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Vertical Ad Networks Reach Engaged, Targeted Audiences

The collective reach of a group of vertical ad networks has increased substantially in the past year, from 21.5% of the total US internet audience in March 2008 to 57.1% in March 2009, according to a study by comScore, Inc. of the vertical ad networks it tracks.

These findings, comScore said, indicate that vertical ad networks are a growing phenomenon in the online advertising space.

The ability of vertical networks to deliver highly engaged, targeted audiences is one of the main reasons for their increased growth and popularity, comScore said. “As more vertical ad networks prove their ability to effectively reach specific target audiences by aggregating mid-tail publisher sites, the industry will likely give greater consideration to these emerging ad delivery channels,” noted Lesle Litton, VP, Media at comScore.

Vertical Networks Reach Highly Engaged

The study also found that vertical ad networks were effective in reaching people with significantly higher-than-average engagement in their respective content categories. Of the five segments studied, people reached by vertical ad networks spent at least 60% more time in those site categories than the average category visitor. For example, people reached in the Gaming segment spent 423 minutes per visitor on sites in that category, 123% higher than the average visitor.

Vertical ad networks, which target ads to specific audiences online according to demographic or category content, include entities such as Adify Media, Federated Media, Glam Media and Travel Ad Network, among numerous others.