People are increasingly using ChatGPT to research products, compare services and make decisions, creating a new opportunity for businesses to reach potential customers while they are actively considering their options. Following an initial pilot in February 2026, OpenAI began rolling out its beta self-serve Ads Manager in May, with the platform now available to eligible advertisers in Australia. This introduces a new paid media channel alongside established platforms such as Google Ads and Meta Ads. However, ChatGPT Ads is still in beta, and its features, policies and approach to ad targeting continue to evolve. Businesses need to consider eligibility, campaign setup, creative, landing pages and measurement before getting started.

So, how do you advertise on ChatGPT? This guide covers seven practical steps, from checking your eligibility and creating an account to preparing your first campaign.

1. Check eligibility for advertising on ChatGPT

Before creating an account, confirm that OpenAI Ads Manager is available where your business is based and that the product or service you want to promote is permitted. As at 26 August 2026, self-serve Ads Manager is available in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Japan, Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States. Availability is changing as the beta expands, so it is worth checking OpenAI’s current Ads Manager availability before you begin.

OpenAI is taking a cautious approach to the types of advertising it accepts. Its early focus is on consumer categories such as household goods, local services, travel and entertainment, digital products and education. Ads connected with alcohol, tobacco, gambling, adult content, political content, recreational drugs and other sensitive or regulated areas are restricted or prohibited.

Australian advertisers should be especially careful with financial services, healthcare and legal services. OpenAI’s current policies generally prohibit financial and healthcare advertising outside the United States, while ads for legal advice, representation and legal services are not currently permitted. General wellness products without medical claims, financial software that does not promote financial services, and legal education may be treated differently, but eligibility depends on the exact offer, creative and landing page.

The safest approach is to review OpenAI’s latest Ad Policies before investing time in account or campaign setup. These rules apply to the whole ad experience, not just the wording in the ad. A campaign can still be rejected if its image or landing page introduces a restricted claim, product or service.

Clue tip: ChatGPT Ads is still in beta and its policies are being updated regularly. Check the current rules for your market and category each time you prepare a new campaign, particularly if your business operates in a regulated industry.

2. Create your ChatGPT Ads Manager account

The next step is to create an advertiser account at ads.openai.com. You will need an OpenAI account to begin, but the advertiser account itself should be set up using the details of the entity that will advertise and pay for the media.

Before starting, gather your:

Legal business name
Business Website
Business Favicon/Logo
Industry
Country
Currency
Time zone
Billing details

It is also useful to decide who will own the account internally and which employees or agency partners will need access once setup is complete. OpenAI recommends that one account owner creates the advertiser account and then invites other users. If an agency will manage your campaigns, the business should normally retain ownership of the advertiser account and billing relationship. The agency can be added later with the level of access it needs. This gives the business continuity and visibility if its internal team or agency relationship changes.

The country, currency and time zone deserve particular attention because OpenAI says they cannot be changed after the advertiser account is created. These settings affect billing, reporting and eligibility. If they are entered incorrectly, a new advertiser account may be required

3. Complete ChatGPT advertiser onboarding and verification

During onboarding, OpenAI asks for details including the business name, website, logo, industry, country, currency and time zone. It then uses Persona to collect additional information for identity or business verification.

Once those questions are complete, the advertiser application enters a rolling review queue. OpenAI assesses whether the business is legitimate and whether its products or services are eligible under the current advertising policies. There is no guaranteed approval timeframe, and OpenAI says it cannot expedite account review, so businesses working towards a launch date should apply early.

It is important to distinguish verification from approval. Completing the identity or business verification flow does not necessarily mean the account is ready to run campaigns. Watch for an email from OpenAI and check the account status for any further action. Submitting duplicate applications is unlikely to make the process faster and may create confusion around the correct advertiser account.

Account verification is also separate from ad review. OpenAI reviews the advertiser during onboarding, then reviews the ad creative and landing page before an individual ad can serve. An approved advertiser can therefore still have an ad rejected if its message, image, claims or destination do not meet policy.

4. Confirm how sponsored placements will appear

After platform access is granted, go to Settings and open Account info. Check that the account name and logo are exactly how you want them to appear in the ad unit. OpenAI says ads will not serve until this information is complete.

The name should clearly identify the advertiser, and the logo should be current, legible and consistent with the brand shown on the website and landing page. This is not simply an administrative detail. People using ChatGPT need to be able to recognise who is behind a paid placement and understand where they will go if they click.

Consistency also supports the review process. If the advertiser name, website, creative and landing page appear to represent different businesses or offers, the campaign can feel confusing or misleading. A clear connection between every part of the experience helps establish trust and makes the next step easier for the user.

