Early findings from our ChatGPT Ads campaigns for clients

Head of Performance Marketing Nick Giles reveals what we've learned from managing ChatGPT Ads for clients.

Key takeaways:

• CPM targets are proving achievable
• Impressions are high, CTR is still generally quite low
• CPC is medium-high cost
• Answer-led ad creatives are proving most effective
• Industry frustrations are baked in for early adopters
• Now’s the time to experiment

At CTI Digital, we’ve been running some ChatGPT Ads campaigns for clients. At the moment, we’re doing so mainly in the retail/ecomm and travel and leisure sectors, as well as a few tests for our own agency promotion.

We think early movers will be rewarded for their experimentation on this new ads platform. And that’s not just because you’ll get a better working knowledge of how conversational formats work, but also because it adds another imperative to take an answer-led approach to brand discovery.

Anyway, we can discuss the theory at length another time (it’s really interesting to see how particular sectors and customer journeys are changing – talk to anyone who’s planned a chunky holiday in the past six months and it’s likely they consulted an AI assistant). For now though, let’s look at the tangible things we’ve learned from running campaigns.

Here’s what we’re seeing…

CPM targets are proving achievable

Early results from our Reach campaigns (advertisers have the option to bid on reach or clicks) are positive when it comes to CPM (cost per mille impressions).

We're achieving our goals, which means we’re coming in about 10% cheaper than our CPM target.

Impressions are high, CTR is still generally quite low

Click-through rate (CTR) is somewhere between 1% to 1.5%. Whilst we’d love for it to be higher, this figure isn’t unexpected. The flip side is that impressions are very high – and as we’re managing Reach campaigns and providing users with relevant answers, this CTR is part and parcel of customer journeys that may then jump to direct or traditional search traffic.

CPC is medium-high cost

Cost-per-click is medium to high, which means ChatGPT Ads are more expensive than traditional paid search. Again, if you’ve been keeping up with the conversation in the ad world, this isn’t exactly surprising.

Google, for example, has been at pains to make clear that clicks from AI search demonstrate higher conversion intent than regular search. Again, this is common sense – a user is asking longer, more considered questions; they are often deep in research or product comparison, so if they choose to visit your website, chances are (higher) that they are serious.

Answer-led ad creatives are proving most effective

We are still growing our data set, but so far we’re seeing commercial ads demonstrate lower engagement than answer-led creative (0.66% vs 1.26% CTR). Without sounding like a broken record, this is what we expect from our campaign setup and current user behaviours.

It should be noted that the conversion API is now available, which is a good sign, but we haven’t yet seen commercial intent to match search.

Industry frustrations are baked in for early adopters, but the platform is evolving quickly

Agencies and advertisers know that new ad platforms will never be perfect. As such, though many marketers are frustrated by limited visibility for insights (e.g what user prompts are triggering ads), there are also positive developments, including customer lists to include or exclude audiences and the aforementioned conversion API.

Now’s the time to experiment

If you’re intrigued by this early platform feedback, get in touch with our Head of Performance Marketing Nick Giles and he can give you a tour of the platform.