The news: Performance marketing platform Taboola will acquire Dianomi, a provider of digital ad services for premium clients in finance, lifestyle, and business sectors.

• The deal could offer performance marketers access to high-intent audiences across publishers like CNN Business, Reuters, The Times, and The Wall Street Journal.
• Dianomi’s inventory would fold into Taboola’s Realize performance advertising platform.
• The acquisition is expected to be completed by the end of the year, pending approvals.

Zooming out: Taboola’s move reflects advertisers’ growing focus on affluent consumers, and shows that the shift is extending to lower-funnel and performance-focused marketing as economic pressure concentrates spending among higher-income households.

The top 10% of US households by income spend almost as much on discretionary items than the bottom 70% combined, per Bank of America Institute. That emphasizes the need for marketers to sharpen strategies around affluent consumers as spending concentrates at the top.

Reaching high-income consumers is especially important in a period of economic uncertainty, where tariffs and higher prices from the war in Iran—which has caused 65% of consumers to change their shopping habits, per Omnisend—are weighing on consumers’ spending habits.

Because high-income consumers are less sensitive to the current period of economic stress, reaching them is especially important for brands selling premium products and hoping to foster long-term loyalty.

Recommendations for brands: Higher-income consumers are an important source of spending, especially for brands with premium or high-cost products and services. New targeting tools could potentially make these shoppers easier to reach, but brands should avoid pursuing affluent consumers at the expense of everyone else.

Affluent consumers aren’t a universal growth solution. Brands still need enough reach across income groups to build awareness and acquire new customers who will sustain demand. Affluent targeting should still be used selectively and primarily around high-value products or launches where spending resilience matters most.

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