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It looks like Cars.com is the first auto marketplace — in fact, the first vertical-specific marketplace — that has signed on for ChatGPT’s brand new sponsored ads test. Originally announced in February as a beta test, an update from ChatGPT parent OpenAI posted last week now promises expansion outside the U.S. “in the coming weeks.”
“We’ll roll this out thoughtfully in each market, learn from real-world usage, and adjust as we go. Our hope is to continue to expand to many more markets this year,” OpenAI said.
“Early results are encouraging. We’re seeing no impact on consumer trust metrics, low dismissal rates of ads, and ongoing improvements in the relevance of ads as we learn from feedback. These positive signals support moving into the next phase of our pilot.”
ChatGPT is not for the budget-conscious advertiser, however, with a CPM (cost per thousand impressions) model of approximately $60. The initial ante from each advertiser is a minimum of $200,000, OpenAI confirmed to AdWeek.
Cars Commerce has not formally announced that it’s participating; in fact, the only reason we found that Cars.com is participating is that when we reviewed the AutoTrader ChatGPT app the search results delivered a Cars.com sponsored ad.
The original test ads began February 9, though we have no word yet from Cars Commerce on when the Cars.com ads first rolled out. (We’ve asked for an update.)
Details on the product:
“We’ll roll this out thoughtfully in each market, learn from real-world usage, and adjust as we go. Our hope is to continue to expand to many more markets this year,” OpenAI said.
“Early results are encouraging. We’re seeing no impact on consumer trust metrics, low dismissal rates of ads, and ongoing improvements in the relevance of ads as we learn from feedback. These positive signals support moving into the next phase of our pilot.”
ChatGPT is not for the budget-conscious advertiser, however, with a CPM (cost per thousand impressions) model of approximately $60. The initial ante from each advertiser is a minimum of $200,000, OpenAI confirmed to AdWeek.
Cars Commerce has not formally announced that it’s participating; in fact, the only reason we found that Cars.com is participating is that when we reviewed the AutoTrader ChatGPT app the search results delivered a Cars.com sponsored ad.
The original test ads began February 9, though we have no word yet from Cars Commerce on when the Cars.com ads first rolled out. (We’ve asked for an update.)
Details on the product:
- Only those searching on ChatGPT at no charge, or on the lowest Go subscription tier ($8 per month) are seeing ads.
- Users paying $20 or more per month on “plus,” “pro,” “business enterprise,” and the “education” tiers still don’t receive ads.
- OpenAI says the ads do not influence ChatGPT responses to search prompts.
- Advertisers do not have access to search prompt content.
- Ads are chosen for display based on intent and context matching — that is, conversation topic, past chats, and prior ad interactions. Keyword bidding is not involved.
