ChatGPT Ads Agency UK: Advice, Ads, Creative and Management
Written by Oliver Bruce, CEO and Founder, PinPoint Media. Last reviewed 27 October 2026 against OpenAI's help documentation.
ChatGPT ads are labelled sponsored placements that appear below ChatGPT's answers. OpenAI shows them on the Free and Go plans only; Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Edu accounts do not have ads. OpenAI says ChatGPT Ads launched in the UK on 11 August 2026. PinPoint Media is a London performance marketing and creative agency, and a ChatGPT advertising agency for UK brands. It advises on strategy, deploys tracking and campaigns, produces creative and landing pages, and manages optimisation and reporting on revenue, ROAS and CAC from the brand's own data.
Key fact: ads show on the Free and Go plans only. Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Edu accounts do not have ads. The plan table below sets out who sees ads and when.
What are ChatGPT ads and where do they appear?
ChatGPT ads, also described as ads in ChatGPT, are paid placements shown below a ChatGPT response. OpenAI says they are clearly labelled and shown separately from the answer. Each ad has an advertiser name, a favicon (the advertiser's logo), a title, a description, a landing page and an image.
Ads Manager offers a single-image format and a multi-image format, and the multi-image format entered open beta on 26 October 2026. OpenAI is also testing a multi-image ad that appears while ChatGPT generates an image. A further format, Sponsored Agents, lets people chat with an AI representative of a business from an ad. OpenAI describes it as a limited alpha for selected advertisers only.
Which ChatGPT plans show ads, and who sees them?
OpenAI's help documentation says ads may appear on the plans marked Yes below, and that Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Edu accounts will not have ads. Business is the plan OpenAI formerly called Team.
Free | Ads shown?: Yes | What OpenAI says: Ad-supported. A no-ads option with lower usage limits is available
Go | Ads shown?: Yes | What OpenAI says: Ad-supported
Plus | Ads shown?: No | What OpenAI says: No ads
Pro | Ads shown?: No | What OpenAI says: No ads
Business | Ads shown?: No | What OpenAI says: No ads. Formerly called ChatGPT Team
Enterprise | Ads shown?: No | What OpenAI says: No ads
Edu | Ads shown?: No | What OpenAI says: No ads
The plan is not the only test. OpenAI sets further limits on who sees an ad, and when:
Age: No ads for accounts identified as belonging to people under 18, using account-level age information and age prediction where available
Temporary Chats: Temporary Chats do not show ads
Sensitive topics: Ads are not eligible to appear near sensitive topics, including personal health, mental health and politics
Logged-out use: Ads shown in logged-out experiences are appropriate for all audiences. Mature-content ads are limited to eligible logged-in users
One ad at a time: A person sees one ad unit below a ChatGPT response. It can hold one or several images. A multi-image ad is also being tested during image generation
No-ads option: Free accounts can switch to a no-ads option with lower message limits and reduced tools, such as image generation and deep research. Go accounts would need to switch plans or upgrade to Plus or Pro
Region: Ads roll out to eligible users in select regions. OpenAI says ChatGPT Ads launched in the UK on 11 August 2026
A team member signed in on a Business account will not see ads, because Business accounts do not show them. Checking how an ad appears therefore needs an eligible Free or Go account in a region where ads are available. OpenAI says ads may appear, so a given conversation might not show one.
So what for brands: reach is limited to the ad-supported plans. OpenAI does not give the number of people on those plans in the pages reviewed, so audience size should not be assumed. OpenAI does say ChatGPT is used by hundreds of millions of people for learning, work and everyday decisions, and that people come to it to explore options, compare choices and make decisions. PinPoint Media's view is that a buyer researching on a Business or Enterprise account will not see ads, which is one reason consumer categories are the natural fit.
