To run ChatGPT ads: open an account at ads.openai.com in your company's legal name, set up billing and pass verification, then build campaigns (goal, budget, countries), ad groups (one buyer need each, described with "context hints") and ads (title, copy, image, landing page). Install the OpenAI Pixel, tag every link, start with a daily budget, and judge results over weeks, not days.
We manage this as part of our Authority plan: AED 16,000 or USD 4,399 a month, month to month. Ad spend is extra and paid to OpenAI directly. We plan your ads and your organic AI SEO as one, in English and Arabic. Our 30-day guarantee covers our fee, never ad spend.
Before you start: three checks that save money
- Is your business in a listed country? OpenAI says "the legal entity that will advertise and be billed must be based in a country listed as available." On 22 October 2026, the list included the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman and the US.
- Is your category allowed where you want to advertise? Outside the US, OpenAI's policies prohibit legal services, generally prohibit health services, and restrict most financial products. Single property and job listings are prohibited everywhere. Check before you write a single ad.
- Do you have a page that answers the buyer's question? If your only option is a homepage, fix that first. OpenAI's own advice is to "link to the most relevant destination" rather than "defaulting to a generic homepage."
Step 1: Set up the account, as OpenAI documents it
- Go to ads.openai.com and sign up with the OpenAI account tied to your work email.
- Either enter your website so Ads Manager drafts a first ad, or skip to Ads Manager. If you let it draft an ad, read the notice: OpenAI says "your ads will go live once they pass review," so pause the campaign if you are not ready to spend.
- Choose your country, currency and time zone carefully. OpenAI says these "cannot be changed after account creation." A Dubai company should pick the UAE, AED and Dubai time.
- Set your names. The Brand Name is what users see on the ad; the Legal Name is used for billing and business checks. Changing either later triggers a review and can pause your ads.
- Add billing (a card and billing profile). Campaigns cannot deliver until billing is set up.
- Complete business verification. OpenAI says it "may take up to 7 business days."
- Invite your team and your agency. Roles are Admin, Member (creates and manages campaigns) and Viewer.
On 22 October 2026, OpenAI's sign-up page also offered new advertisers USD 500 in ad credit after they spend USD 500. Offers like this change, so check the current terms when you sign up.
Step 2: Structure campaigns around buyer needs
Every ChatGPT campaign has three levels. Getting the middle level right is most of the job.
| Level | What you set | How we use it |
|---|---|---|
| Campaign | Goal, budget, dates, countries, platforms, custom audiences | One per goal and market, such as "UAE leads, English" |
| Ad group | A theme, plus context hints that describe the conversations it fits | One per buyer need, such as "emergency AC repair" vs "annual AC maintenance contract" |
| Ad | Title, copy, image, landing page | Several distinct versions per ad group |
Pick the goal with care, because OpenAI says you cannot change a campaign's goal later. You build a new campaign instead.
- Views (cost per 1,000 views): for being seen.
- Clicks (cost per click): for traffic. OpenAI recommends starting with a maximum bid of USD 3 to 5 per click.
- Conversions: the system aims for a chosen action, such as a lead form, but you still pay per click or per 1,000 views, never per conversion.
Targeting has a few traps. To target one country, you must include it: OpenAI says excluding other countries "does not restrict delivery." Outside product-feed campaigns, you can also target regions, cities and postal codes where available, and choose platforms (iOS app, Android app, or web on desktop, iOS or Android). Custom audiences, such as a customer list, need at least 25,000 matched users to target, though exclusions can be smaller.
Gulf note: OpenAI says some new self-serve accounts "can initially advertise only in their home country" until identity checks pass and they have spent enough there. A UAE account planning a Saudi campaign should plan to start in the UAE.
Step 3: Choose the conversations, with context hints
ChatGPT ads do not use keywords. You describe, in plain words, the situations where your offer helps, and the system decides when that matches a chat. OpenAI calls these context hints and says they are "not exact-match keywords" and do not guarantee delivery.
OpenAI's own guidance is to cover three things: what you offer (features, prices, areas), who it suits, and when it is useful. Write one clear idea per hint, not a list of words. OpenAI's example for a local plumber is "after-hours residential plumbing in [city], with an $89 service-call fee for urgent repairs."
