• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, February 23, 2010

Highlighting a rebound in ad pricing, the median effective CPM on sites across vertical ad network Adify increased to $6.04 in the fourth quarter of 2009, up from $4.28 in the prior quarter. The minimum espy saw a quarterly increase from $1.55 to $2.36 while pricing at the high end remained essentially unchanged at $8.95, according to the latest quarterly data from Adify.

Among the 11 ad categories tracked on Adify, fashion and beauty enjoyed the biggest gains over the last year -- up 57% to a $4 eCPM, while travel continued to command the highest rate of nearly $9. The study concluded that the fashion audience is spending less on big-ticket offline purchases, but increasing spending on less costly items online such as cosmetics.

The sports vertical had the fastest growth in the last quarter, jumping from a $4 to a $7 eCPM. Adify said the sharp rise in ad pricing in the category wasn't seasonal but the result of attracting high-paying advertisers such as sports drinks, auto, and personal hygiene advertisers.

More broadly, Adify said the number of page views across the network more than tripled in 2009. "This trend is the result of more vertical ad networks adopting the Adify platform, existing vertical ad networks adding sites and content to their network, and increases in traffic to sites within vertical ad networks," according to the report.

The traffic growth also stems from an increase in repeat visitors to sites. The proportion of unique visitors per month that visit an Adify-powered site on a given day increased from 9% to 14% during the last year. The company's platform overall encompasses more than 200 vertical ad networks and 17,000 sites and blogs.

Underscoring the growing interest of agencies and advertisers in branded content, Media Contacts, the interactive media agency of Havas Digital, last week announced a partnership with Adify to develop custom networks on behalf of clients.