For more than two decades, businesses wanting to reach customers online have largely relied on the same familiar channels: Google, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and other search and social platforms.
But the way people search for information is changing.
Instead of simply typing a few words into Google, millions of people are increasingly asking AI platforms such as ChatGPT detailed questions such as:
- “What is the best type of website for my small business?”
- “Find me a good hotel for a weekend in London.”
- “What should I look for when choosing a builder?”
- “Which accounting software would be best for a small UK company?”
That change in behaviour creates an obvious opportunity for advertisers.
Welcome to ChatGPT Ads.
ChatGPT advertising could become an important new digital marketing channel, particularly for businesses that understand how to combine advertising with a strong website, useful content and good SEO.
So, how do ChatGPT Ads work, how are they different from Google Ads, and what should businesses be doing about them?
What Are ChatGPT Ads?
ChatGPT Ads allow businesses to advertise within the ChatGPT experience.
Rather than becoming part of ChatGPT’s answers, advertisements are designed to appear separately and be clearly identified as advertising.
The important difference is how ChatGPT can understand what someone is trying to achieve.
Traditional search advertising has largely revolved around keywords.
Someone might search:
An advertiser bids on that keyword and their advert may appear.
With conversational AI, someone could instead ask:
“I run a plumbing company in Essex and my website isn’t generating many enquiries. Would I be better rebuilding the website or investing in SEO?”
There is considerably more context in that conversation.
ChatGPT Ads can use contextual signals around conversations, topics and keywords to help determine when an advertisement may be relevant.
This creates a potentially very different advertising opportunity.
You can find out more about the platform directly from OpenAI’s official ChatGPT Ads website.
How Do ChatGPT Ads Work?
ChatGPT Ads are still developing, but businesses can now create and manage advertising campaigns using OpenAI’s Ads Manager Beta.
Advertisers can create campaigns, organise them into relevant ad groups, add advertising creative and monitor performance.
One of the most interesting differences is the use of context hints.
Instead of relying entirely on traditional exact-match keyword targeting, advertisers can describe the types of conversations, topics and keywords where their services or products may be relevant.
This means businesses increasingly need to think beyond:
“Which keywords do we want to target?”
and start thinking about:
“What problems are our potential customers trying to solve?”
That is a significant change in marketing strategy.
ChatGPT Ads vs Google Ads
ChatGPT Ads are unlikely to simply replace Google Ads.
Instead, they could become another important part of the digital marketing mix.
Google remains incredibly powerful when somebody knows exactly what they want.
For example:
“Emergency plumber Chelmsford”
There is very clear commercial intent behind that search.
ChatGPT becomes particularly interesting earlier in the decision-making process.
Someone might instead ask:
“My boiler keeps losing pressure. Is it something I can fix myself or should I call an engineer?”
That person hasn’t necessarily searched for a company yet.
However, they may be very close to needing one.
This is where conversational advertising becomes particularly interesting.
Businesses may be able to reach potential customers while they are researching, comparing options and deciding what to do next, rather than waiting until they perform a traditional commercial search.
Why Could ChatGPT Advertising Be So Important?
The biggest opportunity isn’t simply that ChatGPT is another platform capable of displaying adverts.
It is where those adverts can appear within the customer’s decision-making journey.
People use ChatGPT to research products and services, compare options, investigate problems, ask questions and help make purchasing decisions.
For marketers, that creates opportunities to reach potential customers at the point where they are actively considering their options.
Imagine someone asking:
“What’s the best way to improve the SEO of my small business website?”
A relevant SEO company appearing alongside that type of conversation could be considerably more valuable than showing the same person a random display advert while they are reading something unrelated.
The advertisement is connected to the intent behind the conversation.
And intent has always been one of the most valuable signals in digital marketing.
Will ChatGPT Ads Replace SEO?
No.
In fact, developments like this could make good SEO, useful content and properly structured websites even more important.
ChatGPT Ads and organic visibility within search engines and AI platforms are different things.
Advertising can provide paid visibility.
SEO, content marketing and AI-focused optimisation can help search engines and AI systems better understand:
- Who your company is
- What services you provide
- Where you operate
- What topics you have expertise in
- Which questions your website answers
- Why your business may be relevant to a particular search or conversation
This means businesses shouldn’t necessarily think of SEO vs ChatGPT Ads.
A stronger long-term strategy is likely to combine:
SEO + useful content + AI visibility + paid advertising.
Each can support the others.
Your Website Will Matter More Than Ever
There is another important part of ChatGPT advertising that businesses shouldn’t overlook.
The advert is only the beginning.
Someone can click the best advert in the world, but if they arrive at a slow, confusing or outdated website, that advertising budget can quickly be wasted.
Your landing pages need to answer the visitor’s questions quickly and make the next step obvious.
That means businesses advertising through ChatGPT should think carefully about:
- Landing page quality
- Website speed
- Mobile usability
- Clear service information
- Strong calls to action
- Trust signals and reviews
- Conversion tracking
- Relevant supporting content
- Overall user experience
This is something we have seen repeatedly with Google Ads and SEO.