Weak hints
- "cleaning Dubai"
- "best movers, cheap movers, movers UAE"
- "show this ad only to people in Abu Dhabi" (a delivery rule, which hints cannot enforce)
Stronger hints
- "Deep cleaning for families moving out of rented villas in Dubai who need the deposit back"
- "Same-week apartment moves within Abu Dhabi with fixed prices by bedroom count"
- "Arabic-speaking tutors for Grade 10 maths, online or at home in Sharjah"
Where do good hints come from? From the questions your buyers really ask. We pull them from three places: your sales chats and WhatsApp messages, the questions we track for your AI SEO, and the follow-up questions ChatGPT itself suggests. That last source is often the most honest picture of how people phrase a need.
Step 4: Write ads that match how people ask
Someone who just explained their problem to ChatGPT does not want a slogan. OpenAI says ads with "clear, specific, and benefit-focused copy are more likely to be relevant." In practice:
- Title: say what it is and why it helps, in a few words. "Villa deep cleaning, fixed price by size" beats "Sparkle like never before".
- Copy: add what the title did not: price, area, timing, who it is for.
- Many versions: OpenAI recommends "a high volume and diverse set of ads," each with a different angle, so the system has more chances to find a fit.
- Image: simple and on topic. No clutter, nothing abstract.
- Don't copy ChatGPT's look. OpenAI's policies ban ads that imitate its interface or voice.
- Be literally true. Unfounded claims about prices, outcomes or affiliations are banned in every category. Saying "#1 in Dubai" without proof is a rejection waiting to happen.
Step 5: Build landing pages that answer the question
This is where ChatGPT ads are won or lost, and where ads and AI SEO overlap most. The page a user lands on should answer the exact question that led to the ad: price, area, timing, what is included, who it is not for, and one clear way to act (WhatsApp, call, book).
- Let OpenAI's crawlers in. OpenAI says landing pages "must not block OpenAI user agents (OAI-AdsBot and OAI-SearchBot)." Check your robots.txt and your firewall, not just one of them. OAI-SearchBot is also the crawler behind ChatGPT's organic search, so this helps both channels.
- Keep the offer the same end to end. OpenAI reviews the ad and the landing page together. An allowed ad that links to a page selling something disallowed gets rejected.
- Arabic ads need Arabic pages. Send Arabic ads to a real Arabic page, not an English page with a translate button.
Step 6: Track conversions properly
- Install the OpenAI Pixel on every relevant page, and fire an event when the real action happens: a lead form, a WhatsApp tap, a booking, a purchase.
- Add the Conversions API from your server or CRM if you can, and send the same event ID through both so OpenAI can remove duplicates.
- Keep the click reference. OpenAI adds a code called
opprefto the landing page link. Make sure redirects and forms do not strip it. - Tag every ad link with UTM parameters, such as
utm_source=chatgpt.com&utm_medium=paid. OpenAI says these "persist on ad clicks." This matters because organic ChatGPT visits also arrive taggedutm_source=chatgpt.com, as we see on adjoltz.com. Without a paid tag, you cannot tell your ads from your organic mentions. - Expect gaps between tools. OpenAI may include "modeled conversions" in its totals, and its numbers will not match GA4 exactly. Its ad-review crawlers can also visit your landing pages with tracking tags; OpenAI says those visits are not billed, but your analytics may count them as paid traffic.
- Ask every lead how they found you. It is the one check that no setting can break.
Step 7: Budgets and a 30, 60 and 90 day test plan
OpenAI's minimum daily budget is AED 65 for a UAE account, SAR 50 in Saudi Arabia, QAR 60 in Qatar and USD 25 in the US. Two budget rules catch people out. A daily budget is an average over a Sunday to Saturday week, so one day can spend up to twice the daily amount. And spend figures can lag 7 to 8 hours behind views and clicks.
The plan below is our own way of testing a new channel, not an OpenAI rule:
| Period | What we do | What we decide at the end |
|---|---|---|
| Days 1 to 30: learn | One campaign per market and language, 2 to 4 ad groups (one per buyer need), 4 or more ads each. Clicks goal with a daily budget. Tracking checked before launch. | Which ad groups get delivery, which get clicks, and whether those clicks become leads at all |
| Days 31 to 60: focus | Cut the weakest ad groups, rewrite their hints and ads, improve the landing pages. Once the Pixel has recorded enough conversions, test a Conversions campaign alongside. | Cost per lead by ad group, compared with your other paid channels |
| Days 61 to 90: decide | Move budget to what works. Test a second market or Arabic if the first is working. Compare paid and organic ChatGPT leads. | Scale, hold or stop. Stopping is a valid result |
OpenAI says it does not yet have benchmarks "across advertisers, industries, or campaign types," and that delivery can swing during the beta. So the only fair comparison is your own: a ChatGPT lead against a Google or Meta lead for the same service.
