We got hands-on access to OpenAI's new Ads Manager beta. Here's a first look at how the platform is built, what you can set up today, and the parts that still aren't clear.
OpenAI is building an ads platform — and it looks a lot like Google Ads
OpenAI has quietly started rolling out Ads Manager, its own self-serve advertising platform, currently labelled Beta. We got into the beta and spent time walking through every screen. If you've ever run a Google or Meta campaign, the structure will feel immediately familiar: a campaign → ad group → ad hierarchy, objective-based campaigns, daily or total budgets, conversion tracking and product feeds.
This is a “what it looks like” tour rather than a results write-up — the platform is brand new and our account isn't serving ads yet. But it's one of the first proper looks at how OpenAI is approaching advertising.
The layout: four sections you'll live in
- Campaigns — your main workspace, with sub-tabs for Campaigns, Ad groups and Ads.
- Tools — Change History (a full audit log), Conversions (tracking setup) and Feeds (product catalogue uploads).
- Billing — Overview, Activity, Documents and Settings.
- Settings — account General settings and Users.
The campaigns table will be instantly readable to any PPC marketer: an Active toggle, then Name, Status, Type, Actions, Impressions, Clicks, Conversions and Spend, with a date-range picker and the usual filter and column controls.
Creating a campaign: a familiar three-step wizard
Hitting Create → Create campaign opens a three-step flow — Create Campaign, then Create Ad Group & Ads, then Review. The first step is where the interesting choices live:
- Campaign type: Standard or Product feed. Product-feed campaigns auto-generate ads from an uploaded catalogue plus ad-group product filters — clearly aimed at e-commerce advertisers.
- Objective: Reach, Clicks or Conversions — the metric the campaign optimises towards.
- Locations: geo-targeting (defaulted to the UK on our account).
- Budget: a Daily budget or Campaign total.
- Conversion event (optional).
One gotcha worth flagging now: your budget type (daily vs. campaign total) is locked at the moment of creation and can't be changed later — only the amount can be edited afterwards. Choose deliberately.
Conversion tracking and product feeds are already here
Two things tell you OpenAI is building this for serious, performance-focused advertisers.
Conversions. There's a full conversion-tracking system with a clear four-step model: create a data source, create a conversion event, log the event (via an API integration), then link the event to a campaign. API keys are managed inside the conversions settings.
Feeds. Product catalogues are ingested by uploading a product feed over SFTP, keeping ads in sync with your latest items, prices, availability and metadata — the same pattern you'll know from Google Merchant Center.
A proper audit log
The Change History tool logs every action — campaign created, status changed, budget edited — with the before and after value, who did it and when, plus filtering and export. For agencies managing accounts on a client's behalf, that accountability out of the gate is genuinely useful.
What we still don't know
- Where the ads actually appear. Presumably inside ChatGPT experiences, but the exact placements and formats aren't confirmed yet.
- Creative specs. Headline, image and copy fields, character limits and formats for the ad build itself.
- Pricing and auction model. CPC, CPM, minimum spend and bidding mechanics.
- Targeting depth. Beyond location, what audience, interest and keyword controls exist.
- Performance. Our account hasn't served yet, so there are no real numbers to share.
Why this matters
If ChatGPT becomes a place where hundreds of millions of people research products and ask for recommendations, advertising inside that experience is a fundamentally new channel — and the brands who learn the platform early will have the advantage. The infrastructure OpenAI has shipped — objectives, conversion tracking, product feeds, audit logging — signals they're building this to be a real, measurable performance channel, not an experiment.
We'll be testing it properly as our account goes live, and will follow up with a hands-on guide covering ad formats, targeting and — most importantly — what actually performs.
Thinking about how your brand shows up inside AI tools like ChatGPT? That's exactly what we help with. Get in touch and we'll talk through where AI search and AI advertising fit into your strategy.
This is a first look at a beta product as of June 2026; OpenAI's Ads Manager is changing quickly and specifics may differ by the time you read this.
