ChatGPT Ads Are Coming to Europe

Anyone looking for a coffee maker today no longer has to limit themselves to individual keywords. Both ChatGPT and Google’s AI Search make it possible to describe your needs in detail, compare models, and gradually narrow down your options by asking follow-up questions. People are no longer just looking for an espresso machine, but for a model that fits their small kitchen, limited budget, and personal coffee consumption.

This creates something on both platforms that can be even more valuable to the advertising industry than a traditional keyword: a nuanced picture of what a person needs, which criteria are decisive, and how far along the decision-making process already is.

Starting Monday, August 24, this feature will also be commercially available on ChatGPT in Europe. OpenAI is launching ChatGPT Ads in 31 markets, including Switzerland, Germany, Austria, France, Italy, and Spain. Ads will initially appear only to users of the free version and the lower-cost Go subscription. Plus, Pro, and Enterprise plans will remain ad-free.

At launch, advertisers will have access through the OpenAI Ads Solutions Team as well as through agency and technology partners. The agency groups mentioned include Publicis, WPP, Omnicom, MediaPlus, Havas, and dentsu. Self-service access via Ads Manager is expected to follow later.

The battle for dialogue has begun

With ChatGPT Ads, OpenAI isn’t entering an untapped market. Google itself has evolved its search into a conversational system with AI Overviews and AI Mode. Users can ask complex questions, compare options, and delve deeper into a topic by asking follow-up questions. The context is preserved throughout. Google now refers to this as a seamless AI search experience that leads directly from the initial question, via the AI Overview, into an ongoing dialogue.

Advertising has also long been a part of this new search experience. Google is integrating ads into AI Overviews and AI Mode and developing formats such as Conversational Discovery Ads, Highlighted Answers, and AI-powered shopping ads. Brands are not only meant to appear alongside a search query but also to be integrated into the decision-making process with product information, comparisons, and specific offers.

The difference between Google and ChatGPT therefore lies less in the conversational format than in their starting points. Google is expanding its search, shopping, and advertising infrastructure—established over decades—to include generative AI. The company integrates the dialogue with its web index, the Merchant Center, the Shopping Graph, and a well-established ecosystem of advertisers, agencies, and analytics tools.

ChatGPT takes a different approach. The platform is primarily designed as an assistant that helps people solve problems, develop plans, or complete tasks. A commercial decision may only arise in the course of a conversation. Advertising, therefore, does not necessarily target an explicit product search, but rather a context from which a need may emerge.

The competition is thus playing out between two increasingly similar interfaces with different origins: Google is bringing conversation to search. OpenAI is bringing advertising to conversation.

From the Attention Economy to the Intelligence Economy

People come to ChatGPT with a question, a problem, or a goal. They might be planning a vacation, comparing software, furnishing an apartment, or looking to get started with a new hobby. In doing so, they often explain not only what they’re looking for, but also what’s important to them and what constraints they face.

According to OpenAI, 20 percent of conversations already have a clear commercial intent. Many others at least revolve around a personal or business decision. This creates an additional opportunity for brands to appear at the very moment a need arises.

Dave Dugan, VP of Ads at OpenAI, sums up the strategic vision in a catchy phrase:

“People come to ChatGPT with goals. In the attention economy, brands had to be interesting; in the intelligence economy, they have to be useful. ChatGPT Ads is designed to help businesses contribute in a meaningful way when someone is deciding to take action, while maintaining user trust and upholding our principles of answer independence, privacy, and user choice and control.”

Dugan’s comparison of the “attention economy” and the “intelligence economy” is, of course, also a pitch for her own product. Nevertheless, it describes a fundamental shift. On social media, advertising succeeds when it stops the scroll. In the conversational systems developed by OpenAI and Google, it must, at best, build on a thought, simplify a decision, or enable a specific action.

It's no longer enough to be interesting. The brand must become useful.

Ad space becomes a decision-making tool

This also changes the creative challenge. A traditional display ad can focus on brand recognition, emotion, or surprise. Advertising in an AI dialogue, on the other hand, appears right alongside content that usually already serves a specific purpose. Any random message there is more likely to come across as out of place.

The fictional ad for an espresso machine illustrates how OpenAI envisions this interaction: When asked what to consider when buying a coffee machine, a clearly labeled offer appears. The ad does not replace the answer, but rather supplements it with a commercial option.

