ChatGPT Ads for Hotels: October 26 Update

Updated on October 29, 2026 (Original publication 08/11/2026)

Earlier this year, OpenAI started testing ChatGPT ads in the US for Free and ChatGPT-Go tiers. OTAs like Expedia were quick to jump on the bandwagon. Minimum budget was $200K with $60 CPMs, and no conversion pixel. This blog was originally written as of July 30, 2026, so check back regularly for updates due to ChatGPT Ads’ frequent changes!

Ads appear after the AI-generated answer and are shown based on conversational context, inferred intent, relevance signals, and advertiser “context hints.”

In May, they moved from a limited ads pilot to a scalable platform by adding self-serve buying, a new performance-based CPC model, and better measurement. With the new CPC model, there is no spend minimum, but a daily budget of $25/day is required. Advertisers can also choose to set a campaign total vs. daily budget.

Cogwheel Marketing applied and was accepted into the OpenAI ChatGPT beta as of June 2026. 

What Does Targeting Look Like within ChatGPT?

To set up ads, there are 3 Objectives or Goals: Reach, Clicks, or Conversions (Once an Objective is selected, this cannot be changed later).

Locations can be set up for the U.S., states, DMA regions (if available), cities, zip codes, and available international countries.

By clicking on the search bar, advertisers can search for DMAs like San Diego, Indianapolis, Fort Myers – Naples, etc.

As of the most recent update, specific geographic locations from campaign targeting can also be excluded to better align delivery with your audience and business needs. Landing page query parameters can now also be added on a campaign, ad group, or ad level. 

Custom audiences can also be created by uploading raw or hashed emails and phone numbers to use as audience filters for campaigns. By uploading an audience list (has to have at least 25K or more users), advertisers can also exclude these audiences on a campaign for pure prospecting. Bid multipliers can also be set for audiences at the ad group level.

What seems to guide a successful campaign is the CPC bid and context hints. Minimum CPCs are $3-$5 for “strong delivery.” Anything less than $2.99 is unlikely to serve. The sweet spot, based on what we have seen, is setting a minimum CPC of $3 to start and then slowly increasing by $0.50 increments when delivery starts to slow down.

Context hints are marked as an optional field but should definitely be completed. Think about the traveler you want to target and describe the conversations, topics, or keywords where your hotel or services may be relevant. OpenAI specifically mentions that “These hints guide matching but aren’t exact-match targeting rules.”

The Limitations of Ads within ChatGPT

• Image – only one image can be used per ad, and it has to already be in a square format, similarly to Google Ads’ logo requirements.
• Headline – max 50 characters allowed, although any text after 24 characters will most likely get truncated.
• Description – max 100 characters allowed, although any text after 48 characters will most likely get truncated.
• URL

If your campaign could benefit from broader content coverage to optimize delivery, you may see the option to select ‘Add new ad’ in the campaign view once a campaign has been running. This feature uses existing website metadata to prefill an ad draft with an image, title, and description for you to review, edit, and assign to a campaign and ad group. It does not generate new copy or imagery with AI.

Included in the July 2026 release was a “refreshed static ad card format” where ChatGPT Ads will be more compact and easier to read on desktop and mobile, with larger visual elements:

What Does ChatGPT Ads Performance for Hotels Look Like?

Currently in OpenAI’s Ads Manager, the following metrics can be pulled at the campaign-level, ad group-level, and/or specific ad:

• Impressions – higher than 20K in less than two months
• Clicks
• Conversions (depending on what you set your conversions as in Google Analytics 4 (GA4) and Google Tag Manager) – we’re seeing about a 2.2% conversion rate from total impressions
• Spend – Daily budget cannot be set to anything less than $25/day
• CTR – averaging between 1.6-1.9%, much higher than display campaigns.
• Average CPC – $3-$3.50
• Average CPM – $49-$60

The Overview tab allows you to monitor account health, review recommended tasks that can help improve campaign performance, and analyze key performance metrics in a larger, more flexible trend chart.

The Details You Need to Know to Run ChatGPT Ads for Hotels:

• ChatGPT doesn’t currently allow the creation of a master manager account, although the option is available when creating a new account. For now, each advertiser needs to create an individual business account.
• For an individual hotel, the only campaign type you can select is “Standard.” The other campaign type, “Product Feed,” uses feed items and ad group product filters to generate ads, which is something that overarching Brand marketing may be able to capitalize on in the future.
• OpenAI’s Ads Manager is still in beta mode as new features and updates seem to get added almost every 2 weeks.
• There is a 5-10% discrepancy between what OpenAI’s Ads Manager reports on clicks and conversions, and what we’re seeing in GA4.
• Although ChatGPT Ads are capturing the majority of website traffic across all ChatGPT sources (31-56% of total AI traffic), all conversions are being attributed to “AI Assistant” or “Referral” traffic sources.
• Engagement rate is lower than other ChatGPT sources but still higher than 20%. (Organic AI sources are seeing an average engagement rate of 66-70%.)

New Features for ChatGPT Ads for Hotels as of July 2026

• Conversion-optimized campaigns: Create conversion-optimized cost-per-click (oCPC) campaigns by selecting the Conversions objective in campaign setup. These campaigns optimize delivery toward clicks that are more likely to drive your conversion event, while billing remains based on valid clicks.
• Daily budget update: Daily budgets will change from fixed daily limits to average daily budgets, the average you want to spend per day over seven days. No action is required, and your total budget is not changing. Spend may vary by day while staying within daily and seven-day limits.
• Spend pacing for daily budgets: Daily budgets now pace automatically throughout the day, helping distribute spend more evenly.
• Mobile measurement partner integrations: They recently launched integrations with AppsFlyer and Adjust to measure and attribute app installs and in-app events from ChatGPT Ads.
• Automatic advanced matching (AAM): Improve website conversion measurement by matching more conversions to ads using hashed customer information. 
• Bulk API: Create and update campaigns, ad groups, and ads in bulk asynchronously through the Ads API.
• Refreshed ad format for product feed campaigns: They’re starting to roll out a refreshed product card format featuring price and star ratings.

