mktg brainlog

Best practice: Google AdSense on Opera browsers

• Posted by Kati on March 4th, 2004 filed in Search marketing: ads & paid

I am one of the minority web surfers who use the Opera as their primary browser, i only resort to IE when Opera can’t render a site correctly, which happens very rarely.

Opera has an unregistered free and a registered paid version. The free version is the same software as the paid one, but displays a 486×60 banner in the top right corner of your screen. Opera uses Google Adsense banners to display two relevant text ads based on the page you’re browsing. For 36 USD, you can register your browser and make the ads go away, as well as get tech support.

However, after using this browser with the ads for almost a year, i decided i would actually MISS the ads if they wouldn’t be there. They enhance my browsing experience because they are always relevant to the pages i am viewing. I have used banner-supported software (e.g. Eudora) before, which used graphical banners and i NEVER, not once, clicked on the ads because they were annoying (flashing images), and didn’t match my needs (weren’t targeted enough). Another example is ICQ, which displays a graphical banner on the messaging window that is very annoying and degrades the otherwise great ICQ experience quite a bit.

The only instance i discovered when the Opera text banner isn’t useful is when it displays the same merchant’s affiliates’ ads when visiting a merchant site. But this is a rather isolated event, most of the times it shows similar merchants which is useful.

Financially, i think Opera is very well off using this ad option. For the past year, while i am not keeping track of my clicks and i don’t know the revenue Opera makes by each click, from my experience as an AdSense publisher, i know that i made Opera more money with my clicks than if i had paid the 36 dollar fee once.