Getting traffic is only half the job. Turning that traffic into enquiries and sales is what actually matters.
ChatGPT Ads Could Be Particularly Interesting for Small Businesses
One of the most exciting aspects of AI advertising is the opportunity it could create for smaller businesses.
Traditional online advertising can sometimes favour companies with very large advertising budgets.
Conversational advertising introduces another particularly important factor:
Relevance.
A smaller specialist business may be extremely relevant to a very specific customer problem.
For example, somebody might not simply search:
“Best builder UK”
They might ask:
“I need a company that can refurbish a commercial property in Essex but also works on projects elsewhere in the UK.”
That is much more specific.
Businesses with clearly defined services, strong website content and carefully structured advertising could therefore have opportunities to compete with much larger companies.
Marketing Is Moving From Keywords Towards Intent
This is probably one of the biggest lessons businesses should take from ChatGPT Ads.
Keywords aren’t disappearing.
But understanding search intent and customer intent is becoming increasingly important.
For years, SEO specialists have looked at why somebody makes a particular search.
Are they looking for information?
Are they comparing companies?
Are they looking for a solution?
Are they ready to buy?
Conversational AI takes this further because users naturally provide more detail about what they are trying to achieve.
Successful marketing will therefore increasingly require businesses to understand the questions, problems and decisions customers have before they buy.
That affects everything from SEO and website content to landing pages and advertising campaigns.
How Can Off The Peg Design Help With ChatGPT Ads?
ChatGPT advertising is still a relatively new platform and it will continue to evolve.
But businesses don’t need to wait before preparing.
At Off The Peg Design, we can help businesses build the digital foundations needed to take advantage of ChatGPT Ads and the wider move towards AI-powered search and advertising.
ChatGPT Ads Campaign Setup & Management
We can help businesses assess whether ChatGPT advertising is suitable for their services, products and target customers.
This can include campaign planning, customer intent research, campaign structure, advert creation, landing page selection and ongoing optimisation.
The goal isn’t simply to spend money on another advertising platform.
It is to determine whether ChatGPT Ads can generate meaningful enquiries, leads or sales for your business.
SEO & AI Search Optimisation
Good organic visibility remains incredibly valuable.
We can review your website and identify opportunities to improve how search engines and AI platforms understand your business, services, locations and areas of expertise.
This can include technical SEO, on-page optimisation, service pages, Local SEO and content development.
Content Strategy
The questions customers ask ChatGPT can also tell us a lot about the content businesses should be creating.
We can develop useful articles, guides, FAQs and service content designed around genuine customer questions and commercial search intent.
Instead of producing content simply because “Google likes blogs”, the goal is to create a genuinely useful source of information around your business and expertise.
Landing Page Design & Optimisation
If you’re paying for clicks, every visitor matters.
We can create or improve dedicated landing pages designed around specific services, products and customer intentions.
That means clearer messaging, stronger calls to action and fewer distractions between the initial click and the enquiry.
Conversion Tracking & Analytics
Advertising without proper tracking quickly becomes guesswork.
We can help ensure your website and campaigns are set up to measure the actions that actually matter to your business, such as enquiries, phone calls, purchases and quotation requests.
This allows campaigns to be improved based on actual results rather than assumptions.
For businesses interested in the technical side of the platform, OpenAI also provides an official ChatGPT Ads Help Centre covering campaign setup, Ads Manager and advertising guidance.
Should Your Business Start Using ChatGPT Ads?
Not every business needs to immediately move its advertising budget into ChatGPT.
Google Ads, SEO, Local SEO and social advertising remain extremely valuable marketing channels.
However, businesses should certainly be paying attention to the development of AI advertising.
The important change isn’t simply the arrival of another advertising platform.
It is the wider shift towards AI-powered discovery.
Customers are beginning to search differently.
They are asking longer questions, researching through conversations and using AI to compare their options.
Marketing strategies need to evolve alongside that behaviour.
Businesses that start understanding these changes now will be in a much stronger position as AI search and advertising continue to develop.
Preparing Your Business for AI-Powered Marketing
The good news is that many of the fundamentals haven’t changed.
You still need a good website.
You still need useful content.
You still need strong SEO.
You still need to clearly explain what makes your business different.
And you still need to turn visitors into customers.
What is changing is how those customers discover you.
Google, social media and traditional search aren’t disappearing, but ChatGPT and other AI platforms are creating entirely new routes between a customer’s question and your business.
For companies willing to adapt, that creates a significant opportunity.
Want to Explore ChatGPT Ads for Your Business?
If you’re wondering whether ChatGPT Ads, AI search or AI-focused SEO could help generate more enquiries for your business, we can help.
At Off The Peg Design, we combine web design, SEO, content marketing and digital advertising to create strategies focused on generating measurable results.
Whether you want to explore ChatGPT advertising, improve your visibility within AI-powered search or simply make sure your website is ready for the next generation of online marketing, speak to us.
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