aisearch.marketing field guide · ChatGPT Ads · October 2026

Setting up ChatGPT Ads for a finance business: what to do, in order

A step-by-step guide to OpenAI's ad platform for lenders, brokers and other regulated finance advertisers: eligibility, conversion tracking, ad groups, context hints, ads and how to judge the results. It is written to work whatever your landing pages, tag manager and CRM are. Everything here comes from OpenAI's own documentation and from setting up a live account in September 2026.

1Check you're allowed to advertise

• Eligibility is checked when you sign up, not just when an ad is reviewed. OpenAI considers whether what you sell is eligible during advertiser verification.
• "Generally prohibited" is not "always". A licensed NZ insurance broker was approved for Ads Manager in September 2026. Apply, and let OpenAI give you the answer.
• Account approval is not ad approval. Every ad and landing page is still reviewed. Your first approved ad is the real confirmation.
• The policy changes often. It was rewritten several times in 2026. Check the "Updated" date on the policy page before you build.

2How ChatGPT Ads works

The ad unit has your business name, logo, a title, a description, an image and a link. Advertisers never see the conversations their ads appeared in.

What you can report on: impressions, clicks, spend, click rate, cost per click and conversions, by campaign, ad group and ad. There is no search-terms report and no conversation data. You learn by changing hints and creative and watching delivery, click rate and conversions.

Targeting is country (plus state, DMA or ZIP in the US), platform (iOS, Android, web) and custom audiences. There are no demographic, interest or keyword controls.

3Set up the account

1. The business creates the account, not its agency. OpenAI does not support agencies creating advertiser accounts for clients. The business signs up, completes identity verification (Persona), then invites the agency or consultant as a user.
2. Choose country, currency and time zone carefully. All three are locked when the account is created. Getting one wrong means a new account.
3. Upload the logo under Settings → Account info. Ads won't run without it.
4. Don't submit duplicate applications while one is in review. OpenAI says it slows things down.

4Conversion tracking (do this first)

4.1 Create the data source

In Ads Manager → Tools → Conversions, create a web data source. You get a Pixel ID (public, goes in the browser) and can create a Conversions API key (secret, server-side only). One data source can serve every landing page you own.

4.2 Put the pixel on every landing page

Add OpenAI's setup script to the <head> of every page an ad can land on. Replace YOUR_PIXEL_ID:

<script>!function(w,d,s,u){if(w.oaiq)return;var q=function(){q.q.push(arguments)};q.q=[];w.oaiq=q;var j=d.createElement(s);j.async=1;j.src=u;var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f)}(window,document,"script","https://bzrcdn.openai.com/sdk/oaiq.min.js");oaiq("init",{pixelId:"YOUR_PIXEL_ID",debug:false});</script>

Ads Manager gives you this with debug:true. Set it to false before going live. The pixel must load on the first page the ad lands on. That is where it reads OpenAI's click ID from the URL and stores it.

4.3 Fire one event when the lead happens

oaiq("measure", "lead_created", { type: "customer_action" }, { event_id: "UNIQUE-LEAD-ID" });

• lead_created is OpenAI's standard lead event and the one to choose as the campaign's conversion type. Others include appointment_scheduled, registration_completed and order_created.
• event_id must be unique per lead. Use your form or CRM's lead ID. If the same lead fires twice with the same ID, OpenAI counts it once.
• Fire it once per lead, at the point you'd count a lead anywhere else (usually when contact details are submitted), so you can compare channels fairly.
• Optional value: { type: "customer_action", amount: 5500, currency: "USD" }. Amounts are whole numbers in the currency's smallest unit, so 5500 is 55.00.

4.4 Doing it in Google Tag Manager

If your form platform only fires its lead event for approved pages or forms, make sure the new landing page is on that list. Otherwise the tag never fires and it looks like the channel doesn't convert.

4.5 Keep OpenAI's click ID intact

• OpenAI adds ?oppref=… to your landing URL on every click. It is the click ID that ties a conversion back to an ad.
• Don't add oppref to your tracking parameters. It's reserved, and Ads Manager rejects it with "Reserved query parameters are not supported".
• Don't strip query parameters on any redirect between the ad and the page where the pixel first loads.

4.6 Optional: send conversions from your server too

Browsers block or lose some pixel events. Sending the same conversion from your server (the Conversions API) makes measurement more reliable. Send it with the same event_id as the pixel and OpenAI keeps whichever arrives first.

