ChatGPT Ads: What Are They, How Do They Work, And Should Your Business Use Them?

If your business already spends money on Google Ads, you may have a familiar problem. Google can generate valuable leads, but becoming too reliant on a single source of new business creates risk. Costs can increase, competition can intensify, and changes to Google can affect your results.

So where else can you reach people who are actively researching a problem or considering a purchase?

ChatGPT could become an important answer to that question.

OpenAI has started introducing advertising into ChatGPT, initially in the US and now in other markets including the UK. Businesses can create campaigns through OpenAI's Ads Manager and pay to put their products and services in front of relevant ChatGPT users.

This interests us at JDR because we are already seeing organic visitors from ChatGPT across our own website and our clients' websites. In many cases, these visitors arrive with a good understanding of what they need and convert at high rates.

Paid advertising potentially gives you a way to increase that visibility.

The opportunity is exciting, but ChatGPT Ads is still a new advertising platform. The current product is relatively simple compared with Google Ads, there are few established performance benchmarks and some of the capabilities you might expect from an AI advertising platform are still developing.

In this blog, we'll explain how ChatGPT Ads work today, what they cost, how targeting works, how they compare with Google Ads, and whether your business should consider testing them.

What Are ChatGPT Ads?

ChatGPT Ads are paid advertisements which can appear after a ChatGPT response.

They are separate from the answer itself and clearly identified as sponsored content. Advertisers cannot pay OpenAI to have their company included in an answer or to influence what ChatGPT recommends.

This creates an important distinction between two ways your business can gain visibility in ChatGPT.

The first is organic AI visibility. ChatGPT may mention or cite your website when answering a user's question because it considers your content relevant to the answer.

The second is paid ChatGPT advertising. You create an advertising campaign and pay for sponsored placements.

The two are independent. Paying for ChatGPT Ads does not improve your chances of being mentioned organically in ChatGPT answers.

OpenAI started testing advertising in the US in February 2026 and has since expanded the advertising programme into additional markets. The UK is now supported by OpenAI's self-service advertising platform.

Where Do ChatGPT Ads Appear?

Ads currently appear below the end of a ChatGPT response, clearly separated from the answer and labelled as sponsored.

That positioning matters.

Google Search Ads typically appear when someone enters a relatively short search query. A ChatGPT advert can appear after somebody has explained a problem, asked follow-up questions, and provided considerable context about what they are trying to achieve.

Imagine that you provide commercial solar installations.

Someone might search Google for:

commercial solar panels

That tells Google something about what they want.

Now compare it with somebody telling ChatGPT:

"We run a manufacturing company with a 40,000 sq ft factory and our electricity costs have increased significantly. We're considering solar panels, but I'm trying to understand the likely payback period and whether we'd be better investing the money elsewhere."

There is far more context in the second example.

That is what makes conversational advertising potentially so interesting.

Who Sees ChatGPT Ads?

ChatGPT Ads are currently shown to eligible users on ChatGPT's Free and Go plans.

Users on Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise, and Edu plans do not currently see ads. OpenAI also says ads are not shown to accounts identified as belonging to people under 18.

This is particularly relevant if you are a B2B advertiser.

Some frequent professional ChatGPT users are likely to have paid subscriptions through their employer or personally. Those people will not currently be available through ChatGPT advertising.

So while ChatGPT has a huge overall user base, you should not assume your advertising can reach every ChatGPT user.

What Does A ChatGPT Ad Look Like?

The current advertising format is fairly simple.

A ChatGPT Ad can include:

• Your business name and favicon
• A short headline
• A description
• An image
• A link to your chosen landing page

Here are a couple of examples from our own ads account:

OpenAI recommends creating several variations so its advertising system has different messages available for different contexts.

This is one area where the current reality is less sophisticated than you might imagine.

ChatGPT itself is capable of remarkably detailed conversations, but the advertising creative currently available is much closer to a conventional digital advert.

