ChatGPT Ads Manager: A Walkthrough of Every Setting (2026)
Every major ChatGPT Ads Manager setting explained in plain language, from account and billing to bids, context hints, chat cards, tracking and bulk edits, with recommended defaults.
ChatGPT Ads Manager is OpenAI's self-serve tool for buying ads in ChatGPT. It opened in beta to US advertisers on May 5, 2026, and it has changed quickly since: CPC bidding at launch, bulk edits and CPM-to-CPC conversion in June, product-feed and carousel formats plus oCPC in August.
Because it is new, there is not much written about what each setting does or what to choose. This walkthrough goes level by level, from account to ad, and gives a sensible default for each. Exact labels and menus can shift during a beta, so treat this as a map of concepts rather than a pixel-perfect screenshot tour.
How Ads Manager is structured
Like most ad platforms, Ads Manager is a hierarchy:
| Level | What you set here |
|---|---|
| Ad account | Business details, billing, users, tracking |
| Campaign | Objective, budget, bid type, schedule, market |
| Ad group | Context hints, bid amount, landing destination |
| Ad (chat card) | Title, body, image, URL |
If you have used Meta or Google Ads, this will feel familiar. The big difference sits at the ad group level, where context hints replace keywords and audiences.
Account-level settings
Business profile
Your advertiser name and favicon appear on every chat card. Use the brand name customers know, and make sure the favicon on your site is clean and legible at small sizes. A blurry favicon makes a card look less trustworthy.
Billing
OpenAI bills ad spend directly to the payment method on the account. Use a company card with a limit comfortably above your planned monthly spend so delivery does not pause unexpectedly.
Users and partners
You can invite other people to the account with different permission levels. If an agency or a service like SecondWin manages your ads, invite them as an Admin rather than handing over your login or letting them own the account. You keep the account, the history and the data if you ever change partners. Our guide to setting up an OpenAI ad account covers this in detail.
Tracking
This is where you install the OpenAI pixel (often called the OAIQ pixel) and connect the Conversions API. Track at least page views, add to cart or sign-up, and purchases or leads. Automatic advanced matching, rolled out in August 2026, improves how conversions are matched to ad clicks.
Recommended default: install both the pixel and the Conversions API, then send a test conversion and confirm it appears before launching any campaign. For details, see ChatGPT ads conversion tracking.
Campaign-level settings
Objective
Choose what you want the campaign to drive: traffic, conversions or awareness, depending on the options in your market. For most consumer brands, conversions (purchases or leads) is the right goal once tracking works.
Market
Pick the country you want to advertise in. ChatGPT ads were reported live in 40-plus countries by late 2026, and minimum budgets vary by market. Run separate campaigns for separate countries so you can set budgets and read results cleanly.
Budget
Daily budgets start at about $25 per campaign in the US. Budget type edits were added in June 2026, so you can adjust how budget is set without rebuilding the campaign.
Recommended default: $50 to $200 a day for a first campaign. The minimum works, but it produces so few conversions that you may wait months to learn anything. Use the ChatGPT ads budget calculator to see how many clicks and conversions a budget should buy.
Bid type
You will choose between:
- CPM: pay per 1,000 impressions. Third-party reports put CPMs at roughly $25 to $45.
- CPC: pay per click. OpenAI's recommended starting bids work out to roughly $3 to $5.
- oCPC: optimized CPC, in beta for product-feed campaigns since August 2026.
Recommended default: CPC for a first campaign. If you started on CPM, the June 2026 update lets you convert an existing campaign to CPC.
Schedule
Set a start date and, optionally, an end date. Leave the end date open for evergreen campaigns and control spend with the daily budget instead.
Ad group-level settings
Context hints
This is the core of ChatGPT targeting. Context hints are plain-language descriptions of the situations your ad belongs in, such as "parent looking for a quick weeknight dinner their kids will eat." They are not keyword lists. ChatGPT matches ads to conversations by meaning, and may use what it remembers across a person's chats to pick relevant ads.
Recommended default: three to five hints per ad group, all describing the same underlying need. Use the context hints generator for a first draft and see our context hints guide for how to write and test them.
Bid amount
If you use CPC, set a bid here or at the campaign level depending on how your account is configured. Start near OpenAI's recommended bid. Bidding far below it often means little or no delivery, and bidding far above it before you have data just raises costs.
