ServicesChatGPT Ads

ChatGPT Ads

ChatGPT now shows ads to Australian users on its free and Go plans, and Australian businesses can buy them through OpenAI’s Ads Manager, which is still in beta. We help you decide whether a test makes sense, set up the account and tracking, and work on the separate job of getting your business named in ChatGPT’s actual answers.

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Paid placements and AI answer visibility, handled as two separate jobs.

CHATGPT ADS
Eligibility and policy check

Confirm your category can advertise.

Context hints and ad copy

Describe the conversations to appear in.

AI answer visibility

Make your business easy for ChatGPT to cite.

Beta platform · Features checked before each launch

What we can help with

What we do for ChatGPT, paid and organic

The ad product is new and changes often. We plan from what the live Ads Manager offers your account, not from launch announcements.

  • Advertiser eligibility and category-policy check
  • Ads Manager setup: campaigns, ad groups and budgets
  • Ad title, copy, image and context hints
  • Pixel or Conversions API tracking
  • Crawler access and page structure for ChatGPT search
  • Monthly review of paid results and AI mentions

ChatGPT Ads in practice

How ChatGPT ads work right now

OpenAI began testing ads in the United States early in 2026 and extended them to Australia, New Zealand and Canada in April. They are shown to logged-in adults on the free and Go plans, labelled as sponsored and kept apart from the answer; paid plans such as Plus and Pro don’t carry them. Each ad has a title, short copy, an image and a link. Instead of bidding on keywords, you write context hints that describe the conversations where the ad should appear, and campaigns can be bought on a cost-per-click or impression basis. The Ads Manager is still labelled beta, so treat this as a test channel.

An ad doesn’t change what ChatGPT says about you. That depends on the content, listings and signals covered in our AI SEO work.

Planning and implementation

Getting into the answers, not just beside them

When someone asks ChatGPT for “a reliable pest controller in Penrith” or “what a bathroom renovation costs in Sydney”, the answer can draw on web search results. To be named, your site needs to be reachable by OpenAI’s search crawler, OAI-SearchBot, which some security plugins and firewall rules block without the owner knowing. Pages also need to state plainly what you do, where, for whom and how pricing works, and your business should be described consistently on your Google Business Profile, directories and review sites. That work also helps in Google’s AI Overviews and other assistants, which is why we usually do it before spending on ChatGPT ads.

How much a new paid channel should get is a performance marketing decision, and the order of work belongs in your digital strategy.

How we work

A careful first test

01

Check fit and access

We confirm your business category is allowed under OpenAI’s ad policies and that the Ads Manager features you’d need are live for an Australian account.

02

Fix visibility, then build ads

Crawler access, service pages and business listings are sorted first. Then the ads and context hints are written and conversion tracking is installed.

03

Judge it against search

After a set test period, cost per enquiry from ChatGPT is compared with Google Ads, and we check how often your business is named in relevant AI answers.

Platform availability

The rules are still moving

Eligibility, formats and targeting have changed several times since launch and will keep changing. Before any setup we check OpenAI’s current advertising guidance and the live Ads Manager. OpenAI states that ads don’t influence ChatGPT’s answers and that advertisers can’t see users’ conversations.

Measurement and review

What to measure in a brand-new ad channel

Ads Manager reports impressions, clicks, spend and conversions once the pixel or Conversions API is in place. We send those conversions to the same lead records as your other channels, so ChatGPT enquiries can be compared with Google and Meta on cost per booked job.

Organic visibility is tracked on its own: a fixed set of prompts about your services and suburbs, checked regularly to see whether ChatGPT names you, links to your site or names a competitor instead.

Good questions

ChatGPT advertising questions

Answers based on what OpenAI has published so far.

Will paying for ads make ChatGPT recommend us?

No. OpenAI says ads are kept separate from answers and don't influence them. The ad appears as a labelled placement, while the answer itself comes from the model and any web sources it reads. Being named in the answer depends on your website, listings and wider reputation online, which is AI search optimisation work rather than ad spend. The two can run together, but they are measured separately.

Can Australian businesses run ChatGPT ads now?

Yes. Ads have been showing to Australian users on the free and Go plans since April 2026, and from May Australian advertisers could buy through OpenAI's beta self-serve Ads Manager as well as through partner agencies. Eligibility rules, formats and some category restrictions are still changing, so we check the live platform against your category before suggesting a test.

Is ChatGPT advertising right for a local service business?

Possibly later, rarely first. Location and audience controls are less developed than in Google Ads, so a suburban business risks paying for attention from people it can't serve. If Google Search and your Business Profile already bring in steady work, a small, contained test can show whether ChatGPT users enquire. If those channels aren't working yet, fix them first.

What does it cost to advertise in ChatGPT?

You set budgets and bids inside Ads Manager and can pay per click or per thousand impressions. Prices are still settling as more advertisers join, so we don't quote expected rates for a channel this new. Our service business budget guide explains how we size a test so it doesn't take money away from channels that already produce jobs.

What does the free audit check for AI visibility?

We test whether OpenAI's crawler can reach your site, run prompts about your services to see who ChatGPT names, and review your listings and service pages for the details AI answers draw on. If ads look worth testing, we note that too. Read the details of the free marketing audit.

Connected services

Work that feeds AI answers

01

SEO AI

Content and technical work that gets you cited in AI answers.

Explore SEO AI

02

Performance Marketing

Deciding how much budget a new ad channel should get.

Explore Performance Marketing

03

Digital Strategy

Putting AI visibility and paid tests in the right order.

Explore Digital Strategy

A useful starting point

See how ChatGPT describes your business

We’ll check whether ChatGPT can find your site, what it says when asked about your services, and whether a paid test makes sense yet.

  • Crawler access for OAI-SearchBot and other AI crawlers
  • Who ChatGPT names for your services and suburbs
  • Whether your category and budget suit an ads test
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Talk to us about ChatGPT ads and AI answer visibility.

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