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Charlotte Waterson

ChatGPT Ads: Should B2B Marketers Care?

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ChatGPT Ads: Should B2B Marketers Care?

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ChatGPT Ads: Should B2B Marketers Care?

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:

Book a consultation with our B2B SEO agency

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:

Is your brand visible in AI search?

B2B SEO is changing. Are you ready?

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?

8. Need help getting started?

Whether you’re experimenting with ChatGPT Ads or looking to improve your visibility across AI search, we’re already helping B2B organisations prepare for the next generation of search.

Book a free 30-minute consultation with one of our B2B marketing specialists.

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ChatGPT Ads: Should B2B Marketers Care?

Charlotte Waterson July 7, 2026

Thinking about ChatGPT Ads? We share what we learned from our first B2B campaign, the opportunities we found, and what to know before testing.

GEO Best Practice: Authority and Answers 

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Learn how to build authority and craft AI-ready answers with GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) — a must-know for B2B marketers.

This article tackles yet another emerging acronym in search marketing—GEO. And the strategies that B2B marketers need to be using now or risk being left behind as their prospects’ AI-led buying journeys rapidly evolve. 

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First, let’s break down the acronym: Generative Engine Optimization. 

(FWIW we’re hoping this acronym doesn’t stick around for long given that “geo” has a well-established use as the shortened form of “geography”, but we don’t always get to choose these things…) 

What is Generative Engine Optimisation?

The AI overview for “generative engine optimization” tells us that it’s “a marketing strategy focused on making website content easily understood and utilised by AI-powered search engines and chatbots.” 

In other words, GEO is SEO for AI. 

While SEO optimises content for search engines, notably Google, GEO optimises content so that AI tools can understand, surface and cite that content. 

So, what should B2B marketers do about GEO?

Focus on Authority and Answers. 

Successful B2B marketers will be focused on building brand authority everywhere while creating content that directly answers specific user questions with technical depth backed with real data.  

Let’s start with Authority

Brand authority is by no means new, but it is increasingly critical for a successful GEO (and SEO) strategy. 

B2B marketers need to build a “spiderweb” of brand mentions across the internet, focused on ensuring their brand is associated with key solution areas everywhere possible (and relevant of course).  

They key here is both a breadth of mentions and ensuring that your brand is mentioned in association with the solution or offering. 

Some key tactics for building your authority web include the following: PR mentions, Business Profile optimisation, review or comparison sites, forums and directory listings, and backlinks. 

Backlink strategies for SEO and GEO are very similar, with the notable difference for GEO being you won’t always need an actual link; building your brand equity on sites which are known sources for AI tools will help you appear even without the physical link. 

And now for Answers

A great way to think about GEO is using the SEO principles of EEAT Excellence: demonstrating deep expertise through comprehensive content. 

Focus on content that is structured to answer common, real life user queries, using question optimised pages with answers that come backed with data and statistics. 

Specific on-page tactics include using page headers to ask questions, adding FAQ sections, add links back to your primary service pages (with clear calls to action), and leverage schema markup to help AI search tools understand your content.  

How do you get started with GEO for B2B?

GEO, like SEO, is never truly finished—and embarking on a programme to deliver these strategies may feel daunting. Breaking your approach down into a few distinct phases is a great way to focus resources and make progress without feeling overwhelmed by the opportunities. 

In the first foundational phase, we recommend looking at: 

  • adding schema mark up to key pages 
  • rearchitecting the hero, header content of those key pages to leverage question formats (assuming it doesn’t negatively impact the user journey or wider information architecture) 
  • adding FAQ sections 
  • including FAQ schema 

In the second phase, focus on content expansion, creating question-focused landing pages and developing deeper technical content. 

Consider creating or expanding your use case library—and if you have case studies, look at how they can structure the content to link back to a clear use case, with the customer challenge and your solution. 

A third phase should focus on authority building, including systematic PR and backlink outreach, industry forum participation (e.g. Reddit), and review/comparison site optimisations.  

Need more help with GEO? 