Step 8: What to report every week
- Spend, views, clicks, click rate, average cost per click and per 1,000 views, by ad group
- Conversions in Ads Manager, next to the leads you actually received from tagged ChatGPT ad links
- Cost per real lead, and how many of those leads became customers
- Ads rejected or "not serving," with the reason and the fix
- What changed this week and why, one change at a time where possible
- Organic: whether ChatGPT named you this week for the same questions the ads target
Policy traps we see coming
- Wrong category, wrong market. An ad can pass review and still be "ineligible to serve in its selected countries" because its category is limited there.
- A legal or medical angle sneaks in. A business setup consultant who promises "legal advice on visas", or a gym that promises weight loss results, can tip into restricted categories.
- Listings. Ads for a single property or a single job are prohibited. Link to the listings page, not to one unit.
- Health claims. Wellness products that make unsupported health claims are banned.
- Brand and domain mismatch. Your ad's website must match your verified business, or the domain will not be approved.
- Sensitive topics. Ads that touch religion, politics or other sensitive subjects are not allowed, which matters in Gulf markets around national and religious events.
Why work with Adjoltz
Ads and AI SEO, planned as one
Most agencies run ads in one team and organic in another, if they do organic at all. We run both together. The questions we track for your AI SEO become your context hints. The landing pages we build for ads are the same pages ChatGPT reads for organic answers. And every week we check whether you are named in the answer for the questions your ads target, so you can see when an ad has become less necessary.
Our own research on how AI answers are built
We have asked AI assistants 1,500 real buyer questions across the UAE, the US and Saudi Arabia, and coded every business and source they named. To be clear, those studies used Claude with live search and Gemini, not ChatGPT, so they show how AI answers are built in general. They found that answers lean on directories and lists more than on business websites, that Arabic answers are thinner, and that the names change from run to run. That is the ground your ads sit next to.
English and Arabic
Our team writes Arabic for Gulf readers, not translations. We run Arabic ads in their own ad groups with their own landing pages, and we report on them separately.
Published prices, no lock-in
| Plan | UAE and GCC | US and worldwide | ChatGPT ads management |
|---|---|---|---|
| Foundation | AED 4,500 a month | USD 1,249 a month | Not included |
| Growth | AED 8,500 a month | USD 2,349 a month | Not included |
| Authority | AED 16,000 a month | USD 4,399 a month | Included |
Month to month, no minimum term, no setup fee. Ad spend is always extra, paid by you straight to OpenAI on your own account, at the prices OpenAI's auction sets. We never mark it up, because it never passes through us. US prices are on our US page.
The guarantee, and what it does not cover
Our guarantee is unconditional: in the first 30 days, if you are not named for at least 3 commercial questions on the approved list, or you are unhappy for any other reason, we refund 100% of the fees you paid us, in cash, within 7 working days. It covers our fees only. It never covers ad spend you paid to OpenAI, because that money went to OpenAI, not to us.
How it starts
The first step is our free AI check: we ask ChatGPT the questions your buyers ask and show you where you are named. Then a call, where we tell you plainly whether your category can advertise in your market, and whether ads are worth testing for you at all.
What we don't promise
- No guaranteed clicks, leads, cost per lead or return on ad spend. OpenAI publishes no benchmarks, and neither will we invent one.
- No influence over ChatGPT's organic answers through ads. OpenAI says ads "do not influence the answers," and that is true for us too.
- No special access. We are not an OpenAI partner and hold no certified status. We use the same Ads Manager as everyone else.
- No approval for prohibited categories, and no tricks to get around review.
- No promise that ads will serve in every Gulf country from day one, or that Arabic ads will get the same delivery as English ones. We test and report what happens.
New to ChatGPT ads? Start with why ChatGPT ads matter, and see how to get recommended in the answer itself.