Automotive Search Marketing · Second Edition · Chapter 14 # ChatGPT Ads and Advertising Inside AI Answers: What Dealers Need to Know By Alex Melen. The full chapter as printed, followed by notes from the SmartSites accounts and reader questions, updated Oct 20, 2026. Or [get the book](https://amzn.to/3VJsZxD) for all 20 chapters. [Buy on Amazon](https://amzn.to/3VJsZxD) In this chapter - [ChatGPT Ads: the newest player beyond Google](#chatgpt-ads-the-newest-player-beyond-google) - [Notes from the accounts](#notes-from-the-accounts) - [Reader questions](#faq) Free chapters - [What Is AI Search?](https://www.alexmelen.com/book/chapters/what-is-ai-search/) - [Winning AI Search: GEO for Your Dealership](https://www.alexmelen.com/book/chapters/geo-for-car-dealerships/) - **AI Search and Your Ad Dollars** - [Measuring AI Search](https://www.alexmelen.com/book/chapters/measuring-ai-search/) **Automotive Search Marketing** A Car Dealer's Guide to Google & AI Search · Second Edition [Buy on Amazon](https://amzn.to/3VJsZxD) Why this chapter is free This chapter will date faster than anything else in the book, and I said so when I wrote it. That is exactly why it is here free: the printed version tells you how to think about advertising inside AI answers, and this page keeps the facts current. SmartSites has been buying ads inside ChatGPT since the US pilot opened in February 2026 and inside Google's AI Overviews and Microsoft Copilot for longer than that. What follows the chapter text is what that spend has taught us, the state of each platform as of my last update, and the questions I get after every talk on the subject. The chapter text below is reproduced from the printed book; the sections after it are web-only and dated. Everything we’ve covered so far is the organic side—AI search’s version of SEO. But if there’s one thing you should have learned from the PPC part of this book, it’s that wherever consumer attention goes, ads follow. And they’re following fast. Ads in AI Overviews. Google now shows ads alongside roughly a quarter of AI Overview responses—up from about 5 percent in early 2025. The part that matters for your budget: these ads come from the existing Google Ads system. The same campaigns, the same feeds, the same auction. If your search and Performance Max campaigns are well built and your Merchant Center feed is clean, you are already eligible to appear in AI experiences. You don’t need a new budget line; you need the fundamentals from Part 2 of this book done well. Shopping inside AI Mode. This is the February 2026 launch from the history timeline, and for dealerships it’s the one to watch closely: as conversational car shopping grows (“find me a low-mileage AWD SUV under $30,000 near me”), your vehicle inventory data—the same feed powering your VLAs—is what makes you visible in those answers. Yet another reason feed quality is the new campaign quality. ChatGPT ads. OpenAI began piloting advertising in ChatGPT in early 2026—sponsored placements shown to users on free tiers, clearly separated from the answers themselves—and it’s evolving quickly. We cover it in its own section in the Beyond Google chapter. The short version for now: it’s early, it’s promising, and dealerships should watch it the way smart dealers watched paid search in 2003. Microsoft Copilot. Often forgotten: Microsoft was actually first, launching ads inside Copilot back in early 2023, and has since built formats you won’t find anywhere else, including immersive “showroom” ads. It all runs through the same Microsoft Advertising platform we covered in Beyond Google—one more reason the “second search engine” deserves a place in your budget. And keep the 95 percent number from earlier in mind, because it puts the whole ads conversation in perspective: nearly all AI platform-driven sales still complete on brand and retailer websites. The AI starts the journey; your website still closes it. Everything in the Turning Traffic into Car Sales chapter still applies—maybe more than ever. The strategic takeaway: AI advertising is not yet a separate discipline—for now it’s an extension of the machine-learning-driven PPC we covered in Part 2—value-based bidding, quality feeds, strong assets—showing up on new real estate. The dealerships winning ads in AI surfaces are the ones whose accounts were healthy to begin with. ## ChatGPT Ads: the newest player beyond Google The newest player beyond Google isn’t a search engine at all. In early 2026, OpenAI began piloting advertising inside ChatGPT—sponsored placements shown to users on the free tiers, clearly separated from the AI’s actual answers and excluded from sensitive topics. Given that ChatGPT is where a meaningful share of car shoppers now start their research (much more on that in Part 3), advertising inside those conversations is one of the most interesting new frontiers in search marketing. And it’s moving quickly: what began as a US-only pilot expanded within months to more countries, and OpenAI has already added advertiser tools like custom audience lists—letting you target your own customer and lead lists inside ChatGPT, much as you would in Google or Meta. It’s early. Formats, targeting, and measurement are all evolving quickly—what I write here will be out of date faster than any other section of this book, and that’s exactly the point. The way to think about ChatGPT ads in their current form is the way smart dealers thought about Google AdWords in 2003: small budgets, fast learning, and a willingness to look foolish for a quarter in exchange