Updated: November 6, 2026
Google Ads and Facebook Ads have dominated online advertising for years. But there’s a new player in the advertising industry, and it might change how businesses reach potential customers.
OpenAI has launched its ChatGPT advertising platform, giving businesses a way to promote products and services directly within AI-powered conversations.
The platform is accessible through ads.openai.com, where eligible advertisers can create campaigns, configure budgets, manage advertisements, and measure performance.
For marketers, business owners, and advertising agencies, this introduces a new opportunity: reaching people while they actively research purchases, compare products, and evaluate solutions.
It’s part of a wider shift in how brands attract and measure digital audiences. For example, Google has also been expanding its approach to tracking online discovery, as explored in our guide to tracking social media search traffic through Google Search Console.
But how exactly do ChatGPT Ads work? How much do they cost? And can smaller businesses start advertising without spending thousands of dollars?
This tutorial explains how to create your first OpenAI advertising campaign, step by step.
What Are OpenAI Ads and How Do ChatGPT Ads Work?
OpenAI Ads is an advertising platform that allows eligible businesses to display sponsored advertisements inside ChatGPT.
Unlike traditional Google Search ads, which primarily respond to a user’s search query, ChatGPT advertising can use conversational context to identify potentially relevant advertisements.
Imagine someone asking ChatGPT:
“What’s the best accounting software for a small business with five employees?”
An accounting software company might be eligible to show an advertisement related to that conversation.
Or imagine someone researching home furniture and asking ChatGPT to compare different office chairs.
A furniture retailer could potentially reach that person with an appropriate advertisement.
This is what makes conversational advertising interesting.
People frequently use ChatGPT to explore specific problems, compare options, and make decisions. Advertising within that experience could help businesses reach potential customers during those activities.
However, advertisements are separate from ChatGPT’s generated responses.
Advertisers cannot pay OpenAI to change ChatGPT’s answers or make the assistant recommend their products.
Advertisements are clearly distinguished from the assistant’s responses.
How to Advertise on ChatGPT: Complete Step-by-Step Tutorial
OpenAI provides a self-service advertising platform called Ads Manager.
Businesses can use it to manage campaigns without necessarily going through a traditional advertising agency.
Here’s how to get started.
Step 1: Visit the Official OpenAI Ads Website
Start by opening the official website:
The landing page introduces ChatGPT advertising and explains how businesses can reach audiences within the conversational experience.
Look for the Start now or Sign up option.
You can sign in using an existing OpenAI account or create a new account.
OpenAI also provides a sales-support option for businesses with more complex advertising requirements.
Before continuing, confirm that your advertiser’s country is eligible for the self-service platform.
Step 2: Create Your OpenAI Advertiser Account
After signing in, OpenAI provides two ways to begin setting up your advertiser account.
Option 1: Start with your website URL
You can provide your business website address during onboarding.
Ads Manager uses information from your website to help prepare an initial advertisement.
You can review the proposed advertisement, modify its details, and continue creating a campaign.
This option can be convenient for beginners who want a guided experience.
Option 2: Skip the initial advertisement
Alternatively, you can skip website-based advertisement creation and proceed directly to Ads Manager.
You can then configure your account and create campaigns manually.
Both approaches provide access to the advertising management interface.
During registration, you may need to provide your advertiser name, business details, and other required account information.
Step 3: Configure Billing and Brand Information
Before your advertisements can begin delivering, complete the required billing setup.
OpenAI Ads Manager provides account settings for advertiser information, payment methods, and business details.
You should verify:
- Account name and public brand name
- Legal business information
- Billing address and currency
- Payment method
- Business verification requirements, where applicable
Your public brand name is important because it helps people identify the business behind an advertisement.
Make sure it matches your actual business or product identity.
Also review the campaign’s budget and status before submitting it for approval.
Some advertisements created during onboarding can begin delivering after approval once all other requirements are satisfied.
Step 4: Create Your First ChatGPT Advertising Campaign
Inside Ads Manager, navigate to:
Create → Create campaign
OpenAI organizes advertisements into three levels.
Campaign: Controls the overall advertising objective, budget, and targeting settings.
