What you need to know before you set up OpenAI Ads

OpenAI’s Ads beta lets brands run ads directly inside ChatGPT, and right now it’s genuinely uncrowded, with minimal competition, generous reach, and none of the auction inflation you’d see on an established platform. We’ve been running campaigns on it since the US launch and have recently taken several UK clients through their first setup.

It’s worth mentioning that the platform is developing at a pace that we haven’t seen before, with small changes happening on a daily basis, rather than big release updates. This unpredictability shows how fast the industry is changing and why constant monitoring is essential—we’ll keep you as up to date as we can.

What does it actually take to get OpenAI Ads going?

Four things, before any campaign work starts:

• 1. A verified account
  Set up with your Companies House details. Verification goes through a review with OpenAI and can take a few days.
• 2. Conversion tracking in place
  More on what this actually involves below.
• 3. One square creative
  Ideally 1080 × 1080px (the platform’s floor is 256 × 256px, but resolution noticeably affects how ads perform).
• 4. Minimum spend commitment
  £15/day (~£450/month), paid directly to OpenAI.

None of this is a heavy lift on its own. The bigger question is usually the trade-off below.

How does conversion tracking work, and what’s the catch?

Tracking runs as a two-part setup: a measurement pixel across the site plus a specific event fired on whatever you count as a conversion (a purchase, a sign-up, an enquiry).

A server-side version of the same event can also run alongside it, which makes attribution more reliable and less dependent on a visitor’s browser and ad-blocker settings.

What if you’re an ecommerce brand?

Product feeds follow the same specification as Google Shopping, so if you already run one, most of the groundwork (product ID, title, price, availability, image) transfers directly rather than being built from scratch. That makes ecommerce a comparatively light lift to get listed, even though the platform itself is early.

How should you think about bidding?

OpenAI doesn’t publish its own benchmark data yet, so the honest starting point is borrowing from a comparable platform and adjusting from there.

CPM benchmarks for Reach campaigns (£)

CPC benchmarks for Clicks campaigns (£)

Reference: P90 = 90th percentile (90% of observed data points). P10 = 10th percentile (10% of observed data points). P10 is the efficient best case and P90 is the worst-case ceiling to budget against.

For Clicks campaigns, the platform auto-recommends a CPC that’s worth trusting rather than underbidding. For Reach campaigns, there’s no recommendation yet, so the Meta median (£10.00 CPM) is a reasonable starting proxy for a new conversational platform, adjusted from actual delivery within the first few days.

What does a strong campaign structure look like?

The mechanics are less familiar than Google or Meta, but the underlying discipline isn’t:

• 1. Split by intent, not product line
  Each ad group should represent one distinct audience angle, with tight, consistent messaging.
• 2. Describe the conversation, not just the keywords
  OpenAI Ads matches against the topics and conversations your audience is actually having, so the input should read like natural language, not a keyword list.
• 3. Angle-specific messaging
  Give each headline and description its own angle, whether that’s location, methodology, or product, pulled straight from the language already on your landing page, so there’s no gap between the ad and where it lands.
• 4. Destination & attribution tagging
  Send every ad to the most relevant page, not the homepage by default, and tag consistently (utm_source=chatgpt) so performance is attributable back to the exact variant in GA4.
• 5. Keep creative simple
  One square image per ad, logo and brand colours present, on-image copy kept minimal, since the headline and description are already carrying the message.

What can’t OpenAI Ads do yet?

Worth knowing before you commit budget:

• No audience targeting: Whether demographic, interest, or remarketing.
• No video ad format: Static image assets only for now.
• One image per ad: With no carousel or multi-image option available.
• No responsive or auto-generated ad format: Everything relies on manual asset upload.

How do you create your account?

1. Go to ads.openai.com and sign up using your Companies House details.
2. Complete the verification steps the platform asks for.
3. Your application goes into review with OpenAI. Approval isn’t instant—expect it to take a few days, and OpenAI will email you once it clears.

Who should have access once you’re approved?

Once approved, go to Settings > Team and add whoever will actually be running campaigns as Admin, whether that’s someone in-house or an agency partner. Most brands do this the moment approval lands, since tracking and campaign setup both assume that access is already in place.