A new place to be found - ChatGPT ads
People now bring their decisions to ChatGPT. Which contractor to choose for a home build, which hotel to book, where to rent your offices, which doctor is most skilled at an illness or injury.
On September 23, OpenAI began rolling out ChatGPT ads across Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and Taiwan. The launch follows Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea and India. ChatGPT ads are now available in more than 60 countries.
The platform has scaled quickly. OpenAI reports it passed $1 billion in annualized revenue run rate in under 200 days, with tens of thousands of advertisers already running campaigns.
Ads appear only for people on the Free and Go plans. They are labeled, they sit apart from ChatGPT's answers, and OpenAI states that advertisers never see the conversation itself.
For brands in Indonesia, this opens a paid route into the moment someone is weighing up their options.
From keywords to context
For twenty years, paid search has run on keywords. An advertiser picks the keywords, sets a bid, and waits for someone to type them.
ChatGPT ads run on context. Advertisers describe the conversations, topics and needs where their product is relevant. The platform reads the whole exchange, including what the person wants to achieve, what matters to them and the constraints they are working within.
That is a far richer signal than three words in a search bar. Someone reading up on apartment prices in South Jakarta and someone asking which developers offer ready-to-move-in units with bank financing may use many of the same words.
Their intent is completely different, and the conversation makes it visible.
This changes the craft. Targeting becomes a matter of describing your buyer precisely: their role, their problem, the stage of their decision. It also means describing who you are not for, so that budget is spent on people with a real reason to buy.
Fewer clicks but better clicks
We expect ChatGPT ads to deliver fewer clicks than search, at a higher conversion rate.
By the time someone clicks, the conversation has already done much of the work. They have described their problem, compared their options and narrowed the field. The click comes late in the decision.
Organic ChatGPT traffic already shows this pattern. Visibility Labs analyzed 94 ecommerce brands across 2025 and found ChatGPT referrals converted at 1.81 percent, against 1.39 percent for non-branded organic search. That is a 31 percent higher conversion rate despite organic search sending 47 sessions for every one from ChatGPT (note this is a large scale study which was conducted in 2025, 2026 conversion rates and search share are trending strongly upwards).
The evidence is still forming. A larger study of 973 ecommerce sites, covering August 2024 to July 2025, found ChatGPT traffic converted 13 percent below organic search. Early audiences and early interfaces behave differently, and the more recent data points upward. The traffic we see from ChatGPT across our own client sites follows the same shape: lower volume, stronger intent, higher conversion rates.
This matters for how campaigns are judged. Cost per click will look high next to traditional paid search campaigns. Click volume will likely look thin.
The metrics that likely matter on this channel likely sit further down the funnel:
Cost per qualified lead or sale, measured against search and social
Conversion rate and lead quality from ChatGPT traffic specifically
Branded search lift after exposure, since many people see a recommendation in ChatGPT and then search for the brand on Google
Assisted conversions, because last-click models will undercount this channel
ChatGPT ads can be judged on what they contribute on the funnel.
Mental availability still decides
An ad places you in the conversation. Your brand determines whether you are chosen.
The Ehrenberg-Bass Institute has shown for decades that brands grow by being easy to bring to mind at the moment of choice. ChatGPT ads give that moment a new home. Someone describes a need, and a brand appears beside the answer.
What happens next depends on what that person already knows. Research from Trine University and Texas A&M found that when products were otherwise identical, AI models recommended the known brand every time. The same research found brand identity explained only 1.2 percent of the ranking once real differences existed. Brand breaks the tie. Clear, verifiable reasons to choose you do the rest.
Paid placement works hardest for brands that are already familiar and give people a specific reason to act. It amplifies the brand you have built. It cannot stand in for one.
The same logic applies to organic visibility. The brands that appear in ChatGPT's answers, without paying, are the ones whose evidence is clear and easy to find. Paid and organic presence in AI now work as one system.
How we are approaching ChatGPT Ads at Juicebox
We are testing ChatGPT ads now, across a range of clients and industries.
Thank you to the clients who have stepped into the unknown with us. Moving early on a new channel takes confidence, and it gives them a head start.
The platform has been live in Indonesia for less than a week, and it is still in beta. Results and what we learn will follow once testing has run its course.
The moment of decision has moved
The people choosing your brand are now asking a machine for advice first. ChatGPT ads give you a place in that conversation. Your brand, your proof and your site decide what happens next.
Planning ChatGPT ads for your brand? Speak to a strategist.
