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How to Run Ads on ChatGPT: A Complete Guide

By | Published September 4, 2026 | Updated September 4, 2026 | 21 min read

Analytics dashboard on a laptop screen used to represent evidence-led software evaluation
Free browser-based audio. No tracking or paid API required.

If you want to advertise on ChatGPT, the practical question is simple: where exactly do you start? OpenAI provides Ads Manager Beta at ads.openai.com for campaign creation and management. This guide focuses on the step-by-step setup process that takes you from zero to a live campaign. You’ll learn account setup, campaign creation, budget configuration, targeting, ad group structure, context hints, creative development, conversion tracking, launch, performance monitoring, and optimization. Whether you’re a first-time advertiser or an experienced PPC professional, this guide covers the tactical workflow for running ads inside ChatGPT. For broader context about how ChatGPT advertising works and why OpenAI introduced the feature, see our complete guide to ChatGPT Ads.

Before You Run Your First ChatGPT Ad

Before opening Ads Manager, make sure you have the foundations in place. Having these items ready will speed up your campaign launch significantly.

Is ChatGPT Ads Manager Available to You?

Ads Manager availability varies by market and account. The safest approach is to visit ads.openai.com directly to check whether advertising access is available for your business country and currency. OpenAI continues to expand self-serve access, but some regions or verticals may still have limited availability. If access is not yet available in your market, you can check for updates or contact OpenAI’s advertising team.

What Do You Need Before Creating a Campaign?

Use this checklist to organize your preparation:

How Much Budget Do You Need to Start?

OpenAI sets minimum daily budgets by billing currency. Current minimums include INR ₹725, USD $25, EUR €15, and GBP £15. Minimums vary by currency, so check your account settings for your specific threshold. The minimum budget requirement is not the same as a recommended budget. A small business testing ChatGPT advertising might start with the minimum daily budget to monitor delivery and performance before committing larger spend, while established advertisers often allocate higher budgets to gather meaningful performance data within a shorter timeframe.

Step 1: Create Your ChatGPT Ads Manager Account

All campaign creation and management happens in OpenAI Ads Manager Beta. This is where you’ll spend most of your time as an advertiser.

Sign In or Create an OpenAI Account

Navigate to ads.openai.com. You’ll need an OpenAI account to access Ads Manager. If you don’t have one, you can create it during the Ads Manager sign-up flow. Use a work email rather than a personal email, as this account will be the basis for your advertiser record.

Add Your Business Information

During account setup, you’ll provide basic business details. OpenAI requires:

You’ll also upload a brand logo that appears in your ads as a favicon. Select these details carefully because some cannot be edited after account creation. The logo should be a standard image format and appear recognizable at small scale.

Complete Advertiser Verification

After you submit your business information, OpenAI reviews your account application. The verification process includes answering questions about your business to confirm you meet their Ads Policies. OpenAI’s team reviews applications in a rolling queue, so verification may take some time. Check the email address you used to create the account for notification once your application is approved and full platform access is granted.

Set Up Billing and Payment

Before any campaigns can deliver, billing and payment must be fully configured. This involves two steps: creating a billing profile and adding a payment method.

For the billing profile, enter your business name, billing address, and the email address where you want invoices sent. The invoice email is separate from your account login and is used for finance-related communications.

For the payment method, add a credit card and its associated billing address. OpenAI supports major credit cards. Ensure your billing information is accurate and current.

Add Team Members If Needed

The account owner can invite additional team members to Ads Manager after account creation. This is useful for agencies, larger marketing teams, or businesses that want multiple people managing campaigns. Each person invited receives access based on their role.

Step 2: Create Your First ChatGPT Ad Campaign

Your campaign structure follows a three-level hierarchy. A campaign is your top level, containing one or more ad groups. Ad groups contain your actual ads. This structure allows you to organize your advertising around distinct business goals and messaging themes.