5. Set up ads billing and understand cost

Before a campaign can deliver, you need to create a billing profile and add a valid payment method. The billing profile includes the business name, billing address and invoice delivery email. The payment method requires credit card and billing address details that should match the business entity and country used to create the account.

ChatGPT Ads currently uses a postpay model, which means spend accrues as ads are delivered and the saved payment method is charged when the account reaches its assigned payment threshold. Any outstanding balance is also charged at the end of the month. The payment threshold determines when the card is charged; it is not the same as a campaign budget or an account spending limit.

Campaigns can use a daily budget or a total campaign budget. OpenAI currently sets a minimum daily campaign spend of A$25 in Australia. A daily budget is treated as an average over seven days rather than a strict same-day cap, so spend can reach up to twice the selected daily amount on an individual day, provided it does not exceed seven times that daily budget over the applicable seven-day period. Businesses should account for that flexibility when setting testing budgets and internal approvals.

The buying model depends on the campaign objective. ChatGPT Ads currently supports CPM for reach, CPC for traffic and conversion-optimised CPC for tracked actions. Even when a campaign is optimised for conversions, the advertiser is charged per valid click rather than per conversion.

Clue tip: Set billing up before campaign build is finished and make sure the card can support the expected spend. A failed payment can stop delivery, even when the campaign itself is active and approved.

6. Give account users the right access

Once the account is ready, invite the employees or agency partners who will manage campaigns. In Ads Manager, go to Settings, select Users and choose Invite, then enter the relevant email addresses.

OpenAI provides roles for different levels of responsibility. An Ad Account Admin has full access to account data, an Ad Account Member can create and edit advertising entities without account administration controls, and an Ad Account Viewer has read-only access. Choosing the lowest level that still allows each person to do their job keeps control clearer and reduces unnecessary risk.

For an agency relationship, a practical structure is for the advertiser to retain the owner or administrator role and billing responsibility, while the agency receives the access needed to build, manage and optimise campaigns. Each advertiser requires its own account, although the same user can be invited to multiple advertiser accounts after they have been created.

7. Plan an AI-native advertising campaign in ChatGPT

Once the account is approved and the foundations are in place, you can begin planning your first campaign. This is where decisions about the campaign objective, budget, audience intent, ad messaging, landing page and conversion tracking come together.

ChatGPT Ads does not work exactly like Google Ads or Meta Ads. Rather than relying mainly on keywords or traditional audience segments, it uses signals such as conversational intent and context hints to understand when an ad may be relevant. That means a campaign needs a clear offer, focused messaging and a landing page that continues the conversation naturally.

Think of this as an emerging ads platform for AI-native advertising, not simply a copy of search or social media. Advertising on ChatGPT starts with the topic and intent behind a conversation, which makes context especially important for targeted advertising. A ChatGPT advertiser should provide relevant context hints and custom ad details before running activity. This is one of the practical differences businesses should account for when planning ChatGPT advertising.

Although the platform is becoming easier to access, effective campaign management still requires careful testing and ongoing optimisation. Businesses need to understand which conversations they want to reach, how much they are prepared to invest and which outcomes will determine whether the campaign is working. Setting up reliable conversion tracking before launch is also essential if you want to connect ad spend with enquiries, bookings or sales.

Ready to start ChatGPT advertising?

ChatGPT Ads is still a new channel, which creates an exciting opportunity for Australian businesses that are ready to test early. Businesses that move now have the chance to be among the first in their market to learn how customers respond to advertising within conversational search, before the platform becomes more established and competitive.

That does not mean simply copying an existing Google Ads or Meta Ads campaign across. ChatGPT introduces a different way of connecting advertising with customer intent, making the strategy, context, creative and landing page especially important.

The first priority is getting the foundations right. Confirm your eligibility, create the account under the correct business entity, complete verification, set up billing, protect account ownership and establish reliable conversion tracking before launch. From there, campaigns can be tested around genuine customer needs, with performance used to refine the strategy over time.

If ChatGPT Ads could be relevant to your business, Clue can help you assess the opportunity, set up your account correctly and develop a campaign strategy covering creative, landing pages, tracking and ongoing optimisation.

Want to talk through whether ChatGPT Ads could work for your business? Get in touch and we can help you work out the right approach.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. How do you use Ads Manager?

To advertise on ChatGPT, start by creating an advertiser account through OpenAI Ads Manager. You will need to submit your business details, complete verification, confirm how your business will appear in ads and set up billing before a campaign can run. Once the account is approved, you can create a campaign, add your ad details and submit the ads for review.