Source: OpenAI Help Center, Ads in ChatGPT (https://help.openai.com/en/articles/20001047-ads-in-chatgpt), Ads in ChatGPT: The Basics (https://help.openai.com/en/articles/20001207-ads-in-chatgpt-the-basics) and the ChatGPT Business rename FAQ (https://help.openai.com/en/articles/12111915-chatgpt-team-is-now-chatgpt-business).
How do ChatGPT ads work?
In short, an advertiser describes what it sells and who it helps, OpenAI matches that to relevant conversations, and the advertiser pays through an auction. The steps, drawn from OpenAI's documentation, are:
1. The business signs up at ads.openai.com, creates an advertiser account, and completes billing and verification.
2. It builds a campaign, which sets the objective, budget, dates, countries and any optional platform or custom-audience settings.
3. Inside the campaign, ad groups hold context hints: short descriptions of the conversations and needs where the product may be relevant.
4. Ads (title, description, image and one landing page) sit inside the ad groups and go through OpenAI's review before they can run.
5. When a conversation suggests an ad may be relevant, OpenAI's system picks from eligible ads in a relevance-weighted, second-price auction.
6. If someone clicks, they arrive on the advertiser's page. The OpenAI Pixel or Conversions API can connect later actions, such as a purchase, back to that click.
7. The advertiser reviews results in Ads Manager and adjusts the campaign.
OpenAI states that ads run on separate systems from the chat model, so advertisers cannot shape, rank or alter ChatGPT's answers.
How does ChatGPT decide which ad to show?
OpenAI says its ads system selects ads based on expected relevance and outcomes. The signals it lists are the context and intent of the current conversation, the ad's landing page, title and copy, the advertiser's context hints and targeting selections, and, when ad personalisation is on, select signals from the person's wider ChatGPT experience. When several ads are eligible, OpenAI weighs relevance and advertiser bids.
Context hints are the nearest thing to keywords, but OpenAI is explicit that they are not exact-match keywords, and delivery in any given conversation is not assured. They cannot enforce geography, schedules or exclusions either. OpenAI's example hint is "Cushioned everyday running shoes for beginners training for their first 5K". OpenAI also says creating ads for ChatGPT requires a different approach from keyword-based platforms. The practical lesson is to plan around needs and situations, not keyword lists.
What targeting and privacy controls do ChatGPT ads have?
Advertisers set targeting per campaign. OpenAI's documentation lists countries, optional platforms (Android app, Android web, desktop web, iOS app and iOS web), and optional custom audiences to include or exclude. Location can go below country level, to regions, cities, markets and postcodes, where available. OpenAI notes that some new self-serve accounts can initially advertise only in their home country.
Privacy sits on both sides. OpenAI says advertisers never receive chats, chat history, memories, names, email addresses, precise location or IP addresses, only aggregated and non-identifying performance information. Users can turn off ad personalisation, hide ads, see why an ad was shown and clear their ads data, which OpenAI retains for up to 30 days before removal. With personalisation off, ads are still chosen from the current chat.
OpenAI says personalised ads are not initially available in the European Economic Area or Switzerland. The UK is in neither. OpenAI advises avoiding custom audiences in campaigns that target those regions while personalisation is unavailable there.
How much do ChatGPT ads cost, and how does the auction work?
OpenAI publishes no price list. What an advertiser pays comes from the auction and the objective it chooses. OpenAI's FAQ also says there are no performance benchmarks yet across advertisers, industries or campaign types, so any quoted cost per click or return should be treated with caution.
Views (CPM) | What the advertiser is billed for: Per 1,000 impressions served | OpenAI's description: Visibility and exposure
Clicks (CPC) | What the advertiser is billed for: Per valid click | OpenAI's description: Driving people to a website or product
Conversions | What the advertiser is billed for: Per valid click (oCPC) or per 1,000 impressions (oCPM). Not per conversion | OpenAI's description: Optimising toward a selected supported conversion event
Bids are set at ad-group level, as a maximum CPM or a maximum CPC. Ads Manager shows OpenAI's suggested bids and bid-strength guidance. The auction is relevance-weighted and second-price.