Campaign = overall business goal and budget
Ad group = specific theme, intent, or messaging area within that campaign
Ad = the creative shown to ChatGPT users

Name Your Campaign

Use a naming convention that makes reporting and management clear. A strong naming structure might be:

US_SaaS_FreeTrial_oCPC

This tells you the region (US), the product category (SaaS), the business goal (free trial signups), and the bidding strategy (oCPC). Clear naming becomes increasingly valuable as you manage multiple campaigns over time, making filtering and performance review much faster.

Choose Your Campaign Objective

Your campaign objective determines how you pay for ads and what the delivery system optimizes toward. You have three options:

CPM (Cost Per 1,000 Impressions): You pay per 1,000 impressions delivered. This objective is designed for reach and awareness. The system optimizes for broad delivery at scale rather than specific user actions.

CPC (Cost Per Click): You pay per valid click to your landing page. This objective is designed for engagement and traffic. The system optimizes for clicks from users likely to engage rather than just impressions.

oCPC (Conversion-Optimized Cost Per Click): You pay per valid click, not per conversion. This objective is designed for downstream actions after a click, such as purchases or signups. Important: oCPC is not pay-per-conversion. You still pay per click, but delivery is optimized toward users more likely to complete your conversion goal. This requires setting up conversion tracking before launch.

Choose your objective based on what outcome matters most to your business. Starting with too broad an objective (like CPM) when you actually care about conversions wastes budget. Starting with oCPC when you haven’t set up conversion tracking wastes the targeting advantage of that objective.

Choose a Conversion Event

If you selected oCPC or another conversion-focused objective, you must define your conversion event. This is the action you want to optimize toward. Examples include purchases, lead form submissions, trial signups, or account creation. You’ll configure the actual tracking mechanism later, but you must name and define the conversion goal now.

Set Your Campaign Budget

Choose between a campaign-total budget or a daily budget. Both control spending, but differently.

Campaign-total budget: Set the total amount you want to spend over the full campaign duration. This is the stricter control for total spending. If your campaign runs for 30 days and you set a $3,000 campaign-total budget, you can’t exceed $3,000 across the entire 30-day period.

Daily budget: Set the average daily spend you want over a seven-day rolling period. Actual daily spend will fluctuate above or below your selected amount on individual days. Daily spend will not exceed twice your daily budget on any single day. Spend over the applicable seven-day period will not exceed seven times your daily budget. This is a delivery target rather than a hard cap.

For new advertisers, OpenAI recommends starting with a daily budget. This lets you monitor early delivery and performance before committing to a fixed campaign-total budget. Daily budgets are also more flexible if you want to start small and increase spend as performance data accumulates.

Choose Start and End Dates

Set the dates during which your campaign is eligible to run. Give campaigns enough time to gain traction and gather meaningful performance data. Consider seasonality (promotional periods, holidays, new product launches) when setting dates.

Choose Your Target Locations

ChatGPT Ads Manager supports campaign-level country targeting. In the United States, you can also target specific states, designated market areas (DMAs), and ZIP codes where available. Location availability varies by country. During campaign setup, search for locations in the location picker to confirm what’s currently supported in your markets.

Choose Your Platforms

You can optionally select which ChatGPT surfaces your ads appear on. Supported platforms include:

If you don’t specify platform preferences, your ads can run across all available surfaces. If you do select platforms, your budget is allocated only to those surfaces. Platform targeting is optional, but it’s useful if you want to test performance on specific devices or if your landing page doesn’t work well on mobile.

Add or Exclude Custom Audiences

Custom audiences allow you to include or exclude specific audiences from your campaign. Use custom audiences when you want to target users you’ve already identified or exclude audiences you don’t want to reach. OpenAI documentation guides you through custom audience setup during campaign configuration.

Step 3: Build Your Ad Group

Ad groups organize your ads around a specific theme, intent area, or value proposition. A campaign might contain several ad groups, each focusing on a different use case or messaging approach.

Example:

Campaign: Project Management Software
Ad Group 1: Remote Team Management
Ad Group 2: Project Planning
Ad Group 3: Client Collaboration

This structure lets you test whether your audience responds better to different messaging angles, all within the same campaign budget.

