A business sells high-ticket services. Their price range is out of reach for most consumers, yet they're running ads on Google to anyone and everyone searching for their services.
The business is wasting both their ad budget and their staff time by showing ads to everyone.
I often come across this scenario when new clients hire me to handle their marketing.
In order to save advertising budget and staff resources, it's important for some businesses to target only high-net worth clients.
Luckily, Google Adwords offers a way to do just that.
The More Common, Less Effective Way of Reaching Wealthier People
Some clients whose advertising I take over are already using Location targeting to show their ads only in wealthier cities or zip codes.
That's a reasonable move, but the targeting doesn't accurately accomplish what they wish to achieve.Just because someone happens to live in a wealthy zip code doesn't mean they're wealthy. It can also exclude wealthier households who live in mixed-income neighborhoods.
There's a more precise way to reach high-net individuals.
Demographic Targeting in Search Ads
Hidden in a dusty corner of the Search Ads settings is the ability to target search ads to people based on income.
Adwords demographic targeting allows you to target people by household incomes as follows:
Top 10%
11-20%
21-30%
31-40%
Lower 50%
Note that this option is currently only available in the US, but it can run on a national level or local level. For example, it's possible to only show ads to the top 10% households in Miami.
It's also possible to reach the top 10% across the US as a whole.
How To Set Up Income Targeting in Adwords
This function is strangely hard to find. Many professional advertisers are even unaware it exists for Search Ads. Here's where to find it and how to use it:
1) First navigate to the campaign settings tab, then click on "All Settings."
2) Scroll down to the locations section and select "Edit."
3) When the new section opens, select "Advanced search."
4) At the top of this new page, click on "Location Groups."
5) Then, on the choose location group type, click on "Demographics."
6) Type in the geographic location and select the income threshold you'd like to target. Then click "Add."
If you want to target the top 10%, for example, click 10% in the dropdown menu.
You've done it!
You can combine this targeting with multiple geographic options of varying income thresholds across various campaigns.
Targeting Lower Income Households
While the examples I've been using are for high income households, you can also use this to target the lower 50%.
For example, a car dealership may want to run separate campaigns for used cars specifically targeting demographics in the lower 50%. This would save their budget from clicks from high net individuals who are less likely to purchase a used car.
If you're looking to target a specific socio-economic group, add this tactic to your toolbox!