Job titles. Industries. Age. Location. What do these things have in common? They are all ways we can target through digital advertising. Did you know you can also target people based on their income or net worth? This lesser-known option is buried in Google AdWords, hidden in Facebook and concealed in Twitter.
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Don’t have time for a targeting scavenger hunt? Follow along as I show you where the elusive income targeting is hiding.
Google AdWords
Google buries this targeting option within their location options. First, you will need to click on ‘Settings.’ Then you will select ‘Locations’ and ‘+Locations.’
From here, you will select ‘Advanced Search.’
Now you’ll click on ‘Location Groups,’ choose ‘Demographics’ from the drop-down menu and select from predetermined household income tiers. You may also add a bid modifier to your selected income tier.
You might wonder what Google uses to determine these household income tiers. Google says these tiers are “based on publicly available data from the U.S. Internal Revenue Service.”
Facebook’s income targeting is much easier to find. Start by creating a new saved audience. Under ‘Detailed Targeting,’ click ‘Browse.’
From here, select ‘Demographics’ and then the ‘Financial’ drop-down.
Facebook gives you the ability to target a wide range of both income and net worth.
However, Facebook is not as clear on how they group users into their income or net worth categories. According to a Facebook Community response, Facebook says, “Income is either consumer self-reported through a survey or estimated based on a variety of demographic data such as age, occupation, home ownership, and a median income for the local area.”
At Converge, we have executed a few campaigns with income-based targeting in Facebook. We have seen roughly a $62 cost per lead with income-based demographic targeting.
Twitter’s income targeting isn’t hard to find; it’s just not intuitive. To utilize this targeting feature, you will need to click ‘+Add Behaviors.’
This will bring up a place to search for certain behaviors, or you can also browse Twitter’s categories. Click ‘Browse Categories.’
This will pull up a variety of categories. You will select ‘Finance,’ then ‘Household Income.’ Like Facebook, Twitter has many income levels to choose from.
If you are looking for additional ways to reach potential leads, give income targeting a shot!
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