Give Your Ad Group a Clear Name

Name your ad groups descriptively so you know what each one represents. “Remote Team Management” is more useful than “Ad Group 1.” Clear naming helps you quickly identify which ad groups are performing well and which need optimization.

Add Context Hints

Context hints are not traditional keywords. Think of them as broad thematic signals describing the types of conversations, needs, and situations where your product or service is relevant.

OpenAI’s documentation emphasizes that context hints guide matching, but they are not exact-match targeting rules. Users will not see your ad simply because they used an exact phrase.

Good context hints are specific enough to describe a real user need, but broad enough to account for natural language variation. Compare:

Poor: “project management”

Better: “Project management software for remote teams coordinating tasks, deadlines, and client projects.”

The better version describes a real scenario and the user need, not just a keyword. Write context hints that answer: “In what situations, for what users, with what needs is this product relevant?” rather than just listing keywords.

You might include multiple context hints in a single ad group. These hints help ChatGPT understand when your ads are relevant to conversations taking place in the platform.

Set Your Bid

For CPC campaigns, you set a maximum CPC bid at the ad-group level. This is the maximum amount you’re willing to bid for a click.

For oCPC campaigns, you set a Bid Cap at the ad-group level. The Bid Cap is the maximum amount you’re willing to bid for a conversion. ChatGPT Ads uses predicted conversion likelihood to determine the per-click auction bid while optimizing toward your selected conversion event. You’re still billed for valid clicks, and your actual CPC is determined by the auction.

OpenAI currently does not provide a recommended bid amount for oCPC campaigns, so monitor delivery and conversion performance and adjust your Bid Cap based on your campaign results.

Step 4: Create Your ChatGPT Ad

Now build the creative that users will see. Each ad consists of several elements.

Choose Your Ad Creative

Each ad includes a title, description copy, image, and landing page URL. These elements work together to communicate your offer and send users to the right destination.

Write Your Ad Title

Your title should communicate one clear benefit or value proposition. OpenAI recommends keeping titles concise. The title is the first thing users see, so make it specific and relevant to the value you’re offering.

Weak: “New Software Tool”

Strong: “Manage All Projects”

The stronger version immediately tells users what the ad is about.

Write Your Ad Copy

Your description should expand on the title and communicate a key benefit or reason to click. Avoid repeating your title. Use specific language rather than generic marketing phrases. Keep the message easy to understand.

Example:

Title: “Manage All Projects”
Copy: “Coordinate tasks, deadlines, and team collaboration in one place.”

The copy adds detail and benefit beyond the title.

Add Your Image

Include an image that visually represents your product, service, or value proposition. OpenAI documentation recommends using product or lifestyle photography rather than logos. The image appears alongside your title and copy in the ad unit.

Add Your Landing Page

The landing page is critical. Users click your ad expecting to find what your ad promised. A mismatch between ad message and landing page destination increases bounces and wastes budget.

If your ad is about “Free Trial Signups,” send users to a dedicated free trial landing page, not your homepage. If your ad emphasizes a specific product feature, send users to a page explaining that feature.

Ensure your landing page is accessible and loads quickly. OpenAI’s system crawls landing pages, so they must be publicly accessible, not behind login walls.

Create Multiple Ad Variations

Build several ads within the same ad group to test different messaging approaches. Don’t create nearly identical ads. Instead, test different angles:

Benefit-led: Emphasizes what users will gain
Problem-led: Emphasizes a problem your product solves
Price-led: Emphasizes affordability or value
Feature-led: Emphasizes a specific capability
Outcome-led: Emphasizes the end result

Testing different angles helps you identify which messaging resonates with ChatGPT users and drives better performance.

Step 5: Set Up Conversion Tracking

Conversion tracking is essential if you’re running oCPC campaigns or want to measure whether your ads drive business outcomes.

Decide What Counts as a Conversion

Define your conversion event specifically. Examples:

Be specific. “Signup” is clearer than “action.” This definition determines what data OpenAI collects and optimizes toward.

