While you’re still arguing with your agency about Meta CPMs and Google’s latest algorithm update, ChatGPT just quietly announced the biggest new advertising platform since TikTok.
And unlike TikTok, these users are already asking for product recommendations.
The Numbers That Should Make You Pay Attention
OpenAI announced on January 16 that they’re testing ads in ChatGPT, starting in the coming weeks. They’re opening up their free tier and ChatGPT Go ($8/month plan) users—that’s 700 million weekly active users .
For context, that’s:
More than TikTok had when brands started taking it seriously in 2019
84% of marketers already seeing consumer behavior shifts toward AI-powered answer engines
Users who are literally asking “what’s the best [your product category] for [their specific need]”
The market agrees: AI-driven search advertising is projected to grow from $1.1 billion in 2025 to $26 billion by 2029 . That’s a 23x increase in four years.
Why This Matters More Than You Think
Here’s what’s different: When someone Googles “best running shoes,” they’re shopping. When someone asks ChatGPT “what running shoes should I get for overpronation on trails under $150,” they’re ready to buy AND they’ve given you targeting data that would cost $50 in quiz funnel spend to collect.
The ads will appear at the bottom of ChatGPT’s answers when there’s a relevant sponsored product or service based on the current conversation . Not before. Not interrupting. After ChatGPT has already done the heavy lifting of educating and qualifying the customer.
Think about your customer journey right now:
See ad on Meta/Google
Click through (pay for click)
Land on your site
Read product descriptions (you wrote these to educate)
Maybe convert
With ChatGPT ads:
User asks detailed question about their specific problem
ChatGPT educates them (for free)
User is qualified and ready
Your ad appears
They click already knowing if your product fits
You’re not paying to educate. You’re paying to capture already-educated, high-intent buyers.
The Five Principles (And What They Actually Mean for Your Campaigns)
OpenAI laid out five principles, and unlike most corporate BS, these actually matter:
1. Answer Independence - Ads don’t influence ChatGPT’s responses. Answers are optimized for what’s most helpful, not who paid .
Translation: If your product sucks, ChatGPT won’t recommend it just because you paid. This is both terrifying and amazing—it forces you to actually have a good product, but it means the traffic you get is genuinely qualified.
2. Conversation Privacy - OpenAI keeps conversations private from advertisers and never sells user data .
Translation: You’re not getting retargeting pixels or detailed user profiles. You’re getting intent-based targeting, which is arguably better because it’s based on what they’re asking right now, not what they browsed three weeks ago.
3. No Ads on Sensitive Topics - No ads near health, mental health, or politics .
Translation: If you’re in supplements, skincare with health claims, or anything FDA-adjacent, tread carefully. This could limit some DTC categories.
4. User Control - Users can dismiss ads and provide feedback .
Translation: Your creative better be relevant. Unlike Meta where users just scroll past, here they can actively kill your ad and tell OpenAI why it sucked.
5. Ad-Free Paid Tiers - Plus, Pro, Business, and Enterprise subscriptions remain ad-free .
Translation: You’re reaching free and Go users. That’s actually good—these are people who want AI benefits but haven’t committed to $20-200/month yet. Your customer segment, not enterprise users.
The Unsexy Reality Check
Despite hitting $20 billion in revenue, OpenAI posted losses exceeding $13.5 billion in the first half of 2025 alone . They NEED this to work. Which means:
Expect aggressive early adopter incentives
Platform will iterate fast based on performance
Your feedback will actually matter in beta
First movers will help shape how this works
When Meta was losing money on Instagram ads in 2013-2014, early advertisers got insane CPMs and shaped the platform. History doesn’t repeat, but it rhymes.
What This Means for Your Q1 2026 Strategy
Most DTC brands are allocating 70-80% of budget to Meta and Google. 45% of marketers are planning to moderately or significantly shift budgets within 12 months toward AI platforms.
The question isn’t whether ChatGPT ads will work. It’s whether you’ll be testing them in beta with lower CPCs and helping train the algorithm to find your customers, or waiting until your competitors have already figured out what works.
Do This Tomorrow
Audit your current customer questions - What are people asking in your customer service? Post-purchase surveys? Product reviews? These are the queries ChatGPT users are asking right now.
Identify your high-intent keywords - Not “running shoes” but “best running shoes for overpronation on trails under $150 with wide toe box.” That’s the level of specificity ChatGPT captures.
Get your product data clean - If ChatGPT can’t understand what makes your product different from attributes alone, neither can the ad platform’s matching algorithm.
Join the waitlist - We’re already in conversations with our OpenAI contacts about beta access for our clients. The official testing starts “in the coming weeks” per their announcement, and there will be limited spots. Drop a comment below to get in line!
The Bottom Line
You’re not replacing Meta and Google tomorrow. But if you’re still spending 100% of your budget on platforms that are fighting iOS attribution changes, increasing CPMs, and saturating audiences, you’re ignoring the biggest shift in paid acquisition since iOS 14.
ChatGPT’s 700 million weekly active users are already asking for product recommendations . The only question is whether your brand will be in the answer.
Want early access? We’re building a waitlist for brands that want to be first to test ChatGPT advertising when OpenAI opens beta access.
Drop a comment below to save your spot for ChatGPT advertising!
P.S. - If you’re thinking “I’ll wait and see how this plays out,” remember: every DTC brand said that about TikTok in 2019. The ones who tested early built 8-figure brands. The ones who waited paid 5x the CPMs for the same audiences two years later.