Month: July 2026

Should B2B marketers care? Yes.

Should you move budget from Google or LinkedIn? Not yet.

Our recommendation: Run a small test campaign, use it to understand how your audience behaves in ChatGPT, and treat it as part of your wider AI search strategy rather than another performance advertising channel. The biggest competitive advantage today isn't perfect ROI—it's gaining experience before everyone else.

Our view of ChatGPT Ads

ChatGPT Ads are beginning to roll out, raising an obvious question for B2B marketers: are they a genuine opportunity or just another shiny new channel?

Our view is simple: they're worth testing—but with the right expectations. ChatGPT Ads aren't a replacement for Google Search or LinkedIn. Instead, they sit somewhere between search, social and display.

We recently launched our own ChatGPT Ads campaign to understand how the platform works.

Here's what we learned.

1. ChatGPT Ads aren't another search ads channel

The biggest mistake we see B2B marketers making is assuming ChatGPT users are actively looking to buy.

Unlike Google Search, users aren't necessarily in buying mode. They may simply be researching a problem, exploring ideas or learning something new. That changes the role ChatGPT Ads should play.

Instead of focusing on hard conversion messages, think about curiosity and education.

Rather than:

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Try something like:

Is your B2B brand visible in AI search?

For now, ChatGPT Ads feel much stronger as a brand awareness and consideration channel than a bottom-of-funnel lead generation platform. We see them complementing, rather than replacing, traditional demand capture activity.

2. Who can see your ads matters

One of the biggest limitations we found has nothing to do with targeting—it's who is actually eligible to see your ads.

At the time of writing, ChatGPT Ads are shown only to users on the Free and Go plans.

For B2B marketers, that's a significant consideration.

If you're targeting enterprise organisations, many of your ideal buyers may be using ChatGPT Team, Business or Enterprise accounts, so your ads are more likely to be viewed out of business hours.

On the other hand, if you sell to SMEs, owner-managed businesses, consultants or independent professionals, these audiences are much more likely to use the free version of ChatGPT when they are in a “work” mindset.

Bear this mind when you set expectations of the campaigns and where they sit in your marketing mix—ChatGPT ads for most B2B marketers will be for brand awareness and visibility during the consideration cycle, not directly for lead generation.

3. Treat your first campaign as a learning exercise

The mechanics of creating a campaign are refreshingly simple. Compared with Google Ads or Meta, there are relatively few decisions to make.

With little to choose from in terms of campaign types, objectives, or geography, the risk is that marketers are being asked to simply trust OpenAI to spend their media budget wisely. And one of the only levers they have to pull is context hints.

4. Context hints matter more than we expected

Context hints are one of the most important optimisation levers currently available.

They're not keywords, and they're not LinkedIn audiences. Think of them as signals that help ChatGPT understand the types of conversations where your advert is most relevant.

Build them around:

• customer problems
• buyer language
• category and competitor themes
• common sales questions and use cases

AI can help generate ideas, but experienced marketers should refine them.

Our biggest takeaway? Your context hints should reflect how buyers think—not simply describe what your business sells.

5. Landing pages and creative still matter

Don't send traffic to your homepage.

If someone clicks an advert about AI search visibility, they should arrive on a page that explains the topic in depth, demonstrates expertise and gives them a logical next step.

Educational content will almost always outperform generic homepage traffic for early-stage buyers.

Creative is equally important.

With short headlines and descriptions, every word matters.

The strongest ChatGPT Ads typically do one of three things:

• Ask a relevant question
• Highlight a problem
• Offer a clear next step

For example:

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Improve visibility in ChatGPT and Google AI.

6. Reporting is still immature

Like any early advertising platform, ChatGPT Ads still have some obvious limitations.

The biggest is reporting.

Compared with Google Ads or LinkedIn Campaign Manager, there's currently much less visibility into what's driving performance. You won't necessarily have the same level of insight into placements or optimisation opportunities.

That means your first campaigns should stay deliberately simple.

Start with:

• one clear objective
• one landing page
• focused context hints
• tracking from day one
• agreed success measures

Keeping variables to a minimum makes it much easier to understand what's working.

Other limitations we observed include:

Geography: Targeting is currently limited to country level, which may restrict organisations with highly local or regional audiences.

Minimum spend: The minimum daily budget is currently £15 per day, which feels relatively high for an emerging platform.

Context hint planning: There is currently no indication of potential audience size or demand for individual context hints, so choosing them relies heavily on marketer experience.

7. Our recommendation

ChatGPT Ads aren't yet a proven B2B lead generation machine.

They are, however, becoming another place where buyers discover suppliers, evaluate ideas and research solutions.

That's why we think they're worth testing now—not because they're perfect today, but because the organisations that gain experience early will have an advantage as the platform matures.

Most importantly, don't think about ChatGPT Ads in isolation.

They should form part of a broader AI search strategy, where paid advertising complements strong organic visibility across ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews and other AI-powered search experiences.

Ultimately, every B2B marketer should be asking the same question:

When your buyers ask AI for recommendations, does your business show up?