ChatGPT now sells ads in over 60 countries. Check the free answer before you buy one.

When a customer asks ChatGPT who to hire or where to buy, two things can now appear. One is ChatGPT’s answer, which may name you, your rival, or nobody. The other is an ad. This month OpenAI expanded the ad side.

What changed

On September 23, OpenAI said ChatGPT Ads are rolling out in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and Taiwan. With that step, it says ChatGPT Ads are available in over 60 countries.

Ads show only to people on the Free and Go plans. OpenAI says, “Ads in ChatGPT are always clearly labeled and separate from ChatGPT’s answers, and advertising does not influence the answers ChatGPT provides.”

A week earlier, on September 16, OpenAI announced more changes, including these three:

• Sponsored Agents. After seeing an ad, a person can start a clearly labeled conversation with an agent the business sponsors. OpenAI is testing this with select advertisers in the United States. It says that conversation is separate from ChatGPT’s own answers.
• HubSpot and Shopify. Businesses that manage customers in HubSpot can create ChatGPT ads, track them and follow up on leads there. Shopify merchants in the US can run campaigns from a new ChatGPT Ads app. OpenAI said the app would reach other markets where ChatGPT Ads run starting September 23.
• Ad copy that adapts. If an advertiser turns it on, a feature adapts the advertiser’s existing headlines and descriptions to fit the conversation. It also translates the ad copy into the user’s preferred language.

OpenAI also says ChatGPT Ads reached $1 billion in annualized revenue run rate in less than 200 days after launch, and that tens of thousands of advertisers now run ads. Both are company-reported figures.

What this means if AI names your rival

Businesses can now pay for a labeled ad in ChatGPT in over 60 countries. Your rival can do it, and so can you.

OpenAI says the ad does not change the answer. It does not say how ChatGPT picks the businesses it names in that answer. So an owner now has two separate questions. Does the answer name you when your customers ask? And would an ad beside that answer be worth paying for?

You can check the first question for free. Start there.

Check the free answer first

1. Write down five questions your customers ask before they buy, in their own words. For example: “Who can replace a garage door spring this week?”
2. Ask ChatGPT each question on a Free account. That is one of the two plans where ads can appear.
3. For each answer, write the date and mark it: you, your rival, or nobody. Save a copy of the full answer.
4. Note any ad that appears, and whose ad it is.
5. Ask the same questions the same way next month. Put the two months side by side before you decide anything.

If you try ChatGPT ads

• Count the leads from the ad apart from the leads who found you in the answer. Tag the ad’s link so your reports can tell them apart.
• If you turn on the adaptive copy, read what it writes. It adapts your headlines and descriptions to each conversation.
• If you run a US Shopify store or manage customers in HubSpot, you can run and track the ads from tools you already use.
• Sponsored Agents are a test with select US advertisers for now.

What to do this week

• Write your five customer questions.
• Ask ChatGPT each one on a Free account, and save the answers with the date.
• Mark each answer: you, your rival, or nobody.
• If you already advertise in ChatGPT, check whether adaptive copy is on.
• Put the same check on your calendar for next month.

To have this check done for one rival every month, with a real person to walk you through it, book a war briefing with New Reward and bring your rival’s name.