OpenAI’s move to introduce cost‑per‑click (CPC) ads inside ChatGPT is a big moment for advertising in AI tools, because it turns a pure “brand awareness” experiment into something closer to Google Ads – a place where you pay when someone actually clicks.

At Maven, we’ve seen again and again how Meta ads running alongside PPC can lift overall results by catching people before and after the search moment. Adding ChatGPT into that mix is interesting, not just because it’s new, but because of the sheer amount of attention it already commands: ChatGPT now sees around 900 million weekly active users and roughly 5.3–5.7 billion visits a month, putting it among the most‑visited sites on the web.

 

What exactly has OpenAI changed?

Until now, ChatGPT ads were mainly sold on a CPM (cost‑per‑thousand impressions) basis. Advertisers paid for their message to be shown, not for what people did with it.

OpenAI is now adding CPC bidding inside its ads manager, so advertisers can set a maximum bid (currently in the 3–5 USD per click range in early tests) and only pay when someone clicks the ad. At the same time, CPM prices that started around 60 USD at launch have already fallen to roughly 25 USD as the format matures.

We understand that OpenAI has signed up hundreds of advertisers in its early pilot and is openly positioning ChatGPT as a serious competitor to Google and Meta for performance budgets. If you want a bit more detail, check out these sources and coverage in trade press such as Digiday are worth a look.

 

Who will and won’t see the ads?

This is where the fine print matters.

• Who may see ads: logged‑in adults on the Free and Go plans, currently focused on the USA market during the test phase.
• Who will not see ads: users on Plus, Pro, Business/Enterprise and Education plans, and accounts identified as under 18.

Ads appear visually separated and clearly labelled, typically below the main ChatGPT answer, so they act more like a recommended “next step” than part of the model’s response. OpenAI says ads do not influence the content of ChatGPT’s answers and that advertisers do not get raw chat logs or sensitive identifiers.

So if you’re a heavy Plus or Enterprise user, you may never actually see these ads… even though your brand could be using them to reach free users.

 

How CPC ads inside ChatGPT actually work

From an advertiser’s point of view, ChatGPT CPC ads are a new performance format that lives directly inside the chat interface.

A few practical points:

• You can now choose to optimise for views or clicks and set a CPC bid, just as you would in Google Ads.
• Ads are matched using “context hints” (signals about what the user is asking and interested in) rather than the classic keyword lists most search marketers are used to.
• In early testing, ads show in less than 1% of eligible responses, so the experience isn’t wall‑to‑wall advertising – but when an ad does show, it’s often alongside a fairly high‑intent question.

That last point matters. You’re meeting people at the moment they’re asking a detailed question in natural language, not just typing “best phone”* into a search box. *could be anything!

 

What this means for advertisers (and where Meta/PPC still fit)

For brands and agencies, a few implications stand out.

1. ChatGPT becomes comparable to other performance channels
Because you can now buy on a CPC basis, you can plug ChatGPT into the same dashboards as Google, Meta and LinkedIn and compare cost per click, lead, or sale.

 

2. Creative and context will matter more than keywords
You won’t be building long, fiddly keyword lists; you’ll be writing ads and landing experiences that make sense as a follow‑on from a natural‑language question. Think “helpful next step in a conversation”, not “poster slapped on a search page”.

 

3. Targeting is powerful but still early‑stage
Right now, this is mainly a US‑focused test, limited to free/Go users, with relatively high minimum spends in the tens of thousands of dollars. That means it’s a sandbox for larger advertisers and well‑funded experiments rather than an every‑SME tactic – for now.

 

4. Meta and PPC are still doing the heavy lifting
A mix of search (PPC) plus Meta remains incredibly effective: search mops up high‑intent queries, while Meta keeps brands in people’s heads before and after that moment. Adding ChatGPT CPC ads into that mix could give you another way to reach people while they’re actively thinking through a problem (especially given the traffic numbers involved) but it’s an extra layer, not a replacement.

 

5. Watch the trust and brand‑safety angle
OpenAI has said no ads will show alongside sensitive topics such as health or politics, and that paid placements won’t skew ChatGPT’s actual answers. But any time a “trusted AI assistant” starts taking money to suggest next steps, brands need to keep an eye on how clearly users can tell what’s organic and what’s sponsored.

 

From Maven’s point of view, the sensible next step is to watch this space and not to throw your whole search budget at ChatGPT, but to plan measured tests: identify a couple of journeys where conversational, high‑intent queries might outperform a standard search ad, line that up alongside your existing PPC and Meta activity, and see if it genuinely moves the needle

 

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