That will almost certainly evolve, but when assessing ChatGPT Ads for your business, base your decision on what is available today.

How Does ChatGPT Decide Which Ads To Show?

This is where ChatGPT advertising starts to become more interesting.

Google Ads has traditionally been heavily influenced by keywords. You identify searches relevant to your products and services and compete to appear when people make those searches.

ChatGPT can consider the context and intent of the conversation.

OpenAI says its advertising system can use signals including the current conversation, your advert's landing page, headline, and description, the context information supplied by the advertiser, and your targeting settings.

Where personalised advertising is enabled, selected signals from a user's broader ChatGPT experience can also contribute.

This means you need to think differently about how you create a ChatGPT advertising campaign.

Rather than building everything around a list of search terms, you need to think about the situations in which somebody might need your product or service.

What Are Context Hints In ChatGPT Ads?

At ad group level, you can give OpenAI context hints.

These describe the conversations, subjects, or keywords where your product or service may be relevant.

They are not the equivalent of Google Ads exact-match keywords. Adding a context hint does not guarantee your advert will appear whenever somebody mentions a particular phrase.

Instead, the hints give OpenAI's advertising system more information about when your advert might be useful.

For example, if you sell CRM software for manufacturing companies, your context hints might relate to businesses:

• Struggling to keep track of sales opportunities
• Looking to replace spreadsheets with a CRM
• Comparing CRM systems
• Trying to improve sales forecasting
• Looking to integrate marketing and sales data

The quality of these context hints could become an important part of successful ChatGPT advertising.

It also means understanding your ideal customer is particularly valuable. You need to know the problems they experience, the questions they ask, and the situations that cause them to start looking for help.

Does ChatGPT Use What It Knows About Users To Target Ads?

This is one of the most important questions about ChatGPT advertising.

The current conversation can be used to determine whether an advert is relevant.

Where personalised ads are enabled, OpenAI says its advertising systems can also consider selected signals from past conversations, memory, and previous interactions with advertising.

There is an important privacy distinction, however.

Advertisers do not get access to people's ChatGPT conversations. OpenAI says advertisers are not given users' chats, chat history, memories, names, email addresses, precise locations, or sensitive personal information.

You therefore don't get a report showing what someone told ChatGPT before clicking your advert.

OpenAI uses signals within its own systems to decide which adverts could be relevant.

That difference is important both for privacy and for understanding how the advertising platform works.

What Targeting Options Do You Have With ChatGPT Ads?

Targeting is one of the areas where ChatGPT Ads is developing quickly.

At campaign level, you can select countries and, where supported, more detailed geographical locations. You can also choose which ChatGPT platforms you want to target, including web, iOS, and Android.

At ad group level, context hints help OpenAI understand the types of conversations where your advert may be relevant.

You can also create custom audiences using customer or prospect data and include or exclude those audiences from campaigns.

However, ChatGPT Ads does not currently give advertisers the depth of targeting and campaign controls you may be familiar with from established advertising platforms.

For a UK SME accustomed to highly developed Google Ads campaigns, this is likely to be one of the biggest adjustments.

Can You Target An Uploaded List Of Prospects?

Yes, ChatGPT Ads supports custom audiences.

You can upload customer or prospect data such as email addresses and phone numbers and use those audiences within your advertising.

There are limitations to consider, particularly for smaller B2B businesses. Audience matching depends on OpenAI being able to match your data to eligible ChatGPT users, so uploading a database does not mean every person on it can be reached.

Audience size requirements can also make this approach less practical for an SME with a relatively small list of target companies or contacts.

This is why we would currently see uploaded audiences as one possible targeting method rather than the foundation of every ChatGPT advertising campaign.

How Are ChatGPT Ads Different From Google Ads?

There is some overlap, but the environment is very different.

Google Search Ads primarily reach someone as they search for something. ChatGPT Ads can reach someone while they are researching, discussing, and trying to understand something.

