Ready to Try ChatGPT Ads? Here’s What You Need to Know
- AI & Technology Trends
- Digital Marketing
- November 9, 2026
If you’ve been running ad campaigns in Google and Meta, you’ve seen firsthand how their AI-powered features can boost your ad performance. On the organic side, you’ve probably started optimizing your website and blog content to show up in AI Overviews. Now, it’s time to start using AI-native ads.
With over 1.2 billion weekly active users turning to ChatGPT for everything from health advice to product recommendations, AI has officially become a major discovery channel. Advertising on ChatGPT is one of the newest ways to get your brand in front of high-intent consumers while they are actively exploring their options.
Read on as we break down how ChatGPT ads work, what our team has seen from testing them firsthand, and how to set up your very first campaign.
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How ChatGPT Ads Work (and Who Sees Them)
Unlike traditional search ads that rely on keywords, ChatGPT ads are driven by conversations and user intent.
When someone asks ChatGPT a question — whether they’re comparing hiking shoes or looking for DIY instructions to install a water feature in their backyard — OpenAI’s system evaluates the topic and goal of the chat. If your business matches what they’re looking for, your ad appears as a clearly labeled sponsored card directly below ChatGPT’s response.
Two examples of how ChatGPT ads appear beneath a response / Source: ChatGPT
Importantly, ads run on a separate system from the AI model itself, meaning advertisers can’t pay to influence or alter ChatGPT’s actual answers.
So, who actually sees these ads? Right now, ChatGPT ads only appear for users on the Free and Go plans. These users make up the vast majority of the platform’s audience. Paid subscribers (including Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise, and Edu accounts) don’t see ads. OpenAI also keeps ads turned off for users under 18, and limits them for certain sensitive topics based on whether a user is signed in.
What Our Experience Has Been with ChatGPT Ads
We’ve been actively testing ChatGPT ads here at Your Marketing People. We’ve also been checking in on Reddit to see if other marketers are experiencing the same trends (spoiler alert: they are). While it’s an exciting new channel, it definitely comes with some early growing pains.
Here’s what we’re seeing so far:
- Optimization is a bit of a guessing game. Right now, there isn’t a great way to optimize these campaigns. Because the platform keeps user chats private, it doesn’t tell you which specific keywords or questions are driving conversions. You’re largely left guessing which small tweaks might move the needle.
- ChatGPT ads drive high interest, not immediate conversions. In our testing, ChatGPT ads aren’t driving a ton of immediate purchases. Instead, they’re driving initial curiosity and interest. We’re seeing a lot of “add to carts,” but very few direct conversions.
- It’s a goldmine for retargeting. Getting a high volume of cart additions without immediate sales isn’t necessarily a bad thing. You can capture that warm traffic and build retargeting lists to close the deal across your other ad platforms, like Meta and Google.
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How to Set Up Your First ChatGPT Ad Campaign
Ready to test the waters? Here’s how to get started with ChatGPT ads:
- Create and verify your account. Head to ads.openai.com to sign in with your business email, upload your brand logo, add your billing information, and complete business verification.
- Create your campaign and choose your objective. Name your campaign and select your goal (Views, Clicks, or Conversions).
- Set your budget and start and end dates. You can set a campaign-total or daily budget and decide how long you want your ads to run.
- Set up your audience targeting. Choose which platforms you want to target (e.g. Android vs. iOS app), country and location, and specific audiences. You can upload audience lists to better refine your targeting.
- Add context hints to your ad groups. Because you aren’t bidding on traditional keywords, you’ll write context hints that describe the conversations, customer problems, or scenarios where your ad should show up.
- Build your ad and submit for review. Add a headline, description, image, and your landing page URL. For ecommerce campaigns, you can connect your Spotify store for faster campaign setup. Then submit your campaign for approval.
Start Testing ChatGPT Ads Early
Because ChatGPT’s ad platform is still brand new, we all have so much more to learn. That’s why we recommend turning it on now — so you can gather early insights, build retargeting audiences, and stay ahead of your competitors while the platform matures.
Looking for an experienced partner to help you test ChatGPT ads and turn that new interest into revenue? Contact Your Marketing People.
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