Budgets can be a campaign total or a daily amount. OpenAI sets a minimum daily budget in Ads Manager. That is OpenAI's platform floor, not a recommended spend. A daily budget is an average over a seven-day week running Sunday to Saturday. Daily spend will not exceed twice the chosen amount, and the week will not exceed seven times it.
How are ChatGPT ads measured?
OpenAI lists impressions, clicks, spend, click-through rate, average CPC, average CPM and conversions as the reporting in Ads Manager Beta. Impressions, clicks and click-through rate refresh about every 15 minutes. Spend can lag by 7 to 8 hours.
Conversions need set-up. A brand sends events using the OpenAI Pixel in the browser, the Conversions API from its server, or both with a shared event ID so each sale is counted once. OpenAI appends a click reference, called oppref, to the landing page URL. The Pixel stores it in a first-party cookie, and server events need it passed through. The Pixel has consent controls, and OpenAI says conversion data should be sent only where permitted and with the right consents. UTM parameters added to ad URLs persist on clicks and show up in a brand's own analytics.
Impressions, clicks, spend: Revenue from ChatGPT-sourced visits and orders
Click-through rate, average CPC, average CPM: ROAS: revenue divided by ad spend
Conversions, where measurement is set up: CAC: ad spend divided by new customers, and the new versus returning split
Revenue, ROAS and CAC are not in the metrics OpenAI lists, so PinPoint Media builds them from the brand's order and customer data. OpenAI also warns that its totals can differ from third-party analytics because of attribution windows, consent, deduplication and modelled conversions. A gap is not necessarily an error, and reporting should explain it.
Are ChatGPT ads available in the UK, and who can advertise?
OpenAI's update of 11 August 2026 says ChatGPT Ads has launched in the United Kingdom, Mexico, Brazil, Japan and South Korea. Trade coverage places an earlier UK pilot in early June 2026, when Dentsu announced itself as a UK launch partner. The OpenAI date is the one to rely on for the launch.
For ChatGPT ads in the UK, OpenAI's Ads Manager availability page lists the United Kingdom as available for self-service. The legal entity that advertises and is billed must be based in a listed country. A brand signs up at ads.openai.com, and larger advertisers can contact the OpenAI Ads team. Brands can also buy through agency and technology partners. ChatGPT Ads and Ads Manager are in beta, and OpenAI says delivery, formats and tools will keep changing.
OpenAI's help documentation says one person at the business creates the advertiser account and then invites others as Admin, Member or Viewer. PinPoint Media therefore works inside the brand's own advertiser account as invited users, and the brand keeps its account, billing and data.
What are the rules and restrictions on ChatGPT ads?
OpenAI's ad policies, updated in September 2026, say that early ads are primarily limited to consumer verticals: household and consumer goods, local services, travel and entertainment, and digital products and education. Ads must be truthful, must not imitate ChatGPT's interface, and must be consistent from creative to landing page.
For FMCG and consumer brands, OpenAI's policy currently disallows ads that promote alcohol or tobacco, so alcohol brands cannot use the channel. Gambling, adult content, recreational drugs and political content are also disallowed, and ads for individual job or housing listings are prohibited. OpenAI says ads for financial services, health services and legal services outside the US are generally prohibited.
UK advertising rules still apply. The CAP Code requires marketing communications to be obviously identifiable as such, and claims to be substantiated. A brand should check its claims, landing page and offer against the Code before launch.
Why do ChatGPT ads work for brands?
OpenAI's pitch is that people come to ChatGPT to explore options, compare choices and make decisions, and that ads can sit in those moments with the conversation as context. In its 18 August 2026 announcement OpenAI said tens of thousands of marketers have now advertised on ChatGPT. Its March 2026 update said early results showed no impact on consumer trust metrics and low dismissal rates of ads. That update measured the user experience in the pilot, not advertiser returns.
