If it feels like every time you open LinkedIn there’s a new update about ChatGPT ads, you’re not imagining things. The format has gone from rumor to reality in a matter of months, and the pace is only accelerating. When an advertising channel moves this quickly, the real risk isn’t jumping in too early; it’s dismissing the opportunity and letting competitors learn while you wait.
Let’s take a look at how ChatGPT ads function today, what early results show, which brands should test first and how to budget for experiments without jeopardizing proven channels.
OpenAI’s recent rollout of sponsored placements inside ChatGPT may be only weeks old, but it’s already reshaping media-buying conversations worldwide.
Brafton Director of Paid Media Zach Shah explains everything there is to know now about OpenAI’s emerging platform and how marketers should approach it.
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Understanding How ChatGPT Ads Work Today
Marketers evaluating this new channel need to remember one thing above all: everything you read about ChatGPT ads today may be out of date tomorrow. The product is evolving fast, which means you need to balance curiosity with caution. Here’s how they work today:
How Ad Placements Appear Inside the ChatGPT Experience
When a user types a question such as “What are the best running shoes for a 10K?”, ChatGPT still produces its conversational answer. However, advertisers can now claim an additional spot that surfaces immediately after that organic response. The placement is clearly labeled as an ad, lists the brand’s product and includes a call-to-action link that routes the visitor directly to the advertiser’s site.
Functionally, this shortcut mirrors pay-per-click (PPC) in search: you bypass the time-consuming work of earning visibility organically and jump straight to the front of the line. The difference is that the discovery journey is powered by a large language model (LLM), not a search engine results page. In that sense, ChatGPT ads are to generative AI what traditional PPC is to SEO: a paid overlay that accelerates exposure when ranking organically is uncertain or slow.
How Buying and Access Currently Work
Right now, ChatGPT ads operate through a managed-service model. Advertisers supply brand details, product feeds and audience parameters; OpenAI’s internal team builds and launches the campaigns. Reporting is limited to impressions and clicks, and all data flows back from OpenAI rather than a third-party dashboard.
There’s a catch: the program isn’t open to everyone. Direct access requires an invitation and a minimum monthly commitment that can reach $250,000. For brands without that kind of budget or connection, programmatic partners such as Criteo can broker entry. Even then, the minimum drops only to about $100,000 per month — still steep compared with most digital channels.
These costs and gatekeeping mechanisms will likely moderate over time, but for now, they create a clear dividing line between brands that can participate and those that must wait and watch.
Examining Why Early Results Look Underwhelming
Headlines describing “disappointing ROI” have surfaced almost as quickly as the ads themselves. That reaction is predictable when a brand-new channel carries enterprise-level price tags yet offers only partial performance data.
Many industry observers point out that advertisers still lack visibility into post-click outcomes, making true return calculations a guessing game for now.
“Right now, ROI results aren’t going to be great,” Zach notes. “But I think from a branding perspective and the middle of the funnel perspective, if your GEO isn’t strong enough yet, and you want to make sure you’re appearing there, ChatGPT ads can be quite strong.”
What Marketers Can and Cannot Measure Yet
At launch, advertisers receive two metrics: impressions and clicks. Conversions sit behind the curtain for now, which means cost-per-acquisition and return on ad spend (ROAS) calculations are impossible. That said, OpenAI is encouraging its advertisers to install its optional tracking pixel as soon as possible.
“That’s in anticipation of possibly getting conversion metrics in the summer,” Zach explained. “They’re saying to just have that tag installed already, so you can be ahead of that.”
By having the tag firing from the start of your campaign, you’ll be able to see historical data when conversion reporting goes live. Having that infrastructure in place will shorten the learning curve once additional metrics arrive.
Gauging Low ROI vs. Potential Value
Early adopters face cost per thousand impressions (CPMs) hovering around $60. Meanwhile, average CPMs for YouTube ads typically fall between the $12 to $15 range, TV ads usually run around $18-$20, and display ads are commonly below $10 CPM.
Large minimum spends magnify the sting, and with no self-serve interface, every tweak requires a managed-service request. That combination of premium pricing and operational drag makes efficiency math look unfavorable compared with mature channels that offer lower rates and automated optimization.
Despite the cost profile, first movers gain benefits that don’t fit neatly on a spreadsheet. Being the only brand in your niche to appear in an AI-driven research session can shape perception and consideration long before a purchase event is tracked.
“Right now, marketers shouldn’t think of it as traditional performance marketing with proper metrics to report against,” Zach explained. “They should see it through the lens of a different value, which is the frontier value, the being-the-first-to-go-there value.”
At this point, mid-funnel influence, brand salience and the internal learnings your team gathers may justify a measured test even if short-term ROAS falls short.
Identifying Which Marketers Should Test First
ChatGPT ads are not a blanket recommendation. Given the costly barrier to entry, the lack of visibility into campaign success and the less-than-ideal approach to ad management, there are a lot of reasons not to try it. So, who’s best positioned to experiment with ChatGPT ads at this point?
Here are a few practical questions to ask yourself:
- Do we have the discretionary budget for a ChatGPT ad campaign?
- Do we have a visibility problem in ChatGPT search right now?
- Are our ideal customers researching our solutions using ChatGPT?
- Does our typical buyer journey require many touchpoints before making a decision?
