A brutally honest take from an AI-native agency that’s been preparing for this moment since 2020

Here’s something that keeps me up at night: I’ve spent the last four years building marketing systems for an AI-first world. We’ve managed over $40M in ad spend. We’ve helped clients raise $269M+ in funding. We’ve reduced acquisition costs by 87% using AI-powered strategies.

And I’m telling you right now, everything we know about digital advertising is about to change. Not in five years. Not gradually. In 2026.

ChatGPT ads are coming. And if you think this is just “another ad platform,” you’re already behind.

The Moment Sam Altman Stopped Hating Ads

Let me take you back to May 2024. Sam Altman stood at Harvard Business School and called advertising a “last resort” for ChatGPT. He said he “hated ads” as an aesthetic choice. The AI community cheered. The ad world breathed a sigh of relief, one less competitor to worry about.

Fast forward to October 2025. Same guy, different tune. Altman admits Instagram ads changed his mind. He says, “I love Instagram ads, they’ve added value to me.”

What happened between May 2024 and October 2025?

Reality. OpenAI generates between $3.5 and $4.5 billion in annual revenue but spends over $8.5 billion. They’re on track to lose $5 billion over the next 12 months. The math doesn’t work without advertising.

But here’s what makes this different from every other “we hate ads but need money” story: OpenAI is building an ad platform that could actually make advertising better.

810 Million Weekly Users and the Attention Economy Shift

Let me give you some numbers that should terrify every Google Ads specialist:

• ChatGPT hit 810 million weekly active users as of August 2025
• It drove 21% of Walmart’s incoming traffic in August 2025
• 20% for Etsy, 15% for Target, 10% for eBay
• AI-sourced traffic from platforms like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude increased 527% between January and May 2025
• Internal OpenAI documents project $1 billion in ad revenue for 2026, growing to $25 billion by 2029

Read those stats again. This isn’t a slow burn. This is a forest fire.

But the numbers only tell half the story. What’s really happening is a fundamental shift in how humans search for information. We’re not typing “best CRM software” into Google anymore. We’re having conversations. 

We’re asking, “What CRM would work for a 50-person SaaS company that needs to integrate with HubSpot and has a remote sales team across three time zones?”

The search bar is dead. The conversation is the new interface.

Why This Isn’t Google Ads 2.0 (And Why That’s Terrifying)

Here’s where most agencies will screw this up: they’ll try to run ChatGPT ads like they run Google Ads. Keywords. Bid strategies. Quality scores. The whole playbook.

That playbook is worthless here.

Sam Altman made this clear in his November 2025 interview: “Ads on a Google search are dependent on Google doing badly. If it was giving you the best answer, there’d be no reason ever to buy an ad above it.”

Think about that. Google’s entire ad model is built on incomplete answers. The worse the organic result, the more likely you are to click an ad. It’s a system designed around friction.

ChatGPT’s model is the opposite. Altman’s vision: show the best recommendation first, then if a user books or buys with one click, OpenAI takes a commission that doesn’t affect the results.

Translation: If money corrupts the answer, trust collapses. And without trust, the whole system fails.

The Infrastructure That’s Already Being Built

While everyone’s been debating whether ChatGPT ads will happen, OpenAI’s been quietly building the machine.

The executive hires tell the story:

• Fidji Simo – former CEO of Instacart, former head of Facebook app at Meta where she oversaw Facebook Live, Watch, and News Feed. She’s now OpenAI’s CEO of Applications.
• Kate Rouch – former Global Head of Marketing at Coinbase, led brands like Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger, and Facebook at Meta. She’s OpenAI’s first Chief Marketing Officer.
• Multiple job postings for “Growth Paid Marketing Platform Engineers” to build campaign management tools, integrate with major ad platforms, and create real-time attribution pipelines.

These aren’t diversity hires. These are the people who built the modern ad ecosystems at Meta, Instagram, and major commerce platforms. They know exactly what they’re doing.

What ChatGPT Ads Will Actually Look Like (Best Guess)

OpenAI hasn’t released official specs, but based on internal documents, hiring patterns, and platform evolution, here’s what we’re likely to see:

Sponsored Answers Integrated Into Conversations

Not banner ads. Not display ads. Contextual recommendations that appear naturally in the chat flow. Clearly labeled as sponsored, but seamlessly integrated.

Example: You ask ChatGPT about project management tools. It gives you an objective comparison, then includes a sponsored mention: “Asana (Sponsored) integrates natively with Slack and offers unlimited projects on their Business tier. They’re offering a 30-day trial for teams implementing new workflows.”

Product Carousels Based on Context

Visual product recommendations that appear when relevant to the conversation. Not interruptions, enhancements.

