For more than two decades, digital advertising was built around a simple premise: brands needed to appear at the exact moment when someone showed a need. This logic transformed Google into one of the largest advertising ecosystems in history, because it managed to connect search intent with commercial opportunities. When someone searched for “best management software”, “digital marketing agency in Portugal” or “hotel in Lisbon”, they were revealing an intention and companies competed to capture that space through ads, content and SEO strategies.

That reality is beginning to change.

The entry of OpenAI into the advertising market, through OpenAI Ads and ChatGPT ads, represents one of the biggest changes in the evolution of digital advertising since the emergence of search engines. The difference lies in the point where advertising takes place. For years, brands tried to appear when someone typed a search query. Now they are beginning to compete for attention at a moment even closer to the final decision: a conversation.

This change is transforming the way consumers discover information, compare alternatives and choose brands. ChatGPT is no longer just an Artificial Intelligence tool used to create texts, answer questions or improve productivity. It has become a new layer of digital discovery, where millions of people search for recommendations, clarify doubts, analyse products and services, and seek guidance before moving forward with a purchase.

The main transformation is precisely here: search is no longer limited to keywords and is becoming based on context.

A person may stop searching simply for “best SEO agency Portugal” and instead ask: “I have a B2B company and I want to increase my online visibility. What strategies should I implement and what type of partners should I look for?”. The second question reveals much more information about the user’s problem, objectives and intent. It is within this new territory that OpenAI Ads emerge.

The arrival of ads on ChatGPT creates a new opportunity for brands

OpenAI began testing advertising inside ChatGPT in the United States, initially for users of the free plans and the Go plan, with one central concern: maintaining a clear separation between ads and responses generated by Artificial Intelligence. The company stated that ads do not influence model responses and that the user experience remains a priority.

This decision highlights an important difference compared with traditional advertising formats. The goal is not simply to place a commercial message in front of someone, but to integrate advertising into an environment where there is an explicit intention.

Traditional advertising often works through interruption. A person is browsing a social network, sees an ad and discovers a brand. In search engines, advertising is closer to intent because it appears when there is an active search. In generative engines, a third possibility emerges: advertising accompanies a decision-making process.

A person may ask ChatGPT which are the best holiday destinations, what equipment they should buy to work remotely, what software can help their company or what criteria they should consider before hiring a particular service. Artificial Intelligence understands the context of the question and can follow a conversation through multiple stages. This ability creates a completely different opportunity for advertisers.

Advertising is no longer associated only with a keyword and becomes associated with a need.

The first ChatGPT ads results show the potential of this new market

Although it is still a recent technology, the first data from ChatGPT advertising shows that there is strong demand from brands.

During the initial phase of the programme, OpenAI started working with a CPM-based model, meaning cost per thousand impressions, allowing advertisers to test demand and understand user behaviour in this new environment. Later, the platform added CPC-based purchasing options, cost per click, moving closer to the models used by the main advertising platforms.

The initial numbers were significant. The ChatGPT advertising pilot exceeded 100 million dollars in annualised revenue just a few weeks after launch, demonstrating significant demand from advertisers.

The expansion also began attracting major international brands. Companies from sectors such as retail, software, travel and services started testing this new opportunity, including names such as Booking, Home Depot and Intuit. Market data also indicated significant growth in the number of advertisers present on the platform, increasing from around 300 companies at the beginning of testing to more than 800 some months later.

These figures are still far from the scale of digital advertising giants. Google and Meta continue to dominate this market with much higher advertising revenues. However, the importance of OpenAI Ads is not only related to current volume, but to the behaviour they may create.

The history of digital advertising shows that major changes often begin with new consumer behaviours. Google did not immediately replace all traditional media when it emerged. Social networks also did not eliminate search engines. Each new platform created a new moment of contact between brands and people. ChatGPT may be creating precisely this new moment.

The end of search based only on keywords

The evolution of generative engines forces companies to rethink how they approach SEO.

For years, search engine optimisation was strongly connected to identifying keywords, creating specific pages and achieving positions in Google results. This approach remains essential, but Artificial Intelligence introduces a new strategic question: how can a brand ensure that it is considered relevant when an Artificial Intelligence system answers a question?

This is the foundation of the growth of GEO, Generative Engine Optimization.

GEO represents a natural evolution of SEO into a reality where search engines no longer simply display pages but generate complete answers. In this new scenario, Artificial Intelligence systems need to understand a brand, recognise its area of expertise, identify authority signals and evaluate whether a specific company deserves to be recommended.

The logic changes completely. In traditional SEO, a company wanted to appear among the top results. In GEO, a company wants to be one of the sources considered when an answer is generated. This difference makes content quality even more important.

Brands will need to create deeper information, answer consumer questions better and demonstrate real knowledge about the topics connected to their business. Digital authority stops being just a competitive advantage and becomes an essential condition for existing inside the new search environments.