Campaign, Ad Sets, Ads. Same Hierarchy.
If you’ve used Meta Ads Manager, you’ll recognise the layout.
A few things worth knowing:
- CBO only. No ad set-level budgets. You set a daily spend or campaign total and let the system allocate.
- Three objectives: Reach (CPM), Traffic (CPC), and Conversions (oCPC). The conversion objective bills per click while optimising toward a tracked event, so your pixel and tracking need to be sorted before you build that campaign.
- Minimum daily budget is $25. Roughly $750 a month in media, before fees. Low barrier to test.
Where the Ads Show Up
Your ad appears as a sponsored card below ChatGPT’s answer. One card. Clearly labelled. It carries your logo, a short headline (3-50 characters), body copy (up to 100 characters), an image, and a link.
The ad never changes ChatGPT’s answer. It sits underneath, like a recommendation after the conversation.
Only Free and Go tier users see ads. Anyone on a paid ChatGPT plan (Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise) never sees them. So you’re reaching consumers who use ChatGPT casually for research, not power users on subscriptions.
For automotive, that’s fine. Someone typing “best SUV for a family of five under $60,000” into ChatGPT is comparing options. They’re narrowing a shortlist. That’s when you want to be in front of them.
Targeting Works Differently
No interest categories. No demographic filters. No lookalike audiences. No retargeting.
What you do get:
- Geographic targeting down to postcode level (no radius), per the campaign targeting docs
- Custom audience uploads from email or phone lists (minimum 25,000 matched users to include; smaller lists work for exclusions)
- Context hints at the ad group level, broad descriptions of the conversation topics you want to appear in
- Platform targeting across iOS, Android, and desktop, split five ways since September
Beyond that, ChatGPT matches your ad to the conversation. The system reads the full thread, not a single search query. Ten questions about towing capacity and third-row seating give it more signal than any keyword.
Our first recommendation to clients: run product feeds and broad category campaigns (SUV range, commercial vehicles, family cars). If someone asks ChatGPT about a specific model, a product feed should surface the right vehicle from your inventory.
Reporting and Measurement
You can add UTMs to track ChatGPT traffic in GA4. OpenAI also offers its own pixel (OAIQ) and a server-side Conversions API, similar to Meta’s CAPI.
Ads Manager reports impressions, clicks, spend, CTR, average CPC/CPM, and conversions. CSV export is available, plus an Insights API for programmatic access.
We’re still working through how to connect this data cleanly into Looker Studio alongside Google and Meta. UTMs get us part of the way via GA4. We’ll have more on that once we’ve had a full month of data.
Early Numbers From the Industry (Not Ours, Yet)
OpenAI recommends starting CPC bids between $3-$5. Early CPMs sat around $25-$35 during the pilot phase.
A Canadian agency ran a test in June: 0.65% CTR at $7.16 average CPC. Another test by SE Ranking saw 1.30% CTR across 97,000 impressions. Both hit the same wall: their target buyer was on a paid ChatGPT plan and never saw the ad.
For automotive, that wall is lower. Car shoppers skew toward the free tier. They’re using ChatGPT to research, not to run a business.
Criteo reported that users referred from ChatGPT convert at roughly 1.5x the rate of other referral channels, based on 500 retailers. That lines up with what you’d expect from a channel where people are actively weighing up options.
Why We Think Dealers Should Pay Attention
ChatGPT Ads is live in over 60 countries, including Australia and New Zealand. OpenAI crossed $100 million in annualised ad revenue within six weeks of launch. Cars.com was the first automotive marketplace to run sponsored ads on the platform.
The channel is early. Competition is low. The audience is mid-research. And the format, a single card below an answer they already trust, sits closer to a recommendation than a banner.
That window won’t stay open.
What’s on the Horizon
OpenAI announced “Sponsored Agents” in September. It’s a limited US test where the ad opens a branded conversation inside ChatGPT. A shopper could ask your sponsored agent about stock, pricing, or features before visiting your site.
Not available to self-serve advertisers yet. But it tells you where this is heading: from a card below an answer to a conversation with your brand.
The Results
We’re running these campaigns now. In the next post, we’ll share what actually happened. The CPCs, the CTRs, what creative performed, how the traffic behaved on-site, and whether any of it turned into real leads.
No spin. Just the numbers.
Steven Kukucka is Director of Accounts at AXL MEDIA, an automotive performance marketing agency in Melbourne. Questions about ChatGPT Ads for your dealership? steven@axlmedia.com.au