Everything Brands Need to Know About ChatGPT Ads: Insights From an Early Advertiser

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In summary: What you need to know about ChatGPT ads

• Insights from an early ChatGPT advertiser show the platform is live, but unpolished and difficult to prove as a performance channel.
• Early access required large budgets + a tolerance for rough processes and infrastructure (though OpenAI recently eliminated its minimum spend requirement). 
• Campaign controls during the test were minimal, with limited reporting and no automated bidding.
• Performance fell short: several thousand dollars in daily spend drove very few orders.
• Despite weak early results, the platform is evolving fast and ChatGPT ads could become a major high-intent channel sooner than later.
• Brands should prepare now by investing in GEO and carefully monitoring developments in the platform.

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ChatGPT ads are here here.

Their advertiser pool is expanding rapidly, new features and updates are being implemented every week, and it seems likely that brands—even lesser scaled ones—will need to consider them sooner than later.

To help you know exactly what to expect and how to prepare, Right Side Up recently caught up with an early ChatGPT ads tester—a senior performance marketing leader at a large consumer brand.

What ChatGPT ads are like today, in short

The short version?

Today, ChatGPT ads are very much in their “hard hat required” phase. The platform is early, unpolished, and difficult to prove out as a performance channel. It’s not Google Ads with a chatbot flavor yet.

But its potential is real: OpenAI is rapidly rolling out things like CPC bidding, self-serve Ads Manager, and more measurement tools. So brands need to pay close attention so they can be ready once the platform is ready. 

In this article, we’ll go over the advertiser’s experience with running a ChatGPT ad campaign. We’ll cover:

• How brands are getting into ChatGPT ads today 
• How campaigns are run (controls, bidding model, reporting)
• Why the campaign fell short of expectations
• The path for ChatGPT ads to become a widespread, viable channel 
• What brands should be doing today to prepare

How brands are getting into ChatGPT ads right now

In this case, the brand proactively reached out to OpenAI.

The advertiser described the process as very early-stage, with requirements evolving over the course of the relationship.

What is required for ChatGPT ads today

Though OpenAI recently dropped its minimum spend requirement, participation required meaningful budget and tolerance for ambiguity:

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However, access does seem to be getting easier. OpenAI has since announced broader ways for businesses to buy and manage ChatGPT ads, including through partners and a beta self-serve Ads Manager.

What the setup process looked like

The early setup process was not polished, to say the least.

As mentioned earlier, the advertiser initially had to send spreadsheets to OpenAI with campaign inputs, and the experience felt closer to “send us the files and we’ll upload them” than a modern ad platform.

Over time, that improved. A lightweight UI became available, and OpenAI continued sending product update emails every couple of weeks.

Still, the advertiser described the overall experience as “the wild west.” Not surprising for a new ad platform, but important for brands to understand before jumping in.

A comprehensive look at how ChatGPT campaigns work

Our advertiser gave us all the details on how campaigns actually function once the test is approved on both sides, from what controls are available to how bids work to current reporting capabilities (or lack thereof).

What campaign controls were available?

The advertiser had control over two primary inputs:

1. Keywords
2. Creative

That was it, more or less.

No real audience targeting, meaningful geo-targeting, conversion-based optimization, or automated bidding.

OpenAI’s position, according to the advertiser, was that ChatGPT’s conversational context and high-intent environment reduced the need for granular targeting. 

That may eventually prove true, but for performance marketers used to deep controls with Google or Facebook ads, the current state felt limited.

Creative mattered more than expected

One interesting difference: OpenAI seemed to emphasize creative variation more than traditional paid search platforms.

Instead of submitting one ad with several headline and description variations, the advertiser created multiple distinct creative versions for different campaigns, events, and categories.

That aligns with OpenAI’s current public creative guidance, which recommends building “for coverage” with a high volume of distinct ad variations so the system can match ads to a wider range of conversational contexts.

If this remains best practice, it’s a noteworthy shift for marketers in terms of creative structure compared to classic keyword-based search.

Brands may need more message diversity, more contextual angles, and clearer descriptions of:

• What they offer
• Who it’s for
• When it’s useful
• Why someone should care in that specific moment

The buying model: CPM first, CPC just arriving, no automated bidding

During the test, the platform was primarily CPM-based.

That made the channel feel less like paid search and more like display or social, despite the high-intent promise of the environment.

And while OpenAI has started to roll out CPC bidding, the bigger problem is that it still doesn’t offer automatic bidding. With no way to optimize toward return, conversion volume, the platform is not performance-ready yet.

Reporting was extremely limited

The advertiser had access to basic platform metrics:

• Impressions
• Clicks
• Spend

Compounding the lack of a proper bidding system, there was little visibility into what was actually driving results. 

Instead, the team used UTMs and had to strictly rely on Google Analytics and internal order data to understand downstream performance.

OpenAI has publicly said advertisers receive aggregated reporting, such as views and clicks, and that it may explore additional measurement insights over time while protecting user privacy.

From a brand perspective, privacy-safe measurement is good. But for performance teams, limited reporting makes it hard to know what’s actually working.

