Adopt careful targeting to find rich web users
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As the credit crunch tightens and predictions of a recession gather pace, targeting the richest consumers online becomes a more attractive, and necessary, proposition to online advertisers. As if the economic outlook isn't gloomy enough, targeting the wealthiest online is becoming harder - the percentage of the online population they account for is shrinking.
In February 2007, online consumers from households with an annual income of at least £50,000 made up 24% of the UK online population. A year later this figure has dropped to 21%. A small, but significant, change.
Essentially, finding these consumers among the rest has become a harder task for planners and highlights the increasing importance of more effective research to do this - particularly in an environment of shrinking ad spend budgets caused by a recession. Online advertisers have a fantastic opportunity to make sure their ad budgets aren't squeezed before those of traditional forms of advertising by being able to quantify their decisions and evaluate the success to a greater degree than 'traditional' counterparts.
Finding the richest consumers provides an example of what can be done. Nielsen Online's demographic targeting reveals that restaurant booking and review website Toptable has the highest concentration of wealthiest consumers among its audience. Over 61% of its audience, in February 2008, came from a £50,000-plus household. A planner could show that an ad campaign on this site could potentially hit 259,000 Britons from this income group, so three times more likely than a standard internet audience.
So where else provides the greatest probability of finding these consumers? Following Toptable in the richest audience league comes clothing retailer Boden - 57% of its audience (or 122,000 Britons) coming from the £50,000-plus group. Then follows professional network LinkedIn with 49% of its audience (216,000 Britons) in this group. The travel category always tends to be well represented in this type of segmentation; Intercontinental Hotels (47%), DialAFlight (43%), Flairview Travel (40%), Lonely Planet (37%) and LateRooms.com (37%) all appearing among the richest audience sites.
The appearance of DialAFlight, offering cheap travel deals, and backpacker favourite Lonely Planet may seem surprising to those who associate these types of sites with travellers on a budget. However, it is an important reminder of the need for accurate research - and not least a nudge that richer people are often very careful about spending money. A habit ad budget holders will increasingly adhere to.
Alex Burmaster is european internet analyst at Nielsen Online.