New Features as of August 2026

• New ways to create conversion-optimized (oCPC) campaigns: You can now clone an existing CPC campaign into a new oCPC campaign or create oCPC campaigns in bulk. During cloning, Ads Manager will prefill the conversion event when one eligible event is available; otherwise, you’ll be prompted to select one.
• Dynamic URL parameters: Use supported macros such as {campaign_id}, {ad_group_id}, {ad_id}, and {ad_account_id} in landing page query parameters, with values populated automatically at delivery time.
• Triple Whale integration: Connect ChatGPT Ads in Triple Whale to measure performance alongside other channels. Sonar Optimize is also now available for ChatGPT Ads, helping brands send stronger conversion signals back to OpenAI.
• Hightouch conversion API support: Hightouch now supports sending conversion events to ChatGPT Ads for measurement and optimization.
• Pixel validation diagnostics: View additional Pixel validation details in Ads Manager, including why events were dropped before being sent, the affected field, the error type, and a recommended fix. To access these diagnostics, go to Tools, then Conversions, and view the diagnostics panel on the right side.
• Automatic advanced matching (AAM) update: AAM is now the default for new Web pixels, and on August 17, 2026, ChatGPT Ads will also enable it for existing Web pixels. AAM helps match more conversions to ads using hashed customer information from website forms. 
• Multi-product carousel format for product feed campaigns: They’ve started testing a carousel format for product feed ads that shows multiple products from an advertiser in a single unit.

New Features as of September 2026

• Maximize results bid strategy: You can now select Maximize results as a bid strategy to let ChatGPT Ads automatically set and adjust bids on your behalf. It optimizes bids toward your selected campaign goal to help get the most results from your budget.
• Platform targeting: Use platform targeting to control which ChatGPT surfaces your campaign can deliver on. When creating a campaign, use the Eligible platforms multi-select dropdown to include one or more supported platforms: iOS app, Android app, or Web.
• View-through conversions: Ads Manager now reports one-day view-through conversions at the campaign, ad group, and ad levels. A view-through conversion is counted when a conversion occurs within one day of an eligible ad impression and no qualifying ad click receives credit for the same conversion. 
• WorkMagic integration: Advertisers can now connect ChatGPT Ads to WorkMagic to view performance alongside other channels and send conversion signals back to OpenAI through the Conversions API. 
• Brazil and Mexico launch: ChatGPT Ads are now live in Brazil and Mexico.
• ChatGPT Ads are coming to Europe: ChatGPT Ads will expand to 31 European countries, giving advertisers with business in these markets a new opportunity to expand their reach.

New Features as of October 2026

• Report conversions beyond your campaign goal through the API: You can now retrieve attributed conversion events beyond your campaign’s selected goal through the public Insights API. For example, you can report on attributed purchases while optimizing for a different event, without changing your campaign’s conversion goal or optimization settings.
• Separate account, brand, and legal names: You can now manage these names separately in Settings → General: your internal account name, the public brand name shown with ads, and your registered legal name for billing and verification. Account name changes don’t trigger review. Brand name changes pause ad serving until approved. Legal name changes restart business review and may pause serving.
• ChatGPT Ads are live in Southeast Asia and Taiwan: ChatGPT Ads have expanded to Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, and Taiwan, creating new opportunities to reach users across the region. See current market availability here. 
• More measurement partners: Expanded measurement ecosystem with partners including Northbeam, DV Rockerbox, and INCRMNTAL, plus mobile measurement partners Kochava, Tenjin, and Airbridge. 
• Redesigned Conversions page: You can now see conversion activity and conversion event quality recommendations at a glance in Ads Manager → Conversions. The new overview stays visible across the Conversions tabs and brings together event volume and trends, the share of active campaigns optimizing for conversions, and active warnings linked to the Diagnostics tab.
• Weekly performance emails: Advertisers with active campaigns now receive a weekly summary of account performance, including week-over-week changes and a link to view full results in Ads Manager.
• Share feedback directly in Ads Manager: You can now report bugs or share product feedback from the Ads Manager account menu in the bottom left corner.
• More visual ad formats: Alongside the Intelligent UI launch in ChatGPT, they’re experimenting with more visual ad formats, exploring wider cards and larger images on desktop and more prominent, full-width images on mobile. These tests use existing campaigns and creative, with no action required from advertisers. Separately, they plan to test a new multi-image visual ad format, initially during image generation in the US with select advertisers.

What Cogwheel Recommends for LLM Ads

ChatGPT Ads would be a great supplemental strategy to add to your paid media toolbox as an upper-funnel tactic, especially if AI visibility is a concern or goal. 

So how do you determine what your AI visibility is like? As part of Cogwheel’s SEO services, we provide an AI Baseline Overview and Visibility Report that shows visibility score, brand sentiment, brand mentions, pages cited, Share of Voice (SOV), and top cited domains. In our Cogwheel Analytics BI Tool, you can also check Top Referring Domains and Source Traffic reports to see if ChatGPT.com or other AI sources are listed.

If your hotel is already showing up organically in AI responses by being cited, consider running a Google Demand Gen campaign instead.

Kylie Chen, Director of Paid Strategy, Cogwheel Marketing & Analytics. Connect with Kylie on LinkedIn.

Source: View the original article at Cogwheel Marketing.