How to advertise in ChatGPT: a beginner's guide

Since 2026, ChatGPT shows ads in its answers, and with the expansion to Europe the channel has become reachable for most advertisers. Hundreds of millions of people ask ChatGPT questions every week — including ones that end in a purchase. This guide explains, with no prior knowledge required, what ChatGPT ads are, what you need and how to set up your first campaign.

What are ChatGPT ads?

Ads appear in context within the conversation when a question matches your offer: as a chat card with title, copy, image and link, or as a product ad from your catalog. They're served through the official OpenAI Ads API; you pay per click or per impression, depending on what you choose when creating the campaign. For the differences from classic search advertising, see our comparison ChatGPT Ads vs. Google Ads.

What you need

• An OpenAI Ads account. Our step-by-step guide shows how to create it.
• A verified destination domain and a favicon in the account — without both, no ad serves.
• A landing page reachable without login and without captcha, or a product feed for catalog advertising.
• A budget and a clear goal: traffic, reach or sales.
• An API key that you create in the OpenAI Ads Manager and store encrypted in Chatvertise.

The structure: campaign, ad group, ad

ChatGPT Ads have three levels. The campaign holds goal, budget, schedule and the billing model. Below it, ad groups bundle targeting (countries, platforms, audiences) and the max bid. Inside each ad group sit the ads themselves. Two campaign-level decisions — billing and conversion event — are immutable after creation; take an extra minute for them.

Step by step to your first campaign

• 1. Connect the account: enter the API key in Chatvertise; the Ad account page immediately shows review status, domain and favicon.
• 2. Create the campaign: goal, budget type (daily or lifetime budget), schedule and billing per click or per impression.
• 3. Create an ad group: choose target countries (only countries from the availability list are allowed), platforms, max bid.
• 4. Write the ad: title, copy, image, destination URL — or let the AI copilot generate a draft from the landing page.
• 5. Check the preview: Chatvertise shows the ad the way it looks in ChatGPT.
• 6. Wait for approval: new ads go through a review; the status is on the ad detail page.
• 7. Activate and evaluate: impressions, clicks, spend and conversions on the overview, broken down by device, product and country.

Tips for the first two weeks

• Start with click billing: you only pay for visitors and collect data for later conversion optimization.
• Test two or three ad variants per ad group and give the better one more budget after a week.
• Set up conversion tracking before launch — for Shopify in Chatvertise without code.
• Start with tight geo targeting and expand once CPA and ROAS hold up.
• Set an automation rule as a safety net, such as “CPA over 3 days above threshold → pause”.

Typical beginner mistakes

Most problems in the first week aren't performance problems but setup problems: the ad isn't served because the favicon is missing, the domain isn't approved or the review is still running. Our article Why isn't my ad serving? walks through the causes. And anyone comparing numbers should know that conversions depend on the attribution window.

With Chatvertise you do all of this in one interface — including Shopify import that turns your products into campaigns automatically, an AI copilot for copy and automation rules for day-to-day operations. Start for free and set up your first ad in minutes.