Consider a business owner who types this into Google:

digital marketing agency

Now compare that with someone telling ChatGPT:

"We're a £5m manufacturing company. Most of our enquiries come from referrals and Google Ads, but PPC costs keep increasing. We've got a salesperson and a decent website but no real marketing team. What should we do to generate more leads?"

For a marketing agency like JDR, the second example potentially tells you much more.

You can see the size and type of business, their current marketing, their problem, their resources, and what they are trying to achieve.

This contextual understanding is where we think the long-term potential of ChatGPT advertising lies.

However, Google Ads has had decades to develop.

It currently gives advertisers much more mature campaign management, targeting, reporting, optimisation, and forecasting tools. It also has enormous existing advertising inventory and established performance benchmarks.

ChatGPT Ads is still in beta.

So we would not currently view this as a straight choice between Google Ads and ChatGPT Ads.

How Much Do ChatGPT Ads Cost?

There are two questions to consider: how much you need to spend to run a campaign and how much individual clicks or impressions cost.

For UK advertisers using GBP, OpenAI currently sets a minimum daily campaign budget of £15.

That makes the initial barrier to testing the platform relatively low.

You can currently choose from three main objectives:

• Views, where you pay based on impressions.
• Clicks, where you pay for valid clicks.
• Conversions, where OpenAI optimises delivery towards a specified conversion event, with supported billing options based on clicks or impressions.

For CPC campaigns, advertisers set a maximum bid at ad group level.

OpenAI currently recommends starting with a maximum CPC bid of approximately $3 to $5, although this is guidance rather than an average price you should expect to pay.

Actual CPCs will vary according to your audience, competition, relevance, campaign settings, and the advertising market as it develops.

There is currently no reliable industry benchmark that says a typical UK ChatGPT Ads click costs £X.

In fact, OpenAI explicitly says that ChatGPT Ads does not yet have established performance benchmarks across industries, advertisers, and campaign types.

Treat anyone presenting definitive average ChatGPT CPCs or conversion rates with caution at this stage.

How Does The ChatGPT Ads Auction Work?

ChatGPT Ads uses an auction to decide which eligible advert to show.

OpenAI describes this as a relevance-weighted, second-price auction.

In practical terms, simply bidding more does not automatically guarantee that your advert will appear.

The advertising system considers relevance as well as the advertiser's bid.

This makes your landing page, advertising message, and context hints important. The more clearly OpenAI can understand what you offer, who it is relevant to, and why somebody might want it, the better chance the platform has of matching your advert with a suitable conversation.

Can You Track Leads And Sales From ChatGPT Ads?

Yes, and we strongly recommend setting this up before spending significant amounts on the platform.

ChatGPT Ads Manager currently reports metrics including:

• Impressions
• Clicks
• Spend
• Click-through rate
• Average CPC
• Average CPM
• Conversions

You can also add UTM tracking parameters to your landing page URLs so traffic can be identified within your existing analytics and CRM systems.

For us, the important numbers are further down the sales funnel.

A cheap click means very little if none of those visitors becomes a customer.

We want to know:

How many leads did the campaign generate?

Were they the right type of leads?

How many became genuine sales opportunities?

How many became customers?

How much revenue and profit did they generate?

That is how you should ultimately judge ChatGPT Ads.

Can You Connect ChatGPT Ads With HubSpot?

This is one of the developments that makes ChatGPT Ads particularly interesting to us at JDR.

HubSpot launched a ChatGPT Ads integration in September 2026.

You can connect your ChatGPT Ads account to HubSpot and see advertising performance alongside other channels such as Google and LinkedIn Ads.

HubSpot can automatically add tracking parameters to your ChatGPT advertising URLs, helping you identify contacts and deals generated from your campaigns.

More importantly, you can send conversion information from HubSpot back to ChatGPT.

For example, HubSpot can send a conversion signal when someone submits a particular form or reaches a specified lifecycle stage.

