Understanding the average Opera user

(1) Forget about why they use it; anyone who uses anything other than the bundled browser is likely to be more experienced than the average user. Heck, anyone who so much as changes their start page...
(2) Why would you think that? My guess is more, much more. This Opera user probably spends more online than offline.
(3)(a) I might have clicked a banner or two when I had the free version, but there was not a lot of ad rotation. A person can only click on the same advertisement so many times.
(3)(b) Safe? Compared to what? Every time I am forced to use IE, I feel like I am walking down a bad alley late at night, trying not to get mugged.
(4) Webmaster/geek stuff is a good guess. Heck, even if you don't have a record CTR, you might reach a few opinion shapers. Let us know if you try it, especially if you are running webmaster/geek stuff.

You might consider also that Opera is much "bigger" (more widely used, more commonly known) in Europe than in the United States.

Why would you think that?

Being smarter than the average IE user, an Opera user would not fall for "Your computer is giving away your IP address. Click Here" type of ads. Even if the user does find something useful, a techie would PROBABLY research some more before making a purchase.

That is, it is slightly difficult to get an Opera user to open his/her wallet.

in Europe than in the United States.

Interesting. Do you think Opera is more widely used in Scandinavian countries than in the rest of Europe?

We ran a UK campaign for a general household item, it did well. Having said that its a struggle to get an invoice from them and there is no follow up nor support at the lower levels.

I see just one problem with Opera banners, but it is quite big. Opera users tend to be heavy and long-time Web users. Which is exactly the definition of people who don't even notice banners.

At least this is true for me. I use Opera the whole day, but I couldn't remember even one of the banners up there (except the one appearing now since I just read the thread. It wants me to apply for a Green Card :)).

We ran a UK campaign

- Can we geotarget Opera campaigns?
- What was the CTR like? Even if I get slightly over 1 percent CTR, for $200 I will be getting around 4000 clicks @ $0.05 CPC
- Quoting from Opera's website "Each impression lasts 45 seconds". Is this true? I have seen a few ads being shown for minutes - not seconds.

couldn't remember even one of the banners up there

When you see my ad, you will remember it ;). I plan to include lot of text with a nice white background for my "banner". Basically, it is going to be a text advertisement in banner's garb.

1: yes, more tech savvy. Also more euro.
2: just the opposite. Techies have no qualms about buying online.
3: yes.
3a: security: by far the safest browser available. I question the server long before I'd question Operas security record.
4: geek related for sure - games...

Opera users tend to be heavy and long-time Web users. Which is exactly the definition of people who don't even notice banners.

I totally concur. While I bought an Opera license about 6 months ago so I wouldn't see the darn banners - I didn't notice them and certainly never clicked on them for the 12 months I used the free version. The only time I noticed them is when they stalled loading a new banner - it locked up my system.

I ran a banner on Opera and it didn't perform very well at all but I don't think I had a very well related product. I would do it again if I had something a little more tech related to promote.

>euro
On the sites targeting german users I currently have an average of 2,5-3% identified Opera users.