Credit: Jennifer Burk via Unsplash
OpenAI has expanded its ads pilot program following criticism from advertisers over its initial launch, adding new measurement tools, agency partnerships, and cost-per-click bidding, in an effort to address concerns.
Advertisers across holding companies and independents were quick to buy into the pilot program despite the lack of clear measurement tools.
"This is early Google all over again - the upside is in being first, not being efficient," said Robert Tadros, CEO at Impressive.
The latest update aims to tackle those issues and provide advertisers with clearer ways to measure performance.
"One of the most requested capabilities during the ads pilot has been more robust measurement to help advertisers understand performance and what drives results," said OpenAI in its May 5 launch announcement.
"We recently launched Conversions API and pixel-based measurement so advertisers can better understand what happens after someone engages with an ad, such as a purchase, lead, sign-up, or other meaningful action.
"These tools are designed to improve measurement while protecting user privacy."
OpenAI also expanded the pilot to include agency partnerships with Dentsu, Omnicom, Publicis, and WPP.
Technology partners, including Adobe, Criteo, Kargo, Pacvue, and StackAdapt, were also added to support campaign budgeting, bidding and creative.
Cost-per-click bidding has also been integrated, expanding the existing CPM framework.
AdNews spoke to advertisers a month on, to assess whether the platform was delivering on expectations.
Sebastian Bonnet, strategy director at Impressive, said the update had made ChatGPT a strong channel.
"Clients are trained to expect clear conversion data from Google and Meta, and without that, ChatGPT Ads was a harder internal sell," said Bonnet.
"The expanded measurement tools change that. We can now properly track impressions, clicks, and conversions per brand and per region, which means we can make a real performance case for the channel, not just an 'interesting test' case."
Bonnet said the agency was also focusing their efforts across the systems' new prompt and topic research.
"It's a totally different discipline to keyword research," he said.
"We're mapping the actual questions and themes users are asking ChatGPT, then building campaigns that show up in those high-intent moments.
"These aren't passive scrollers, they're people actively researching and comparing options in real time."
Joel Brooker, founder at JBE Digital, said the measurement fix changed the commercial case for the platform.
"The new measurement updates on ChatGPT Ads make this a powerful channel for agencies," said Brooker.
"The pixel and the Conversions API now track important conversions like form submissions, leads, purchases, signups, and you can buy and bid on CPC.
"That allows you to optimise properly and makes it a real channel for agencies and our clients.
"You can see which campaigns and creatives actually produce results. Without that tracking, you are guessing, which is what the first phase forced you to do.
"The agencies moving now will have months of optimisation data behind them before most businesses have started."
For WiredCo, the early conviction had already started paying off before the pixel updates arrived.
Angela Hampton, founder and CEO at WiredCo, said the off-platform results had been strong enough to make the measurement gap largely academic.
"If we compare the quality of traffic coming through compared to other consideration channels such as paid social, in some cases, we are seeing 4X higher time on site," said Hampton.
"Volumes are still low, but we are seeing a stronger pickup as OpenAI releases ads to more audiences."
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