A little known way to target individuals online is through household income. Income based targeting has been around for about 10 months, but no one seems to really know about it when performing online marketing. We feel it’s intrinsic as marketers to find new ways to target, so we thought we should share.
The following tiers indicate the household income levels available to target right now:
- Top 10%
- 11 – 20%
- 21 – 30%
- 31 – 40%
- 41 – 50%
- Lower 50%
What does each tier percentage mean in terms of income? That’s a great question. Each percentage is designated by the following income threshold:
- Top 10% = > $146,001
- 11 – 20% = $102,001 – $146,000
- 21 – 30% = $80,001 – $102,000
- 31 – 40% = $64,001 – $80,000
- Lower 50% = < $64,000
You’re also probably wondering how search engines designate household income? We wondered the same thing and conducted a little more research. To target a certain location by demographic income, search engines use public data from the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to group zip codes together. We know grouping people together in zip codes is not perfect and sometimes allows for small discrepancies, but we still find ourselves very excited about an additional way to target online.
There are many industries that can benefit from this type of online marketing. Here are just a few.
- Wealth Management – Numbers people at heart, they don’t want to waste money marketing to someone who isn’t a good fit for their firm. This gives them the ability to target the top income earners in their designated market area (DMA) much more effectively.
- Consumer Package Goods – High-end retailers to mom-and-pop boutiques all have different target markets. Consumer package good (CPG) retailers can use income based targeting to get a direct message in front of the target market that fits their brand.
- Non-Profits – Using income based targeting to their advantage, non-profits can target the upper income earners for donations, while targeting the rest of us with a service message.
This feature is only available in the United States and it’s the most effective when trying to target states or larger cities such as Chicago, IL, Houston, TX or St. Louis, MO. Smaller areas do not have this functionality yet, but it’s only a matter of time.
If you are as excited about this new way to target online as we are, share it with your fellow marketers now! We appreciate your continued support.
