ChatGPT Ads Is Adding Custom Audience Targeting

OpenAI is building custom audience targeting into ChatGPT Ads Manager. According to an email OpenAI sent to advertisers on July 9, the capability arrives alongside a new account overview tab, prefilled ad drafts, expanded market targeting, and a refreshed ad card format.

The additions move ChatGPT Ads Manager from a basic buying interface toward the audience and account management layer that defines established platforms. The changes layer onto a channel that already runs on cost-per-click pricing, which The Keyword broke down in its explainer on how ChatGPT ads work and what they cost. 

Custom Audiences

Advertisers can upload lists of 25,000 or more users to either include or suppress across campaigns, and set bid multipliers for those audiences at the ad group level. A retailer could upload its existing customer file to suppress current buyers from a prospecting campaign, then raise bids against a separate list of lapsed customers. OpenAI documents the setup in its OpenAI Help Center. The company had begun rolling out audience lists earlier in the week before folding them into this wider update.

Account Overview Tab

A new overview tab consolidates account health, recommended optimization tasks, and a larger, more flexible trend chart for key metrics. An advertiser managing several campaigns can use the tab to spot a drop in delivery and act on suggested fixes without digging through individual ad groups.

Suggested Ad Drafts

When a campaign could benefit from broader creative coverage, advertisers may see an option under "Add new ad" that prefills an image, title, and description from the website's existing metadata. The feature does not generate copy or imagery with AI; it pulls what a site already publishes for the advertiser to review and edit. The Keyword earlier covered that ChatGPT Ads now shows a ‘generate ads for you’ option that drafts an ad from an advertiser’s website and campaign settings.

Market and Format Changes

Campaigns can now target users in Japan and South Korea, extending ChatGPT Ads beyond the earlier English-language markets the platform reached when it extended its self-serve Ads Manager to the U.K. OpenAI is also rolling out a more compact static ad card format across web and mobile, a change that began in late June and continues the platform's move beyond a single ad format.

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