ChatGPT Ads Launches in France with Contextual Targeting and CPC/CPM

The advertising platform of ChatGPT is expanding to France and the European Union, with an opening announced for Monday, August 24, and a self-service option expected very soon but not yet available locally. The distribution relies on the context and intent of conversations, without keywords or audience imports, and only concerns the Free and Go offers. Two purchasing objectives coexist, at CPM and CPC, with a starting recommendation between $3 and $5 in CPC. Since third-party measurement is still new, advertisers are encouraged to prepare their feeds, pages, and tracking before launch.

Integrated Measurement, Exportable Data, and Vigilance on Rejections

The ad manager aggregates essential metrics, including impressions, clicks, spend, click-through rate, average CPC, average CPM, and conversions. The conversion tracking setup relies on the pixel and the Conversions API, with UTM parameters sent to standard analytics tools. Results can be viewed in tables by campaign, ad group, and ad, via trend graphs, or through a CSV export. In the case of an ad marked "not delivered," hovering over the status provides the reason, often correctable by modifying the creation and resubmitting it. The bots "OAI-AdsBot" and "OAI-SearchBot" must not be blocked from accessing landing pages, or those pages may be rejected for non-compliance. Any creation that does not adhere to OpenAI's advertising rules is also at risk of rejection. Therefore, it is essential to ensure that the page remains accessible and to integrate appropriate UTM parameters. As third-party measurement is still young on this channel, close monitoring of developments remains necessary.

Access in France and Available or Upcoming Purchase Channels

France and the European Union are joining the already covered markets, following an initial rollout in the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, and then an extension to other areas like the United Kingdom. In France, an opening is announced for Monday, August 24, while anticipating that some advertisers will have to wait beyond this date. Several access routes exist. The self-service Ads Manager is one of the entry points, with no minimum budget and presented as suitable for testing, but it is not yet accessible in France, with availability announced very soon for small advertisers. Adtech partners such as Pacvue, Kargo, and StackAdapt, agencies like Publicis, WPP, Omnicom, MediaPlus, Havas, dentsu, as well as the OpenAI Ads Solution team, constitute other channels. Programmatic platforms already in place within companies should also be added. For most advertisers, self-service remains the logical starting point.

Ads Displayed Below the Response, Contextual Targeting, and User Control

Ads can appear immediately below the generated response, explicitly identified as sponsored content and visually separated from the assistant's text. A creation includes the advertiser's identity, a favicon, a title, a description, an image, and a link to the landing page. The distribution does not apply to all conversations and is limited to users of the Free and Go offers, excluding higher-paying accounts and minors. Sensitive topics such as health, mental health, or politics are also excluded. The matching of ads is done without keywords or audience imports. Targeting relies on the context and intent of the ongoing conversation, guided at the ad group level by "context hints" that describe the targeted exchanges, without guaranteeing presence on a specific query. Advertisers do not have access to the content of conversations, with distribution remaining controlled by OpenAI. When the user activates personalization, their history can refine targeting. Users retain control to hide an ad, disable personalization, or opt for an ad-free offer. Queries directed to the assistant tend to be longer and more detailed than a typical search.

Objectives Reach or Clicks, Second Price Auction, and Recommended CPC

Media buying is based on two objectives: Reach, which is optimized for impressions and billed at CPM for a thousand displays, or Clicks, which is optimized for clicks and billed at CPC, with a maximum bid set at the ad group level. The promotion of ads uses a second-price auction adjusted based on relevance, and the manager specifies whether the proposed bid is considered competitive. OpenAI suggests starting with a cost per click between $3 and $5. The self-service does not set a minimum budget and offers cost-per-click bidding. In terms of strategy, Pei Zhang recommends an exploration phase before expanding investment: starting with CPC with a small budget for two to three weeks, then gradually increasing.

Available Formats and Creative Constraints to Respect

Three formats are offered: the sponsored response, the product feed-powered purchase carousel with prices, availability, and timelines, and an image format with a customizable action button currently in testing. The fields are constrained, with a title limited to 16 characters and a description to 32 characters. OpenAI encourages prioritizing utility over brand messaging and presenting the offer honestly. Multiplying creations with distinct angles helps the platform associate them with more conversations. Simple visuals that align with the message are recommended, while generic display banners risk being discarded. For e-commerce, a well-maintained product feed regarding prices, availability, visuals, and descriptions is important, as a neglected feed may hinder distribution.

Account Organization and Initial Steps for Launch

The platform is structured in three tiers: the campaign determines the objective, budget, dates, and targeting; the ad group groups creations by theme and contains context hints; the ad includes the title, text, image, and landing page. Signing up on ads.openai.com takes about ten minutes, the time needed to complete registration, verify the business, add a payment method, upload the brand logo, fill out the billing profile, and invite collaborators with appropriate rights. Campaigns can be built through the guided interface or by bulk importing templates. For tracking, a conversion pixel would be provided directly by OpenAI, supplemented server-side by the Conversions API. Campaigns are submitted for review, and once approved, they are delivered and manageable on a daily basis. The self-service Ads Manager, with no minimum budget, constitutes one of the operational channels when available.