Advertising

Developers are using AI coding assistants to replace smart-TV home screens and disable advertising and tracking components. They're basically turning smart TVs into dumber TVs. Why? 1) Because they can. 2) Because smart TV interfaces are filled with bloatware and other annoying stuff that, in some engineers' eyes, seriously degrades the UX. Continue Reading →

OpenAI launched a self-serve Ads Manager for ChatGPT on Monday, open to U.S. advertisers in beta. The system uses cost-per-click bidding, conversion pixels, and a Conversions API. Four major agency holding companies (Omnicom, Publicis, WPP, and Dentsu) signed on as partners alongside Adobe, Criteo, Kargo, Pacvue, and StackAdapt. Sam Altman once called advertising a "last resort." I guess he's come around. Continue Reading →

OpenAI is adding CPC (cost-per-click) to ChatGPT ads this week. Advertisers can now bid $3 to $5 per click, which puts ChatGPT somewhere between Meta (cheap clicks, browsing intent) and Google Search (expensive clicks, purchase intent). Where it actually lands will depend on proving something OpenAI has not yet proven: does a ChatGPT click drive an outcome? Continue Reading →

OpenAI is partnering with advertising automation platform Smartly to bring conversational ads to ChatGPT. These interactive ad units will respond to users directly, turning advertisements into secondary chatbot dialogues within ChatGPT's interface. Continue Reading →

OpenAI has begun testing ads in ChatGPT for U.S. users on the Free and Go tiers. Sponsored results appear below ChatGPT's responses, clearly labeled and targeted to the conversation topic. Paid subscribers (Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise, Education) see nothing. Continue Reading →

Here's an idea: let's announce that ChatGPT will begin testing sponsored content on Friday afternoon of MLK weekend. Nothing says "people are going to love this" like a holiday news dump. If you use the free tier or the new $8/month ChatGPT Go subscription, you'll start seeing sponsored content at the bottom of answers in the coming weeks. Continue Reading →

ChatGPT head Nick Turley just admitted what every tech executive already knows: even 700 million weekly active users can't make the math work without ads. In an interview on Decoder, Turley said he's "humble enough not to rule it out categorically," though he hedged that OpenAI would need to be "very thoughtful and tasteful" about how ads could be integrated into ChatGPT. Continue Reading →

Meta has a goal: input a product image, define a budget, then let AI do the rest – generate copy, create images and video, deploy the ads, target the audience, and even recommend spend. Continue Reading →

On Wednesday, Google announced a new Gemini AI-powered ad product called Peak Points at its YouTube Brandcast event in New York. The AI identifies moments during a video when viewers are most engaged, then drops in an ad. In theory, ads will perform better because the messages appear during emotionally resonant or attention-rich segments. Of course, it could completely backfire. People may be so engaged in the programming that they ignore the ads. Test and learn. Continue Reading →

In “If You Can't Tell the Difference, There Is No Difference,” I argued that when AI-generated work is indistinguishable from human-made content, the distinction becomes irrelevant. Microsoft’s latest Surface commercial (created with the help of generative AI) puts that theory into practice. Continue Reading →