Commerce Integration

ChatGPT is already driving 21% of Walmart’s traffic. Imagine a world where you ask for a laptop recommendation, ChatGPT suggests three options with pros and cons, and you can buy directly in the chat. No website. No checkout page. One click.

The First-Mover Advantage Window Is Closing Fast

Here’s what no one’s talking about: the early adopter advantage on ChatGPT ads will be massive. Possibly bigger than early Google Ads or early Facebook Ads.

Why?

• 810 million weekly users from day one
• High-intent conversations, not passive browsing
• Low initial competition while agencies figure out the platform
• AI-driven ad formats projected to grow at 120%+ annually
• Platform learning curves that reward early experimentation

The brands that get in early, Q1 or Q2 2026, will have 6-12 months of low competition and high visibility. 

By the time the masses figure it out, early adopters will have built databases of what works, optimized their approaches, and established brand presence.

Industry analysts estimate Q1 or Q2 2026 for launch. That gives you maybe 6-8 months to prepare. Not years. Months.

Why Azarian Growth Agency Has Been Preparing Since 2020

This is where I need to be transparent with you. We’re not neutral observers. We saw this coming.

When we founded Azarian Growth Agency in 2020, we made a bet that AI would fundamentally reshape marketing. Not augment it. Reshape it. We built our entire agency model around being AI-native.

That means:

• We developed proprietary “vibe marketing” systems, a prompt-powered GTM approach that uses Claude, GPT-4, and Gemini to deploy complete marketing campaigns in hours, not weeks
• We pioneered GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) services, optimizing for AI search engines before most agencies knew they existed
• We’ve been tracking AI-referred traffic patterns since early 2025, watching the 527% surge in real-time
• We’ve already helped clients achieve 300% increases in AI-driven brand mentions
• We run weekly trend research across marketing and AI topics, staying ahead of platform changes

When ChatGPT ads launch, we won’t be scrambling to figure out the platform. 

We’ll be executing day one. Because we’ve been preparing for this exact moment for four years.

The Convergence: GEO + Paid ChatGPT Ads

Here’s the strategic insight most agencies will miss: organic GEO visibility and paid ChatGPT ads won’t be separate channels. They’ll be interconnected.

Think about how Google Ads and SEO work together. Strong organic rankings improve Quality Score, which lowers your CPCs. Brand recognition from organic results increases ad click-through rates.

Now multiply that effect. If your brand already appears organically in ChatGPT responses, users have context when they see your sponsored recommendations. You’re not a random advertiser: you’re the company they just learned about naturally two messages ago.

This creates a flywheel effect: strong organic presence → higher ad engagement → better campaign performance → more budget allocation → stronger brand presence → even better organic mentions.

Watch our webinar on GEO.

• GEO is the New SEO: What You Need to Rank in AI Answers

What You Should Be Doing Right Now

Okay, enough theory. Here’s your action plan if you want to be ready for ChatGPT ads:

1. Optimize Your Organic ChatGPT Presence Today

Start showing up in ChatGPT responses now. Build that brand recognition before paid ads even launch. This is Generative Engine Optimization. It’s about making your content AI-friendly:

• Clear, factual content with proper citations
• Question-answer format that mirrors conversational queries
• Strong authority signals and credible sources
• Structured data that AI systems can easily parse

2. Build Conversational Ad Creative Now

Stop writing for keywords. Start writing for conversations. Your ad copy needs to sound natural when an AI assistant inserts it into a dialogue.

Bad: “Best CRM Software – 30% Off – Click Here”

Good: “For teams your size, Pipedrive offers visual pipeline management with native Slack integration and custom automation workflows. They’re currently offering extended trials for new teams.”

3. Fix Your Data Infrastructure

The marketers who already have centralized, multi-platform reporting will integrate ChatGPT advertising in days. Everyone else will spend weeks building systems while trying to evaluate performance.

Get your reporting infrastructure in order now. You need to be able to add a new platform without rebuilding your entire analytics stack.

4. Allocate Experimental Budget

Plan to shift 5-10% of your paid media budget to ChatGPT ads for Q1-Q2 2026 testing. Treat it like venture capital: high risk, potentially massive returns, portfolio approach.

5. Watch for Beta Access

OpenAI will likely offer beta access to larger advertisers before the public launch. Position your company to get early access—it could give you 2-3 months of advantage.

The Uncomfortable Truth About Agency Readiness

I’m going to say something controversial: most marketing agencies are fundamentally unprepared for this shift. Not because they’re incompetent—because they’re optimized for the wrong game.

They’re experts at Google Ads auction dynamics. Brilliant at Facebook pixel optimization. Masters of LinkedIn targeting. All valuable skills.

