OpenAI now sells ads inside ChatGPT. An ad appears below a ChatGPT response, labeled and kept separate from the answer, and it is matched to what the person is talking about. We set up your account in OpenAI Ads Manager, build the campaigns, and read the results every month so you know what the spend turned into.
Up and Running Physical Therapy, Mar 2023 to Mar 2024, from their own Search Console.
Written by Hamza Rivera. Last reviewed
Hamza works in SEO and GEO/AEO. He writes the Passieon guides and checklists and does the SEO work for the businesses Passieon serves.
This is a service for businesses that want a person to run the account. The product is new and still marked Beta, so the work is mostly careful setup, clear tracking and honest reporting rather than clever tricks. If you would rather learn it first, the guides linked below walk through every step.
To see where you stand before spending anything: the free AI visibility checker, the ROAS calculator and the CPC calculator.
The unpaid counterpart is generative engine optimization services, which is about being named inside the answer rather than below it.
Ads Manager needs an OpenAI sign-in tied to a work email, a billing profile, a payment method and account verification. OpenAI also requires the advertiser and billing entity to be based in a country where Ads Manager is available. We check that first, so you do not find out after building campaigns.
OpenAI organizes ads as a campaign (objective, budget, dates, targeting), then ad groups (a theme or intent area with context hints), then ads (title, copy, image, landing page). We map your services onto that structure so each ad group covers one thing a buyer might be asking about.
Ad groups use context hints. OpenAI says these are not exact-match keywords and do not guarantee delivery. So we write them as the situations your customers describe, and we check what actually served before changing anything.
Ads Manager reports impressions, clicks, spend, click-through rate, average cost per click, average cost per thousand impressions and conversions. We set up conversion measurement and consistent UTM parameters so the ad shows up in your own analytics too, and we account for the reporting delay OpenAI describes.
The ad points at one of your pages, and OpenAI reviews that page. We make sure the page says what the ad says, loads fast and has one clear next step. If the page is the weak part, we fix it or build a better one.
Ads do not influence what ChatGPT says in its answers, according to OpenAI. Being named in the answer is a separate job, covered by our generative engine optimization work. Many businesses want both, and we keep the two reports apart so neither is credited for the other.
Ads may appear for people on the Free and Go plans. Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Edu plans do not show ads. Ads are labeled, separate from the response, and do not influence the answer.
Ads are not shown to accounts identified as under 18, in Temporary Chats, or near sensitive topics such as personal health, mental health and politics.
Billing is based on impressions and valid clicks. Ads run in an auction where relevance and the advertiser bid both count.
Ads Manager is in Beta and has two ways to create campaigns: guided creation and bulk upload from a template.
Our reading: the product is young and OpenAI changes it often. We re-read these pages before each new client account and tell you when something has moved.
We confirm your business and billing entity can use Ads Manager, and that your category is allowed. OpenAI does not allow political ads and limits some regulated categories such as health and financial services.
One campaign per goal, one ad group per theme, and a small set of ads in each. OpenAI offers the goals Views, Clicks and Conversions, and we pick the one that matches what you can measure.
Ads go live once they pass review and the account, billing and campaign requirements are met. We watch status and fix anything rejected.
We compare Ads Manager figures with your analytics, then change one thing at a time so the report can say what made the difference.
The unpaid side of the same assistant: crawlers, eligibility and how citations are chosen. Read it to decide how much of your plan should be ads and how much should be earning a mention.
Every number below is from the client’s own Google Search Console, for the period shown. Impressions are how often the site appeared; clicks are people who arrived.
+139,355% clicks against the previous period of the same length.
+2,059% clicks against the previous period of the same length.
+1,184% clicks against the previous period of the same length.
+1,174% clicks against the previous period of the same length.
There is no package to pick from. What the site needs is decided on a call and written down before any work starts, because a business with one location and a clean site needs a different month to an agency reselling to twelve clients.
01
Thirty minutes on what you sell, where you sell it, and what the site looks like today. No scope is written before that conversation, because the right work depends on all three.
02
What will be done, in what order, and what it costs, in writing. Nothing starts until you have agreed to it.
03
The work runs monthly and the scope changes as the site does. Cancel with 30 days’ notice.
Yes. OpenAI began testing ads in the US on February 9, 2026 and is rolling them out gradually to eligible users in select regions. They appear for people on the Free and Go plans, below a ChatGPT response, and are labeled as ads.
No. OpenAI states that ads do not influence the answers ChatGPT gives. An ad is a separate, labeled unit. Being named inside the answer is the work of generative engine optimization, which we do as a separate service.
OpenAI bills on impressions and valid clicks, through an auction. You set a maximum bid at the ad group level. We do not publish bid figures here because OpenAI can change its guidance, and we would rather quote from the live help center when you ask.
Not in the way you can in a search ad. OpenAI uses context hints at the ad group level, which it says are not exact-match keywords and do not guarantee delivery. We write them as the situations your buyers describe.
Self-service Ads Manager is available in many countries, and the advertiser and billing entity must be based in one of them. Political ads are not allowed, and some regulated categories like health and financial services can advertise only under strict criteria. Check the live OpenAI list before you plan around it.
Ads Manager shows impressions, clicks, spend, CTR, average CPC, average CPM and conversions. We add UTM parameters and conversion tracking so your own analytics agree with it, then report both side by side.
You can run it yourself. OpenAI publishes a Quickstart, and our guides cover each step. An agency helps when you want someone to own setup, tracking and monthly reading so you can get back to the business.
Send your address and what you want from the site. Hamza records a short video of what he sees and what he would fix first, and you get it by email.
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A 30-minute call in your working hours. Tell us what you sell and where, and we will tell you what we would do first and what it involves. Prefer email? Send your website through the form and the Passieon Team will reply by email.
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