How to Advertise on ChatGPT (And Why Every Business Must Be Ready for AI Conversations)

From Search Terms to Full Sentences

For the last few decades, people have started with search boxes:

• •Type a few keywords
• •Scan a page of links
• •Open a bunch of tabs
• •Compare and decide manually

With AI assistants, the behavior is different. People now say things like:

• •"What is the best inventory system for a small warehouse?"
• •"Find me a dentist near me who works Saturdays."
• •"Plan a 5-day Europe trip for under 2,000 dollars."

The assistant does not just list links. It does the comparison work: filtering options, weighing trade-offs, and explaining them in plain language.

By the time someone clicks out of ChatGPT, they often already understand the landscape and are closer to making a decision than a typical search user.

Early case studies show this in the numbers: one site saw visitors from ChatGPT convert at about 15.9 percent, compared to 1.76 percent from Google organic search. [Seer Interactive]

That gap is large, but logical. The AI is pre-qualifying people before they ever see your site.

What We Actually Know About ChatGPT Ads

OpenAI has shared a few concrete things about how ads will work initially.

• •Ads will appear only when relevant to the ongoing conversation.
• •They will be clearly marked as sponsored, separate from the assistant's main answer.
• •Early testing will focus on free and Go users, while higher-tier paid plans remain ad-free for now.

The most important hint is about what happens after the ad. OpenAI says that soon you might see an ad and then "ask the questions you need to make a purchase decision" directly through that ad.

In plain language, instead of a click straight to a landing page, the ad can become a conversation with your business inside the assistant.

That is a big difference from traditional ads, which interrupt what someone is doing and push them to a separate experience. Here, the ad joins a conversation that is already in progress.

Why AI Conversations Are Bigger Than One Platform

It is natural to focus on ChatGPT because it is where the news is. But this shift is not limited to one assistant.

People are starting to talk to AI in many places:

• •ChatGPT, Gemini, and other public assistants
• •Your own website chat or in-app assistant
• •Messaging channels like WhatsApp, Instagram DMs, or SMS
• •Voice calls and, soon enough, audio or video AI agents

The common pattern is simple. Customers would rather describe their situation in natural language and get help than click around trying to find the right page.

So the real strategic question is not only:

"How do I buy ads on ChatGPT?"

It is:

"How do I make sure my business can show up in, and respond inside, these AI conversations, wherever they happen?"

A Simple Mental Model: MCP Is to AI What HTTP Is to the Web

The technical details can sound intimidating, but they do not have to be.

Think back to the early web:

• •At first, every company had its own way of connecting to browsers.
• •Then HTTP emerged as the common protocol.
• •Once that happened, it became obvious that every serious business needed a website.
• •Today, even mobile app backends and APIs still ride on top of HTTP.

AI agents need something similar: a standard way to talk to the systems that run your business.

That is where the Model Context Protocol (MCP) comes in. It is emerging as a shared way for AI models and agents to connect to tools, data, and services.

A rough analogy:

• •HTTP is how browsers talk to servers.
• •MCP is how AI agents talk to businesses.

In practical terms, MCP lets an AI assistant:

• •Ask your systems for up-to-date information, such as inventory, pricing, and availability.
• •Trigger safe actions, like creating a booking, starting an order, or sending a quote.
• •Do that in a consistent way across different assistants and tools.

Just as it became obvious that every business needs a website once HTTP and browsers matured, it is increasingly likely that:

Every business will need AI-ready infrastructure, built on standards like MCP, so agents can understand and act on behalf of customers.

Why Starting With ChatGPT Apps Makes Sense

Right now, the most concrete step for most companies is to build a ChatGPT app: a defined way for ChatGPT to interact with your business.

A ChatGPT app typically:

• •Explains what your business does in a structured, machine-friendly way.
• •Exposes specific actions the assistant can take, such as "check date availability," "create quote," or "start order."
• •Provides a safe, controlled interface to your internal systems.

On day one, this does a few things:

• •Makes it easier for ChatGPT to mention or recommend your business when it is relevant.
• •Prepares you for the moment when ads can drop users into a two-way conversation with your systems, not just your homepage.
• •Forces you to think clearly about what an AI agent should actually be able to do for a customer on your behalf.

Over time, the same patterns you define for your ChatGPT app can be reused for other assistants as they adopt similar standards. This is where MCP becomes important.

You are not just building something for ChatGPT. You are building the first version of your AI-facing interface.

What Connecting to AI Conversations Actually Involves

You do not need to understand every protocol detail to get started. The main pieces are intuitive:

How This Changes Advertising For Good

When ads appear alongside an AI conversation, they show up at a moment of very clear intent:

• •"Help me find a logistics provider for cross-border shipping."
• •"Recommend a B2B payment platform for Mexico and the U.S."
• •"What is the best webshop platform for a small clothing brand in the UK?"

Compare that to a banner ad or a social ad that shows up while someone is doing something unrelated. Here, the assistant already understands what the person wants and is trying to help them get it.

In that world, advertising looks more like:

• •Being introduced into the right conversation at the right time
• •Then having the AI-ready interface to answer questions and complete the next step

Businesses that only think about impressions and clicks will be stuck in the old model. Businesses that think conversation-first, campaign-second, will be ready for what is coming.

Where This Is Heading

A few things seem increasingly inevitable:

• •People will keep shifting from typing into search bars to speaking or typing in full sentences to AI assistants.
• •These AI conversations will happen across public tools such as ChatGPT and Gemini and private surfaces such as your website, app, and support channels.
• •The industry is lining up around shared ways for agents to talk to businesses, with MCP emerging as a key building block, similar to how HTTP was for the web.
• •Over time, every business that takes growth seriously will need AI-ready infrastructure so assistants can understand them, talk to them, and act with them.

Today, the most practical starting move is clear:

Build a solid ChatGPT app that connects your business to how people already talk to AI.

That one step prepares you for ChatGPT ads, for organic recommendations inside AI conversations, and for the broader world where every business connects to every conversation through a common layer of AI-friendly infrastructure.

You are not just preparing to advertise on ChatGPT. You are building the foundations for your business to show up, and act, wherever people talk to AI about problems you can solve.

Frequently Asked Questions