Set Up Conversion Measurement

OpenAI supports conversion tracking through two mechanisms: the OpenAI Pixel (JavaScript-based tracking on your website) and the Conversions API (server-to-server tracking).

The OpenAI Pixel is a JavaScript snippet you add to your website. It tracks when users visit certain pages, complete purchases, submit forms, or trigger other defined events. The pixel captures a privacy-preserving identifier and stores it in a first-party cookie, allowing it to recognize return visitors.

The Conversions API sends conversion data directly from your server to OpenAI, bypassing the browser. This approach is not affected by ad blockers or browser cookie restrictions.

OpenAI documentation guides you through implementation for both approaches. You can use one or both simultaneously if you’re careful to avoid double-counting conversions.

Add UTM Parameters

Add UTM parameters to your ad links so you can track ChatGPT Ads traffic in your existing analytics platform (like Google Analytics 4).

Use a simple structure:

utm_source=chatgpt
utm_medium=paid
utm_campaign=campaign-name

This way, traffic from ChatGPT Ads is clearly identified in your analytics, and you can analyze performance beyond what OpenAI’s platform reports.

Step 6: Review Your Campaign Before Launch

Before you submit your campaign for approval, walk through this checklist:

Campaign:

Ad group:

Ad:

Tracking:

This checklist prevents common mistakes that lead to campaigns not serving or poor performance.

Step 7: Submit and Launch Your ChatGPT Ads

Once your campaign is configured, you submit it for review. OpenAI’s team reviews campaigns to ensure they comply with Ads Policies. Your account contact email receives a notification once your campaign and ads are approved.

Do not expect a specific approval timeframe. OpenAI processes applications in a rolling queue. Campaigns are typically approved quickly if they clearly comply with policy, but policy review can take time.

After approval, your campaign begins serving if all conditions are met: verification is complete, billing is active, the campaign start date has arrived, and the campaign end date hasn’t passed.

If your campaign is approved but not serving, check the campaign status in Ads Manager. If you see “Not serving,” hover over the status to view the specific reason. Common reasons include incomplete verification, billing issues, or missing account information.

Step 8: Monitor Your ChatGPT Ad Performance

After launch, track these key metrics:

Impressions: The number of times your ad was shown. Higher impressions indicate good reach, but impressions alone don’t indicate results.

Clicks: The number of valid clicks to your landing page. This is the starting point for traffic and conversions.

Spend: How much budget you’ve used. This should match or stay slightly below your daily budget target.

CTR (Click-Through Rate): Clicks divided by impressions. Low CTR typically indicates a creative or messaging issue.

CPC (Cost Per Click): Average spend divided by clicks. This shows how much each click costs, useful for comparing to your profit margins.

CPM (Cost Per 1,000 Impressions): A standard metric for comparing efficiency across campaigns and platforms.

Conversions: If conversion tracking is set up, the number of conversions attributed to your ads. This is the most important metric for performance-focused campaigns.

ROAS (Return on Ad Spend): Revenue generated divided by ad spend. This requires connected revenue tracking and is useful for ecommerce and high-margin products.

How to Read Your First Results

High impressions but low clicks and CTR: This typically indicates a creative or message problem. The ad isn’t compelling enough to drive clicks. Test different ad copy or creative approaches.

Good clicks but few conversions: This suggests the landing page, offer, or conversion tracking setup needs attention. Users are clicking but not completing the desired action.

Very low impressions: Check campaign status, dates, budget, review status, verification status, and targeting. Low delivery often stems from technical or account issues rather than poor creative.

Strong conversion performance in early days: Identify which ad variations, ad groups, or targeting combinations are performing best before scaling spend.

How to Optimize ChatGPT Ads

Improve Your Context Hints

Make context hints more representative of real user needs. If your early performance is poor, refine your context hints to be more specific about the situations and needs your product addresses.

Test Different Ad Messages

Run multiple ads testing different benefit angles. Measure which messages drive better CTR and conversion rates, then allocate more budget to winning variations.