OpenAI is candid that there are no cross-industry performance benchmarks yet, and results depend on objective, creative, landing page, relevance and set-up. PinPoint Media therefore makes no claim about returns. Its view is that a conversational placement near research and comparison is worth testing for the right categories, and that the test should be judged on the brand's own revenue, ROAS and CAC, not on impressions.
What creative works in ChatGPT ads?
OpenAI says ads with clear, specific and benefit-focused copy are more likely to be relevant to users. Its guidance for creative and landing pages is:
Write titles that spell out the value, and descriptions that add new information rather than repeat the title.
Build coverage with many ads for each offering, each taking a different angle, so the system has more chances to find a relevant conversation.
Use simple, relevant images. For multi-image ads, upload 4 to 6 square images with a 1:1 aspect ratio. Learn more is currently the only call to action for multi-image ads.
Send each ad to one destination URL, and choose the most relevant product, collection or content page rather than the homepage.
Do not block OpenAI's OAI-AdsBot and OAI-SearchBot crawlers on landing pages.
Add UTM parameters to destination URLs, and keep ads honest and distinct from ChatGPT's own interface.
This is where an agency with an in-house creative team earns its place. Ad copy, imagery and landing pages are built together, so the promise in the ad matches the page. PinPoint Media's content production studios supply the image and video side.
What does a ChatGPT advertising agency do, and how does PinPoint Media work?
PinPoint Media is a London-based performance marketing and creative agency with 80+ specialists across strategy, creative, data and media buying. It is a Google Premier Partner 2025 and a Meta Business Partner. For ChatGPT ads it advises, deploys, creates and manages.
Advise. Strategy and readiness. PinPoint Media checks whether the category fits OpenAI's ad policies, maps the questions and situations in which buyers use ChatGPT, reviews landing pages and tracking, and recommends objectives and a test plan.
Deploy. Account set-up and build. The brand creates its advertiser account and invites PinPoint Media. PinPoint Media then sets up the OpenAI Pixel and Conversions API with the brand's consent controls, defines conversion events and UTM conventions, and builds campaigns, ad groups with context hints, and ads.
Creative. Ad titles and descriptions in many distinct variants, single-image and multi-image assets, and landing pages that carry the same promise from ad to checkout.
Manage. Day-to-day optimisation of budgets, bids, context hints and creative, then reporting on revenue, ROAS and CAC from the brand's own data, reconciled against what OpenAI reports.
Strategy, creative and media sit in one team, so the people reading results can change the ads. Ruby Lloyd, Head of Growth, is part of the leadership team, and the full team is on its own page. PinPoint Media's paid social and paid search and PPC work shows how the agency approaches revenue-led paid media, and ChatGPT ads are planned alongside both.
How do ChatGPT ads fit with paid search, paid social and GEO?
This is PinPoint Media's view, not an OpenAI claim. ChatGPT ads are a complement to paid search and paid social, not a replacement. Paid social creates demand, paid search captures it, and ChatGPT is a place where people research and compare before they choose.
Ads are also different from GEO and AEO. Ads are paid, and OpenAI says seeing an ad does not mean OpenAI endorses or recommends the advertiser. GEO and AEO are about earning recommendations in AI answers. PinPoint Media runs GEO and AEO as a managed service, and AI Fame Tracker shows whether ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews recommend a brand. A brand can use ads, GEO or both, and the first call works out which comes first.
How does PinPoint Media start on ChatGPT ads?
1. Book a call. PinPoint Media looks at the brand, its category and how buyers use ChatGPT, and says whether it is the right fit.
2. Readiness check. Policy fit, landing pages, tracking and consent, and the questions buyers ask.
3. Plan. Objectives, structure, creative angles and how success will be read on revenue, ROAS and CAC.
4. Build and launch. Account access, tracking, campaigns, ad groups and ads, submitted for OpenAI's review.
5. Manage and report. Optimise, test new angles and report from the brand's own data.
A member of the PinPoint Media team gets back to arrange the call, and a tailored proposal follows it.