But ChatGPT ads will require a different skillset:

• Understanding how LLMs process and prioritize information
• Writing conversational creative that sounds natural, not salesy
• Building trust-first campaigns instead of interruption-first campaigns
• Thinking in terms of conversation flows, not funnel stages
• Integrating organic AI presence with paid placements

The agencies that will win on ChatGPT ads aren’t the ones with the biggest Google Ads budgets under management. They’re the ones who’ve been living in AI-native workflows for the past few years.

Why This Matters More Than Google’s AI Overviews

People keep comparing ChatGPT ads to Google’s AI Overviews (formerly SGE). It’s the wrong comparison.

Google AI Overviews are search results with AI summaries. The mental model is still “I’m searching Google.” The behavior is still keyword-based. The intent is still navigational.

ChatGPT is different. People aren’t going to ChatGPT to search—they’re going to have a conversation. They’re asking follow-up questions. They’re exploring options. They’re getting personalized recommendations based on their specific context.

This isn’t a new search engine. It’s a new medium. And the advertising model has to match the medium.

The $25 Billion Question (And Why It’s Actually Bigger)

OpenAI’s internal projections show $25 billion in ad revenue by 2029. That’s a massive number. For context, that would make ChatGPT ads:

• Larger than Snapchat’s entire advertising business
• About 25% of Meta’s current ad revenue
• A meaningful competitor to Google and Amazon

But here’s why that number is actually conservative: it only accounts for direct ad revenue. It doesn’t include:

• Affiliate commissions from commerce integration
• Revenue share from transaction fees
• Premium placement opportunities
• Enterprise API access for brands

If ChatGPT becomes the primary discovery and purchase interface for a generation of users, $25 billion could be the floor, not the ceiling.

The Path Forward for Smart Brands

Look, I’m not here to fearmonger. ChatGPT ads won’t kill Google Ads or Meta Ads. Those platforms will adapt and remain powerful.

But ChatGPT ads will fundamentally change the competitive landscape. The brands that win will be the ones who:

• Start building organic AI presence now through strategic GEO
• Develop conversational creative systems that work in dialogue, not monologue
• Get their data infrastructure ready for multi-platform attribution
• Allocate test budgets for Q1-Q2 2026 to capture first-mover advantages
• Partner with AI-native agencies who’ve been preparing for this shift

The opportunity window is small. Maybe 12-18 months before the market saturates and competition drives up costs. The brands that move now will establish dominance. The ones that wait will pay premium prices to catch up.

Final Thought: This Is Bigger Than Ads

Here’s what keeps me up at night: ChatGPT ads aren’t just a new advertising channel. They’re a symptom of something much larger.

We’re watching the internet get re-architected in real-time. The old model, search queries leading to website visits leading to conversions, is being replaced by AI-mediated interactions where the entire customer journey happens in a conversation.

Your website might become less important than your AI presence. Your SEO strategy might matter less than your GEO strategy. Your ad creative might need to be conversational, not clickable.

This isn’t science fiction. It’s happening right now. 810 million people are already having these conversations weekly. Walmart is getting 21% of its traffic from ChatGPT. AI-sourced traffic grew 527% in four months.

The question isn’t whether ChatGPT ads will change digital marketing. The question is: Will your brand be ready when they launch?

Read Also:

• Writesonic Review: The AI Search Visibility Platform That Bridges Strategy and Execution in GEO
• 2025’s Must-Have 11 GEO Tools: Your Complete Arsenal
• Generative Engine Optimization (GEO): The SEO Shift You Can’t Ignore
• The GEO Roadmap: 7 Steps to Start Ranking in Generative AI Engines Today
• GEO Mistakes To Avoid: Why Generic Content Fails In AI Overviews
• Brand Authority vs Topical Authority: What AI Search Engines Actually Trust
• GEO for E-Commerce: How to Rank Products in ChatGPT & Gemini Answers
• Key Signals LLMs Use To Decide AI Citations (And How To Earn Them)
• How To Structure Authoritative GEO Content That AI Engines Will Cite

Work With an AI-Native Agency

At Azarian Growth Agency, we’ve been building for this future since 2020. We’re not scrambling to understand AI-native marketing; we live it every day.

Our track record:

• Over $40M in managed ad spend
• Helped clients raise $269M+ in funding
• 87% reduction in signup costs through AI-powered strategies (check our case studies)
• 300% increase in AI-driven brand mentions
• Proprietary vibe marketing systems for AI-first growth

We’re helping VC-backed SaaS startups, e-commerce brands, and B2B tech companies prepare for ChatGPT ads right now.

Ready to position your brand for 2026? 

Schedule a consultation, and we’ll show you exactly how to prepare.