for being early to something big. ## Notes from the accounts (Oct 20, 2026) What has come in from SmartSites' client data and Alex's 2026 talks since the manuscript was locked. Not in the printed book; revised as the platforms change. Sources and tables are on the [research page](https://www.alexmelen.com/research/). ### Where you can buy ads inside the answer (as of September 2026) Google AI Overviews have carried ads since 2024 in 12 English-language markets, served from your existing Search, Shopping and Performance Max campaigns with no opt-in, no opt-out and no segmented reporting. Google AI Mode is testing ads inside the conversational response in the US. Microsoft Copilot, the first mover in 2023, auto-enrolls Microsoft Advertising accounts and has formats such as Showroom ads that exist nowhere else. ChatGPT ads went live in the US on February 9, 2026 and in the UK on June 6, 2026, one sponsored card per answer, bought through OpenAI's self-serve Ads Manager or via Criteo, StackAdapt and Amazon DSP. Amazon's Rufus sells sponsored prompts. Perplexity launched ads and then exited them in February 2026; Meta AI has no in-chat ads. I keep the full status table on the research page. ### What seven months of ChatGPT ads taught us ChatGPT ads launched as a CPM product; translated to a cost-per-click basis, the early inventory worked out to hundreds of dollars per click, and the advertisers who rushed in for a first-mover advantage did not get one. Ads are bought on topics and conversational context rather than keywords or audiences, which is a different discipline from search. The one structural advantage is real: a single advertiser per answer instead of the three or four you compete with on a Google results page. US targeting is limited to a state or a DMA, which is too broad for a single-rooftop dealership, so for now this is a product for dealer groups and OEM regional budgets, not individual stores. ### Cost per lead is still the test, and e-commerce passes it first Measured apples to apples against the same clients' Google and Microsoft campaigns, cost per lead inside ChatGPT remains far higher, so the value today is awareness and discovery rather than performance. The exception is e-commerce, where AI search generates demand instead of capturing it: more than 80 percent of ad-driven ChatGPT traffic to our e-commerce clients was new customers. My guidance to every client is the same: treat AI advertising as R&D at roughly 5 to 10 percent of search budget, measure it on cost per lead like every other channel, and never let "we're showing up in ChatGPT" excuse a number you would not accept from Google. ### The ads influence searches you will not see An AI ad that is seen but not clicked often shows up days later as a branded Google search or a direct visit, and GA4 files much of that as Direct (Chapter 15 has the data). Last-click attribution will tell you AI ads do not work before it can tell you whether they do. If you test, test with a holdout or a geographic split, and judge the whole account's lead volume, not the ChatGPT line alone. ## Reader questions **Can a car dealership advertise on ChatGPT?** Yes, through OpenAI's self-serve Ads Manager in the US (since February 2026) and the UK (since June 2026), or through partners such as Criteo, StackAdapt and Amazon DSP. The practical limitation for a single store is targeting: US campaigns can target a state or a DMA but not a radius around a rooftop, so the product currently fits dealer groups and regional budgets better than individual dealerships. **How much do ChatGPT ads cost?** ChatGPT ads are sold on a CPM basis. In SmartSites' pilot campaigns the early inventory translated to hundreds of dollars per click, and cost per lead has remained well above Google and Microsoft search for the same clients. Pricing and targeting have improved through 2026, but the honest position as of this update is that it is an awareness and discovery channel with an R&D budget, not a performance channel. **Do I need a new campaign to appear in Google AI Overviews?** No. Ads in AI Overviews are served from your existing Google Search, Shopping and Performance Max campaigns through the normal auction, and there is no opt-in, opt-out or separate reporting for them. If your campaigns use broad match or AI Max and your Merchant Center feed is clean, you are already eligible. The same applies to Microsoft Copilot, which auto-enrolls Microsoft Advertising accounts. Keep reading This is Chapter 14 of *Automotive Search Marketing: A Car Dealer's Guide to Google & AI Search* (Second Edition, 2026). The book covers SEO, PPC, AI search, measurement and choosing an agency in 20 chapters. [Buy on Amazon](https://amzn.to/3VJsZxD)[Next free chapter: Measuring AI Search](https://www.alexmelen.com/book/chapters/measuring-ai-search/) Copyright © 2023, 2026 Alex Melen. Quotations of brief passages with attribution and a link are welcome. Chapter text as printed; web sections last updated Oct 20, 2026. The AI platforms change quickly, so this page is revised as they do. ## Want this delivered to your team in person? Alex presents the AI search material as a keynote, dealer-group session or 20 Group workshop, tailored to your market and brands. [Check availability](https://www.alexmelen.com/contact/) [Speaker kit](https://www.alexmelen.com/speaking/#kit) --- Source: https://www.alexmelen.com/book/chapters/chatgpt-ads-and-ai-search-advertising/ · Markdown version of this page for AI agents and LLMs. Site guide: https://www.alexmelen.com/llms.txt