Imagine that 20 people click your ChatGPT advert.

Five fill in a form.

Two subsequently become qualified sales opportunities.

One eventually becomes a customer worth £20,000.

The further you can connect advertising activity with CRM and sales data, the more accurately you can assess the real commercial impact of the campaign.

It can also give the advertising platform better information about the outcomes you actually value.

For businesses already using HubSpot, this makes ChatGPT Ads considerably more interesting.

Do ChatGPT Ads Actually Work?

The answer at this stage is: we don't have enough evidence to make a universal judgement.

ChatGPT advertising is too new for reliable benchmarks across different industries.

OpenAI itself says performance will vary according to factors including campaign objectives, creative, landing page experience, relevance, and campaign setup.

Our interest in the platform comes partly from what we are already seeing from organic ChatGPT traffic.

Across websites we work with, visitors referred by ChatGPT can be highly engaged and can generate excellent-quality enquiries.

There is a logical explanation for this.

Someone may have spent several minutes discussing a problem with ChatGPT, researching their options and deciding what to do next before visiting a recommended website.

By the time they arrive, they may already be further through their buying journey than someone who has made a broad Google search and clicked on the first result.

That does not prove paid ChatGPT Ads traffic will behave in exactly the same way.

It does, however, give us a good reason to take the channel seriously and test it.

Why Are We Excited About ChatGPT Ads At JDR?

For years, Google Search Ads has had one enormous advantage over many other forms of advertising: intent.

If somebody searches for "accountants for manufacturing companies", you have a strong indication of what they want.

ChatGPT potentially takes that much further.

A conversation can tell ChatGPT what somebody wants, why they want it, what they have already tried, what concerns they have, and what they are comparing.

That creates the possibility of highly relevant advertising delivered at exactly the point where someone is researching a problem.

For SMEs, that could eventually create a valuable new source of leads alongside Google.

We also like the fact that it gives advertisers another option.

Many businesses have become extremely reliant on Google. If Google Ads generates 70% of your inbound leads, rising CPCs or a change in performance can have a major impact on your sales pipeline.

Developing additional channels makes your marketing more resilient.

ChatGPT Ads could become one of those channels.

What Are The Limitations Of ChatGPT Ads Today?

The vision is ahead of the current advertising product.

The interface and campaign options are relatively simple compared with Google Ads. Creative formats are limited, targeting controls are developing, and there isn't enough historical data to tell you confidently what a good CPC, CTR, or conversion rate should be for your industry.

There is also a limitation in who can see your ads because users on paid ChatGPT plans currently do not receive advertising.

The platform is in beta, which means features, delivery, and performance can change.

For these reasons, we would approach ChatGPT Ads as a channel to test, measure, and learn from, rather than moving a large proportion of an established advertising budget into it immediately.

What Can US Advertisers Do That UK Advertisers Can't?

The US advertising platform remains ahead of the UK in some areas because OpenAI launched its advertising tests there first.

For example, OpenAI's current documentation specifically lists US targeting at state, Designated Market Area, and ZIP code level. Geographic options elsewhere depend on what is supported within Ads Manager.

There are also differences around advertising personalisation and new features can initially be introduced to particular markets before being rolled out more widely.

The gap is changing quickly, though.

The important development for UK businesses is that you can now access the self-service advertising platform and start testing campaigns rather than waiting for a future launch.

Because ChatGPT Ads is developing rapidly, check the latest OpenAI documentation before making decisions based on individual features.

Which Businesses Could Benefit Most From ChatGPT Ads?

We think the platform is particularly interesting when your potential customer spends time researching before making a decision.

That could include B2B services, software and technology companies, manufacturers, professional services firms, and businesses selling higher-value products or services.

It may also be worth testing if you already spend significantly on Google Ads and want to diversify your lead sources, or if your analytics show that organic ChatGPT visitors are already generating enquiries.