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ChatGPT Ads: Should B2B Marketers Care?

Charlotte Waterson July 7, 2026

Thinking about ChatGPT Ads? We share what we learned from our first B2B campaign, the opportunities we found, and what to know before testing.

Winning in SERPs – it’s more than just PPC and SEO

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Subheading

SERP is a pretty hectic space these days and with lots of entities trying to raise their heads above the parapet

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SERPs of today

Search Engine Results Pages are evolving at a rapid pace with a diverse range of features including ads, featured snippets, ‘people also ask’ accordions, ‘sources across the web’, maps, images, video, and for some – the more recent Search Generative Experiences (SGE for short).

Safe to say, the SERP is a pretty hectic space these days and with lots of entities trying to raise their heads above the parapet, the question becomes “how do you raise your head higher than the rest?”.   

But in spaces that are so competitive, trying to be top of the top just may not be realistic. So is it really a question of just PPC vs/and SEO or is there more at play?

Scanning the SERP landscape for opportunities

Okay, let’s say you’ve identified 10 priority search terms/phrases for your business but you’re particularly frustrated that one of your most important terms is struggling to rank organically despite your best efforts. What can you do?

For the purpose of this example, let’s take an Office Space provider based in Oxford who want to improve their SEO position for the phrase Serviced Offices Oxford.

Let’s have a look at the SERP

At the top you have ads and, in this instance, one from Arena Offices. The ad takes up a large amount of real estate on the page.

This space is highly competitive with organisations like Regus also appearing here regularly. As they may have large amounts of budget, this begs the question of whether you realistically can or should enter the PPC space and if you do – with which keywords?

Google Ads search results for 'Serviced Offices Oxford' search

Google Maps appear next, with an ad (hello again Arena) before a handful or organic listings.

As we know, the higher you rank, the more traffic you’ll receive but in the case of maps, often users will choose to click on ‘more places’ to refine their search (e.g. is it near the station? Is it near a main road?). Therefore, this definitely offers up an opportunity to gain some in-market traffic.

Google Maps Ads and Organic Listings for 'Serviced Office Space' terms

As you scroll further, you find the space dominated by:

  • Estate Agent websites such as Offices.co.uk, flexioffices.co.uk, easyoffices.co.uk
  • Office Space providers with multiple locations (e.g. Hubble HQ, Pure Offices)
  • You’ve even got Office Space Providers providing blogs on top office spaces i.e listicles – this includes Hubble HQ & Runway East
SERP analysis for the term 'Serviced Offices Oxford'

Looking at this list, if you are an independent Office Space provider with just the one location, chances are you’re unlikely to appear on page 1 of results.

So, what do you do?

If you can’t beat them…can you join them?

In the example above, there are a few key questions to ask:

  1. Should you run ads? Are there other terms to focus on?
  2. Can/Should you get listed on Estate Agent sites?
  3. Can you get featured in the ‘listicles’?
  4. Can you improve your Google Business Profile to rank higher?

The answer will be based on a variety of criteria including:

  1. Cost vs return
    1. If considering PPC, you may need to refine keywords further for higher intent/likelihood to convert as this is a highly competitive space. E.g. should you add in more refinement – ‘small serviced office space’, ‘24/7 office space’, ‘office space with parking’ etc
    2. Getting listed on Estate Agent sites can be expensive so having an idea of what impressions, clicks and conversion rates you can expect from a listing will be key. Consider running a pilot test with a high ranking site as a first port of call
  2. PR capability
    1. To get featured on listicles, you’ll need an outreach plan and have the internal resource and skillsets to achieve this. Get ready to schmooze perhaps with a personalised tour of the space!
  3. Understanding Google Business Profile Best Practice
    1. Ranking well in Google Map results requires a well optimised listing. This means optimising photos, descriptions, products, services and importantly gaining and responding to reviews. Following best practice can pay huge dividends so for local searches is often the number 1 thing you should/could focus efforts on

Identifying SERP opportunities – the ‘SERP Scan’

We have pulled together three additional examples of this ‘SERP Scan’ approach to help identify how you can find new opportunities that support your wider digital marketing efforts.

