How to start a ChatGPT ads agency in 2026.
ChatGPT ads aren’t self-serve yet — OpenAI started testing them in January 2026. But the agencies that position now will own the budgets when it opens. This is the 9-chapter playbook.
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You can’t buy ChatGPT ads yet. OpenAI announced ad testing on January 16, 2026 — invite-only, US-only, on the Free and Go ($8/mo) tiers — with no self-serve platform and a 2027 timeline.
A ChatGPT ads agency is a positioning play: get clients discoverable inside ChatGPT today, learn the creative, and be first in line when the ad platform opens.
Why the urgency:
- ChatGPT has ~800M weekly users; ~95% are on free or low tiers that will see ads.
- OpenAI projects ~$1B ad revenue in 2026, growing to $25B by 2029, with early tests showing 3× higher conversions than traditional paid media.
- Product results in ChatGPT are organic and unsponsored right now. Get clients in before paid ads dominate discovery.
Watch: AI launching a ChatGPT Ads campaign from one prompt
The result: ads in OpenAI’s Ads Manager
Chapter 1
How ChatGPT ads compare to Google and Meta
The whole pitch for a ChatGPT ads agency lives in this difference. Google Search ads intercept declared intent through keywords. Meta ads interrupt social browsing with demographic targeting. ChatGPT ads surface during active research — matched to the live conversation, with no cookies or behavioral tracking — which is why early conversions run about 3× traditional paid media.
| How it targets | Where the ad shows | The experience | |
|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | The live conversation (context, no cookies) | Below the answer, labeled “Sponsored” | Interactive + in-chat checkout |
| Google Search | Keywords (declared intent) | Above the results | You bid against everyone on the same terms |
| Meta (FB / IG) | Demographics + interests | In the feed, mid-scroll | Interruptive; lower intent |
Two things make ChatGPT genuinely new: users can ask the AI questions about an ad before buying, and they can complete the purchase without leaving the chat. No other platform does either.
The numbers, side by side
Early benchmark data backs the difference up — and it’s the part that surprises people. ChatGPT’s click-through rate is far lower than Google’s, but its conversions are not.
| Typical CTR | What it costs to run | How it converts | |
|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | ~0.9% — but 1.5–3.2% in SaaS & finance | ~$60 CPM in the pilot, trending toward ~$25 | ≈2× traditional search in several retail categories |
| Google Search | ~6.5% | ~$2–4 CPC (up to ~$9 in legal & SaaS) | ≈3.8% average conversion rate |
| Meta (FB / IG) | ~1.4% | ~$0.80 CPC · ~$14 CPM | ≈7.7% on lead ads |
ChatGPT figures are early-2026 pilot data and still moving; Google and Meta are 2026 cross-industry averages (WordStream / Search Engine Journal, Meta industry benchmarks, Criteo AI-referral study).
READ THE CTR ROW CAREFULLY
A ~0.9% CTR looks like bad news until you see the conversion column. Far fewer people click a ChatGPT ad — the answer often satisfies them in place — but the ones who do are deep in active research and half-sold already, which is why their conversion rates rival or beat high-intent Google search. You’re buying fewer, hotter clicks. That trade — less volume, far higher intent — is the entire pitch for moving budget into ChatGPT. Visitors who arrive from ChatGPT also spend 60–80% more time on-site than social traffic.
Chapter 2
Which brands already use ChatGPT ads
The first confirmed advertisers are Walmart (an Instant Checkout integration announced October 2025) and Sephora. The rest of the big names are in through Instant Checkout — product visibility today, paid ads next.
BRANDS ALREADY IN CHATGPT INSTANT CHECKOUT
Brands reported live in ChatGPT Instant Checkout via Shopify, Etsy, Salesforce Commerce Cloud and direct integrations. Logos belong to their respective owners.
800M
Weekly ChatGPT users
~95%
On tiers that show ads
$100M
Ad revenue in ~6 weeks
$1B → $25B
Projected 2026 → 2029
OpenAI reach and revenue figures; 2026–2029 numbers are OpenAI’s own ad-revenue projections, so treat them as direction, not guarantee.
- Shopify merchants are auto-enrolled in Instant Checkout — Glossier, SKIMS, Spanx and Vuori are confirmed live.
- Etsy auto-enrolled all US sellers; Salesforce Commerce Cloud brought in L’Oréal, Pandora and Saks.
- PayPal and Stripe power the checkout rails (the Agentic Commerce Protocol), connecting tens of millions of merchants.
The takeaway for an agency: the enterprise brands are already positioning. Get your clients in alongside them while results are still organic and free.
Chapter 3
Top agencies running ChatGPT ads
No one is buying ChatGPT ads yet — but these agencies already run ads inside AI chatbots and get brands cited in AI answers. This is the exact playbook, live.
PMG
pmg.com
Runs Copilot ads via Microsoft Ads and weaves AI placements into programmatic media buying for major brands.
AI media at scale
Universal McCann
umww.com
IPG Mediabrands agency running AI-search and conversational ad placements for enterprise brands.