The common factor is a buying process where people ask questions.

If potential customers want to understand costs, compare alternatives, research different approaches, and learn before contacting a supplier, ChatGPT is increasingly likely to play a role in that journey.

When Might ChatGPT Ads Be A Poor Fit?

ChatGPT Ads will not suit every business.

If you need a large and predictable volume of leads immediately, an established channel may currently be a safer place for the majority of your advertising budget.

Very low-value products can also be challenging if CPCs make the economics difficult.

Businesses serving a tiny local area should check whether the geographic targeting available gives them sufficient control before investing heavily.

You should also look at what happens after somebody clicks.

Sending highly relevant ChatGPT users to a slow, outdated, or unconvincing website is unlikely to produce good results.

You need a clear proposition, useful content, strong landing pages, effective calls to action, accurate conversion tracking, and a sales process that follows up leads properly.

Advertising can generate opportunities. The rest of your marketing and sales system still has to convert them.

Should You Move Money From Google Ads Into ChatGPT Ads?

For most SMEs, we would not recommend making a wholesale switch at this stage.

If Google Ads is generating profitable enquiries and sales, continue using it.

Instead, consider whether ChatGPT Ads deserves a controlled test within your wider marketing budget.

Start with a clear offer and audience. Create several advertising variations. Set up conversion tracking properly. Run the campaign for long enough to gather meaningful data.

Then compare the results with your other channels.

Look beyond CPC.

A £2 click that produces poor enquiries can be more expensive than a £10 click that regularly generates profitable customers.

What matters is the eventual commercial result.

Where Do ChatGPT Ads Fit Into Your Wider Marketing Strategy?

One of the mistakes we regularly see businesses make is becoming overly dependent on one marketing channel.

Google Ads can be extremely effective, but it works better as part of a wider system.

At JDR, our approach is based around six areas:

1. Strategy and planning
2. Consistent content creation
3. Building website traffic
4. Turning visitors into leads
5. Converting leads into sales
6. Delivering, delighting and growing customers

ChatGPT Ads can contribute to step three by bringing relevant people to your website.

But you still need the other five.

You need to understand who you want to reach. You need content which answers their questions. You need a website capable of turning visitors into leads. You need CRM and follow-up systems to convert those leads into sales.

And you need measurement throughout the process so you can see which marketing activities are contributing to revenue.

That is why we would look at ChatGPT Ads as another tool within a multi-channel marketing strategy, rather than a marketing strategy in itself.

ChatGPT Ads Vs Organic ChatGPT Visibility: Which Matters More?

You should work on both.

Organic ChatGPT visibility gives you the opportunity to be cited or recommended directly within AI-generated answers.

ChatGPT Ads give you another opportunity to reach relevant users through paid placements.

One does not buy the other.

The work you do to improve your website, publish genuinely useful content, answer customer questions, and build your online authority can help you become more visible through search engines and AI tools.

Advertising then gives you an additional way to increase your reach.

As more people use AI as part of researching products, services, and suppliers, we expect both areas to become increasingly important parts of digital marketing.

What Is Our View Of ChatGPT Ads?

We think ChatGPT Ads have significant potential.

The ability to advertise based on the context of a conversation could eventually give advertisers a level of understanding about intent that conventional advertising platforms struggle to match.

We are also encouraged by the quality of the organic ChatGPT traffic we are already seeing across our client base.

But the advertising platform available today is still at an early stage.

The creative formats are simple. Advertiser controls are limited compared with Google Ads. There are no mature performance benchmarks. And some of the capabilities that make the concept so exciting have yet to translate into sophisticated tools for advertisers.

Our approach is therefore to test it.

If you already invest in digital advertising, have good conversion tracking, and want to develop additional sources of leads, ChatGPT Ads is worth considering.

Run a controlled campaign, measure what happens, and compare the quality and cost of the resulting opportunities with your existing marketing channels.

