash near me”

This is where comparison content, ratings, menus, product attributes, and availability matter. The customer is doing evaluation, not browsing.

“What Should I Buy?” The Need-State Query Most Brands Fail to Answer

These are the queries that sound casual but signal a real task:

• “what should I buy for a road trip”

• “what should I get for lunch that’s high protein”

• “what should I bring to a tailgate”

• “what should I buy for a last-minute birthday”

They convert when your content and on-page experience helps the customer finish the job fast. They bounce when you send them to a generic homepage or an ad that does not answer the question.

Why These Moments Convert Better Than Awareness Campaigns

Awareness has its place. But “high-intent keywords” and “local intent” queries convert better for a simple reason. You’re meeting existing demand, not trying to create it.

The Customer Is Closer to Action

A Think with Google paper cited a striking offline impact of mobile “nearby” searching: 76% of people who search on their smartphones for something nearby visit a business within a day, and 28% of those searches result in a purchase.

Even if you discount the exact percentages for your category, the directional truth is hard to ignore. In these moments, the customer is not planning a future behavior. They are selecting the next step.

You Need Less Persuasion & More Proof

Awareness campaigns often rely on repetition, differentiation narratives, and long creative arcs.

Intent moments are different. The customer’s core question is usually one of these:

• Are you open?

• Are you close?

• Do you have what I want?

• Is it good?

• Is it the best fit for my situation?

Your “marketing” is the quality of the answer.

Accuracy Becomes a Revenue Lever

BrightLocal notes that incorrect business information can cost you the visit. In its local search statistics roundup, it cites research showing that 62% of consumers would avoid a business if they found incorrect information online.

In an “open now” moment, a wrong closing time is not a minor error. It’s a lost sale and a customer who may not come back.

How to Build an Intent Capture Playbook

This is the part where teams tend to overcomplicate. Don’t. Treat intent like an operations-backed marketing system.

1) Audit Where Intent Already Shows Up

Start with three places you already have access to:

• Search query reports in paid search. Filter for modifiers like near me, open now, best, closest, today, tonight, what should I buy, where can I buy.

• Google Business Profile and Maps insights. Look for patterns in direction requests, calls, and discovery searches.

• On-site search and menu searches (restaurants). These are unfiltered intent signals from people already leaning in.

Make a simple list of your top 20 intent-heavy queries. Group them into:

• Proximity

• Time sensitivity

• Comparison

• Need-state

2) Fix the “Decision Data” First

Before you spend more money, make sure your highest-intent surfaces are trustworthy:

For restaurants:

• Accurate hours, holiday hours, and kitchen closing times

• Menu accuracy, pricing, and key attributes (spicy, vegan, gluten-free)

• Wait times or ordering options if relevant

For c-stores and chains:

• Hours and live status (especially late night)

• Key inventory signals people actually search for (ice, propane, ATM, coffee, hot food, beer cave, air station)

• Location services clarity (fuel types, EV charging, car wash availability)

This is not glamorous work. It is often the highest ROI work.

3) Build Landing Experiences That Answer the Query in 5 Seconds

If someone clicks from “best breakfast burrito near me open now,” and your page opens with a brand video and no hours, no address, no menu, and no order button, you paid to disappoint them.

Your intent landing page should lead with:

• The specific offer or category match

• Hours and location info above the fold (mobile)

• The next action (call, directions, order, reserve, pickup)

Then support with proof:

• Top sellers

• Reviews or ratings snippets

• Clear pricing, if applicable

4) Shift Budget Toward Capture, Not Just Coverage

If you have to choose, prioritize the channels that dominate intent moments:

• Search and Maps coverage for high-intent terms and brand plus intent combinations

• Tighter geo targeting around locations, with dayparting for “open now” behavior

• Local inventory and availability messaging where applicable

• Content built around comparison and need-state queries, not brand storytelling

Awareness can still run. But your spend should reflect where conversion is already happening.

5) Measure What the Business Actually Cares About

Intent programs get political when they’re evaluated with the wrong yardstick.

Use a measurement set that ties to operations outcomes:

• Calls

• Direction requests

• Online orders

• Reservations

• Store visits, if you have that capability

• Same-day revenue lifts by geo cluster

Then report it like an operator. “We captured demand that already existed, and here’s what it drove.”

The Business Impact and the Mindset Shift

The simplest way to think about intent marketing is this:

• Awareness tries to create future demand.

• Intent capture helps customers who are already trying to decide.

Google’s own data points show how quickly “near me” and “open now” behavior has grown in mobile contexts. The teams that treat those queries as a side project leave money on the table.

If you are a CMO or operator, your next move is not a massive rebrand or a new channel experiment. It’s a focused sprint:

1. Identify your highest-intent queries.

2. Fix the decision data behind them.

3. Build experiences that answer fast.

4. Spend where the customer is already asking.

5. Measure outcomes the business respects.

Do that well, and your marketing stops feeling like a bet. It starts behaving like a demand capture system.