The FINANCIAL -- By any measure, affluent consumers in the US constitute a large market. Using a minimum of $100,000 in yearly household income as a threshold, an Ipsos Mendelsohn study last year put the number of affluent adults at 58.5 million.

Their heavy use of the internet and mobile devices makes them a tempting target for digital marketing efforts.Internet usage is nearly universal among affluents, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s “Affluent Consumers in a Digital World” study, with 98% of them going online. Affluents far surpassed the general population in average amount of time spent online per week, at 26.2 hours vs. 21.7 hours.

By contrast, affluents spent less time watching TV—17.6 hours per week, on average, vs. 34 hours for the general population.With their extensive use of the internet and mobile technologies, affluent consumers are exposed to a great deal of digital advertising. Brands that target this audience are betting affluents find ads in those venues engaging.

Surveys indicate that some kinds of digital ads are more likely than others to make that bet pay off, including email ads, sponsored websites from search results and ads that are highly relevant to what a person is doing at the moment, as well as those tied to demographic characteristics.

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