Income Based Targeting has arrived in India for Meta
For years, one of the biggest gaps in Indian digital advertising was obvious but ignored: purchasing power.
We could target interests, behaviors, devices, even life events but not income. Which meant a ₹5 lakh product and a ₹50,000 product were often fighting for the same eyeballs. Wasteful, inefficient, and honestly, lazy.
In late 2025, Meta finally changed that.
Meta has rolled out Household Income based targeting in India, allowing advertisers to reach users by income percentiles like Top 10%, 11–20%, and so on. No, Meta isn’t reading anyone’s salary slips. This is modeled data based on signals like location, household patterns, device usage, and spending behavior. It’s directional, not perfect but it’s a massive step forward.
And this isn’t available to everyone yet. From what we’re seeing on the ground, ad accounts with consistent spend, clean history, and active campaigns are the first to get access. If your account is new, dormant, or runs sporadically, you may not see it immediately. Meta is clearly rolling this out in phases and rewarding seriousness.
Now, let’s talk impact because this is where 2026 gets interesting. For premium brands real estate, automobiles, luxury D2C, high-ticket services, fintech, travel this changes how you plan media entirely. You no longer need to “hope” the right audience sees your ad. You can design creatives, pricing, and messaging knowing the audience’s approximate buying capacity.
But here’s the mistake many will make: treating income targeting as a silver bullet.
It’s not.
This works best when layered with strong creatives, smart offers, and clean execution. Income targeting won’t fix weak copy. It won’t save boring ads. But paired correctly, it will reduce wastage, improve relevance, and help brands scale profitably.
In 2026, advertising won’t be about who shouts the loudest.
It’ll be about who understands their buyer the best and spends accordingly.