Separate Different Intent Themes

If one ad group contains vastly different use cases or products, split it into separate ad groups with more targeted messaging and context hints.

Improve the Landing Page

The complete path is: user intent in ChatGPT, context hints in your ad group, ad message, landing page experience, and finally conversion. If the landing page doesn’t clearly deliver on the ad promise, conversions will suffer. Test landing page copy, design, and offer.

Adjust Your Bids Carefully

Base bid changes on actual delivery and performance data, not guesswork. If you’re getting few impressions despite budget availability, you may need to increase your bid to win more auction space. If you’re getting plenty of impressions but poor conversion performance, bid changes won’t help, the issue is creative or landing page quality.

Scale Winning Campaigns Gradually

When you identify a campaign performing well, increase budget incrementally and monitor whether performance maintains. Aggressive budget increases can sometimes lower efficiency as you reach less-qualified audience segments.

Why Your ChatGPT Ads May Not Be Serving

If your campaign isn’t delivering, use this troubleshooting checklist:

Account Verification Is Incomplete: Check the Ads Manager dashboard. If you see a banner prompting verification completion, finish the verification process. Campaigns won’t serve until verification is done.

Billing or Payment Setup Is Incomplete: Navigate to Settings and confirm that your billing profile and payment method are fully configured. Campaigns require active billing to serve.

Campaign or Ads Are Not Active: Confirm that your campaign status shows “Active” and that individual ads show “Approved and Serving” (or similar). If an ad shows “Not serving,” hover over the status to see the specific reason.

Campaign Dates Are Incorrect: Ensure your campaign start date hasn’t passed and your end date hasn’t arrived yet. A campaign scheduled to start next month won’t serve today.

Ads Are Still Under Review: OpenAI may still be reviewing your campaign. Check your email for approval notification. You can monitor review status in the Ads Manager dashboard.

Budget or Targeting Is Limiting Delivery: If you’ve set very narrow targeting (few countries, limited platforms, high bid requirements), available inventory might be scarce. Broaden targeting incrementally while monitoring performance.

How to Run ChatGPT Ads at Scale

Once you’ve validated that ChatGPT advertising works for your business, scaling becomes about volume and optimization.

Use Multiple Ad Groups

Separate meaningful intent differences into different ad groups. This allows each ad group to optimize independently with its own targeting and bid strategy.

Create Multiple Ad Variations

More ad variations give the system more data about which messages work. Test systematically rather than creating random variations.

Use Bulk Campaign Upload When Appropriate

For advanced users managing many campaigns, OpenAI supports bulk campaign upload. This allows you to configure campaigns in a structured format and upload them at scale rather than creating them individually in the interface.

Consider Product Feed Campaigns for Relevant Businesses

Ecommerce and catalog-based businesses may benefit from product feed integration, allowing dynamic ads generated from your product catalog. Check OpenAI documentation for product feed support and setup requirements for your business type.

Real-World ChatGPT Ads Campaign Example

Here’s a realistic hypothetical campaign to illustrate the pieces working together:

Business: Project management SaaS
Goal: Free-trial signups

Campaign Name: ProjectMgmt_FreeTrialUS_oCPC
Campaign Objective: oCPC
Conversion Event: Trial_Signup
Budget: $50 daily
Locations: United States
Platforms: All

Ad Group 1: Remote_Team_Management
Context Hints: “Project management software for remote teams managing tasks, deadlines, and collaboration across time zones”
Bid Cap: Set according to your campaign economics and conversion goals

Ad 1 Title: “Manage Remote Teams”
Ad 1 Copy: “Organize tasks and deadlines across distributed teams.”
Ad 1 Landing Page: /free-trial-remote-teams

Ad 2 Title: “Collaboration Simplified”
Ad 2 Copy: “Keep everyone on the same page without constant meetings.”

The campaign structure separates intent (remote team management), targets the right audience, provides specific context hints that describe a real scenario, and sends users to a landing page that matches the ad message. The oCPC objective optimizes delivery toward users more likely to complete the trial signup.

This isn’t an official OpenAI example. It’s a hypothetical campaign structure that demonstrates how the platform pieces work together.