The current format of ChatGPT ads — links to purchase pages — leads many marketers to assume that they’re prime real estate for B2C brands. However, Zach sees it differently.
“I think ChatGPT is trying to position itself as a commerce conversion platform, but I think that’s actually the type of customer that should be least worried,” he explained. “They’ve got so many options in the form of Google Shopping, Amazon Shopping, Google Ads. They’ve got so many successful converting channels already. They don’t need to go to ChatGPT ads.”
Instead, niche B2B brands may have the strongest case for pursuing early-stage ChatGPT ad space.
“As we’ve seen, a successful B2B ad campaign requires a lot of strategy, a lot of audience targeting, it requires a lot of optimization to get there,” he said. “So it’s actually likely to be more niche B2B companies that want to get their name out there that will see more success from it.”
The Benefits B2B Brands Stand to Gain
Decision-makers at specialized software vendors, industrial manufacturers and other niche B2B organizations often struggle to surface in crowded search results. When those buyers turn to an LLM for vendor shortlists, the field narrows even further. By paying for the sponsored slot, a B2B marketer can leapfrog months of awareness building and land directly in the research conversation.
“You’re getting more and more decision makers and business people trusting LLMs like ChatGPT to be like their advisor,” Zach pointed out. “They’ll be searching for this sort of stuff and they’ll be taking that answer quite seriously. So for a brand to then appear as an ad is going to be a lot more important than, say, some of our B2C clients who already have such easy access with Google Ads.”
Imagine a cybersecurity startup that rarely outranks household-name competitors on Google. A sponsored mention when a chief information security officer (CISO) types “best zero-trust vendors” could propel the brand onto a shortlist it might otherwise miss.
Where ChatGPT Ads Sit in the Funnel
Because users are explicitly asking for advice or options, intent typically lands in the middle to lower-middle funnel. A shopper exploring mattress brands for a planned purchase next year is still early in the journey, while a business leader requesting “top HRIS platforms for mid-market companies” is nearing vendor evaluation. The conversational context can even nudge some placements toward bottom-funnel action if the prompt signals readiness to buy.
Marketers weighing a test should map these intent stages to existing media touchpoints, then decide whether ChatGPT ads fill a gap or duplicate coverage.
Planning Budgets, Targeting and Tests With Realistic Expectations
Treat ChatGPT ads the way you would any frontier channel: as a controlled experiment layered on top of a stable media plan. The goal is to capture learning value while protecting baseline pipeline and revenue.
Start by carving out incremental funds rather than cannibalizing search, social or display budgets that already deliver predictable returns. Zach suggests positioning the request as an innovation allowance.
“This is an inflection point,” Zach pointed out. “It’s one of the biggest changes since 2000 when Google Ads came out. You should be able to convince your CFO to give you some extra budget to test. I think now is the time to just start thinking about how it fits into your larger strategy.”
Targeting has already jumped from broad contextual signals to more precise keyword inputs, giving advertisers tighter control over who sees an ad. Use that progress to align campaigns with audience intent instead of demographic guesses.
Match keywords to the kinds of prompts customers actually type — think “top supply chain visibility platforms” rather than brand terms alone. As OpenAI unveils new levers, such as industry filters or persona overlays, iterate quickly so every test dollar addresses the most relevant queries.
Preparing for a More Accessible ChatGPT Ad Future
Today’s sticker shock and access hurdles won’t define the platform forever. If history is any guide, early high-touch programs give way to self-serve dashboards as vendors chase scale. Marketers who prepare for that shift now will be ready to move when the gates open wider and the pricing model normalizes.
Why Costs and Access Are Likely to Change
High minimums are a feature of most nascent ad products. They limit participation to brands that can fund OpenAI’s learning curve while granting the platform time to refine everything from targeting to fraud controls.
As inventory expands and automation improves, lower entry points become both feasible and necessary. The managed-service layer will likely recede, replaced by an interface that mirrors Google Ads or Meta Ads Manager.
How to Get Your Team Ready Now
Not sure where to go next with all this information? Zach’s advice is simple:
“Just be mentally ready for it because it’ll definitely become a lot more accessible to everyone and be a commonplace thing just as Google Ads is.”
Marketing leaders can set the stage in three practical steps:
- Track product updates: Assign someone to monitor OpenAI release notes and industry chatter so you spot changes to targeting, reporting and pricing the moment they land.
- Map use cases: Identify prompts and buyer questions where paid visibility would close a gap in your funnel, then document creative concepts and landing pages you could deploy quickly.
- Plan next-year budget scenarios: Build flexible media plans that include a provisional line item for ChatGPT ads, scaling spend up or down based on how the platform evolves.
By treating readiness as an ongoing project rather than a one-time decision, you’ll avoid scrambling when the channel becomes as accessible as any other line in your paid media mix.
What Smart Marketers Should Do Next
ChatGPT ads are not yet the kind of channel you scale with quarterly pipeline goals in mind, but they’re far too consequential to ignore.
Some early adopters will get a huge advantage by exploring this emerging advertising channel, while many will benefit from staying informed and beginning to make a case for future spend internally. For now, most of us will watch and wait to see what OpenAI does next with their ad platform.
This article was written with help from contentmarketing.ai, and was reviewed by Molly Ploe, Zach Shah and other members of the Brafton team.