2. Can any advertiser run ChatGPT ads?

No. A business must be based in a country where self-serve Ads Manager is available, and the product, service, creative and landing page must comply with OpenAI’s Ad Policies. Categories including alcohol, tobacco, gambling, political content and adult content are currently prohibited or heavily restricted. Financial services, healthcare and legal advertising also face significant restrictions, particularly outside the United States.

3. How does conversational advertising work?

ChatGPT Ads are sponsored placements that can appear below a relevant ChatGPT response. OpenAI’s advertising system considers signals such as the context and intent of the current conversation, the ad copy, landing page, context hints, targeting selections and advertiser bid. The advertising system operates separately from the model that produces ChatGPT’s answer.

4. What does an ad cost?

There is no single standard cost because the amount depends on the campaign objective, bid, competition, relevance and delivery. OpenAI currently supports cost-per-thousand-impression, cost-per-click and conversion-optimised cost-per-click campaigns. In Australia, the minimum daily campaign budget is currently A$25. OpenAI has not published broad cost or performance benchmarks across industries, so businesses should treat initial campaigns as structured tests rather than assume a typical return.

5. Where will sponsored placements appear?

ChatGPT Ads will appear below the end of a response and are clearly labelled as sponsored. Depending on the format, an ad may include the advertiser’s name or logo, a title, supporting copy, an image or product information and a link to a relevant landing page. One or more ad units may appear when OpenAI identifies a relevant match.

6. How do businesses buy ads?

Eligible businesses can buy ads directly through the beta self-serve Ads Manager. The advertiser creates a campaign, chooses its objective and budget, organises ads into ad groups and adds the creative and destination details. OpenAI also works with selected agency and technology partners, although its own advertising system controls delivery decisions.

7. How do you sign up for the ads platform?

Go to ads.openai.com and follow the sign-up process using an OpenAI account. You will be asked for information including the business name, website, logo, industry, country, currency and time zone, followed by identity or business verification. Applications enter a rolling review queue, and OpenAI emails the account contact when full platform access is available.

8. Why does the free version have ads?

OpenAI says advertising helps support broader access to ChatGPT and continued investment in the infrastructure required to operate its Free plan and low-cost Go tier. Its approach is designed to introduce a new source of revenue without allowing advertisers to influence ChatGPT’s answers or access private conversations.

9. Where is advertiser access currently available?

As at 26 August 2026, self-serve Ads Manager is available to eligible advertisers based in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Japan, Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States. Availability for advertisers and the locations where users may see ads can differ as testing expands, so businesses should check OpenAI’s current Ads Manager availability before applying.

10. Which users see sponsored placements?

Ads may appear to eligible users on the ChatGPT free version and Go who OpenAI identifies as being at least 18 years old, as well as in some logged-out experiences. Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Edu accounts do not show ads, and Temporary Chats are also ad-free. In some regions, Free users can choose an ad-free experience in exchange for lower usage limits and reduced access to certain tools.

11. How does targeted advertising work?

ChatGPT Ads is built around conversational relevance rather than exact-match keywords alone. OpenAI considers the intent and context of the current conversation, along with the advertiser’s context hints, ad, landing page and targeting selections. When a user has enabled ad personalisation, selected signals from their broader ChatGPT experience may also be used within OpenAI’s systems. Those conversations and personal details are not shared with the advertiser.

12. How are these ads different from search advertising?

Google Ads is a mature platform built around search queries, keywords, audience data and a large range of campaign formats. ChatGPT Ads is an early-stage platform that uses conversational context to understand when an offer may be useful. This can help a brand appear while someone is researching or comparing options, but the platform currently has fewer established benchmarks and optimisation tools. For most businesses, ChatGPT Ads should be tested alongside Google Ads rather than treated as a direct replacement.

13. Do sponsored placements influence answers?

No. OpenAI states that ads run on systems separate from the model that produces ChatGPT’s responses. Advertisers cannot pay to shape, rank or change an answer, and an ad appearing beside a response does not mean OpenAI endorses or recommends the advertiser.

14. Can advertisers see conversations or personal information?

No. OpenAI says advertisers cannot access users’ chats, chat histories, memories, names, email addresses, precise locations or other personal details. Advertisers receive aggregated, non-identifying performance information such as total views and clicks. If a user chooses to message an advertiser through an ad, the advertiser can see only the messages the user sends directly to it.

15. Is this channel worth testing for Australian businesses?

ChatGPT Ads may be worth testing when customers use ChatGPT to research the category, compare options or make purchasing decisions. However, the platform is still in beta and OpenAI has not published broad performance benchmarks. A useful test needs a clear commercial goal, an appropriate budget, relevant creative, a strong landing page and reliable conversion tracking. Clue can help assess whether the opportunity suits your business and manage the campaign from setup through to ongoing optimisation.