Yesterday, ChatGPT Ads launched in Europe.

In less than eight months, they went from being little more than a rumour to becoming a serious challenger to the Google-Meta duopoly.

Sure, it’s still very early.

Most advertiser spend will probably come from experimental or “bets” budgets, rather than being reallocated from Google or Meta. The duopoly is not at risk, yet!

But what OpenAI has achieved in such a short time is extraordinary, with almost no precedent in advertising history.

Google and Meta both took years (decades?) to develop the ad products they’re known for.
TikTok did too.

As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, ChatGPT Ads are a different beast.

They’re not purely performance advertising.
They’re not branding.
They’re something new in between.

Then there are conversational ads, arguably the most innovative and interesting format.

Users don’t just see an ad and click on it.
They can chat with it.

That is genuinely innovative and will introduce a whole new set of KPIs:
• Chat-through rate
• Three-question chat rate
And who knows what else.

But don’t expect ChatGPT Ads to generate huge volumes of traffic.

We’ve all seen the numbers:

• Expensive average CPC: $12
• Low average CTR: 0.68%

Plus,
73% of conversations don’t end when the ad appears.

Users keep chatting with ChatGPT even after seeing an ad. For another four turns on average.

This means they will likely reach your website only after leaving ChatGPT, rather than directly through the ad.

They could arrive through direct traffic, organic or paid search, social media…

Who knows!

Accurate attribution will become extremely complex, if not almost impossible.

Welcome to a new era of online advertising!

Have you tried ChatGPT Ads yet?
What’s your experience?