ChatGPT Ads Campaign Checklist

Before launch:

After launch:

Read More: OpenAI Astra: Features, Capabilities & What We Know So Far

Final Verdict

ChatGPT advertising makes sense when several conditions are true: you have a clear conversion goal or business objective, your products or services benefit from contextual discovery inside ChatGPT conversations, you can measure outcomes, your target market is available in supported countries, and you have budget available for controlled experimentation.

Start cautiously when your account is brand new, you have limited conversion data from other channels, you haven’t tested your landing page thoroughly, or you’re unsure which user intent to target.

If you decide to test ChatGPT advertising, follow this path:

  1. Check Ads Manager availability at ads.openai.com
  2. Prepare your business information, website, and payment method
  3. Complete account setup and verification
  4. Create one focused campaign aligned with a clear business goal
  5. Start with a daily budget at or near the minimum for your currency
  6. Build focused ad groups with specific context hints
  7. Create multiple ad variations testing different messaging angles
  8. Configure conversion tracking before launch
  9. Submit and launch your campaign
  10. Monitor performance for at least one week before major optimization decisions
  11. Optimize based on actual performance data rather than assumptions

ChatGPT advertising is still early. The platform will continue to evolve, new features will launch, and performance data will accumulate. Starting small allows you to learn how ChatGPT users respond to your ads before committing larger budgets.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I run ads on ChatGPT?

Navigate to ads.openai.com, create an Ads Manager account, complete verification and billing setup, create a campaign with your objective and budget, add ad groups with context hints, create ads with title, copy, image, and landing page, configure conversion tracking if needed, submit for review, and launch once approved.

How do I advertise my business on ChatGPT?

Use OpenAI Ads Manager Beta at ads.openai.com. The platform supports self-serve campaign creation for eligible businesses in supported countries. Your business must be eligible under OpenAI’s Ads Policies and complete account verification.

Where do I create ChatGPT ad campaigns?

All ChatGPT ad campaign creation and management happens in OpenAI Ads Manager Beta at ads.openai.com. This is the only official platform for advertisers to create and manage ChatGPT ads.

How much does it cost to advertise on ChatGPT?

Costs depend on your objective. CPM campaigns charge per 1,000 impressions. CPC and oCPC campaigns charge per click. Minimum daily budgets vary by billing currency, with examples including USD $25, EUR €15, and INR ₹725. There’s no fixed cost; you control your budget.

What campaign objectives are available in ChatGPT Ads Manager?

OpenAI currently offers CPM (cost per 1,000 impressions, for reach and awareness), CPC (cost per click, for traffic and engagement), and oCPC (conversion-optimized cost per click, for conversion-focused campaigns). Choose based on your primary business goal.

What are context hints in ChatGPT Ads?

Context hints describe the conversations, topics, needs, and situations where your product or service is relevant. They are not exact keywords. Good context hints are specific enough to describe a real user need but broad enough to account for natural language variation in how users describe that need.

Can I target specific countries with ChatGPT Ads?

Yes. Campaign-level country targeting is supported. In the United States, you can also target states, DMAs, and ZIP codes where available. Search for locations in the campaign setup to confirm what’s supported in your markets.

Can I choose between web, iOS, and Android for ChatGPT Ads?

Yes. Platform targeting is optional. You can select iOS App, Android App, and Web (which includes desktop web and mobile web). If you don’t select platforms, ads can run on all available surfaces.

How do I track conversions from ChatGPT Ads?

Use either the OpenAI Pixel (JavaScript-based tracking) or the Conversions API (server-to-server tracking). Both require defining a conversion event during campaign setup. Also add UTM parameters to your landing page links to track traffic in your analytics platform.

Why are my ChatGPT ads not serving?

Ads typically don’t serve due to incomplete verification, inactive billing, campaign dates not matching today, ads still under review, or narrow targeting limiting available inventory. Check each of these in the Ads Manager dashboard. If an ad shows “Not serving,” hover over the status to see the specific reason.