Ad Group: Organizes advertisements around relevant themes, audience needs, or conversational contexts.
Advertisement: Contains the actual promotional message, including the title, descriptive copy, destination URL, image, and brand identity.
For example, an online software company might create this structure:
Campaign: Small Business Software
Ad Group: Invoicing and Accounting
Advertisement: Promote a tool that helps business owners create invoices and track payments.
This structure makes it easier to manage different advertising messages without mixing unrelated audiences.
Step 5: Select Your Advertising Objective
OpenAI Ads Manager supports different advertising objectives.
Views (CPM)
This objective focuses on advertising visibility.
Advertisers pay for impressions, calculated per 1,000 impressions served.
It can be suitable for businesses primarily interested in brand awareness.
Clicks (CPC)
This objective focuses on generating clicks to an advertiser’s website or product.
Advertisers pay for valid clicks.
It may be useful for businesses trying to generate website visits, product interest, or potential leads.
Conversions
This objective is designed to optimize advertising toward supported conversion events.
Depending on campaign eligibility and configuration, conversion-focused campaigns may use optimized CPC or CPM billing.
Importantly, this does not necessarily mean advertisers are billed only when a conversion occurs.
For a beginner whose main objective is attracting website visitors, a Clicks campaign is a practical starting point.
Step 6: Set Your Campaign Budget
Advertising budgets are one of the most important settings to configure before launching.
OpenAI Ads Manager supports daily and campaign-total budgets.
A daily budget specifies an average spending target over a seven-day period. Spending can fluctuate between days, subject to platform limits.
A campaign-total budget establishes the maximum amount allocated to the campaign for its full duration.
The required minimum budget can vary depending on the account’s billing currency.
For example, a business could initially test advertising with a modest daily budget, provided that amount meets the applicable minimum.
The objective of an early campaign should be learning which messages, themes, and landing pages attract suitable visitors.
Avoid committing a large budget before you understand the platform’s performance for your business.
Step 7: Configure Audience Targeting and Conversation Context
This is one of the most interesting parts of ChatGPT advertising.
In traditional search campaigns, marketers often focus heavily on individual keywords.
ChatGPT Ads also supports context-based advertising approaches.
Advertisers can organize ad groups around relevant conversational themes using context hints.
Consider an online travel insurance provider.
Its potential context hints might include:
- Travel insurance for international holidays
- Insurance for students studying abroad
- Comparing travel insurance policies
- Medical coverage for international travelers
These examples describe relevant conversation types, not guaranteed ad placements.
The platform determines whether an advertisement qualifies to appear.
Advertisers can also configure supported geographic targeting and other available campaign settings.
Some audience features depend on country, account eligibility, and platform availability.
Step 8: Create Your ChatGPT Advertisement
Next, prepare the actual advertisement.
Your advertisement should clearly communicate what your business offers and why someone might be interested.
For example:
Brand: SmartInvoice
Headline: Create Invoices in Minutes
Description: Send professional invoices and manage customer payments from one simple dashboard.
Destination: Your official product landing page.
The headline should be concise and relevant.
Avoid unnecessary exaggeration, misleading claims, and promises that cannot be supported.
A useful advertisement addresses a specific customer problem and directs interested visitors to an appropriate landing page.
Can You Use AI to Create Advertising Assets?
Yes. AI tools can help create promotional visuals, concepts, and content for advertising campaigns.
However, the accepted creative formats and specifications depend on the advertising platform.
If you’re interested in how brands are experimenting with AI-generated advertisements, take a look at MadFoxy’s tutorial on recreating a viral AI advertisement using Runway and Seedance 2.5.
It demonstrates how an advertising concept can be developed into a promotional video using AI-generation tools.
You can also explore our Seedance 2.0 cinematic AI video tutorial to understand how text prompts and visual references can be used to create animated sequences.
These are useful creative resources, although creating video assets does not mean every video format is supported directly in ChatGPT Ads.
Step 9: Submit Your Advertisement for Review
Once your campaign and advertisements are ready, review the campaign configuration carefully.
Check the destination URL, advertising copy, brand information, budget, and targeting settings.
