ChatGPT now answers more than a billion questions a week — and a growing share of those are commercial. This is the new frontier of digital advertising: not banners, not search ads, but being part of the answer itself. Here's how it works, what it costs, and how UK businesses are starting to get in front of it.
ChatGPT advertising is the practice of getting your brand, product or service in front of users while they're talking to an AI assistant. It covers everything from sponsored placements inside ChatGPT's responses, to influencing whether the model recommends you when a user asks for the "best accountant in Manchester" or a "reliable CRM for small UK agencies".
Unlike Google or Meta, the medium is conversational. The "ad" is often a sentence, a citation, or a product card woven into an answer. That changes what works: clarity, trust, structured information and authority matter more than creative production value. It's closer to PR and SEO than to display advertising — but with the targeting precision of paid search.
"If Google was about ranking on a page, ChatGPT is about being inside the answer. The unit of attention has shrunk from a list to a single sentence."
Instead of typing into Google, millions of people now ask ChatGPT directly — for recommendations, comparisons, and buying advice.
The model pulls from its training data, live web results, and increasingly from sponsored or partner content surfaced through OpenAI's ad and commerce partnerships.
Through citations, sponsored placements, or AI-native ad units, your business can appear inside the conversation — not as a banner, but as part of the recommendation.
Unlike scroll-past banners, ChatGPT mentions sit at the moment of decision. Even uncliked impressions shape what the model recommends next.
Paid placements that appear alongside ChatGPT answers when a user's prompt matches a commercial intent — similar in spirit to Google Ads, but conversational.
Earned mentions inside ChatGPT's answers. Your site, content, and PR mentions train the model to reference you as a trusted source.
Interactive, prompt-aware ad formats: product cards, comparison tables, and rich answers that appear inline within the chat.
Structuring your website, schema, and content so large language models can parse, trust, and quote your business in their responses.
There isn't yet a single self-serve auction the way Google Ads works. Instead, ChatGPT advertising costs fall into three buckets: managed visibility programmes, sponsored placements through OpenAI's partner network, and the agency or specialist fees to make it all work.
For most UK businesses today, the meaningful spend is on generative engine optimisation — the SEO equivalent for AI answers — combined with content and citation building. Sponsored placements are emerging via OpenAI's commerce and shopping integrations, with cost based on prompt category and intent rather than keyword bids.
ChatGPT advertising isn't for every business — at least not yet. Use the checklist below as a quick gut check before investing.
If you'd rather not figure all of this out alone, our partner agency runs AI visibility and ChatGPT advertising campaigns for UK brands — from audit through to ongoing placement.
Free 30-minute consult. No obligation.