Nothing says confidence like launching an ad product in the world’s strictest privacy regime.
ChatGPT’s continental drift: OpenAI has told EEA and Swiss users that ads arrive on Free and Go “later this month”.
Targeting starts contextual only, using conversation topic, approximate location, device, time of day, language. Personalisation comes later, and only if users opt in.
Politics is off the table entirely, as are health and mental health adjacencies. Even with these caveats, it won’t be easy for ChatGPT ads to avoid controversy in the EU, that’s for sure.
But ads appear to be misbehaving, still: Brodie Clark spotted ChatGPT ads swapping advertisers mid-load, one brand flashing up before another replaces it.
On an impression-based model, somebody is paying for a blink. Probably a bug that gets fixed sooner rather than later, but still a sign of growing pains.
Worth the mess? iPullRank’s study of 13.1B search events found ChatGPT pulls a higher share of paid clicks from Google than any other top destination.
Meanwhile, Google’s zero-click rate rose 2.6 points, and organic clicks fell 2.8. Paid clicks held flat.
And the ads are spreading: Similarweb says 26% of ChatGPT replies now carry a sponsored ad, with nearly 30% of ad-eligible AI Mode queries showing ads too.
One catch: Pew has 52% of Americans more concerned than excited about AI, including 55% of under-30s for the first time. 71% expect fewer jobs in 20 years.
The channel seems to be scaling faster than the goodwill it depends on.