Download SERP Scan

Controversial…it’s not all about SERPs!

Being visible in generic SERPs for your own website is great but this shouldn’t be the only driver of what content you create.

People will discover your organisation through a mixture of channels including emails, social, WOM, events etc.

Therefore, even if particular pages of your website are never going to rank organically for a particular term, they may still be vital to include on your website in order to show prospects you are relevant to them by providing content that aligns to their role and sector.

Therefore, when it comes to considering what content to add to your website, it’s always a mix of UX, SEO and CRO.

If you want to hear more from us at Sharp Ahead, sign up for our email newsletter and keep an eye on our blog to stay in the loop.

If you want help with your SERP strategy, please get in touch! 

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ChatGPT Ads: Should B2B Marketers Care?

Charlotte Waterson July 7, 2026

Thinking about ChatGPT Ads? We share what we learned from our first B2B campaign, the opportunities we found, and what to know before testing.

Maximising Success with B2B Paid Social Media Remarketing Campaigns

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Subheading

Effective paid media campaigns are essential for generating leads, building brand awareness, and driving conversions. But what if you could get more out of your current digital marketing strategy?

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That’s where remarketing campaigns on social media platforms come in. While social media platforms such as Pinterest, TikTok and Instagram are typically associated with B2C marketing, advertising on these platforms can also be an effective way for B2B businesses to re-engage potential clients and prospects. In this blog post, we’ll explore the benefits of remarketing campaigns on social media and we’ll share tips for implementing a successful B2B social campaign to help achieve your marketing goals.

What is Remarketing?

Remarketing (also known as retargeting) is a digital marketing strategy that involves targeting individuals who have previously engaged with a business (usually through websites and social media). When users visit a website or interact with content but don’t convert, B2B businesses can use remarketing to remind them of a product or service through targeted ads.

Benefits of B2B Remarketing Campaigns 

1. Increased Conversion Rates By targeting users who have already shown an interest in your products or services, leads are more likely to convert to clients.  2. Nurturing Leads Remarketing allows B2B businesses to nurture leads prospects during typically long B2B consideration cycles and target users at different points in their journey.  3. Brand Visibility Consistent exposure to a business through ads and content helps build brand awareness and stay at the forefront of the minds of prospective clients.  4. Precise Targeting Retargeting based on specific actions such as visiting key web pages means that ad messaging can be tailored to the target audience based on previous activity.  5. Cost-Effective Advertising and improved ROI In B2B marketing, remarketing social campaigns usually spend very little due to lower audience sizes. They often result in a higher return on ad spend due to higher conversion rates, lower ad costs and more precise targeting.

Tips for Implementing a Successful B2B Remarketing Campaign 

1. Choose the Right Social Media Platforms: While LinkedIn is often the go-to platform for B2B marketing due to targeting options such as job titles and company size, platforms such as Pinterest and TikTok can also be effective in re-engaging audiences.  2. Install the Remarketing Pixel: On each chosen social media platform, install the remarketing pixel or tracking code on your website. This code tracks user interactions on your site and allows you to create custom audiences. It’s also important to be mindful of any impact installing a pixel will have on your cookie policy or CMP.  3. Segment Your Audience: In order to run targeted campaigns with tailored messaging, we recommend segmenting audiences based on the specific products or services they’ve shown interest in.  4. Set Frequency Caps: Setting frequency caps in your campaigns reduces the risk of ad fatigue and prevents overexposure to remarketing audiences.  5. Lead with Value: Deliver valuable content to your audiences.  6. Monitor and Optimise: Finally, it’s important to monitor the live campaigns and make any optimisations needed to improve key metrics such as CPCs and CTRs.

Retargeting Options on Social Media Platforms 

There are various retargeting options available on each social media platform, which is why it’s important to carefully consider your B2B remarketing strategy when choosing the right platforms to advertise on.

