Solved: Facebook Ads for High Net Worth (Targeting Secrets)

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out!

Glad you got in touch about this, it’s a really common question and, honestly, the way most people try to solve it is completely backwards and a massive waste of money. The simple truth is that Facebook doesn't have a 'target rich people' button anymore, and for good reason. The platform got rid of most of the detailed financial targeting options (like income brackets and net worth) a few years back to prevent discrimination in housing and credit ads.

So, if you're feeling stuck, it's not your fault. You're trying to use a tool that no longer exists. But that doesn't mean you can't reach these individuals. It just means you have to be a lot smarter about it. It’s not about finding a magic interest category; it’s about understanding the psychology and behaviour of your target audience and using intelligent proxies to find them. I'll walk you through how we actually approach this for our clients.

The Real Problem: Your ICP is a Nightmare, Not a Demographic

Before we even touch Facebook's Ads Manager, we need to completely redefine who you're looking for. Forget the sterile, demographic-based profile like "High Net Worth Individual, aged 45-65." That tells you nothing of value and leads to generic ads that speak to absolutely no one. To stop burning cash, you have to define your customer by their pain.

You need to become an absolute expert in their specific, urgent, expensive, career-threatening nightmare. Your ideal customer isn't just a job title or a bank balance; she's a leader terrified of her best developers quitting out of frustration with a broken workflow. He's a founder who just raised £10 million and is now petrified of mismanaging the cash flow and blowing it all. For a wealth management firm, the nightmare isn't 'I have too much money'; it's 'Am I going to outlive my savings?' or 'Is my wealth creating conflict and entitlement in my children?'. Your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) isn't a person; it's a problem state.

Why does this matter? Because people don't buy products or services. They buy solutions to problems. They buy a good night's sleep. They buy confidence. They buy status. They buy freedom from worry. When you understand the nightmare, you can craft a message that speaks directly to it. Your ad stops being an interruption and starts being a lifeline.

Once you've isolated that nightmare, your targeting becomes ten times easier. Where do people with this specific problem go for information? Find the niche podcasts they listen to on their commute, like 'Acquired' or 'All-In'. Identify the industry newsletters they actually open and read, like 'Stratechery'. Figure out the SaaS tools they already pay for, like HubSpot or Salesforce. Are they members of the 'SaaS Growth Hacks' Facebook group? Do they follow people like Jason Lemkin or Sam Parr on Twitter? This intelligence isn't just data; it's the blueprint for your entire advertising strategy. You have to do this work first, or you have no business spending a single pound on ads.

This process of refining your ICP from a vague demographic to a specific "problem state" is probably the most valuable exercise you can do for your marketing. It informs everything from your ad copy to your product development.

I'd say you need to build a targeting strategy around proxies

Okay, so you have your 'Nightmare ICP'. Now, how do we find them on Facebook without the old targeting options? We use proxies. A proxy is an interest, behaviour, or demographic detail that isn't wealth itself, but is strongly correlated with it. The key here is not to rely on a single proxy, which is what most amateurs do. A single proxy is a weak signal. Someone interested in 'Rolex' might just be an enthusiast with £200 in their bank account. But someone interested in 'Rolex', who is also a 'frequent international traveller', and who also follows the 'Financial Times'… now we're building a much more reliable picture. It's about layering.

Here’s how we break down the proxies we test for clients:

1. High-End Consumption Interests: This is the most obvious one, but also the weakest if used alone. You're looking for interests in things that are prohibitively expensive for the average person.

• -> Luxury Brands: Think Patek Philippe, Audemars Piguet, Hermes, Brunello Cucinelli, Loro Piana. Go for the less mainstream luxury brands if you can.
• -> High-End Travel: Interests in 'First Class Travel', 'Business Class Travel', specific luxury hotel chains (Four Seasons, Ritz-Carlton, Aman Resorts), or exclusive destinations (St. Barts, Monaco, Aspen).
• -> Expensive Hobbies: Interests like 'Yachting', 'Sailing', 'Polo', 'Equestrianism', 'Fine Art', 'Ski Resorts', or membership in 'Golf Clubs'.

Important Caveat: A lot of people follow these pages aspirationally. That's why you MUST layer these interests with other, stronger signals. Don't just target 'Yachting' and hope for the best.

2. Professional & Business Proxies: This layer helps you filter for decision-makers and high-earning professionals. It's about what they do for a living and what tools and information they consume.

