Updated January 12, 2026
If you log into OpenAI today looking for an "Ad Manager" dashboard similar to Google Ads or Meta Business Suite, it doesn't exist. As of early 2026, OpenAI confirmed to Digiday that it will "experiment with advertising at the appropriate time," but there is no active test phase for general advertisers. The company remains conspicuously quiet about advertising inside ChatGPT and is not actively talking to advertisers about ad placements.
The "Custom GPT for PPC" misconception
You may have seen articles about using ChatGPT to write better Google Ads copy or optimize PPC campaigns. These are workflow tools, not advertising platforms. A Custom GPT that helps you draft ad copy does not give you the ability to run ads inside ChatGPT itself. We've seen marketing leaders confuse these two concepts, which wastes time and creates false expectations.
What actually exists: The Walmart partnership
On October 14, 2025, Walmart announced a partnership with OpenAI that allows customers to shop Walmart through ChatGPT using Instant Checkout. Customers can "simply chat and buy" without leaving the conversation, with Walmart handling fulfillment.
This is not an ad platform you can access. It requires enterprise-level engineering resources and direct partnership with OpenAI. Unless you have Walmart's scale and technical infrastructure, this path is not available.
User perception and OpenAI's caution
Users trust ChatGPT precisely because it doesn't show ads. Sam Altman stated in a podcast interview that Google's ad model only works when search is not perfect, and ChatGPT should make money when it delivers the best possible answer. His approach is clear: no pay-to-play, no distorted rankings.
An OpenAI spokesperson told The Information: "Any approach would be designed to respect that trust" users place in ChatGPT.
This trust-first philosophy means ads will arrive slowly, carefully, and only when OpenAI believes they enhance rather than degrade the user experience.
While no public platform exists, leaked code from the ChatGPT Android app version 1.2025.329 beta included references to an "ads feature" with "bazaar content," "search ad," and "search ads carousel."
Sponsored citations: OpenAI's ad strategy has been labeled internally as "intent-based monetization," where AI models could prioritize sponsored content in ChatGPT responses. Unlike Google Ads where you bid on keywords and appear in a separate "Ads" section, sponsored citations would be woven into the answer itself and marked as "Sponsored."
Sidebar modules: Ad mockups have included displaying sponsored information in a sidebar next to the main ChatGPT response window, mirroring Bing and Microsoft Copilot.
Conversational recommendations: Instead of just providing answers, ChatGPT may evolve to make recommendations. For example: "Based on your requirements, I recommend considering Salesforce or HubSpot. Salesforce offers enterprise-grade features (Sponsored)."
Generative ads: OpenAI is exploring "generative ads" where ChatGPT creates the ad itself, choosing which specific product features to mention and experimenting with different pitches to increase conversion rates.
Why this is not Google Ads 2.0
Google Ads captures search intent at the moment someone types a query. ChatGPT captures solution intent after a conversation. Users describe their problem, constraints, and context over multiple turns. The AI synthesizes that information and recommends specific solutions.
Traditional keyword bidding does not translate. You cannot simply bid on "healthcare CRM" and expect your ad to show. The AI decides whether your product fits based on the user's entire conversational context, not a single keyword.
For B2B marketers accustomed to Google Ads' auction-based, keyword-driven model, this shift requires rethinking your entire approach to paid visibility.
The Agentic Commerce Protocol and instant checkout
In late September 2025, OpenAI announced the Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP), an open standard for AI commerce that lets AI agents, people, and businesses work together to complete purchases.
When someone places an order through ChatGPT, the platform sends the necessary details to the merchant's backend using ACP. The merchant accepts or declines the order, processes payment via their existing provider (like Stripe), and handles fulfillment exactly as they do today. If a merchant already processes payments with Stripe, they can enable agentic payments in as little as one line of code.
For B2B SaaS companies, Instant Checkout matters less than "instant action." Your goal is to capture qualified leads, not complete transactions inside ChatGPT. However, the principle applies: users expect frictionless next steps. If ChatGPT recommends your product, the user should be able to book a demo, start a free trial, or download a resource without leaving the conversation.