Over time, we expect the platform to become considerably more sophisticated.

The businesses that start learning how it works now will have their own data and experience to draw on as that happens.

Frequently Asked Questions About ChatGPT Ads

Can UK businesses advertise on ChatGPT?

Yes. OpenAI's Ads Manager is now available to UK advertisers. You can create an advertising account, set up campaigns, and target eligible ChatGPT users.

Where do ChatGPT Ads appear?

Ads can appear underneath ChatGPT responses. They are visually separated from the answer and clearly labelled as sponsored advertising.

Who sees ChatGPT Ads?

Ads can currently be shown to eligible users on ChatGPT Free and Go plans. Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise, and Edu users do not currently receive advertising. OpenAI also excludes accounts identified as belonging to users under 18.

What is the minimum budget for ChatGPT Ads in the UK?

The current minimum daily campaign budget for GBP advertising accounts is £15.

How much does a ChatGPT Ad click cost?

There is no standard CPC. Advertisers set maximum bids and actual costs depend on the advertising auction and competition. OpenAI currently suggests an initial maximum CPC bid of around $3 to $5 for CPC campaigns, but this is guidance rather than an average CPC.

Can you target keywords with ChatGPT Ads?

ChatGPT Ads does not work in exactly the same way as keyword-based Google Search campaigns. Advertisers can provide context hints covering relevant topics, conversations, and keywords, but these do not operate as exact-match keywords.

Can ChatGPT use conversations to decide which ads to show?

Yes. OpenAI says the context and intent of the current conversation can contribute to ad selection. Where advertising personalisation is available and enabled, selected signals from a user's broader ChatGPT experience may also be considered.

Can advertisers read your ChatGPT conversations?

No. OpenAI says advertisers do not receive your chats, chat history, or memories. Advertisers receive advertising performance data rather than access to individual conversations.

Can you upload customer lists to ChatGPT Ads?

Yes. ChatGPT Ads supports custom audiences which can use customer or prospect data for audience inclusion or exclusion, subject to OpenAI's requirements and matching.

Does paying for ChatGPT Ads make ChatGPT recommend your company?

No. Advertising does not influence ChatGPT's answers. Paid ads and organic ChatGPT answers operate separately.

Does ChatGPT Ads integrate with HubSpot?

Yes. HubSpot introduced a ChatGPT Ads integration in 2026. You can connect your advertising account, track campaign performance, attribute contacts and deals, and send supported conversion events from HubSpot back to ChatGPT.

Can you track sales from ChatGPT Ads?

Yes, provided your tracking and CRM are configured correctly. Use UTMs, conversion tracking, and CRM attribution to follow users from the initial advertising click through to leads, opportunities and customers.

Are ChatGPT Ads better than Google Ads?

They are different advertising channels at very different stages of maturity. Google Ads currently offers considerably more established targeting, optimisation, reporting, and scale. ChatGPT Ads offers an interesting new opportunity to reach people within AI conversations. Test performance against your own commercial goals rather than assuming one channel will automatically outperform the other.

Should you replace Google Ads with ChatGPT Ads?

For most SMEs, we would currently recommend testing ChatGPT Ads alongside established marketing channels rather than replacing a profitable Google Ads campaign.

Want To Test New Ways Of Generating Leads?

ChatGPT Ads is one of many changes taking place in digital marketing as AI changes how people research products, services, and potential suppliers.

The opportunity for your business is bigger than one advertising platform.

You need to understand how your customers' behaviour is changing, decide which marketing channels give you the best opportunity to reach them, and connect those channels into a marketing and sales system that generates measurable growth.

At JDR Group, we work with SMEs to develop and manage complete digital marketing programmes covering strategy, websites, content, SEO, paid advertising, email marketing, CRM, HubSpot, and sales conversion.

If you want to generate more leads and sales while reducing your reliance on a single marketing channel, speak to our team about your current marketing and where your next opportunities could come from.