AW’s Early Access to ChatGPT Advertising & What’s Coming from Google Gemini
Consumers are increasingly turning to AI-powered platforms like ChatGPT and Google Gemini to make decisions. And where attention goes, advertising follows.
Austin Williams is among the first agencies participating in the rollout of ChatGPT advertising opportunities, giving our clients early access to one of the most significant shifts in human behavior and the new media opportunities it’s driving. Our digital and media strategists give you an inside peek at what these new placements look like, how they work, and what we’re watching with new AI ad formats from OpenAI and Google.
Note: This is a living article. The AI advertising landscape is evolving rapidly. We’ll update this post as things develop.
The Quick Version: AW’s TLDR on New AI-Chat Ad Formats
Before you dig in, here’s where things stand.
| What’s Good | What’s Limited | What’s Next |
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Advertising Inside ChatGPT Conversations
The core opportunity on ChatGPT is straightforward: Brands can serve ads to free users and Go-plan subscribers while they’re actively conversing with the platform. When these users are researching options or comparing choices, a relevant ad can appear natively in context. (ChatGPT ads do not serve to Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise, or Education subscribers.)
What makes this format different from anything that exists in traditional paid media is how targeting works. Rather than selecting audiences from dropdown menus or predefined search criteria, advertisers provide what OpenAI calls “context hints” or free-form text descriptions of who you’re trying to reach and why. Think of it as briefing the AI directly by describing your brand, your goals, your target audiences, and the conversation context in which you’d want to show up.
“We can get as granular and detailed as we want,” explains Nick Gaffney, AW’s senior director of digital strategy. “But it’s ChatGPT reading that free-form text, so there is a learning curve, and in the event of a hallucination, there is the possibility that ads are served to audiences that aren’t fully qualified.”
That transparency matters. The free-form approach can offer meaningful precision, but like any new format, it comes with unknowns. The more context and relevant detail you provide, the more accurately your ad should serve, but there’s no guarantee. It’s a tradeoff AW is carefully monitoring.
What ChatGPT ads look like & how bidding works
Current ChatGPT ads are native in appearance, with your brand’s name, an image, a short headline (~30 characters), a brief description (~60 characters), and a link to your site. Notably, the brand retains full control over the messaging; ChatGPT does not generate or alter your ad creative. Here’s a preview of a ChatGPT ad developed by AW.
“It’s very paid-search-esque in terms of format,” says Erica Brown, AW’s VP of integrated media services. “But the context in which it’s served is entirely new, and the consumer mindset is different. Search users typically enter short, explicit queries. ChatGPT users often engage in longer, exploratory conversations that reveal intent, interests, and decision-making context over multiple interactions. This creates opportunities for us to reach prospects earlier in the consideration journey and in more nuanced moments of discovery.”
On the bidding side, ChatGPT campaigns are currently CPM-based (cost per thousand impressions), with cost-per-click objectives now available as well. Conversion-based bidding is coming soon.
Campaign management at this stage requires a hands-on approach. Think early-era paid search, where optimization means actively monitoring auction performance and adjusting bids based on what the data tells you. AW manages ChatGPT campaigns directly through our own digital strategy team, without relying on external vendors.
Geotargeting has been expanding rapidly. State-level and DMA-level targeting are now available; zip code-level targeting is expected soon.
Who can advertise on ChatGPT and who can’t (for now)
ChatGPT advertising is expanding quickly, and that includes which industries can participate. You can refer to OpenAI’s advertising policy here to review its “disallowed ads,” but we recommend checking back often.
Case in point: financial services and healthcare were restricted verticals as this article was first published, and certain categories within each are now approved to advertise on ChatGPT – provided they get manually approved by OpenAI. We’ve had success doing so for a handful of financial services clients to date.
For AW clients in financial services, higher education, professional services, nonprofits, and beyond, the opportunity is ready to explore. “ChatGPT gives us a unique way to reach younger audiences for our higher ed clients,” says Brown. “They’re using it to research programs, compare schools, evaluate career paths. It’s context-based targeting without the ‘age-gating’ challenges we run into with other digital channels.”
What’s Coming on Google Gemini
Google is offering two new ad formats designed for AI Mode, the experience users enter when they click into a Gemini result and continue a back-and-forth conversation. These are distinct from the standard Gemini overview that appears at the top of the search results page.
- Conversational Discovery Ads appear within AI Mode and use a combination of keyword targeting and Google’s crawl of your landing page to match ads to relevant prompts. If someone is conversing with Gemini about topics that align with your keywords or site content, your ad may appear.
- Highlighted Answers Ads work similarly but are specifically triggered when Gemini returns a list-based response like a top-five ranking, a comparison, or a “best of” result. Brands can sponsor a placement within those outputs.
Both formats are currently restricted to high-volume Google spenders (think national brands with monthly budgets in the millions). Wider availability is expected in the coming months, and AW will monitor eligibility for clients as the rollout continues.
One significant caveat with both Gemini formats is that brands do not currently control the ad copy; Google generates it. “While the format isn’t available for most of our clients, we recommend it cautiously,” says Gaffney. “We’d suggest a limited budget allocation and going in with clear eyes about the brand risk involved when you can’t control what’s actually said.”
That said, Gaffney draws a useful parallel to Google’s past handling of AI-forward formats. “Google’s track record is to open things up broadly first, then introduce guardrails over time – required disclosures and dos-and-don’t lists – especially for regulated verticals like healthcare and financial services. We’ve seen it with image assets in paid search and with Performance Max. I’m confident we’ll see it here, too.”
Our Take on AI Max (and Why We’re Not Recommending It)
You may have heard about AI Max, Google’s setting that places ads directly within the Gemini overview on the search results page before users ever click into AI Mode. We tested it and aren’t recommending it right now.
In our own internal testing, AI Max produced poor click-through rates and broad, often irrelevant keyword matching.
We believe the poor performance is structural. When a Gemini result appears on a search page, users tend to do one of three things: one, get their answer and leave without clicking anything; two, scroll past Gemini to a traditional blue link; or three, click into AI Mode for a deeper conversation. AI Max targets that middle moment, where ads are served within Gemini overviews – and right now, it’s not proving to be where the action is.
“We’ll keep testing,” explains Gaffney. “But for now, if a client asks about investing aggressively in AI Max, our honest answer is: not yet.”
The Bigger Picture: A New Discovery Surface, Not a Replacement
“Traditional blue-link search isn’t going anywhere,” says Gaffney. “AI is a new discovery surface that brands have to show up in. But it’s similar to what happened when social media emerged – brands that won didn’t abandon email or search. They learned to be present across more places.”
Brown echoes that: “People are just using multiple outlets. We saw it with TikTok as a search engine. Now we’re seeing it with ChatGPT. The smart approach is a connected multichannel strategy, not an either/or.”
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