08 Aug Target People You Can’t Target Directly (Location Proxies)
Sooner or later, someone asks a version of this question: “How do I target wealthy people?” or “How do I reach factory managers specifically?” Meta doesn’t have a targeting option for either of those. What it does have is location — and location can do a better job than people expect at standing in for a trait you can’t target head-on.
Why location works as a proxy
The instinct for a hard-to-target trait is usually to search detailed targeting for a related interest — luxury brands for wealth, industry pages for a job title. That approach runs into the same problem covered elsewhere: interest categories reflect who liked a page at some point, not who currently fits the profile you actually want.
Location doesn’t have that staleness problem. If someone is physically at a golf club, they’re there right now, for a reason connected to what that place actually is. Physical presence is a far more current, far more concrete signal than a page like from three years ago.
Targeting wealth: pin the places wealthy people actually are
Rather than chasing luxury brand interests, drop pins directly on the kinds of places wealthy people are likely to be — golf clubs, country clubs, and the residential neighborhoods that surround them. This isn’t about the venue itself; it’s about who spends time there. Someone regularly present at a country club, or living in the immediate surrounding area, is a far stronger wealth signal than someone who liked a Ferrari fan page.
Targeting a job role: pin the workplace itself
The same logic extends to reaching a specific professional role. One case involved a business helping factories reduce energy consumption — the ideal customer was a factory manager or decision-maker, but there’s no “factory manager” targeting option, and detailed targeting has nothing precise enough to reliably reach that role.
The fix: drop a pin directly on the factory or industrial site itself. Someone physically present at that location during working hours is very likely connected to the business in some capacity — an employee, a manager, someone with real influence over decisions like the one being pitched. It’s a blunt instrument compared to targeting by job title directly, but job-title targeting doesn’t reliably exist on Meta in the first place, and location does the job better than any available substitute.
Refining further: stack multiple exclusion pins
Once you’ve identified a proxy location, it’s worth checking what else falls inside that radius that doesn’t belong. A wealthy residential pocket might have an apartment complex or two sitting right inside the boundary you’ve drawn — places that don’t match the profile you’re actually after.
Rather than accepting the imprecision or trying to force one exclusion to cover everything, drop a separate exclusion pin over each specific spot that doesn’t fit. Multiple stacked exclusion pins let you carve a proxy-targeted area into something much closer to your actual buyer profile than a single inclusion pin alone could manage.
This is a strong hypothesis, not a guarantee
Worth being honest about the limits here. Physical presence at a location correlates with a trait — it doesn’t prove it. Not everyone near a golf club is wealthy, and not everyone at a factory during work hours is a decision-maker. Treat location proxies the way you’d treat any other targeting choice: a strong, testable hypothesis, not a locked-in solution. Launch it, watch how it performs, and adjust the boundary or the pins based on what the results actually show.
A quick self-check before you build a proxy audience
- Is the trait I want to target something Meta has no direct option for? If so, location proxy targeting is worth considering before defaulting to a loosely-related interest.
- What physical location genuinely correlates with the trait I’m after — not just plausible, but somewhere the right people are actually likely to be?
- Does my proxy area contain anything that clearly doesn’t fit the profile, and have I dropped exclusion pins to carve those spots out?
- Am I treating this as a hypothesis to test, or assuming it’ll work perfectly without checking the results?
This breakdown is written by Jason Gan, a Meta Certified Professional and Badged Meta Business Partner who has personally audited over 1,000 advertiser accounts since 2010. You can see real account breakdowns on the Jason Gan YouTube channel.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I target wealthy people on Meta ads if there’s no “high income” option? Use location as a proxy instead of chasing income-related interests. Drop pins on places wealthy people are actually likely to be — golf clubs, country clubs, and the surrounding residential neighborhoods — rather than relying on luxury brand interest categories, which mostly reflect who likes a page, not who can afford the product.
How do I target factory managers or other specific job roles? Drop a pin directly on the factory or workplace location itself. People physically present at a specific industrial or commercial site during working hours are very likely connected to that business in some capacity — a far more direct signal than trying to find an interest category for a specific job title.
Can I refine a proxy-targeted audience further? Yes — stack multiple exclusion pins to carve out anything nearby that doesn’t fit. If you’re targeting a wealthy residential pocket but there happen to be two apartment complexes within that radius that don’t match your buyer profile, drop a separate exclusion pin over each one rather than relying on a single blanket exclusion.
Is location-based proxy targeting guaranteed to work? No — it’s directional, not certain. Physical presence at a location correlates with a trait; it doesn’t guarantee it. Treat it as a strong starting hypothesis worth testing, not a locked-in solution, the same as any other targeting approach.
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