by Anthony O'Donoghue 
For years, getting discovered online has largely meant getting found on Google. People search and brands compete to appear at the top of the results. Now ChatGPT Ads could change the journey. Because people aren't just searching with AI. They're asking questions, explaining problems, weighing up options and seeking advice. And that creates a very different opportunity for brands.
What are ChatGPT Ads?
ChatGPT Ads are sponsored placements that can appear underneath ChatGPT’s answers when there is a relevant match between an advertiser and the conversation somebody is having. Importantly, advertisers cannot pay to influence what ChatGPT says. The answer itself remains independent, with advertising clearly labelled and displayed separately beneath it. That distinction matters. If somebody asks ChatGPT for help choosing a new laptop, planning a weekend away, finding software for their business or comparing products for their home, they are providing considerably more context than someone typing a two or three-word search into Google.
Consumer search behaviour is changing
There’s a shift from search intent to conversational intent. Think about someone looking for a mortgage. On Google, they might search: “Mortgage broker near me”, but on ChatGPT, they might ask: “We’re first-time buyers with a £30,000 deposit. How much could we borrow and what should we be thinking about before we start viewing houses?”
Same person. Same eventual need. But a very different interaction. The Google search tells us what they’re looking for, whereas the ChatGPT conversation tells us much more about what they’re trying to achieve. That’s a very different type of search. There’s context and a problem. There’s intent. And there’s a person trying to work out what they actually need. That’s what makes ChatGPT interesting from an advertising perspective. Rather than simply targeting a few words someone has typed into a search box, the opportunity is to reach people while they’re exploring a problem, comparing options or looking for a solution.
A new place in the customer journey
We’ve been exploring this recently with one of our clients in the mortgage sector. Traditional paid search might focus on phrases such as “mortgage broker”, “first-time buyer mortgage” or “remortgage advice”. With ChatGPT, the opportunity starts earlier.
People are asking:
Can I afford my first home?
How much deposit do I need?
Should I remortgage now?
Is it better to fix my mortgage?
How much can I borrow?
These are conversations happening before somebody necessarily decides they need a mortgage adviser at all, and that changes the role advertising can play. It’s less about saying “here’s our product” and more about recognising “here’s a situation where our brand can genuinely help”.
Conversational discovery rewards specificity. Instead of one generic proposition, brands may increasingly need to understand the different situations, problems and moments in which they can add value.”
What does this mean for businesses?
For a business, the question isn’t really “What keywords should we buy?”, it’s more “What problems do our customers have?”. And that’s a question we like, because it’s where good marketing should start anyway. Even if you’re not ready to advertise on ChatGPT, there’s a pretty good exercise you can do today to put yourselves in a good place. Write down the ten questions your customers ask you most often. Then look at your website. Does it answer them? If it doesn’t, there’s your content plan. And if it does, great. You’re already ahead of the game. You can now start thinking about whether those conversations could become advertising opportunities.
Why brand strategy matters more than ever
This is where we think things get particularly interesting. The more specific the context becomes, the less useful generic brand propositions become.
Imagine an accountancy firm whose proposition is: “Leading accountancy solutions for businesses of all sizes”. Now imagine one that says: “Helping growing agencies get their finances ready for investment or sale”. Which one is easier to connect to a relevant customer need?
ChatGPT advertising places even greater value on brands being able to clearly articulate:
Who are we for?
What problems do we solve?
When are we most useful?
Why should someone choose us?
Those are advertising questions. But they’re also fundamental brand strategy questions.
Being everything to everyone could become a problem
For years, businesses have filled websites with broad claims designed not to exclude anybody.
Innovative solutions.
Exceptional service.
Trusted expertise.
Tailored to your needs.
They sound reassuring enough. But they don’t give an AI advertising system, or a human being, much indication of when that business is particularly relevant. Conversational discovery rewards specificity. Instead of one generic proposition, brands may increasingly need to understand the different situations, problems and moments in which they can add value. A financial adviser might be relevant when someone is approaching retirement. A solicitor when somebody is starting a business. A software platform when a growing company has finally outgrown its spreadsheets. Understanding those moments starts with understanding your brand and your audience properly.
AI might change how people discover businesses. It might change how we search. But it doesn’t remove the need for good ideas. In fact, it probably makes them more important. If everyone can generate an advert in five seconds, write a blog in ten seconds and create an image with a sentence, the businesses with something genuinely interesting to say are going to stand out even more.
That’s where branding, creativity and good old-fashioned understanding of your audience still matter.
Your website needs to continue the conversation
There’s another part of the journey brands need to consider. If someone spends several minutes discussing a specific problem with ChatGPT and a relevant ad appears. They click and arrive at a homepage that says: “Welcome to XYZ. We provide innovative solutions tailored to your needs.” All that context has disappeared.
The landing experience needs to pick up where the conversation left off. That’s why the campaigns we’re developing for clients don’t simply send every user to a homepage. Dedicated landing experiences around different customer needs, combining useful answers with relevant trust signals, adviser introductions, FAQs and a simple route to enquiry, are much more effective.
The principle is straightforward. Don’t make people start their journey again. If the ad was relevant to a specific problem, the destination should be too.
What are the benefits of advertising on ChatGPT Ads?
Timing is perhaps the biggest opportunity. Traditional display advertising often tries to create demand. Search advertising captures demand once somebody actively goes looking for something. ChatGPT can sit somewhere much closer to the decision-making process. People are using it to research, compare and work through choices. That means a relevant advertiser could appear when a potential customer is already thinking seriously about a product or service. There is also an opportunity to reach audiences in a different environment to Google, Facebook and Instagram. Digital advertising has become increasingly competitive, and adding another effective channel to your marketing mix can reduce your reliance on any single platform.
Advertisers can optimise campaigns towards clicks or reach, set budgets and bids, and manage campaigns through OpenAI’s Ads Manager. OpenAI has also introduced pixel-based measurement and a Conversions API to help measure actions including purchases, leads and sign-ups after somebody interacts with an advert. In other words, this is quickly becoming a measurable advertising platform rather than simply an experimental sponsored placement.
Where do we go from here?
We wouldn’t recommend moving your entire Google or Meta budget into ChatGPT tomorrow. For the campaigns we’re developing, we’re treating ChatGPT Ads as an additional acquisition channel and measuring it against existing activity using commercial outcomes, including qualified enquiries, appointments and conversions. But whether ChatGPT Ads becomes a major advertising platform or simply one part of a much broader AI ecosystem, the direction of travel is interesting.
Rather than treating it as another isolated place to spend advertising budget, we can look at where it sits within the complete customer journey. What conversations are your customers having? What questions are they asking? What really matters when they choose between you and a competitor? What message is most likely to make them click? And when they arrive on your website, does the experience convince them to take the next step?
The technology might be new, but the fundamentals of good marketing haven’t changed. Understand your customer. Say something relevant. Put it in front of them at the right moment. Measure what happens next. Then make it better. ChatGPT simply gives us a new place to do it.
The businesses that start experimenting now won’t necessarily get everything right immediately. But they will start building something potentially far more valuable: knowledge of how their customers behave in the next generation of online search and discovery. And that could give them a considerable advantage over the businesses that wait to see what happens.
If you’re interested in exploring how ChatGPT Ads could work for your brand, get in touch
Featured image – Tim Witzdam
