ChatGPT ads crossed a billion dollars in annualized revenue in under 200 days, which is the kind of number that makes budget holders nervous about missing something. The more useful question isn't whether the platform is real. It clearly is. It's whether your brand specifically is positioned to get anything out of it yet.
That number gets more interesting once you look at how the clicks actually perform, not just how much revenue the platform pulled in. Conversion rates on ChatGPT ads currently run 4% to 7% for commercial categories, well above the roughly 2% to 4% typical of Google Search, because someone clicking a ChatGPT ad has usually already worked through part of a decision in conversation. That's a real argument for testing the platform. It's a weaker argument for testing it in every category, or before checking the basics below.
Check eligibility before you check readiness
OpenAI's ad policy prohibits several categories outright: adult content, gambling, political advertising, weapons, alcohol and tobacco, recreational drugs, counterfeit goods and deceptive offers among them. Healthcare, financial services and legal services sit in a restricted, case-by-case category, some advertisers get approved with the right licensing, but many specific offers within those verticals stay disallowed. The platform's stated early focus is consumer categories: lifestyle and household goods, local services, travel and experiences, and digital products or education. If your category sits outside that focus, confirm eligibility before spending time on anything below.
What makes a brand a strong early fit
Brands that already show up well in AI-generated answers, meaning ChatGPT and similar tools already reference them accurately when someone asks a relevant question, tend to be the ones early ad spend actually works for. The reasoning holds up: an ad next to an answer that already treats your brand as credible reinforces something the model was already inclined to say. An ad next to an answer that's never heard of you is fighting an uphill battle the ad budget alone won't fix, and the conversion data backs this up indirectly. Higher conversion rates on this platform track with buyers who arrive already convinced, not buyers an ad has to convince cold.
What makes it worth waiting on
If your product depends on rich demographic or interest targeting to find the right buyer, the current targeting options, context, location, platform, and uploaded audience lists, may not get you there yet. E-commerce brands with a clean product feed are a clearer early fit than brands whose targeting strategy leans heavily on audience data ChatGPT ads doesn't currently support. Click-through rate is also worth setting expectations around: average CTR sits near 0.68%, well under what Google Search or Meta typically deliver, so this isn't a volume play yet.
The real cost isn't just the media spend
Minimum spend requirements are gone for US self-serve advertisers, which lowers the financial bar considerably. The bigger cost is often the strategic work underneath it: making sure your brand's actual visibility in AI-generated answers is solid before paying to sit next to those answers. Skipping that step and going straight to paid spend tends to underperform.
Where to actually start
Start by checking how your brand currently shows up when someone asks an AI assistant a question relevant to your category, before spending anything on ads. If the organic answer is thin, inaccurate or absent, that's the more urgent fix. If it's solid, a small self-serve test is a reasonable way to learn the platform's mechanics before committing serious budget.
The brands that will do well on ChatGPT ads aren't the ones who move fastest. They're the ones who were already worth recommending before they started paying to be seen.
Not sure where your brand actually stands? Our AEO and GEO service starts with exactly that audit.