ChatGPT advertisers report mixed results as targeting problems persist

OpenAI wants ChatGPT to be the place where people ask questions and, increasingly, where brands answer them. Early advertisers are finding the second half of that plan harder than it looks. Results from the ChatGPT advertising pilot are all over the map. Some marketers say their acquisition costs beat search, while others say they are paying for clicks that never become a sale. The recurring complaint is targeting. Ads are not consistently reaching the right users at the right point in a conversation, and that gap is showing up in the conversion numbers. The numbers behind the mixed reviews As of late 2026, ads appear on approximately 25.94% of commercial prompts. Those are queries with some kind of buying or shopping angle, which is the territory advertisers care about most. Around 14% of ads have limited or no connection to the user’s query or the conversation thread. Ad impressions also often reach users who show no clear purchase intent. Someone researching a topic out of curiosity is not the same as someone ready to buy, and the platform does not always tell the difference. Click-through rates have landed between 0.5% and 2%. Cost-per-click ranges from under $3 to over $10, a ...