Campaign results, and 3 reasons it fell short

For context, the brand spends roughly $1 million per day on Google Ads and generates thousands of orders. 

ChatGPT ads were receiving a few thousand dollars per day in spend but producing very few orders.

Based on the results driven by its other search programs, the advertiser felt it would be reasonable to expect more than a handful of daily orders from ChatGPT ads.

So why was the performance so disappointing? The advertiser pointed to a few likely reasons.

1. The ad placement felt less organic than search

In traditional search, users often click top placements without deeply distinguishing between paid and organic results.

In ChatGPT, ads appeared below the response and were clearly labeled as sponsored, and visually separated from the response. While the transparency works in favor of user trust, it can also affect click behavior 

2. The format still felt rough

The advertiser described the ads as visually unpolished.

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That may improve quickly. Early ad products often start clunky and eventually get better. But today, the ad experience may not yet feel as compelling as marketers would like—or as audiences are used to.

3. There was no automated bidding

We’ve mentioned this already, but this was the biggest missing piece.

Without automated bidding, the advertiser felt the platform was closer to “set budgets and let the chips fall where they may” than a mature performance channel.

That is a tough sell for senior marketers responsible for efficient growth.

What needs to improve before ChatGPT ads become a must-test channel?

The advertiser was clear: they would need to see more infrastructure before recommending the channel broadly for performance marketing.

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OpenAI has already started addressing some of these areas, but there is still a ways to go until the channel is ready for reliable performance spend.

Should brands test ChatGPT ads now?

For many brands—namely those who need immediate ROI from these ads—our advertiser says it’d be a bit premature.

However, it may make sense for brands who:

• Have meaningful test budgets and can tolerate uncertain ROI, even though OpenAI no longer requires a minimum spend.
• Have a broad ideal customer profile (ICP)
• Are early adopters in channels and/or want an early learning advantage over competitors
• Treat the channel like an awareness play, not a performance channel

Even then, those brands should be wary of the platform’s limitations.

How brands should prepare for ChatGPT ads

While most brands probably shouldn’t test today, they should absolutely prepare for the AI search and advertising ecosystem now.

The advertiser’s strongest recommendation: get your AI search foundation in order.

1. Invest in GEO visibility

Paid and organic AI visibility will likely become increasingly connected, much like paid search and organic search evolved together.

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Related article

Need advice on how to build or boost your GEO strategy? Read our comprehensive guide.

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As such, marketers need to make sure AI systems can understand, retrieve, and accurately describe their products and brand. 

That means strengthening things like:

• Website and product content
• FAQs and comparison content
• Third-party mentions and reviews

2. Think about creative for conversational context

ChatGPT ads are designed for conversational moments. 

And when the time comes, brands will need creative that maps to customer intent, not keywords.

For example:

• “I’m comparing options”
• “I need help choosing”
• “What’s the best solution for X?”
• “What are the tradeoffs between A and B?”

In these instances, contextual usefulness will likely dictate how successful a creative is.

3. Prepare measurement expectations internally

Whenever you’re ready to pilot ChatGPT ads, keep in mind that it may not look like a mature Google Ads test (even though it will be more polished than it is today). 

In that case, it’s essential to clarify the learning agenda internally:

• Are we testing volume?
• Conversion quality?
• Incrementality?
• Creative resonance?
• AI discovery behavior?

4. Watch the product roadmap closely

This platform is moving quickly.

The advertiser noted that OpenAI was sending product updates frequently. 

Publicly, OpenAI has launched CPC bidding and announced new buying options, self-serve tools, and expanded measurement development. Brands should monitor these changes.

How ChatGPT ads could change the marketing mix

If ChatGPT ads mature, they could become a third major high-intent advertising channel alongside Google and Microsoft.

That matters because paid search has become increasingly expensive; CPCs on Google have steadily risen over the past decade. 

But ChatGPT ads may not simply become “paid search 2.0.”

The bigger opportunity is AI-native advertising: showing up while users are comparing options and making decisions inside a conversational interface.

What that could mean for your marketing mix:

• Paid search budgets may expand into AI answer engines.
• SEO and GEO may become even more tightly linked to paid strategy.
• Creative may need to become more contextual and educational.
• Measurement models may need to account for AI-assisted journeys.

The takeaway: Don’t ignore it, but don’t overhype it

Right now, ChatGPT ads deserve the attention of all marketers, but not necessarily their budget.

The platform has the ingredients of a major future channel:

• High-intent conversational moments
• More specific context than traditional search
• Early movement toward advertiser tools and measurement

But based on real early advertiser experience, the current product still has major gaps.

For now, brands should treat ChatGPT ads as an emerging test channel to keep an eye on and prepare for.

Strengthen AI visibility, build (or strategize) conversational creatives, define a learning agenda, and watch the platform roadmap closely. Then, when the infrastructure catches up, you’ll be ready to pounce.

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Need help getting ready for ChatGPT ads?

We’ve got talent running ChatGPT ads for clients right now.

Want to learn more about the channel and evaluate if it could be a good fit for you? Let’s chat.

(And if you need help strengthening your GEO strategy in the meantime, we’ve got you covered too.)

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