ChatGPT Ads Management

Search isn’t just about Google any more

Get the first-mover advantage with expert paid search management

ChatGPT Ads have arrived in the UK. That means your customers are seeing them. Make sure they’re seeing YOU with expert paid AI ads management from The Digital Maze. We’ll help you get ahead of the game – testing, learning and collecting data while the auction is cheap, and your competitors are still catching up.

What Are ChatGPT Ads?

ChatGPT Ads are OpenAI’s entry into the paid search market. They’re paid ads that appear when a user carries out a search using ChatGPT’s search engine. Users will generally see them underneath a relevant search, where they are clearly labelled and distinct from the “organic” response.

Over 800 million users access ChatGPT each week worldwide – that’s a massive potential audience for your business.

Unlike traditional paid search ads, where you target visitors using keywords, ChatGPT Ads are based on intent. AI search users are often comparing, exploring their options, thinking – and that’s when you want to be reaching them with the answer to their problem. You want to become part of those conversations, naturally – ChatGPT Paid Ads let you do just that.

How Do ChatGPT Ads Work?

ChatGPT Ads work differently from traditional paid search ads, although there are some similarities:

  • You can bid either based on cost per thousand impressions (CPM) or cost per click (CPC)
  • You set daily budgets or campaign total budgets
  • You set up campaigns and ad groups
  • You measure impressions, clicks, conversions etc.

However, unlike regular search ads, you target based on intent and context, rather than keywords. You can describe topics, questions and audience needs to target the conversations you want your brand to be part of. By setting these context hints at the ad group level, you target your advertising accordingly.

Also unlike other types of paid search ads, inventory is scarce – only one ad is shown at a time. And OpenAI’s platform can’t optimise yet for conversions, as Meta and Google can, so, as your ChatGPT advertising agency partner, we manage bid adjustments manually.

What We Offer

Intent mapping & context hints

We don’t just guess keywords; we map user intent and configure plain-English Context Hints at the ad group level to trigger ads during relevant buyer conversations.

Crafting conversational copy

AI search is a conversation. Your ads should flow naturally from that, matching the tone of the responses. We can help you write compelling copy that positions you as the answer to the question.

Wormhole

Testing ad variations

As part of our ongoing account management, we’re constantly testing and learning what works. From tone of voice to calls to action, to landing page split-testing, we’ll run different variants of your ads to see what gets the best response.

Manual bid optimisation

OpenAI’s Ads Manager can’t automatically optimise for conversions (yet), we’ll manually tweak budgets and bids to maximise ROI.

Monthly reporting

Each month, you’ll receive a monthly report – a real-time dashboard detailing your KPIs, account performance, ad performance, activity and strategy.

What Our Expert Says

“ChatGPT Ads is an exciting new prospect. Both for advertisers and for the race towards AI dominance. If ChatGPT can make ads profitable, they will be the first to do so. There is a lot of opportunity for both advertisers and AI users. Currently competition is low and the cost per click should be at its lowest, much like the early days of Google Ads.”

Emlyn Dennis, PPC Lead

Our Approach

Discovery

All our paid search projects start with a call or meeting with you, where we get to know your business, your goals, your target audience and your competition. This helps us understand your search landscape and the market you operate in.

Audit

We’ll audit your existing paid search activity to see exactly where ChatGPT Ads could fit in. We’ll look at your audience and the questions they’re asking, existing copy, landing pages and more to determine where the opportunities lie.

Strategy & setup

Based on our initial audit, we’ll formulate a strategy tailored entirely to you. We’ll set up your account in your OpenAI Ads Manager (if you don’t have one already), and we’ll take care of campaign setup, intent mapping, copywriting and landing page creation for you.

Testing

Once your ChatGPT Ads are live, we’ll continuously monitor performance, learning all the while. We’ll use our learnings to test and iterate your ad copy, landing pages and more. As only relatively few businesses have launched on ChatGPT Ads, this will give you a head start on learning what works – and what doesn’t – in the new world of paid AI ads.

ChatGPT Paid Ads FAQs

Yes. ChatGPT Ads went live in the UK on 6th June 2026; however, self-serve through the OpenAI Ads Manager only went live in July 2026.

As things stand, a UK business can start advertising on ChatGPT from $25 a day (around £18). However, as time goes on, this will change. As with any PPC activity, some industries and products will be much more expensive, others may be cheaper.

Note, this does not include management spend or setup fees.

At the moment, only sponsored answers are live in the UK. This format shows your advert within an AI response to a particular question or prompt, however it is kept separate from the main response and is clearly labelled as a sponsored listing. This format shows your name, logo, title, ad copy, an image and a link to your landing page.

Yes – ChatGPT is planning on rolling out additional ad formats over the coming months, including shopping placements, sidebar ads, sponsored prompt suggestions and affiliate integrations, as well as GPT Store ad slots.

Only users on the Free Tier and Go Tier plans are eligible to see ads. Currently they are not available within paid plans. ChatGPT states that up to 85% of users can see ads, but that only around 20% will see them on any given day.

ChatGPT Ads appear when a search is carried out using a relevant prompt. They will appear alongside the response, but are clearly labelled and separate from it.

OpenAI has also stated that it won’t show ads to users under 18, or for sensitive topics such as health or politics.

ChatGPT Ads targeting works based on intent – within the OpenAI Ads Manager, that’s conversations and topics set at the ad group level. So, when a user asks ChatGPT “what’s the best budget airfryer?” for example, the relevance-weighted, second price auction will determine which ad is served.

ChatGPT Ads are implemented through a JavaScript tracking pixel that’s installed on your site. This lets you track impressions, clicks, spend, clickthrough rate, CPC, CPM, conversions and so on. As with other marketing channels, you can also append utm parameters to your URLs so you can track performance in Google Analytics.

You do have to make sure that your landing pages are accessible to AI crawlers however, so make sure your robots.txt is not blocking them!

Yes – we’ll audit your existing paid search and social activity to determine where ChatGPT fits in, and we’ll set up campaigns, targeting, ad groups and ad copy for you. We can also create dedicated landing pages if you require them.

They work alongside each other – your paid AI ads potentially get you a sponsored placement, while your SEO and AEO aim to get you cited in the main response. Much like Google Ads vs Organic Search, if you’re appearing in both, it’s more real estate in the search results… and greater visibility for you!

Yes – it is simply another channel that you can use for your marketing.
Plus, at the moment, the ChatGPT Ads auction is relatively small, so we would recommend carrying on with any existing paid search or paid social campaigns. We can help you determine the right channel weighting and use of budget for your paid search campaigns, including ChatGPT Ads.

We’ll help you determine the fit for your business. If we think that your users just aren’t there, or you won’t see the return on investment, we’ll tell you. However, it’s still early days, and so all advertisers are really in the position of learning what works and what doesn’t, so it’s a great opportunity for testing!

Ready to start advertising on ChatGPT?

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