On October 5, OpenAI announced the launch of graphical ads inside ChatGPT. The update primarily concerns brands and advertisers that buy display traffic and promote products through visual formats.
Nothing will change for premium subscription users. Ad blocks will be shown only on free and basic accounts.
How banner ads will work
Ads will appear on the screen when a user generates images based on their prompt. The banners will be placed next to the generated images, while advertising will not affect the chatbot's text responses in any way.
All ads will receive a special label indicating that they are advertising materials. Until the end of October, the format will launch only in the US for a limited group of advertisers, but later OpenAI plans to scale the ads to the entire audience of free plans.
The platform already tested advertising at the beginning of the year and enabled it for users in India in August. The new format is designed for companies that need direct website traffic with a visual product presentation.
Tracker integration and third-party analytics
Along with the launch of banners, OpenAI announced partnerships with major mobile and web attribution services.
The system added support for popular conversion tracking platforms, including AppsFlyer, Adjust, Singular, Kochava, Branch and Triple Whale. With these integrations, advertisers will be able to link clicks on ads in ChatGPT with actual purchases or app installs on their landing pages.
In addition, the company is testing ad placement safety tools together with DoubleVerify and Integral Ad Science (IAS). This will allow advertisers to control query topics and prevent their banners from being shown next to unwanted content.
Who the update will affect
First of all, the changes open up a new advertising platform for direct advertisers and online stores. They gain access to the service's multimillion-user audience with the ability to track campaign profitability through familiar analytics services.
For affiliate marketers and independent media buyers, direct access to the traffic source is not available yet: advertising is currently being tested in a closed mode. However, the introduction of standard tracking infrastructure such as AppsFlyer and Adjust shows that OpenAI is building a full-scale advertising network that could eventually compete with Google and Meta's ad platforms.