• -> Job Title Targeting: Facebook's job title targeting isn't as robust as LinkedIn's, but it's still worth testing. You can target people with interests like 'CEO', 'Founder', 'Chief Executive Officer', 'Managing Director', 'Surgeon', 'Partner (Law)'.
• -> Business Publications: People who read sophisticated financial and business news are often higher earners. Target interests in 'The Wall Street Journal', 'Financial Times', 'The Economist', 'Harvard Business Review'.
• -> High-End Business Tools & Conferences: What software do big companies use? Target interests in 'Salesforce', 'Workday', or high-ticket industry conferences like 'Dreamforce' or 'SaaStr'.

3. Behavioural & Financial Sophistication Proxies: This is where you use Facebook’s data on what people actually *do*, not just what they say they're interested in.

• -> Behaviours: 'Frequent international travellers' is a powerful one. 'Business Page Admins' or 'Small Business Owners' can work, especially when layered with other signals. Also look at 'Engaged Shoppers' who have clicked the "Shop Now" button in the past week, as this indicates purchase intent.
• -> Financial Interests: Target interests related to investing, like 'Investment Banking', 'Venture Capital', 'Private Equity', or 'Wealth Management'. This selects for people who are actively engaged with managing significant capital.

The magic happens when you combine these layers. You create an ad set that targets people who MUST match criteria from multiple buckets. For instance:

(Interests = 'First Class Travel' OR 'Patek Philippe')
AND
(Interests = 'Financial Times' OR 'Harvard Business Review')
AND
(Behaviour = 'Frequent International Travellers')

This approach systematically filters out the aspirational followers and hones in on a much more qualified audience. It takes more work to set up, but the difference in lead quality is night and day. You're no longer just shouting into the void; you're speaking to a carefully curated group of people who are far more likely to be your ideal customer.

For instance, I remember working on a launch campaign for a new luxury brand. The goal was to generate significant buzz among a very discerning audience. By using this exact layering strategy on Meta Ads—combining interests in niche luxury goods, high-end travel, and readership of specific financial publications—we were able to get their launch content in front of the right people, ultimately generating over 10 million views. It's a testament to the fact that with the right strategy, you can reach these exclusive audiences effectively.

You probably should calculate the math that sets you free

Now for what I consider the most critical part of this entire process, and the part that 99% of businesses get wrong. The real question isn't "How low can my Cost Per Lead go?" but rather "How high a Cost Per Lead can I afford to acquire a truly great customer?" The answer lies in its counterpart: Customer Lifetime Value (LTV).

If you don't know what a customer is worth to you over their entire relationship with your business, you are flying completely blind. You'll get scared by a £150 lead from a perfectly qualified prospect and turn off a campaign that could have been wildly profitable, simply because you're anchored to an arbitrary "cheap" lead cost. High-net-worth individuals are, by definition, an expensive audience to reach. Their attention is valuable and in high demand. You must be prepared to invest to acquire them, and LTV is the calculation that gives you the confidence to do so.

Let's break down the maths. It's simpler than you think.

• -> Average Revenue Per Account (ARPA): What do you make from a typical customer, per month or per year?
• -> Gross Margin %: What's your profit margin on that revenue? Don't use revenue; use gross margin. This is the money you actually keep after costs of goods sold.
• -> Monthly Churn Rate: What percentage of customers do you lose each month? (If you have annual churn, just divide by 12).

The calculation is:

LTV = (ARPA * Gross Margin %) / Monthly Churn Rate

Let's use an example for a B2B SaaS company selling to executives:
ARPA = £500/month
Gross Margin = 80% (0.80)
Monthly Churn = 4% (0.04)

LTV = (£500 * 0.80) / 0.04 = £400 / 0.04 = £10,000

In this example, each new customer is worth £10,000 in gross margin to the business over their lifetime. Now we can work backwards. A healthy, sustainable business model often aims for a 3:1 LTV to Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) ratio. This means you can afford to spend up to £3,333 to acquire a single £10,000 customer.

If your sales process converts 1 in 10 qualified leads into a paying customer, you can afford to pay up to £333 per qualified lead (£3,333 / 10).

Suddenly, that £250 lead from a CTO on Facebook doesn't seem expensive, does it? It looks like an absolute bargain. This is the maths that unlocks aggressive, intelligent growth and frees you from the tyranny of chasing cheap, low-quality leads. Use the calculator below to figure out your own numbers.

You'll need a message they can't ignore

Once you have the right audience and you know your numbers, you still need to get them to click. This comes down to your message. Your ad copy and creative needs to speak directly to the 'nightmare' you identified earlier. Generic, feature-led copy will be completely ignored. You need to be direct, empathetic, and solution-oriented.

We often use proven copywriting frameworks to structure our ads. They work because they tap into fundamental human psychology.