IPG Mediabrands
Outpace SEO
outpaceseo.com
Builds paid-ad strategies for ChatGPT, Copilot and Gemini — intent research, AI creative, bidding.
Copilot ads live
NoGood
nogood.io
Runs ads in Copilot and AI-chatbot networks, paired with AEO for hybrid organic-plus-paid AI visibility.
AI ads + AEO
Liquid Advertising
liquidadvertising.com
One of the first to run performance campaigns inside AI chatbots, via the Kontext network.
70% ROAS lift (Kontext)
First Page Sage
firstpagesage.com
Pioneered GEO in 2023; gets brands like Salesforce and Verizon cited inside AI answers.
GEO since 2023
Graphite
graphite.io
Built its own AEO platform; wins AI citations for MasterClass, Notion and Webflow.
Own AEO platform
Rock The Rankings
rocktherankings.com
B2B SaaS specialist focused entirely on AI-search visibility and answer-engine optimization.
62% AI visibility in 72h
Logos belong to their respective owners; listed as public examples of agencies operating in AI advertising.
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Chapter 4
Getting clients into Instant Checkout
Instant Checkout is the one thing you can actually deliver inside ChatGPT today. Someone asks for “a good vitamin C serum under $40,” ChatGPT returns product cards, and the buyer completes the purchase without leaving the chat. Results are organic and unsponsored right now — ranked on relevance and quality — so getting a client surfaced costs nothing but the work. That surfaced result is the screenshot that closes your pitch.
First level: the four ways in
Which path a client takes depends entirely on where they already sell. Find their platform in this table before you promise anything — it changes whether the answer is “you’re already in” or “this is a build.”
| Where the client sells | Status in Instant Checkout | What you actually do |
|---|---|---|
| Shopify | Auto-enrolled — Glossier, SKIMS, Vuori already live | Nothing to apply for. Go straight to the feed and reviews. |
| Etsy | All US sellers live | Already eligible. Clean up the listings that should rank. |
| Salesforce Commerce Cloud | Live — L'Oréal, Pandora, Saks | Confirm the Agentic Commerce connector is switched on. |
| Custom / headless / other | Apply at chatgpt.com/merchants (rolling) | Apply — or implement the Agentic Commerce Protocol directly. |
That last row is the one most agencies miss. The Agentic Commerce Protocol — the open standard OpenAI built with Stripe to power Instant Checkout, and that PayPal also supports — is published and implementable. A custom or headless store doesn’t have to wait in the merchant queue; you can wire it into the protocol through the Stripe or PayPal rails directly. For an agency, that integration is a billable project, not a favor.
Before you apply: the readiness pass
Onboarding is rolling and approval isn’t instant, so do the prep before you submit — that way the client ranks the day they’re approved instead of scrambling afterward.
- Confirm the client is the primary seller on the SKUs you care about. When a product is sold by several merchants, ChatGPT picks one to fulfill — push the items where the client owns the sale, not the ones where a marketplace will win the buy box and the margin.
- Make sure the operations can take a chat-originated order: inventory sync, order routing, and returns all have to work through the checkout flow, not just the website. This is usually the real blocker, and it’s an ops problem, not a marketing one.
- Qualify by category. Instant Checkout today is physical consumer goods — apparel, beauty, home, accessories. A DTC skincare brand is a perfect first client; a SaaS, a law firm, or a high-consideration service is not there yet. Don’t sell a surface that doesn’t exist.
Second level: what you’re actually selling
THE NON-OBVIOUS PART
Enrolled is not the same as discovered. Enrollment just turns on the checkout rail — it does nothing to make the client appear in an answer. Visibility is decided entirely by the feed: data quality, reviews, and how well the product matches the question. Agencies that sell “we’ll get you into ChatGPT” and stop at the application have delivered the easy half and skipped the half that matters. The application takes an afternoon; the feed work (next chapter) is the retainer.
Go one level deeper and the timing makes sense. Volume through Instant Checkout is small today — that’s not the reason to move now. Two things you’re banking are:
- Ownership of the integration. Whoever wires up the feed and the Agentic Commerce connector becomes the system of record for that merchant’s AI commerce. When paid placements open, the agency holding the pipeline is the default choice to run them — you’re not pitching, you’re already inside.
- A data head start. Early merchants see which questions surface their products and which ones convert — signal no competitor has yet. That query-to-conversion data is what you’ll write creative against the day ads go live. First-mover data is the moat, not first-mover sales.
One catch to set up early: there’s no ads manager or pixel for Instant Checkout, so chat-driven sales don’t show up cleanly in analytics. Tag the order source through the checkout integration, or run a dedicated discount code, from day one — otherwise you’ll have results you can’t prove. Our ChatGPT ads guide has the full merchant walkthrough and the chatgpt.com/merchants application steps.
Chapter 5
Building ChatGPT-ready product feeds
Once a client is enrolled, the feed decides whether they actually show up. ChatGPT ranks product results on quality signals — so the feed work is the real deliverable, and it’s a service you can charge for.
