Ads in ChatGPT for a small business: how to start, what it costs and whether it’s worth it

More and more customers ask ChatGPT to recommend a company or service instead of typing a query into Google. Now that OpenAI has opened up space for ads, the question is whether a small business should show up there. Below I describe what to check before launch, how to approach it and how to work out whether it makes sense.

I don’t promise miracles here, and I don’t give numbers I don’t have. The channel is new and the rules can change quickly. So treat this as instructions for a safe test, not a guarantee of results.

What is known about ads in ChatGPT

According to OpenAI, ads in ChatGPT have been running in 31 European countries since the end of August 2026, and self-serve buying in Ads Manager has been possible since 31 August 2026. Poland is on the list of countries with self-serve access (OpenAI help page “Ads Manager Availability”).

Only users of the Free and Go plans see ads. The Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Edu plans are ad-free. In the EEA (European Economic Area) and Switzerland, ads are not personalized for now, so ad selection is based on the context of the conversation, the topic cues you provide and the location (country, region, city, postal code).

How it differs from Google Ads

Both channels cost money, but they catch the customer at a different moment. Here is a short comparison.

For a small local business, Google Ads usually remains the foundation, because a customer searching for “plumber Giżycko” is close to a decision. Advertising in ChatGPT is a good candidate for an additional, limited test. How Google Ads works and what the typical mistakes are, I describe in the guide to Google Ads for a small business.

Step 1: check availability and rules

Before you open an account, make a short checklist:

1. Whether Poland is among the countries where ads run.
2. Whether your industry is covered by restrictions in the advertising policy.
3. What the minimum budget is and in which currency campaigns are billed.
4. Whether you will get an invoice made out to your company and how to handle VAT on a service from abroad.
5. Which payment model applies.

Don’t assume anything from memory. The answers are in Ads Manager and in OpenAI’s documentation, and in this guide I deliberately don’t give amounts, because they may change. If you prefer, I can check it for you: as part of the Ads in ChatGPT service, I start with checking availability in Poland.

Step 2: prepare the page the customer lands on

The most common mistake in any ad is sending people to a home page where it isn’t clear where to start. A person coming from an ad has a few seconds. They should immediately see what you do, for whom, in which area and how to contact you.

A good landing page has:

• one service and one goal, for example a phone call or a form,
• a click-to-call phone number at the top of the page,
• the scope and an approximate price, if you can give one,
• short customer reviews and photos of completed work,
• fast loading on a phone.

For this purpose a landing page works best. If you already have a website, sometimes one well-prepared subpage for the given service is enough.

Step 3: tag the traffic and set up tracking

Without tracking you won’t know whether the ad pays off. Do three things before you spend the first zloty.

1. Add UTM parameters to the ad URL. Thanks to them you will see in GA4 that the visit came from ChatGPT. Example URL:

https://twojafirma.pl/usluga?utm_source=chatgpt&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=test-pazdziernik

2. Set up events in GA4 for clicks on the phone number and form submissions. Analytics and tags can help you with that.
3. Decide what counts as a “contact”. A phone call, a form, a message. Write it down so that after a month you count the same thing.

Remember that analytics shows you only part of the truth. A customer may see the ad, close the window and call an hour later. So look at the overall number of inquiries during the test period, not just at clicks.

Step 4: track phone calls, not just clicks

In local services, most jobs begin with a phone call. The “click on the number” event only shows that someone pressed a button. You don’t know whether the call took place, how long it lasted or whether it ended in a job.

This is where call tracking comes in handy: a separate number for each traffic source. With it you see how many calls came from ChatGPT and how many from Google. I describe the difference between a click and a real conversation in the guide call tracking: where customers call from.

Step 5: a sensible test instead of a big bet

Treat the first campaign as an experiment. Set one goal, one service and one time window, for example a few weeks. Don’t change everything every two days, because you won’t learn what worked.

Before you start, write down three numbers:

• how many contacts a month you get today without this ad,
• how much you can pay for one contact for the job to still be worth it,
• how much money you can afford to lose on the test.

When it ends, compare the result with the goal. If the cost per contact is clearly higher than in Google Ads, don’t write off the channel right away, but don’t raise the budget either. Come back to it when you have collected more data.

Is it worth it? When yes and when no

Today I can’t give you an honest “yes” or “no” for every company. I can point to situations, though.

It’s worth trying when:

• Google Ads is already running and your tracking is set up well,
• you sell a service or product that people often ask an AI assistant about,
• you can afford a test budget whose loss won’t hurt.

It’s better to wait when:

• you don’t have a landing page or phone call tracking yet,
• you’re running your first campaign ever and have no grounding in Google Ads,
• the ad budget is so small that it won’t collect meaningful data.

In that situation it’s better to sort out the basics first: your Google Business Profile, your website and Google advertising. The core channel, Google Ads, still gives local businesses the most measurable result.

Summary

Advertising in ChatGPT is a new channel worth knowing about, but in a small business, approach it with caution. First confirm availability in Poland and the billing rules, then prepare the page, the tracking and a limited test budget. Judge the result by the number of phone calls and inquiries, not by clicks alone.

If you want me to check availability, set up the campaign and the tracking, see the Ads in ChatGPT service or write to me. I reply within 24 hours, and new clients get 20% off their first order. To start, you can also check your website for free.