For a high-touch service business, you deploy Problem-Agitate-Solve (PAS). You don't sell "fractional CFO services"; you sell a good night's sleep. Your ad would say something like:

Headline: Are Your Cash Flow Projections Just a Shot in the Dark?
Body: (Problem) Are you one bad month away from a payroll crisis while your competitors are confidently raising their next round? (Agitate) Every decision feels like a gamble, and you spend more time worrying about the bank balance than growing the business. (Solve) Get expert financial strategy for a fraction of a full-time hire. We build dashboards that turn uncertainty into predictable growth.

For a B2B SaaS product, you use the Before-After-Bridge (BAB). You don't sell a "FinOps platform"; you sell the feeling of relief.

Headline: Smile at Your Next AWS Bill.
Body: (Before) Your AWS bill just arrived. It’s 30% higher than last month, and your engineers have no idea why. Another fire to put out. (After) Imagine opening your cloud bill and actually smiling. You see exactly where every dollar is going, and waste is automatically eliminated. (Bridge) Our platform is the bridge that gets you there. Start a free trial and find your first £1,000 in savings today.

These frameworks force you to focus on the transformation you provide, not the features you offer. For a time-poor, problem-rich audience like HNWIs, this is the only approach that cuts through the noise. They don't care about your tool's specifications; they care about how it will make their life better, their business more profitable, or their status more secure. I've seen some clients double their click-through rates just by rewriting their ad copy using these simple structures.

We'll need to look at your offer (and delete the 'Request a Demo' button)

Now we arrive at the most common, and most catastrophic, failure point in all of B2B and high-ticket advertising: the offer. The "Request a Demo" button is perhaps the most arrogant and ineffective Call to Action ever conceived. It presumes that your prospect, a busy, high-value individual, has nothing better to do with their time than book a 45-minute meeting to be sold to. It is high-friction, low-value, and instantly positions you as just another commodity vendor clamoring for their attention. It must be destroyed.

Your offer’s only job is to deliver a moment of undeniable value—an "aha!" moment that makes the prospect sell themselves on your solution. You must solve a small, real problem for them for free to earn the right to solve their whole problem for a price.

If you're a SaaS company, your advantage is huge. The gold standard is a free trial (with no credit card required) or a freemium plan. Let them use the actual product. Let them feel the transformation. When the product itself proves its value, the sale becomes a formality. You're no longer generating Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs) for a sales team to chase; you are creating Product Qualified Leads (PQLs) who are already convinced.

If you're not a SaaS company, you are not exempt. You must bottle your expertise into a tool, a piece of content, or an asset that provides instant value. Your goal is to give them a "quick win" that demonstrates your expertise and builds trust.

Here are some examples of strong, low-friction offers:

• -> For a marketing agency: A free, automated SEO audit that shows them their top 3 keyword opportunities and technical issues.
• -> For a data analytics platform: A free 'Data Health Check' that scans their database and flags the top 3 integrity issues.
• -> For a corporate training company: A free 15-minute interactive video module on 'Handling Difficult Conversations' for new managers.
• -> For a wealth manager: A downloadable guide on "The 5 Tax Inefficiencies That Cost Founders Millions" or a calculator to "Stress-Test Your Retirement Portfolio."
• -> For us, as a B2B advertising consultancy: We offer a 20-minute strategy session where we audit failing ad campaigns completely free.

Notice the pattern? All of these offers are valuable in their own right, even if the person never becomes a customer. They are specific, deliver immediate insight, and position the company as an expert, not a salesperson. Replacing your weak "Contact Us" CTA with a strong, value-led offer can be the single biggest lever you pull to improve your campaign performance.

I've detailed my main recommendations for you below:

Pulling this all together, the path forward isn't about finding a secret targeting button. It's a fundamental shift in strategy from chasing a demographic to solving a problem for a well-defined persona. It requires more upfront thinking, but the result is a sustainable, scalable advertising machine instead of a slot machine that just burns cash. Here is the main advice I have for you, laid out in an actionable plan.

As you can probably see, this is a lot more involved than just picking a few interests in Ads Manager. It's a strategic process that requires deep customer insight, financial modeling, and rigorous testing. This is often where working with an expert can make a huge differance, as we've run this playbook for dozens of clients and can accelerate the learning curve significantly.

If you'd like to chat through your specific business and how this strategy could be applied, we offer a free, no-obligation initial strategy session where we can dive into your account and provide some tailored advice. It might be a good next step to make all of this feel more concrete.

Hope this helps!

Regards,

Team @ Lukas Holschuh