Submit the advertisements for review.
OpenAI evaluates advertisements against its advertising policies.
An approved advertisement may begin delivering once account verification, billing, campaign status, and other eligibility requirements are satisfied.
If you are not ready to spend money, pause the campaign and verify its status inside Ads Manager.
Approval alone should not be treated as permission to ignore your advertising budget.
Step 10: Monitor and Optimize Campaign Performance
After launching your campaign, use the reporting features in OpenAI Ads Manager to understand how it performs.
Important metrics include:
- Impressions: How frequently advertisements are displayed
- Clicks: How many valid clicks the advertisements generate
- CTR: The percentage of impressions resulting in clicks
- CPC: Average advertising cost per click
- CPM: Average cost per thousand impressions
- Conversions: Supported customer actions recorded through conversion measurement
- Spend: Total advertising expenditure
OpenAI provides reporting tools that allow advertisers to review performance across campaigns and advertising groups.
For website owners, monitoring traffic after an advertising campaign is equally important.
Use analytics tools to understand what visitors do after arriving on your website.
Google Analytics can help measure website engagement, while Google Search Console provides separate information about organic search performance.
If you’re building a broader measurement strategy, our Google Search Console guide for social search visibility explains how search-discovery measurement extends beyond ordinary websites.
Remember that Search Console does not directly replace an advertising platform’s campaign-performance reports.
How Much Do ChatGPT Ads Cost in 2026?
One of the biggest questions advertisers have is whether ChatGPT advertising is expensive.
Unlike a traditional subscription service, advertising costs depend on campaign settings and the relevant billing model.
A CPC campaign charges for valid advertisement clicks.
A CPM campaign charges for every 1,000 impressions served.
Conversion-focused campaigns can optimize toward conversion events while using supported click-based or impression-based billing.
There is no universal CPC or CPM that applies to every advertiser.
Your actual spending will depend on factors such as campaign configuration, bidding, available inventory, and advertising delivery.
Before launching, check the platform’s current minimum campaign budget for your currency.
Is There a Free OpenAI Ads Credit?
OpenAI’s official advertising website currently displays a promotional offer for eligible new advertisers.
The promotion advertises an additional advertising credit after an advertiser reaches a qualifying spending amount.
For example, the European version of the landing page displays an offer of €500 in advertising credit after spending €500, with a December 31 deadline.
The offer’s displayed currency, eligibility, conditions, and availability can vary.
Advertisers should review the official promotional terms rather than assume the credit is immediately available or unrestricted.
For the latest offer, visit ads.openai.com.
Is OpenAI Ads Available in India?
Yes. India is included in OpenAI’s official list of countries where self-service Ads Manager is available.
Other supported markets include the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Germany, and numerous additional countries.
However, country availability alone does not guarantee that every advertising account will be approved.
The business or legal entity responsible for advertising and billing must meet the platform’s requirements.
Advertisers should also verify whether their intended target countries are available.
Is ChatGPT Advertising Better Than Google Ads?
ChatGPT advertising introduces a different customer-discovery environment, but that does not automatically make it superior to Google Ads.
Google Ads offers established advertising products across search, shopping, display, video, and other placements.
ChatGPT advertising focuses on relevant opportunities within an AI conversational experience.
Both platforms can potentially help businesses reach customers who are researching products and services.
The difference is primarily the environment in which the advertisement appears and the signals used to identify relevant opportunities.
A customer searching Google for “best project management software” may already be looking for product comparisons.
A ChatGPT user asking for a detailed comparison of project management platforms may demonstrate similar commercial interest, but through a conversational interface.
Whether either platform generates better advertising results depends on targeting, messaging, costs, landing-page quality, and conversion performance.
For businesses already advertising successfully on Google, ChatGPT Ads may be worth testing as an additional acquisition channel.
Can Small Businesses and Affiliates Advertise on ChatGPT?
Eligible small businesses can use OpenAI’s self-service platform.
Potential advertisers include software companies, e-commerce retailers, service businesses, educational companies, and digital product providers.
However, eligibility also depends on the products being promoted and compliance with OpenAI’s advertising policies.