TikTok Audiences 

Creating a custom audience

Pinterest Audiences

Reconnect with users

X (formerly Twitter) Audiences

Choose an audience type

Snapchat Audiences

Select a type of audience to create

Meta (Facebook and Instagram) Audiences

Choose a custom audience source

Remarketing social campaigns can be a game-changer for B2B businesses. By reconnecting with users who have previously shown interest in your products or services, you can stay top-of-mind, nurture leads, and increase conversion rates. It’s a cost-effective strategy that can significantly boost your B2B marketing success.

Have questions about remarketing paid social campaigns or any other aspect of B2B digital marketing? We’d love to hear from you—and we offer a free 30-minute consultation. Get in touch!

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ChatGPT Ads: Should B2B Marketers Care?

Charlotte Waterson July 7, 2026

Thinking about ChatGPT Ads? We share what we learned from our first B2B campaign, the opportunities we found, and what to know before testing.

A change to insights on Google Business Profiles

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Subheading

If your company uses a Google Business Profile, you will have experienced many changes to this platform over the last couple of years. And this month Google retires the distinction between branded, direct and discovery searches. Read on to find out why this is important and what you need to do next. 

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What’s a Google Business Profile?

Google Business Profiles (formerly Google My Business listings) are a key tool for organisations. They appear on the right-hand side of the Search Engine Results Page (SERP), and on Google Maps with key business information and CTAs.

This rich set of information makes them an important piece of digital real estate, with the local map often appearing before any other organic listings. 

Listings can be created manually or you may find Google has started one for you; they can be populated with user generated content and are often carefully curated by your digital marketing team or agency. 

What’s changing?

Over the years GBP profiles have become increasingly more engaging with visual features such as photos, videos and product imagery within the listing. Most recently Google has changed how you access and edit key parts of your profile, moving key parts of this functionality within the SERP rather than through the back-end platform. 

In addition to this, Google has changed how it categorises the reporting available from your profiles, most notably how it handles user searches. 

What were the types of searches?

Up until now Google classified the way users found your business profile into three categories: branded searches, direct searches and discovery searches.  

  • Direct Searches: These were people who found your business profile searching for your business name or address, e.g. “Sharp Ahead Reading.”  
  • Discovery Searches: These were people who find your business profile searching for a category, product, or service that your business offers, e.g. “B2B digital marketing agency.” 
  • Branded Searches: These were people who found your listing searching for a brand related to your business e.g. “Sharp Ahead.” 

These numbers were a way to gauge not only when your profile was being served, but also the level of brand awareness amongst searchers – which was particularly useful when marketing a physical location such as a coffee shop or coworking space – with the all-important discovery searches indicating how many users found your listing who may not have been aware of your brand.  

What will this effect?

If you’ve automated any reporting on these metrics through Google’s API (such as Google’s Looker Studio) you’ll need to get these updated and replaced with new metrics. 

What should I analyse now?

The performance metrics on Google Business Profiles now fall into two categories – how people found your listing and what action they take from it:

  • Views: These are how many people saw your business profile, broken down by the platform and device that they’re on.  
  • Searches: These show the search terms that people used that returned your business profile in the results. This is a useful addition to the platform and can be used as a replacement for the categorised search metrics, allowing you to analyse whether your listing is found through branded or generic searches. 
  • Plus all the interaction metrics you’d expect – calls, messages, direction requests and website clicks.  

What do we think?

The categorised search types were a great way of analysing the performance of your business profile at a glance. However, the loss of these metrics is balanced by the addition of the search breakdown within GBP – giving digital marketers clarity on what exactly is triggering your GBP profile, which can inform your SEO strategy. Top tip: If you find you’re not ranking for generic search terms consider your description, categories, products and services and…  

If you need support with your Google Business Profile or B2B digital marketing strategy, get in touch with us today for a free 30 minute consultation.  

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ChatGPT Ads: Should B2B Marketers Care?

Charlotte Waterson July 7, 2026

Thinking about ChatGPT Ads? We share what we learned from our first B2B campaign, the opportunities we found, and what to know before testing.

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