Landing destination
Every ad needs a URL. OpenAI requires the landing page to match the ad, so point each ad group to the most relevant page rather than your homepage. Add UTM parameters so ChatGPT traffic shows clearly in your analytics.
Ad-level settings: the chat card
| Field | Limit (as of mid-2026) | Tips |
|---|---|---|
| Title | 3 to 50 characters | Lead with the outcome or the answer |
| Body | About 100 characters | Add one proof point or a concrete detail |
| Image | One image | Show the product in use, keep text minimal |
| URL | Must match the ad | Send to a page that continues the promise |
A sample card for a hypothetical cookware brand:
- Title: Nonstick Pans Without the Coating Worry
- Body: Ceramic-coated skillets that release eggs easily. Oven safe to 500°F. Free returns for 30 days.
Write at least three cards per ad group so the system can rotate and you can compare angles. Check length with the ad character counter.
Review and approval
Ads are reviewed against OpenAI's policies before they run. Common reasons for rejection include unverifiable claims, superlatives without proof, fake urgency, before-and-after imagery, trademark use and landing pages that do not match the ad. Restricted categories like health, supplements, finance and alcohol get extra scrutiny. See our ChatGPT ad policies guide before submitting.
Product-feed and carousel campaigns
In August 2026 Ads Manager added product-feed campaigns and carousel formats. Instead of writing every card by hand, you connect a catalog, and ads can show individual products with their own image, title and price. oCPC bidding is available in beta for these campaigns.
These suit stores with many SKUs. Keep your feed clean: accurate titles, prices that match the site and high-quality images. Errors in the feed become errors in your ads.
Bulk edits and day-to-day management
Bulk edits, added in June 2026, let you change bids, budgets or statuses across many campaigns or ads at once. This is useful when you run several markets or ad groups.
A light weekly routine:
- Check delivery and approvals for any rejected or limited ads.
- Review CTR by card and pause clear laggards.
- Review cost per conversion by ad group and shift budget toward winners.
- Add fresh cards for winning angles.
- Note any changes so you can link them to results.
Reporting
Ads Manager reports standard metrics: impressions, clicks, CTR, spend, CPC, CPM, conversions and cost per conversion. Some advertisers also connect third-party tools; integrations with platforms such as Triple Whale and Hightouch have been reported.
For context, Similarweb reported an average ChatGPT ad CTR around 0.68%, with top brands near 1.57%. Use these as loose reference points, not targets.
How SecondWin helps
If you would rather not learn every setting, SecondWin handles Ads Manager for you. You invite SecondWin as an Admin on your OpenAI ad account, which takes about ten minutes. We then build campaigns from proven messages in your niche, found by mining the longest-running ads on Meta's Ad Library, write original chat cards and context hints, policy-check every ad, and manage bids, budgets and refreshes. Ad spend stays on your own bill with OpenAI.
Start with a free analysis of your website or see what each plan includes. SecondWin is independent and not affiliated with OpenAI.
FAQ
Is ChatGPT Ads Manager free to use?
Yes. Ads Manager has no platform fee; you pay only for the ad spend your campaigns generate, billed directly by OpenAI. There is no minimum total spend, and the minimum daily budget is about $25 per campaign in the US as of mid-2026. Your costs depend on whether you bid CPM, CPC or oCPC and on how competitive your niche is.
Who can use ChatGPT Ads Manager?
Self-serve Ads Manager opened in beta to US advertisers on May 5, 2026, and has since expanded as ads rolled out to more markets. Most legitimate businesses can sign up, though products in prohibited categories cannot advertise and restricted categories such as health, finance and alcohol face extra review. Check Ads Manager for availability in your country.
Can I give an agency access without sharing my login?
Yes. Ads Manager lets you invite other users to your ad account with set permissions. This is the right way to work with an agency or managed service: they get access to manage campaigns, while you keep ownership of the account, billing, history and conversion data. If you ever switch partners, you remove their access and keep everything.
What is the difference between CPM and CPC in Ads Manager?
With CPM you pay for every thousand times your ad is shown, whether or not anyone clicks. With CPC you pay only when someone clicks. CPM was the original option; CPC was added with self-serve, and since June 2026 you can convert CPM campaigns to CPC. For most first campaigns focused on sales or leads, CPC is easier to control.