Affiliate marketers should review the applicable policies before advertising.
Not every affiliate offer, destination page, or promotional claim will necessarily qualify.
Advertisers should use transparent branding and landing pages that provide meaningful information about the promoted product or service.
Simply redirecting customers through unclear or misleading affiliate pages may create advertising-policy issues.
Can You Bulk Upload ChatGPT Advertising Campaigns?
Yes.
OpenAI Ads Manager Beta provides a bulk campaign creation workflow.
Advertisers can prepare campaign information using a structured CSV template and upload the data through:
Create → Upload bulk
This feature can be especially useful for advertising agencies or businesses running multiple campaigns.
Bulk creation can include campaign, ad-group, and advertisement information according to the platform’s supported schema.
However, the bulk upload workflow has limitations, including restrictions involving product-feed campaign creation.
Advertisers should always verify the current documentation before using bulk campaign uploads.
Tips for Getting Better Results From ChatGPT Advertising
Successful advertising requires more than creating a campaign and setting a budget.
Start with a clear understanding of your intended customer.
Identify the customer problems your products or services solve.
Build advertising groups around different customer needs rather than using identical advertisements for unrelated topics.
Keep your promotional messaging clear and avoid unnecessarily complicated descriptions.
Ensure your landing pages deliver what the advertisements promise.
If you’re running conversion-oriented campaigns, configure the supported measurement tools so you can assess meaningful outcomes rather than simply counting clicks.
Review campaign performance regularly and make adjustments based on actual results.
Finally, remember that ChatGPT advertising is an evolving platform.
New targeting options, advertising formats, and measurement features may become available as OpenAI continues developing its advertising products.
You can follow more developments in advertising technology and digital tools through MadFoxy’s Technology section.
Frequently Asked Questions About OpenAI Ads
Can I advertise directly on ChatGPT?
Yes. Eligible advertisers can create campaigns through the official OpenAI Ads Manager platform at ads.openai.com.
Do I need a ChatGPT Plus subscription to advertise?
An OpenAI advertising account is separate from a ChatGPT Plus subscription. Advertisers must complete the required Ads Manager onboarding and billing setup.
Are ChatGPT Ads available worldwide?
Not universally. Self-service availability depends on the advertiser’s legal location and the countries supported by OpenAI.
Can advertisers influence ChatGPT’s answers?
No. OpenAI states that advertisements remain separate from ChatGPT’s answers. Advertisers cannot purchase modifications to the assistant’s generated responses.
Does OpenAI share private conversations with advertisers?
OpenAI states that conversations are kept private from advertisers and that user data is not sold to advertisers.
Can I run ChatGPT Ads with a small budget?
Potentially. The minimum campaign budget depends on the applicable billing currency and account requirements.
Can I target specific keywords on ChatGPT?
OpenAI Ads uses contextual targeting options, including context hints, rather than simply reproducing the traditional search-keyword advertising model.
Can I track conversions from ChatGPT Ads?
Yes. OpenAI provides supported conversion measurement capabilities that advertisers can configure to track eligible website actions.
Does OpenAI Ads support advertising agencies?
Yes. Advertisers and authorized team members can manage advertising accounts, subject to the platform’s account and access requirements.
Final Thoughts: Should You Start Advertising on ChatGPT?
ChatGPT advertising represents an interesting development in digital marketing.
As AI assistants become part of how consumers research products, compare services, and make purchasing decisions, conversational advertising introduces another opportunity for businesses to reach potential customers.
OpenAI’s self-service Ads Manager makes it possible for eligible businesses to begin experimenting with campaigns without requiring an enterprise advertising arrangement.
However, early adoption alone does not guarantee successful results.
Advertisers should start with clear objectives, realistic budgets, relevant landing pages, and proper performance measurement.
For businesses exploring new customer-acquisition channels in 2026, OpenAI Ads is worth investigating.
Want to try it yourself? Visit the official OpenAI Ads website to explore the platform, check eligibility, and create your first campaign.
Sources: OpenAI Ads, OpenAI Ads Manager Account Setup, Creating Campaigns for ChatGPT Ads, and Ads Manager Availability.