The key difference from other forms of advertising lies less in the format than in the available context. Brands must understand which questions they can actually help answer. This requires precise product information, clear benefits, and creative content that stands out not because of the biggest promise, but because of its high relevance.

For the advertising industry, this also shifts the importance of good data. Product names, prices, and attractive images alone are not enough. AI systems must be able to understand the needs, situations, and constraints for which a product or service is suitable. Brands therefore need structured, up-to-date, and linguistically precise product information. Discoverability in conversational systems is becoming a new form of distribution.

OpenAI’s advertising platform is already significantly more advanced than one might expect from a service that’s only been available for six months. Campaigns can be optimized based on impressions, clicks, or conversions. In addition, there is geographic targeting, product feeds, a measurement pixel, and a server-side conversion API. The Advertiser API allows for programmatic management of campaigns, ads, creatives, and performance data. The Official OpenAI Documentation reflects an infrastructure that is increasingly modeled after established performance marketing systems.

Trust cannot be bought at auction

The most sensitive issue, however, isn’t bidding, but rather the separation of information and advertising. As soon as people suspect that a paid placement is influencing an AI’s response, the model loses its credibility. And without credibility, the advertising environment also loses its value.

OpenAI therefore emphasizes that ads are clearly labeled and separated from the responses. Advertising does not influence the responses, conversations with advertisers remain private, and customer data is not sold. Users should also be able to control how their experience is personalized.

These principles are more than just background noise in communication. They form the foundation of our business. In a dialog-based system, the line between neutral information and a commercial offer is particularly delicate. The response has a voice, comes across as personal, and is often perceived as a coherent recommendation.

OpenAI must therefore fulfill two promises at the same time, which could very well conflict with one another from a business perspective: Advertising should be as relevant as possible, but it must not compromise the independence of the response.

The same applies to Google. The more AI Search summarizes answers, makes recommendations, and continues the conversation, the more important it becomes to clearly distinguish between algorithmically generated information and paid listings. For both providers, trust thus becomes the true currency of their advertising business.

A New Funding Source for OpenAI

For OpenAI, advertising opens up an additional source of revenue. Developing and operating powerful AI models requires enormous investments in data centers, chips, energy, and research. Subscriptions, enterprise solutions, and API revenue remain key pillars of the business. However, advertising can help help fund free and low-cost access to ChatGPT—while also tapping into a market that generates billions annually for Google and Meta.

According to OpenAI, tens of thousands of advertisers have already used ChatGPT Ads. Over the past six weeks, the average cost per purchase has fallen by about 60 percent, and the cost per 1,000 impressions has dropped by about 20 percent. These figures come from the provider and should be interpreted accordingly. However, they show where things are headed: ChatGPT Ads are not meant to remain an experimental innovation budget, but rather to become a measurable performance channel.

The expansion into Europe to mark the six-month anniversary of the advertising business is therefore a strategically important step. Europe consists of markets that are very diverse in terms of language, culture, and regulation. Accordingly, OpenAI emphasizes not only relevance but also data protection, freedom of choice, and the independence of the responses.

If this balancing act succeeds, advertising could become a major pillar for OpenAI. If it fails, more is at stake than just the performance of individual campaigns. Trust in ChatGPT as a whole will suffer.

Quality is the new quantity

For traditional media and other platforms, this market entry intensifies competition. Every advertising franc that goes to ChatGPT or Google’s AI Search is potentially missing elsewhere. The obvious reaction would be to view OpenAI as yet another all-powerful tech giant that’s inserting itself between providers and audiences.

That alone isn't very helpful. It's nearly impossible to compete with global platforms in terms of reach. The same goes for generic content. The most effective response, therefore, lies in the very areas that the new AI-powered advertising platforms also claim as their own: relevance, credibility, and tangible benefits.

For publishers, this means original journalism, exclusive access, strong brands, and trustworthy environments. For agencies, it means better understanding the intent behind a question. And for brands, it means explaining products and services so effectively that advertising is actually perceived as a helpful next step.

In this new market, quality is not merely the opposite of quantity. Quality has become a prerequisite for even earning attention.

ChatGPT Ads therefore do not signal the end of traditional advertising. However, they are accelerating a shift that Google is also driving with AI Search: away from interrupting users and toward supporting them; away from mere visibility and closer to the decision-making process.

And it is artificial intelligence, of all things, that brings the advertising industry back to a very human question: Is what a brand has to say really helpful at the decisive moment?

Author:

Beat Hürlimann is an editor at m&k.