Sources
OpenAI sets and updates the rules for ChatGPT ads. Each fact on this page was checked against OpenAI's own documentation on 27 October 2026.
OpenAI (primary sources)
1. Ads in ChatGPT (OpenAI Help Center): who sees ads, answer independence, privacy and controls https://help.openai.com/en/articles/20001047-ads-in-chatgpt
2. Ads in ChatGPT: The Basics (ad format, matching, pricing, measurement) https://help.openai.com/en/articles/20001207-ads-in-chatgpt-the-basics
3. Creating campaigns for ChatGPT Ads (objectives, budgets, targeting, minimum daily budget) https://help.openai.com/en/articles/20001210-creating-campaigns-for-chatgpt-ads
4. Creating ads for ChatGPT Ads (creative guidance, multi-image open beta from 26 October 2026) https://help.openai.com/en/articles/20001212-creating-ads-for-chatgpt-ads
5. Write context hints for ChatGPT Ads https://help.openai.com/en/articles/20001521-write-context-hints-for-chatgpt-ads
6. Conversion measurement (Pixel, Conversions API, oppref, why totals differ) https://help.openai.com/en/articles/20001409-conversion-measurement
7. Ads Manager availability (United Kingdom listed as available for self-service) https://help.openai.com/en/articles/20001245-ads-manager-availability
8. Ads Manager account setup (account creation, inviting users and roles) https://help.openai.com/en/articles/20001213-ads-manager-account-setup
9. Quickstart: launch your first campaign (campaign, ad group, ad structure; reporting metrics) https://help.openai.com/en/articles/20001224-quickstart-launch-your-first-campaign
10. ChatGPT Ads frequently asked questions (beta status, no performance benchmarks yet) https://help.openai.com/en/articles/20001220-frequently-asked-questions
11. ChatGPT Team is now ChatGPT Business (OpenAI Help Center rename FAQ) https://help.openai.com/en/articles/12111915-chatgpt-team-is-now-chatgpt-business
12. Sponsored Agents in ChatGPT Ads (limited alpha) https://help.openai.com/en/articles/20001524-sponsored-agents-in-chatgpt-ads
13. Testing ads in ChatGPT (OpenAI; UK launch update of 11 August 2026; March 2026 early results) https://openai.com/index/testing-ads-in-chatgpt/
14. ChatGPT Ads expands across Europe (OpenAI, 18 August 2026) https://openai.com/index/chatgpt-ads-expands-across-europe/
15. OpenAI ad policies (updated September 2026) https://openai.com/policies/ad-policies
16. Advertise in ChatGPT (ads.openai.com) https://ads.openai.com/
17. Conversion tracking (OpenAI developer documentation) https://developers.openai.com/ads/conversion-tracking
18. Measurement Pixel (OpenAI developer documentation) https://developers.openai.com/ads/measurement-pixel
Secondary sources (context only)
Dentsu named UK launch partner for OpenAI Ads (Dentsu press release, 5 June 2026) https://www.dentsu.com/uk/en/media-and-investors/dentsu-named-uk-lanuch-partner-for-openai-ads
CAP Code, section 2: Recognition of marketing communications (ASA and CAP) https://www.asa.org.uk/type/non_broadcast/code_section/02.html
CAP Code, section 3: Misleading advertising (ASA and CAP) https://www.cap.org.uk/Advertising-Codes/Non-broadcast-HTML/Section-3-Misleading-advertising.aspx
Book a call with PinPoint Media about ChatGPT ads
On the call, PinPoint Media looks at the brand, its category and how buyers use ChatGPT, says where it sees the opportunity, and says whether it is the right fit. A member of the PinPoint Media team gets back to arrange it, and a tailored proposal follows the call. Contact: hello@pinpoint-media.co.uk.
