ChatGPT Ads automated bidding has officially arrived, and it’s bringing a wave of new features that advertisers should pay close attention to right now. As OpenAI launches its ad products in Brazil and Mexico, it is offering advertisers a number of features including bid strategies, point of view ad controls, and view-through attribution. It all sounds very exciting, so let’s break it down to what it all means for advertisers.
ChatGPT Ads Automated Bidding and What It Actually Does
The first feature to point out is the new bid strategy, Maximize results. Essentially, advertisers choose a target and let ChatGPT Ads handle the rest. The system makes the bid optimizations automatically to deliver the most results for a given budget, moving bid adjustment decision making from the campaign manager to the system.
This system is based on other similar systems in Google Ads and Meta Ads Manager. For most advertisers, smart bidding performs great so long as the conversion data is decent. However, once this data and the system goals become moreambiguous, smart bidding also loses efficacy. The same can be said for the new ChatGPT Ads bid strategies. For early adopters, do not expect to be able to set goal preferences and let the strategy run for a long period of time. Watch the numbers for at least a few weeks.
Platform Targeting Gives Advertisers More Control
OpenAI is also following trends set by Google and Meta, with advertisers now being able to choose where their campaign ads appear. When setting up a campaign, there’s a new “Eligible platforms” option which allows advertisers to choose mobile apps, desktop web, or a combination of the two.
This is actually more important than it appears. Mobile app and desktop web user conversion rates, average order values, and user behaviors are often very different. If your product converts better on web vs iOS, you don’t want to waste budget on placements that won’t provide the performance you need. Ad platforms that can operate at a granular level are extremely valuable, and it shows that OpenAI is targeting serious spend advertisers.
View-Through Conversions Enter the ChatGPT Ads Automated Reporting Mix
The third major addition is view-through conversion reporting. ChatGPT Ads Manager now reports one-day view-through conversions at the campaign, ad group, and individual ad levels. View-through conversion itself isn’t unique as it is a form of attribution that is common throughout digital advertising. That said, it is useful to have a degree of skepticism. If an ad impression is served but the user doesn’t interact with the ad before converting, the attribution data would show that ad was a significant factor in pushing that user to convert. However, that doesn’t capture the reason that user converted, so the reported ad performance would be inaccurate. For ChatGPT Ads automated campaigns, remember to differentiate click-through and view-through conversions as they will give you very different insights when determining your budget.
There is a new integration with WorkMagic which allows advertisers to pull ChatGPT campaign performance data into a unified view with other advertisements. It also has the ability to send conversion data back to OpenAI via the Conversions API. The ChatGPT Ads automated bidding system uses that data to refine its target strings and achieve better campaign performance overall.
WorkMagic Integration Connects ChatGPT Campaigns to the Bigger Picture
Most advertisers don’t have clean and reliable datasets to gain proper cross-channel visibility. If WorkMagic can provide this, it will be a useful product for brands who are test-running ChatGPT Ads along with Google, Meta, or programmatic placements. The Conversions API is even more interesting. As data signals get richer, automated bidding systems learn and get smarter over time.
Outside new innovations, ChatGPT Ads is rolling out in Brazil and Mexico, and there are even more markets to come. This is significant data for brands who work in Latin America or who want to do business in that region.
Latin America Expansion Brings New Market Opportunities
With the new automated bidding and greater geographical coverage, brands can begin building their ChatGPT Ad campaigns in regions where search behaviors powered by AI are quickly growing and where competition for ads will be lower. It has been a wise strategy to enter advertising platforms early, though this is tempered by limited audiences and immature advertising measurement.
Before thinking too much about what ChatGPT Ads means for advertising, it’s important to realize that what OpenAI is building is still very much in the early stages. Automated bidding and platform targeting along with the view-through attribution are very sophisticated, and there are many areas of audience, conversion volume, and auction size that have been left unanswered.
How ChatGPT Ads Automated Features Fit Into Your Broader Strategy
Diversified paid media teams may use this as a test channel and set a budget to use in this channel to gather real data while continuing to use other channels. If your agency offers paid media management services, now is the time to ask them how they’re considering ChatGPT Ads with the other paid media channels.
The true challenge for ChatGPT Ads will come over the next few months while more competitors enter the space and OpenAI continues to launch the service to more and more countries. There is a good deal of potential to the phrase “maximize results,” but we will actually see if these claims hold true once competitors put pressure on the system to learn.
Watching ChatGPT Ads Automated Bidding Perform Over Time
Be sure to keep tabs on cost-per-result stats. Pay close attention to the data and the effects of view-through attribution. Use the controls provided to adjust the target surface for your business. ChatGPT Ads will probably have more automated tools in the near future, but the only thing which will make these tools effective is good strategy.
Keep an eye on cost-per-result trends, watch how view-through attribution affects your numbers, and use the platform targeting controls to isolate the surfaces that actually drive value for your business. ChatGPT Ads automated tools are getting more capable, but smart human oversight is still the thing that separates good results from wasted spend.
