ChatGPT Ads

What it is

ChatGPT is a conversational assistant used for research, shopping and task completion, and OpenAI has said it intends to introduce advertising as a revenue stream alongside subscriptions. Any ad format in that environment sits inside or next to a conversational answer rather than in a list of ten blue links, which changes how a placement can look and how much attention it gets. Because the offering is still developing, specifics such as targeting options, formats and buying routes should be checked against OpenAI's own announcements rather than assumed.

Why it matters

Assistants are absorbing part of the research and shortlisting behaviour that used to happen in search results, so paid inventory inside them may become a way to appear at the point of a recommendation. If ads in assistants mature, they will sit next to organic AI mentions, meaning brands need a view of both bought and earned presence in the same conversation. Planning for it early also protects budget decisions, since spend moved into a new surface has to come from somewhere.

How it works

Practitioners currently treat it as a watch item: monitoring OpenAI's product and policy announcements, keeping a record of how their brand already appears in ChatGPT answers, and preparing creative and landing experiences that work for intent-heavy conversational queries. Where test access exists, teams start small with clearly measurable objectives, tag destination URLs carefully so assistant referrals can be separated in analytics, and compare cost and conversion quality against paid search. They also brief legal and brand teams on disclosure and placement risks in a conversational context.

When it applies

It applies when you are building a paid media plan that covers emerging AI surfaces, or when your category already sees meaningful assistant-driven research and referral traffic.

Examples

• A retail media team adds a line to its annual plan for testing assistant advertising, funded by a small reallocation from broad-match paid search.
• A B2B marketer tracks how ChatGPT describes its category so it can judge whether a paid placement would add anything to the mentions it already earns.
• An agency updates its measurement setup so referrals from chatgpt.com are separated from other channels before any paid test starts.

How it is measured

• Referral sessions and conversions attributed to ChatGPT in analytics
• Cost per qualified lead or sale from any assistant placement compared with paid search
• Share of category prompts where the brand appears, split between paid placement and organic mention
• Assisted conversions and branded search lift during test periods