The impulse to wait for a self-serve ad platform is understandable. It's familiar. You know how to allocate budget, measure ROAS, and optimize campaigns. But waiting is a strategic error for three reasons.
Competitors are winning now, trust matters more than ads
While you wait for OpenAI to launch an ad manager, your competitors are already being cited organically in ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity. B2B companies optimized for AI citations capture 30-50% share of voice in their categories within 90 days. When a prospect asks ChatGPT "What's the best sales engagement platform for outbound?" and three of your competitors are mentioned while you're invisible, you've lost the deal before your sales team knew the opportunity existed.
Users trust organic AI answers far more than sponsored labels. Microsoft Clarity analyzed over 1,200 publisher and news websites and found conversion rates were notably higher when visitors came via LLMs. Site visitors from LLMs converted to sign-ups at 1.66%, compared to 0.15% from search, 0.13% from direct traffic, and 0.46% from social media.
Ahrefs published research in June 2025 showing that while AI search traffic accounts for just 0.5% of total website visits, these visitors generated 12.1% of all signups during the same period. That means AI traffic punches 24x above its weight in terms of conversion share relative to traffic share. Additionally, AI traffic converts at 2.4x the rate of traditional organic search on a direct comparison basis.
The data advantage compounds over time
Every piece of content you publish using AEO best practices today builds your entity clarity in the LLM's knowledge graph. This authority compounds. Brands that start now will have 6-12 months of citation history, content depth, and third-party validation by the time ads launch. Brands that wait will be starting from zero while competing against established players in both organic and paid channels.
Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) is how you "advertise" in ChatGPT right now. Instead of paying for placement, you engineer your content to be cited organically. AEO is the practice of optimizing content so that AI platforms directly provide your brand as the answer to user queries.
Traditional SEO optimizes for keyword rankings and backlinks. Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) adapts digital content for AI citations in ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews using structured data and entity clarity. The key difference: SEO assumes the user will click a link and visit your site. AEO assumes the AI will synthesize an answer from multiple sources and cite you as one authoritative voice.
The CITABLE framework
We structured content using seven principles that AI retrieval systems prioritize in our CITABLE framework:
- Clear entity and structure: Open with a 2-3 sentence BLUF that explicitly identifies who you are and what you do
- Intent architecture: Answer the main question and adjacent questions users are likely to ask next
- Third-party validation: Include reviews, user-generated content, community mentions, and news citations
- Answer grounding: Provide verifiable facts with sources, not vague claims
- Block-structured for RAG: Use 200-400 word sections, tables, FAQs, and ordered lists AI retrieval systems can parse easily
- Latest and consistent: Include timestamps and ensure your facts are unified across your site, G2, Wikipedia, and other sources
- Entity graph and schema: Make explicit relationships clear (e.g., "Our platform integrates with Salesforce and HubSpot")
Each principle addresses a specific way LLMs evaluate source quality during retrieval.
Before and after: Invisible vs. cited
Before CITABLE optimization:
"We help sales teams close more deals with our innovative platform." Generic, vague, zero entity clarity. Citation rate: 0%.
After CITABLE optimization:
"Acme Sales Engagement is a multi-channel outreach platform for B2B sales teams at 50-500 person companies. We integrate with Salesforce, HubSpot, and Outreach." Clear entity, explicit integrations. Citation rate after 90 days: 28%.
You can see more detail on this approach in our GEO agency guide and case study showing 3x citation rate growth in 90 days.
How to prepare your brand for the AI advertising era
While you cannot buy ads on ChatGPT today, you can take three concrete steps to ensure you're visible when the ad platform launches and to capture organic traffic now.
Step 1: Audit your current AI visibility
You cannot buy ads for a brand the AI doesn't "know." Before you allocate budget to future ad spend, measure your baseline citation rate across ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews.
