Digital advertising is entering a new stage.
For years, businesses have relied on Google Ads, Meta Ads, YouTube, and other digital platforms to reach potential customers. Now, conversational artificial intelligence is creating another opportunity: advertising inside ChatGPT.
On August 20, 2026, the Elite Solutions Digital Marketing Agency team attended OpenAI’s webinar, The Decision Is the Opportunity: ChatGPT Ads, a New Way to Reach Customers. The presentation offered a closer look at how ChatGPT Ads work, how campaigns can reach relevant audiences, and why conversations may become an important part of the customer journey.
Our biggest takeaway was simple: ChatGPT Ads introduce a way to reach people while they are actively working through a decision.
That distinction could make this channel valuable for businesses that prepare early and approach it strategically.
ChatGPT Ads are sponsored placements that can appear below a ChatGPT response when an advertiser’s product or service is relevant to the conversation.
According to OpenAI’s explanation of its advertising program, ads are clearly labeled and visually separated from the organic response. The advertisement does not influence the answer ChatGPT provides.
The current ad format can include an advertiser name, logo, headline, description, image, and landing-page link. OpenAI says its system considers signals such as the user’s current conversational context and intent, the ad’s landing page and copy, advertiser-provided context hints, and selected broader signals when ad personalization is enabled.
This creates an advertising experience built around context. A person can explain a goal, describe a problem, compare options, and share the factors guiding a purchase. A relevant sponsored recommendation may then appear beneath the response.
Traditional search advertising often begins with a short phrase such as “best running shoes” or “accountant near me.” Social advertising often reaches people according to interests, behaviors, or demographics while they browse content.
ChatGPT conversations can reveal a more developed form of intent.
A user might ask:
Each prompt includes a goal and specific considerations. That context can help connect the user with an advertisement that fits the decision they are already making.
During the webinar, OpenAI presented data showing commerce-related ChatGPT activity across the full decision journey. Product discovery represented 31%, product comparison 22%, single-product evaluation 23%, purchase 13%, post-purchase activity 6%, and problem framing 5%.
The largest share occurred before the purchase. People were discovering, comparing, and evaluating. For marketers, that means the opportunity begins well before someone reaches a checkout page or submits a contact form.
One of the webinar’s core themes was relevance.
The same person can use ChatGPT for several unrelated journeys: planning a trip, researching a family vehicle, selecting software, or shopping for athletic gear. A useful advertisement must fit the current conversation instead of relying on a broad assumption about the user.
OpenAI describes context hints as topics, conversations, or keywords that help its system understand where an ad may be relevant. These hints differ from exact-match search keywords and do not guarantee that an ad will appear in a specific conversation.
This suggests that effective campaign strategy will require a clear understanding of:
Strong advertising has always required audience insight. Conversational advertising makes that insight even more important.
The webinar demonstrated several audience controls for ChatGPT Ads, including:
OpenAI has also confirmed that it has introduced geo-targeting and custom audiences as it develops the platform. Businesses using customer lists will need to follow applicable privacy requirements and OpenAI’s terms for first-party audience data.
For a local business, geographic controls may prove especially valuable. A Queens law firm, New York medical practice, Long Island event venue, or neighborhood retailer needs to reach people within the areas it serves. Campaign structure should reflect those real service boundaries.
OpenAI’s current Ads Manager Beta reporting includes impressions, clicks, spend, click-through rate, average cost per click, average CPM, and conversions. The platform supports conversion measurement through the OpenAI Pixel and Conversions API, while UTM parameters can help advertisers analyze traffic in their existing analytics tools.
OpenAI currently describes CPM and CPC buying options, along with expanding conversion-optimization capabilities. The company has also introduced an Advertiser API for programmatic campaign management and performance monitoring.
For businesses, the familiar lesson still applies: clicks alone do not define success.
A useful measurement plan should connect ad engagement to business outcomes such as:
Early campaigns should establish benchmarks instead of making assumptions based on Google Ads or Meta Ads performance. User behavior, competition, creative requirements, and costs may develop differently inside a conversational platform.
Privacy and trust were central topics during the webinar.
OpenAI states that advertisers cannot access a user’s chats, chat history, memories, or personal details. Advertisers receive aggregated campaign performance information. Users can also dismiss ads, provide feedback, learn why an ad appeared, and manage ad personalization.
The company says ads are excluded from accounts identified as belonging to people under 18 and from sensitive or regulated conversations involving areas such as health, mental health, or politics. OpenAI also says ads are placed near conversations considered appropriate for users and brands.
These safeguards matter because ChatGPT conversations can involve personal subjects. The long-term value of the platform depends heavily on maintaining a clear boundary between helpful answers and sponsored content.
ChatGPT Ads are developing quickly. OpenAI began its U.S. pilot in February 2026 and has continued expanding the program into additional markets, formats, targeting tools, and measurement options.
Businesses that want to explore this channel can begin preparing before committing a large budget.
Sales calls, emails, website searches, consultation notes, and customer-service conversations can reveal the prompts potential customers may use. Organize those questions by problem, use case, concern, and stage of the decision process.
An advertisement can earn attention, but the landing page must carry the decision forward. The page should clearly explain the offer, establish trust, answer common questions, load quickly, and make the next step easy.
Businesses interested in custom audiences should maintain accurate, consent-based customer and prospect data. Clean records and clear data practices will support better targeting while protecting customer trust.
Generic slogans may struggle in a high-context environment. Ads should connect a specific problem with a specific benefit. The message should feel useful at that moment and align closely with the destination page.
Tracking should be part of campaign setup. Define the actions that matter, confirm analytics are working, and establish a process for assessing lead quality and revenue.
Google Ads can capture direct search demand. Social advertising can build awareness and generate discovery. SEO can strengthen long-term visibility. ChatGPT Ads may add another point of contact during research, comparison, and evaluation.
The best mix will depend on the the audience, offer, budget, geography, and customer journey.
The webinar reinforced something our team sees across digital marketing: the closer a message is to the customer’s actual need, the more useful it becomes.
ChatGPT Ads could give businesses access to moments when customers are explaining what they want, weighing trade offs, and moving toward a choice. That creates exciting possibilities, along with a responsibility to make advertising relevant, transparent, and genuinely helpful.
The platform is still evolving, so early success will require careful testing. Businesses should enter with clear goals, accurate tracking, strong landing pages, responsible data practices, and a willingness to learn from performance.
Elite Solutions Digital Marketing Agency will continue following ChatGPT Ads as the platform develops. Our team is evaluating how this channel can complement Google Ads, social campaigns, SEO, and broader digital strategies for businesses ready to reach customers in new decision-making environments.
Want to prepare your business for the next stage of digital advertising? Contact Elite Solutions Digital Marketing Agency to discuss a strategy built around your goals, audience, and budget.
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Isa Martinez 
