The platform that can figure out how to prove AI chatbots can drive an outcome will unlock a budget category that doesn’t exist yet. OpenAI just took big steps toward that threshold: turning on cost-per-click ads inside ChatGPT. And it is on the hunt for its first advertising marketing science leader.
CPC ads are the more immediately significant move of the two since it gives those marketers who are currently testing advertising there the option to pay when someone actually clicks on them, rather than for every thousand impressions served. They can do this by setting bids between $3 and $5 per click, according to screenshots of the ads manager, shared with and subsequently verified by Digiday.
“As OpenAI looks to increase spending, this is going to help advertisers directly compare their results on Open AI to other major advertising platforms and manage their spend,” said Nicole Greene, vp, analyst at Gartner. “In a world where everything is changing due to AI tech and consumer behaviors, this consistent measurement will help advertisers justify reallocation of spend to OpenAI.
It was always a question of when, not if, OpenAI made this move. Yes, the company launched its ads on a CPM model, but that was more because it was a lighter lift. After all, it requires no click-tracking infrastructure and brand advertisers are easier to onboard on a new platform with limited measurement capabilities. But CPMs also have a ceiling. Performance advertisers account for the majority of online ad spend – and prefer to pay for clicks not impressions. Keeping them on an impression model indefinitely was never a serious option. That much was clear once OpenAI started testing its ads manager, with CPCs clearly labeled in an early build of it.
