Recently I was chatting with a client about her Facebook lead ad campaigns. She was trying to target high net-worth individuals via Meta Lead Ads, to generate new clients for her real estate business. High net-worth individuals is really just a fancy way of saying “rich people”; the folks with the means to purchase high cost products or services like real estate, luxury vehicles or designer fashion.
It occurred to me that this is something I’ve done regularly when running Facebook and Instagram ad campaigns, and something many businesses struggle with.
Often advertisers will try targeting people based on their occupation: CEO’s, CMO’s, Founders, to name just a few examples. This is all fine in theory, however, you’re relying on people having entered their profession into the Work and Education section of their Facebook profile. Not only that, we’re relying on them keeping it up to date.
When writing this article, I checked my own Facebook profile. I hadn’t updated it in 4 years! When was the last time you checked or updated your Facebook profile? If we can’t rely on profile data, then how else can we target higher income earners? In practice, I believe it’s best to target rich people based on what they do, not what they say they do – there may be a life lesson in there somewhere 😉.
Following are some targeting options to help you get your Facebook and Instagram ads in front of high net worth individuals (aka: the rich folks).
I like to use these techniques when when running Facebook & Instagram Lead ad campaigns to help improve the quality of the leads being generated and to increase ROAS (Return on Ad Spend).
These targeting options work particularly well for promoting real estate, high end motor vehicles, boats, business coaching and SaaS products. Pretty much any high ticket item.
The following ad targeting options are all set at the Ad Set level in Facebook Ads Manager.
The real power is in combining them to laser target your audience.
Let’s take a look at the strategies I use to target high income earners.
This is a “behavior” and a costly one at that! Hence it’s an obvious one to choose if you want to target high net worth individuals. Identifying people who frequently travel internationally can help in reaching affluent individuals.
Facebook knows where people are located geographically – unless you’ve turned off the Location option in app settings. I have no idea what the definition of “frequent” is, but based on the reach numbers in the screenshot above, it’s broad.
This behavioral targeting has worked for me in the past in larger countries where it costs a lot to fly to another country. Australia is a perfect example. Targeting Frequent International Travelers may not be as effective in Europe, for obvious reasons, or for other locations close to an international border, such as San Diago for example.
On its own, targeting high-end devices isn’t necessarily an indicator of high net wealth, however, combined with other targeting options, it may help refine your audience by focusing on high-income individuals.
The latest Samsung and Apple phones are pretty pricey. High-end device ownership will also vary from country to country. This audience targeting option might work well in emerging countries, for example.
In every city around the world, there are wealthy areas and there are not so wealthy areas. If you’re a local, you’ll be familiar with which ZIP codes, postcodes, region codes or whatever you call them, where it’s expensive to live.
Armed with this knowledge you can target people living in or recently in this location. Targeting ZIP codes with a high average household income can help in reaching affluent individuals.
I’ve used Manhattan NY as an example but being from Melbourne, Australia – I’m assuming anyone who lives in in Manhattan is wealthy.
Here’s a list of wealthy US Zip codes.
In addition to manually entering ZIP/Postal Code, you can also use the “Household income:” demographic targeting option to target the top 5% to 25% of according to Facebook. Depending on your Facebook Ad account location, you may see other options here.
On its own this might not be the most powerful targeting method. For example, I love Audi R8’s but that doesn’t mean I can afford one. However, when you combine multiple Interests along with other targeting options it will help you build a targeted persona. For example:
High-end fashion labels
Motor vehicle companies
Travel destinations
Property investing
Stock Market
Yachting, Polo,
Venture capital financing
Kopi Luwak coffee drinkers 😉
Targeting interests related to luxury brands can help in reaching affluent individuals who are likely to have a high net worth.
Think outside the box with this one and combine interests using Define Further options to “and MUST ALSO match as least ONE of the following”.
“People who prefer high-value goods” appears to be available to many typically non-English speaking countries (excluding the EU of course!).
I’m not even going to try to guess why these countries made the cut, however, this is a targeting option worth testing if your audience is in one of these lucky countries. By targeting people who prefer high-value goods, businesses can reach a more relevant audience for luxury products.
