ChatGPT Ads Are Coming—and OpenAI Wants Brands First

ChatGPT is moving closer to becoming a paid media channel—not just a research tool your buyers use.

That matters now because answer engines are already influencing B2B consideration, shortlists, and vendor comparisons. If ads enter the chat experience, the “moment of intent” shifts from a Google query to a conversation. And the rules for targeting, creative, and measurement will look different than what you’re used to in search and social.

What happened

Three signals, all in the same direction, explain why marketers should pay attention.

First, reporting summarized in Google News states that OpenAI’s advertising plan for ChatGPT prioritizes direct brand relationships. The key line: “OpenAI’s plan for ChatGPT ads starts with brands, not agencies.” That implies early access, pilots, and learnings may flow first to brands that can engage OpenAI directly.

Second, OpenAI published a statement that frames how it’s thinking about monetization and distribution. The statement is described as: “Our approach to advertising and expanding access to ChatGPT.” The important part here isn’t just “ads,” it’s the pairing of advertising with “expanding access”—a clear signal that advertising is being positioned as a lever to broaden usage.

Third, CNN’s framing makes the targeting direction explicit. A CNN headline states: “ChatGPT to start showing users ads based on their conversations.” In other words, the ad experience being discussed is contextual to what a user is asking and saying in-chat.

Taken together: (1) OpenAI appears to be building a brand-first go-to-market motion, (2) it’s publicly linking advertising to broader access, and (3) mainstream coverage is already anchoring expectations around conversation-based ad relevance.

What this means for B2B marketers

1) Your paid media “keyword list” may become a “topic map”

If ads are shown “based on their conversations,” you should expect targeting and relevance to be driven by themes and intent signals expressed in natural language, not just query strings. For B2B, that likely means ads show up around:

• Category education (“What is X?”)
• Vendor evaluation (“Best tools for Y”)
• Implementation concerns (“How do I roll out Z?”)
• Pricing and procurement questions (“How much does…”, “alternatives to…”)

That changes how you plan. Instead of building only keyword-based campaigns, you’ll need a structured view of the conversations your buyers are having across the funnel.

2) Brand-first access could widen the gap between in-house teams and agencies

If “OpenAI’s plan for ChatGPT ads starts with brands, not agencies,” early programs may be designed for direct relationships, direct billing, and direct feedback loops. For B2B marketers, that creates a practical reality:

• In-house teams may need to own the initial testing motion.
• Agencies may be brought in later for scaling, creative production, or measurement—after the first-party learnings are captured.

If you rely heavily on agencies for paid media execution, you may want to prepare for a period where you (the brand) have to lead access and experimentation.

3) Conversation-based ads raise new brand safety and compliance questions

CNN’s “based on their conversations” framing will immediately trigger internal scrutiny in B2B organizations—especially in regulated or high-stakes categories.

Even without speculating on specifics beyond the headline, the implication is clear: the context of what a user types could influence what they see. That means your team should be ready for questions like:

• Where can our ads appear (what kinds of conversations)?
• What topics do we exclude?
• How do we avoid adjacency to sensitive prompts?

B2B marketers will need tighter coordination with legal, compliance, and comms than they typically do for search campaigns.

4) Expect a new kind of creative: “answer-adjacent,” not “clickbait”

In an answer engine, the user is already in a problem-solving mode. If ads enter that flow, the winners won’t be the loudest headlines—they’ll be the most credible next step.

That means your creative will likely need to:

• Match the language buyers use in conversations
• Offer a concrete artifact (calculator, checklist, template, demo path)
• Reduce risk (proof, security notes, deployment timeline)

This is where AEO and paid media collide: you’re effectively advertising inside an environment built to answer.

What to do right now (action items)

1) Build a “conversation intent” matrix for your category

Create a one-page map of:

• Top 10 buyer questions (education)
• Top 10 comparison questions (evaluation)
• Top 10 implementation questions (post-sale)

Write them in natural language (full sentences), not keywords. This aligns with the CNN-described direction of ads being tied to conversations.

2) Prepare a brand-direct testing plan

Because the reporting says the plan “starts with brands, not agencies,” assume you may need to move faster than your normal agency-led workflow.

Do this now:

• Assign an internal owner (paid media lead or growth lead)
• Define a small test budget
• Pre-approve 3–5 offers (demo, assessment, benchmark report, ROI model)

3) Create “answer-first” landing pages

If ChatGPT ads are triggered by conversational context, your landing page cannot be generic.

For each major intent theme, build a page that:

• Restates the question in the buyer’s language
• Gives a direct, skimmable answer
• Shows proof (logos, outcomes, security posture)
• Offers the next step (demo, consult, download)

4) Draft brand safety and exclusion guidance

CNN’s headline will prompt internal stakeholders to ask how you’ll control placement.

Before the first test:

• List sensitive topics you want to avoid
• Define unacceptable adjacency categories
• Establish an escalation path if something goes wrong

5) Align your AEO and paid search teams

OpenAI’s statement is framed as “Our approach to advertising and expanding access to ChatGPT,” which signals this won’t be a niche experiment for long.

Run a joint working session to align on:

• Priority topics you want to “own” in answer engines
• Paid test hypotheses (what conversations you want to show up in)
• Measurement expectations (what counts as success in an answer flow)

Bottom line

OpenAI is publicly framing “Our approach to advertising and expanding access to ChatGPT,” reporting says “OpenAI’s plan for ChatGPT ads starts with brands, not agencies,” and CNN is already setting expectations with “ChatGPT to start showing users ads based on their conversations.” If you’re a B2B marketer, now is the time to build your conversation-intent map and get brand-direct test readiness in place—before the early learnings go to someone else.