- Clean, structured data: accurate prices, availability, descriptions and variants, served via Google Merchant Center or Shopify’s JSON endpoints.
- Strong reviews and ratings — ChatGPT weighs quality signals, and user-generated content helps.
- Whether the client is the primary seller, plus answers to common product questions, which OpenAI is adding as ranking inputs.
Chapter 6
Writing ads that fit the conversation
Conversational ad creative is a different craft. It has to read like a helpful recommendation, not a banner: lead with a genuine answer to what the person asked, introduce the product as one option, give a single concrete reason to consider it, and keep the call-to-action soft. Hype reads as noise next to ChatGPT’s measured tone.
What a ChatGPT ad looks like inside a conversation
AI that sets up and manages your ChatGPT ads — and runs Google + Meta too.
- ✓Sets up ChatGPT ad campaigns from one brief
- ✓Manages launch, budget and creative 24/7
- ✓Runs your Google + Meta in the same place
2,000+
Marketers
$500M+
Ad spend
23
Countries
Chapter 7
Automating your ChatGPT ad management
The work that scales an agency isn’t writing each ad by hand — it’s the launch, monitor, and reallocate loop across accounts. AI already does that loop. Give it a brief in plain language and it generates the angles, launches them, reads performance, and shifts budget to the winners. Ryze AI runs that on Google and Meta today, and it’s the same muscle you’ll point at ChatGPT ads once they open — the demo at the top of this guide shows the full run.
Standardize that loop once and every new client is onboarding work, not a new set of dashboards to babysit. That’s how a small team carries a book of accounts — and frees the hours you’ll spend learning the ChatGPT channel.
Chapter 8
Packaging and pricing your services
Turn the chapters above into named retainers. Here’s a starting rate card based on what first-mover agencies charge for AI-ad and AI-visibility work.
| Service | What it is | Typical price |
|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT-readiness setup | Instant Checkout enrollment + feed optimization | $1,500–5,000 once |
| Feed + visibility retainer | Keep feeds, reviews and content ranking in ChatGPT | $3,000–10,000/mo |
| Conversational creative | Ad copy written for the chat, in batches | $1,000–3,000/mo |
| Full AI-visibility service | Content, technical and sentiment monitoring | $10,000–25,000/mo |
| Paid-media management | Google + Meta that funds the agency, run with AI | Existing ad fee |
Keep the paid-media layer — Google and Meta — running with as little manual work as possible (that’s the Ryze AI job), so your team’s hours go to the new ChatGPT offer and to clients, not account busywork.
Chapter 9
Winning your first client
You don’t sell “ChatGPT ads” — you can’t deliver them yet. You sell readiness and a head start: “We’ll get you discoverable in ChatGPT now, and first in line for paid placements when they open.” That’s a real, deliverable offer today.
Start with your existing book — the clients who already trust you are the easiest yes. Enroll one in Instant Checkout, show them surfacing in a ChatGPT answer, and that screenshot becomes the proof that wins the next five. Lead with the proof, not the promise.
Daniel M.
Founder
Performance Agency
We started selling ChatGPT-readiness while Ryze ran our Google and Meta accounts. Same team, two new services, and a waitlist of clients ready for ChatGPT ads the day they open.”
2 new
Services added
same
Headcount
1st
In line for ChatGPT ads
1,000+ marketers use Ryze
Automating hundreds of agencies
★★★★★4.9/5
Frequently asked questions
Can you buy ChatGPT ads yet?
Not yet. OpenAI announced testing on January 16, 2026 — invite-only, US-only, on the Free and Go ($8/mo) tiers — with no self-serve platform. Beta runs through Q1–Q2 2026; a self-serve platform is expected around 2027. Walmart and Sephora are confirmed early advertisers.
How do you start a ChatGPT ads agency before ChatGPT ads exist?
You position: get client products into ChatGPT Instant Checkout (organic and free today), build ChatGPT-ready feeds, learn conversational creative, and line up clients for early access — so you're first when the ad platform opens.
What are ChatGPT ads?
'Sponsored Recommendations' at the bottom of ChatGPT responses, clearly labeled and contextually matched to the conversation rather than to cookies. They can be interactive (users ask the AI about the ad) and support in-chat purchase via Instant Checkout.
Are any agencies actually doing ChatGPT/AI ads yet?
Yes — agencies like PMG, Universal McCann, Outpace SEO and NoGood run ads in Microsoft Copilot and AI-chatbot networks, and Liquid Advertising reported a 70% ROAS lift via the Kontext network. GEO leaders like First Page Sage and Graphite get brands cited inside AI answers.
How much can a ChatGPT ads agency charge?
Today, package ChatGPT-readiness (Instant Checkout plus feed work) at around $1,500–5,000 setup, plus feed/visibility retainers ($3,000–10,000/mo) and conversational-creative production. As paid placements open, layer media management on top.
What do you need to run the agency efficiently?
ChatGPT merchant access for clients, clean product feeds, conversational-creative skills, and an efficient way to run the Google + Meta layer that still pays the bills. Tools like Ryze AI manage Google and Meta so a small team can run many accounts.