While not available in all countries, the “Facebook Payments” lets you target people who have transacted using, you guessed it, Facebook Payments.
I’m uncertain as to how popular Payments is, so throw this one in the mix for testing in your campaigns.
Did you know you can target various types of Facebook Page admins? Again, this can work well when it’s combined with other targeting options.
For example, you could combine “Business page admins” with “Frequent international travelers”, to build a targeted high net-worth business owner ad set.
If you’re selling expensive stuff online, then you might try adding Engaged Shoppers, found under Behaviours >Purchase behavior. This way you’ll know your ads are getting in front of people willing to shop online.
Additionally, re-targeting existing customers who shop online can increase the likelihood of repeat purchases.
This is a little bit of a contentious one. I own a Mac, but certainly don’t consider myself a high net worth individual. However, if I was working on a Mac while living in certain parts of the world, compared to others, I would be considered quite well off.
You can target people based on the operating system they have used while logged into their Facebook account. See the Mac OS X option available under Behaviours > Digital activities > Operating System Used.
Targeting people interested in high-end publications, particularly fashion and investment related publications is another way to build a high net worth audience. For example: Financial Times, The Robb Report, Vogue, Esquire, Vanity Fair… etc.
Additionally, targeting interests related to luxury fashion brands can help in reaching affluent individuals who have shown an interest in high-end fashion, exclusive events, and premium lifestyle magazines.
If you’ve made it this far, by now you should realize that the power isn’t in any one particular targeting options. The real magic comes when you combine audience targeting options. Combining these options helps in understanding and reaching the target audience effectively.
When you’re building your rich audience, be sure to use the Define Further option to combine some of the options listed above.
Here’s an example of an audience that targets Facebook Business Page admins who are also Mac OS X users. As you can see, the potential reach is quite small at 52,000 people, but this also means it’s highly targeted.
For more tips on audience targeting, check out our free Facebook Ads Targeting Guide.
Great — that blog post already covers solid ground with targeting strategies for high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) on Facebook. To help you increase dwell time, SEO value, and reader engagement, here’s a tailored FAQ section you can add to the bottom of the article:
A high-net-worth individual is typically someone with investable assets of over $1 million, excluding their primary residence. Facebook doesn’t allow advertisers to target based on exact income or net worth, but you can infer HNWI traits through interests, behaviors, and location.
Not explicitly. Facebook removed most financial targeting options due to privacy regulations. However, you can still reach affluent audiences by targeting interests (e.g. luxury travel, premium brands), behaviors (frequent international travellers), and locations (wealthy suburbs or postcodes) as we’ve outlined above.
Try targeting interests like:
Upload a customer list of existing high-value clients or newsletter subscribers with high lifetime value. Then create a Lookalike Audience from that list. Facebook will find users with similar behaviours and demographics, many of whom may also be affluent.
Yes. HNWIs respond better to premium-looking creatives. Use high-quality imagery or video, clear value propositions, and minimal “hard-sell” language. Lead ads or conversion-focused campaigns paired with elegant branding usually perform well.
You don’t need a huge budget, but targeting high-income areas and premium interests typically comes with higher CPMs. Start with at least $50–$100/day to give Facebook enough data to optimize delivery.
Yes, though Facebook’s job title targeting is limited. Use job titles such as CEO, CFO, Founder, Investor, or Entrepreneur, and combine with high-income regions or luxury interests for better precision. Keep in mind that people don’t typically keep their job titles updated on their Meta profiles, unlike LinkedIn.
In Australia: try suburbs like Toorak (VIC), Mosman (NSW), or Ascot (QLD).
In the US: Beverly Hills (CA), Manhattan (NY), Palm Beach (FL), and The Hamptons are common high-income areas.
These changes reduce visibility on individual user behavior off-platform, making first-party data (like email lists and CRM data) more valuable. Consider retargeting website visitors or building Custom Audiences from lead form submissions.
LeadSync delivers leads from Facebook Lead Ads to your CRM or email within seconds, ensuring you follow up fast — which is critical when dealing with HNWIs who expect responsive, high-touch service.
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