Test 50-100 high-intent buyer queries like "What CRM is best for healthcare startups?" Track how often your brand is cited compared to competitors. If you appear in 5% of answers while competitors appear in 60%, you have a 55-point visibility gap that won't close by waiting for ads.
We offer an AI Visibility Audit that tests your brand against competitors and provides a roadmap for closing the gap.
Step 2: Fix your entity data and ensure consistency
AI models skip citing brands with conflicting data across sources. If your pricing page says "starting at $49/month," your G2 profile says "starting at $99/month," and your Wikipedia entry says "pricing available on request," the LLM will choose a competitor with consistent information instead.
Audit your entity data across your website, G2, Capterra, LinkedIn, Wikipedia (if applicable), and industry directories. Ensure your product names, feature lists, pricing tiers, and key differentiators are identical everywhere.
Step 3: Build authority through third-party validation
LLMs prioritize third-party sources over your owned content. A G2 review from a verified user carries more weight than a case study on your blog. A mention in TechCrunch outweighs a claim on your homepage.
Build a systematic approach to earning third-party validation:
- Encourage customers to leave detailed reviews on G2 and Capterra
- Publish original research that industry blogs will cite
- Engage in relevant Reddit communities through authentic participation
- Secure backlinks from high-authority publications in your niche
This third-party validation signals to LLMs that you're a trusted, established player. When ads launch, this trust foundation will make your paid placements more effective.
For a comprehensive checklist, see our 25 questions to ask when selecting a GEO agency and our breakdown of common GEO mistakes that kill results.
What this means for your strategy in 2025
The choice is clear. Wait for OpenAI to launch a self-serve ad platform and enter a bidding war later, or build organic authority through Answer Engine Optimization now and own the citations before paid ads arrive.
The data is clear. AI search traffic converts at 2.4x the rate of traditional organic search. Your prospects are already asking ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity for vendor recommendations. If your competitors are cited and you're not, you're invisible during the critical research phase.
When your CEO asks "What is our ChatGPT strategy?" in the next board meeting, the strongest answer is: "We're already visible in AI search through our AEO program. We track our citation rate weekly and capture high-converting AI-referred traffic today." That beats "we're waiting for the ad platform to launch."
Don't wait for a "Create Campaign" button to get visible. Find out if your competitors are already being cited by ChatGPT and where your visibility gaps are. Request an AI Visibility Audit from Discovered Labs and we'll show you exactly where you stand and how to close the gap in 90 days.
Frequently asked questions
When will ChatGPT ads launch for general advertisers?
OpenAI has not announced a public timeline. Internal leaks suggest testing in 2025-2026, but no self-serve platform is confirmed.
How do ChatGPT ads differ from Google Ads?
ChatGPT ads will be conversational and intent-based, integrated into AI responses rather than separate link lists above search results.
Can I advertise on ChatGPT right now?
No. Current ad inventory is limited to enterprise partnerships like Walmart. General advertisers have no access.
What should I do instead of waiting for ads?
Focus on Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) to earn organic citations in ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity. Learn more about GEO vs SEO.
Will ChatGPT ads replace Google Ads?
No. They will complement each other. Google AI Overviews already appear in 18% of searches, and B2B buyers use multiple research channels.
Key terminology
Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP): An open standard for AI commerce that lets AI agents, people, and businesses work together to complete purchases inside conversational interfaces.
Answer Engine Optimization (AEO): The practice of optimizing content so AI platforms directly provide your brand as the answer to user queries through citations.
Generative Engine Optimization (GEO): Adapting digital content for visibility in results produced by generative AI platforms like ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexy.
CITABLE Framework: Discovered Labs' proprietary methodology for structuring content for LLM retrieval: Clear entity and structure, Intent architecture, Third-party validation, Answer grounding, Block-structured for RAG, Latest and consistent, Entity graph and schema.
Share of Voice (AI): The percentage of relevant AI-generated answers that cite your brand compared to competitors. Track this metric monthly.