POST https://bzr.openai.com/v1/events?pid=YOUR_PIXEL_ID
Authorization: Bearer YOUR_CONVERSIONS_API_KEY

{
  "events": [{
    "id": "UNIQUE-LEAD-ID",
    "type": "lead_created",
    "timestamp_ms": 1790000000000,
    "oppref": "value captured from the landing URL",
    "source_url": "https://your-landing-page",
    "action_source": "web",
    "user": {
      "obref": "value of the __obref cookie",
      "emails_sha256": ["sha256 of trimmed, lowercased email"],
      "phone_numbers_sha256": ["sha256 of digits incl. country code, no +"]
    },
    "data": { "type": "customer_action" }
  }]
}

• oppref goes on the event; obref (the pixel's browser cookie) goes inside user. Send both unchanged, never hashed.
• Hash email, phone and names with SHA-256 after OpenAI's normalisation: email trimmed and lowercased; phone as digits with country code and no "+"; names lowercased with spaces and punctuation removed. This differs from Google's and Meta's rules, so don't reuse their hashes.
• Events must be less than 7 days old. Add "validate_only": true to test without saving. A good response is {"accepted_events":1}.

4.7 Test before you launch

Load your landing page with ?oppref=test123 on the end and submit a test lead. In Ads Manager → Conversions → Event Stream you should see lead_created with your test ID, from the browser and (if you built 4.6) from the server. In browser DevTools you should see a request to bzr.openai.com/v1/sdk/events carrying lead_created.

5Get the landing page ready

• People arrive mid-question, not mid-purchase. Someone who just asked ChatGPT "what deposit do I need for a first home?" is earlier than someone who searched "home loan rates". A page that answers the question first and then offers the next step will usually beat a bare application form.
• Link to a specific page, never the homepage. OpenAI reviews the landing page as well as the ad, and the page has to match what the ad says.
• Let OpenAI's crawler in. OAI-AdsBot must be able to load the page. Check robots.txt, and check your firewall or bot protection isn't blocking it with a 403 or a challenge page.
• Keep the form short. Every extra question costs completions. Ask what you need to call the person back; leave the rest for the call.
• Finance compliance applies on the page: licence numbers, required disclaimers, no guaranteed outcomes or rates you can't back up.

6Campaign and ad group structure

• The objective can't be changed after creation, and a Clicks campaign can't be converted to Conversions. Wrong choice means a new campaign.
• Start with Manual: Max bid rather than "Maximize results" until you have data. OpenAI's own starting point for click campaigns is US$3–5 max bid. Convert that into your billing currency at today's rate.
• The daily budget is a 7-day pacing target. A single day can spend up to twice the daily figure; the week won't exceed seven times it.
• One ad group per message or landing page. OpenAI suggests separate ad groups only when the use cases need different messaging or landing pages. Don't split by keyword; there are none.
• Set tracking parameters at the ad group level so every ad carries them. Supported placeholders: {campaign_id}, {ad_group_id}, {ad_id}, {ad_account_id}. For example: utm_source=chatgpt&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign={campaign_id}&utm_content={ad_group_id}-{ad_id}

7Write context hints

Context hints sit on the ad group. They tell OpenAI what you offer, who it suits and when it's useful, so it can judge which conversations your ad is relevant to. They are the biggest lever you have.

Illustrative hints for a finance business

Swap in real, accurate details. Every claim in a hint must be true of the business.

Aim for 5–10 hints per ad group, all on the same theme. If a hint needs a different page or message, it belongs in a different ad group.

8Write the ads

• 3–5 ads per ad group, each a different angle, not the same message reworded. OpenAI says a high volume of diverse ads helps it find more conversations where you're relevant.
• Benefit-led, not clever. Say what the person gets, who it's for and when it helps.
• Angle bank: the explainer ("How much deposit do you need?") · the comparison ("[N]+ lenders compared") · the speed ("Answer in [timeframe]") · the cost ("No broker fee") · the situation ("Self-employed? Bank said no?") · the proof (reviews, rating).
• Finance copy rules: no guaranteed approval, no rate you can't honour, include what your regulator requires, and keep claims consistent with the landing page.

9Launch, measure, decide

• First read is delivery, cost per click and click rate, not cost per lead. A small test won't produce enough conversions to judge cost per lead.
• Write your kill and scale rules before launch. For example: stop if the click rate is under 0.2% after 10,000 impressions, or if there are zero conversions after a set spend with tracking confirmed working. Scale only if cost per click and cost per lead beat your other channels.
• Judge at 6 weeks, decide at 90 days. A new channel with low click rates is noisy; 30 days is too short.
• Reports won't match your CRM exactly. OpenAI may include modelled conversions and uses its own attribution window. Compare trends, and count real leads in your own system.

10Launch checklist