You’ve decided to test ads in ChatGPT, and now you’re facing a setup screen full of unfamiliar choices. Get your ChatGPT ads campaign setup wrong, and you can burn through your first month’s budget before you learn anything. This walkthrough covers each step in order, from creating the account to your first 30 days.
Step 1: Create the Account Yourself, Then Invite Your Agency
Your business creates the advertiser account, not your agency. OpenAI’s Ads Manager account setup guide says agencies can’t create accounts for clients. It also says only one account owner per business should create it. After billing, that owner invites your agency as a team member.
Early in setup, OpenAI verifies whether your products or services are eligible under its ad policies. Not every industry qualifies, so read our guide to ChatGPT ad policies by industry before you apply. Allow up to 7 business days for the review. You also can’t change the account’s country, billing currency or time zone later.
Step 2: Set Up Billing Before You Build Anything
ChatGPT Ads currently bills after your ads run. For self-serve accounts, OpenAI charges your saved card each time spend reaches a payment threshold, and again at month end. So use a card with room on it, and set the billing profile’s invoice email to your bookkeeper’s address.
Step 3: Structure Your ChatGPT Ads Campaign and Its Ad Groups
OpenAI’s guide to creating campaigns says a good campaign bundles ad groups and ads that share one business goal. The campaign holds your objective, budget, dates, locations and platforms. Each ad group inside it carries its own context hints and maximum bid.
Pick the objective first, because changing it later means building a new campaign. With Views, you pay per 1,000 impressions, and with Clicks, per click. Conversions campaigns still bill one of those two ways, never per conversion. Clicks makes a sensible first test, because each paid click is a visit you can follow in your analytics.
For example, say a pest control company in Edison sets up one Clicks campaign. It has three ad groups: termite inspections, ant and roach treatment, and wasp and hornet removal. One daily budget covers all three, rather than three campaigns each needing the $25 minimum. OpenAI recommends this setup for testing different themes and messages.
Step 4: Write Context Hints the Way Customers Talk
OpenAI says context hints aren’t exact-match keywords, and they don’t promise delivery in any given conversation. Instead, they describe situations where your ad may fit.
So think about what people actually ask ChatGPT before they call you. For the termite ad group, hints might cover winged insects swarming near a window in spring, soft or hollow-sounding wood, or a termite inspection before a home sale. Keep each ad group’s hints focused on one service, so results are easier to read.
Our post on how the ChatGPT ad auction works shows how hints, ads and bids fit together.
Step 5: Choose Your Service Area and Devices
Add the places you serve as included locations. Where available, that can go down to cities and postal codes, so the Edison company can stick to the ZIP codes on its routes. Exclusions alone won’t fence in your area, though. As OpenAI notes, excluding other countries doesn’t by itself restrict delivery to the U.S.
Platform targeting covers Android app, Android web, desktop web, iOS app and iOS web, and most small accounts can start with all five. Skip custom audiences at first, since targeting one takes at least 25,000 matched users.
Step 6: Budget and Bids for Your First ChatGPT Ads Campaign
OpenAI recommends new advertisers start with a daily budget, not a campaign total. For U.S. dollar accounts, the minimum is $25 a day. That daily figure works as a seven-day average, so one day can spend up to twice as much.
For Clicks, OpenAI’s basics page for advertisers suggests starting each ad group’s maximum bid at $3 to $5 per click. That’s a ceiling, not what each click will cost. We’d hold bids steady for two weeks unless Ads Manager’s bid-strength guidance warns that your bid may limit delivery.
Step 7: Write the Ad Itself
Each ad has six parts: your advertiser name, favicon, title, copy, image and landing page. The name and favicon (your logo) come from Settings, then Account info, so set both exactly as customers should see them. Ads won’t serve until you do.
Build the title around one service and one reason to choose you. For instance, the Edison company might title its termite ad “Termite Inspections Across Middlesex County.” Then add a concrete detail in the copy, such as “Licensed technicians and a written price before any treatment starts.”
For the image, use a real photo of your team, truck or work. OpenAI’s policies require ads that are truthful and clearly distinct from ChatGPT. That rules out any design that looks like a chat window.
Step 8: Send Clicks to a Page That Matches the Ad
Don’t send ad clicks to your home page. Someone who asked about winged insects near a window should land on a termite inspection page. That page should repeat the promise in your ad, list the towns you serve and offer one clear next step.
Make the phone number tap to call on mobile, and keep the form short. Before any ad runs, OpenAI reviews its title, copy, image and landing page, so the page matters from the start. Our guide to landing pages that turn visitors into calls covers the rest.
Step 9: Track Conversions From Your ChatGPT Ads Campaign
Tracking is the last piece of ChatGPT ads campaign setup, and the easiest to skip. Finish it before any ad goes live. First, decide what counts as a lead, such as a quote form or a tap to call. Then set up conversion measurement for those actions in Ads Manager. OpenAI offers a website pixel and a Conversions API that sends events from your server.
Next, add UTM parameters, short fixed tags at the end of your landing page URL. OpenAI’s basics page lists them as a way to track this traffic in your own analytics. For example, tag the source as chatgpt, the medium as paid and the campaign as termite_inspection.
In Google Analytics 4, mark those same form submissions and phone clicks as key events. Our Google Analytics 4 guide walks through it. Then ask every caller how they found you, since some people see an ad and phone days later.
Phone leads need extra care, because counting taps on your number misses desktop visitors who dial it by hand. So consider a call tracking number that shows only to visitors from your ChatGPT ads. Keep your main number everywhere else, so your Google Business Profile stays consistent.
What to Watch in the First 30 Days
OpenAI says ChatGPT Ads is still in beta, so delivery and spend can fluctuate. OpenAI also says it has no performance benchmarks yet. Instead, measure results against your own numbers, such as what a lead costs you from other channels today.
- Week 1: Confirm your ads are running. If not, check that the campaign and ads are active and the dates include today. Then check verification, billing, your name and logo, and ad review. Spend figures can lag 7 to 8 hours, so an early zero doesn’t necessarily mean you’ve spent nothing.
- Week 2: Compare ad groups on clicks, cost and leads. Split three ways, a $25 daily budget gives each ad group a small sample, so act only on big gaps.
- Week 3: OpenAI doesn’t share the conversations behind your clicks, so judge hints by ad group. Tighten hints in weak groups, test a new title where clicks lag, and log each change with its date.
- Week 4: Keep, change or pause based on leads and booked jobs, not clicks alone.
ChatGPT Ads Campaign Setup FAQ
Can I reuse my Google Ads keywords in a ChatGPT Ads campaign?
Use them as raw material, not a copy. For example, “termite inspection cost” could become a hint about a homeowner who found soft wood and wants a price.
Why can’t I see my own ad in ChatGPT?
OpenAI doesn’t show ads on Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise or Edu accounts, or in Temporary Chats. Even on a Free or Go account, context hints don’t promise your ad shows up in a given chat. Check impressions and clicks in Ads Manager instead.
Get Your First Campaign Built Right
A careful ChatGPT ads campaign setup can’t promise results. Still, it gives your test a fair chance and clean numbers to judge. If you’d like help, Samaroo Solutions builds and manages these campaigns through its digital advertising services. We work from northern New Jersey with local businesses throughout the state. You own the account, and we manage it as your invited agency. When you’re ready, send us the services and towns you want to promote, and we’ll talk through whether a test makes sense.
