docs(clay-ads): add intent-based Director+ ad targeting workflow

[george-dilthey]

What changed

Added a new "Workflow: target Director-level contacts at high-intent accounts" section to docs/clay-ads.md — a 6-step walkthrough showing how to use Company Topic Intent signals, Director-level contact search, and ad platform push together as a single flow.

Why

Intercom conversation #215475628164705: Mallika Bhandari (Clay) asked "Can you please help us with the steps on how we can set up an ads campaign by: Searching for Director + level contacts at target accounts, Monitoring for topic itent, Pushing to Ads." Fin (ai_agent_participated: false) didn't answer — a human (Bo, bo.morin@clay.com) replied with a custom Loom video walkthrough because no doc tied these three steps together. clay-ads.md already lists "Target high-intent prospect lists" and "Re-target leads based on engagement signals" as key use cases but never explains HOW — specifically how to combine the Company Topic Intent signal with Director+ contact discovery and an ad platform push.

Materiality check against open PRs: PR #2363 covers "I already have a people list in a workbook, how do I export it to ads?" — a different starting point. PRs #2286/#2287 cover match rate vs audience size. PR #2256 covers legacy vs new ad sync. PR #2218 covers plan limits. PR #2251 covers Enhanced Matching. None document the intent signal → Director+ contacts → ads workflow added here.

Source link(s)

• Intercom conversation: https://app.intercom.com/a/apps/w28k1kwz/conversations/215475628164705
• Slack trigger thread: https://clay-hq.slack.com/archives/C0BGGDGR3PG/p1787610672713179
• Open beta launch announcement: https://clay-hq.slack.com/archives/C0870N6280M/p1787067764150379
• Verifier evidence (Company Topic Intent BETA): clay-base/libs/shared/src/signals/signal-type.ts:80 — 'Company topic intent' display name; Eppo gate EppoFeatureFlags.EnableTopicIntent = 'enable-topic-intent'
• Verifier evidence (scoring tiers High/Medium/Low): public-actions/apps/delivr/actions/utils/intentTiers.ts — export type IntentTier = 'high' | 'medium' | 'low'
• Verifier evidence (cost, per verifier BETA verdict): clay-base/libs/api-contract/src/signals/lib/topic-intent-providers.ts:162,174,186 — costPerTopicCheck: { modern: 0.2, legacy: 0.5 } for Delivr/Intentsify; 0.3 for Bombora

Uncertainties

The enablement path for Company Topic Intent open beta is not confirmed in code — the Eppo flag enable-topic-intent has defaultValue: false, meaning workspace-level targeting lives in the Eppo dashboard outside the repo. The verifier could not confirm from code alone whether customers self-serve into the beta or need a manual flag flip. The Aug 18 open beta launch announcement in #team-growth-strategy and active usage (~50 workspaces Day 1, 80 by Day 2) suggests broad availability on paid plans, but the exact enablement path is not documented in the codebase. The workflow section says "(open beta, available on all paid plans)" — if workspace enablement is still required, this should be updated.

Related observations

• docs/audiences.md line 481 has an inaccurate Company Topic Intent cost claim that should be fixed. Current text: "Cost: approximately 0.2 credits per account monitored. Contact your Growth Strategist to enable this signal for your workspace." Correct text per verifier (code: topic-intent-providers.ts:162,174,186): "Cost: 0.2 credits per topic per account (Delivr/Intentsify, modern plans; 0.3 per topic for Bombora). Available on all paid plans." The "Contact Growth Strategist" requirement is unverified/stale from closed beta. The file is ~110KB and could not be pushed alongside this PR due to size constraints — reviewer should apply this one-line correction when the PR merges.
• Multiple open PRs (docs(topic-intent): add topic intent from upstream #2147, docs(topic-intent): add topic intent from upstream #2148, docs(topic-intent): add topic intent from upstream #2190, docs(topic-intent): add topic intent from upstream #2191, docs(topic-intent): add Topic Intent documentation covering providers, lookback, scoring, and FAQs #2246, docs(topic-intent): add Topic Intent documentation #2249, docs(topic-intent): add Topic Intent documentation #2250) are creating docs/topic-intent.md — once one merges, step 2 of the workflow section can link directly to that doc's signal setup section.
• Open PRs docs(clay-ads): add FAQ for sending a Find People workbook list to an ad platform #2363, docs(clay-ads): explain Ad sync vs Legacy ad sync difference #2256, docs(clay-ads): clarify Enterprise has unlimited active recurring ad syncs #2218, docs(clay-ads): add Audience size glossary entry, update Match rate definition, add match rate vs audience size FAQ #2286, docs(clay-ads): add audience size glossary entry and match rate vs audience size FAQ #2287, docs(clay-ads): add EEA consent, platform fields, delete-recreate behavior, match rate clarification #2251 also touch clay-ads.md on distinct, non-overlapping topics; reviewer should reconcile at merge time.

Closes DOC-2176

[linear-code]

DOC-2176