ChatGPT Ads Expand to 26 More Countries, Reaching 89 in Total

OpenAI has told advertisers that ChatGPT Ads are live in 26 more countries, which puts availability at 89 countries worldwide. The company made the announcement in its weekly email update to advertisers, according to Search Engine Roundtable. The same update introduced a wider standard ad unit, opened multi-image ads to all advertisers in open beta and made the Shopify integration available internationally. For agencies and content teams that plan paid placements alongside organic search work, the update changes which markets can be reached and which ad formats can be used.

The ChatGPT Ads expansion to 26 more countries

OpenAI said ChatGPT Ads are now live in 26 additional countries, and that ChatGPT Ads are available in 89 countries worldwide. The figures come from the advertiser email as relayed by Search Engine Roundtable.

By simple subtraction, the two figures imply that ChatGPT Ads were available in 63 countries before this expansion. That number is calculated from the two reported totals and was not stated by OpenAI or the outlet.

Background on the rollout

Search Engine Roundtable notes that the 26-country expansion, along with a figure of more than 100,000 advertisers, had been announced earlier. The weekly email therefore reads as confirmation that the expansion is now live rather than a first disclosure of it.

The outlet also covered the creative enhancements as a separate, earlier update. In other words, several items in this week’s email had been signaled before, and the email bundled them with the newer format changes.

Which countries are included

Search Engine Roundtable’s report does not name the 26 countries, but OpenAI’s announcement and trade coverage list several of them, including Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Peru, Nigeria, South Africa, Pakistan and Ukraine. The largest share of the new markets is in Latin America, where the rollout follows earlier launches in Mexico and Brazil. Advertisers who need the complete list can find it in OpenAI’s help center.

Who can use ChatGPT Ads

According to OpenAI’s help center and trade coverage, advertisers can reach the new markets in two ways. They can buy self-serve through Ads Manager, or they can work through technology partners that connect their own platforms to ChatGPT Ads. Agencies that already run campaigns through such partners may find the second route quicker to set up.

Access still depends on the account. Eligibility rules and home-country targeting can limit where a campaign runs, so an advertiser based in one market cannot assume it can target every one of the 89 countries. On the user side, ads appear only for people on the Free and Go plans. Subscribers on Plus, Pro and Enterprise plans do not see ads, which narrows the audience an advertiser can reach to those two tiers. Plan tiers also govern how much people can use ChatGPT, since OpenAI now counts chat and work modes against a shared ChatGPT token budget.

A wider standard ad unit

OpenAI is rolling out a new, wider standard ad unit format for ChatGPT Ads. A standard ad unit is the default layout an ad is shown in, so a change to it affects every advertiser who uses the default rather than a special format.

The new ad card is wider and uses more of the conversation width on desktop. On a large screen, the ad therefore takes up more of the space in which the conversation with ChatGPT is displayed. The source says nothing about how the card appears on phones or in apps, so any statement about mobile display is not supported by the available facts.

No work required from advertisers

The wider format uses existing campaigns and creative, and OpenAI said no advertiser action is needed. Creative here means the assets of an ad, such as its text and images. Campaigns that are already running do not need to be rebuilt or resubmitted to be shown in the wider card.

For teams that manage many accounts, this removes a task that format changes often create: auditing every live campaign against a new specification. Nothing in the reporting shows whether results differ between the old and new card, so any performance effect is unknown.

Multi-image ads in open beta

Multi-image ads are now available to all advertisers in open beta. An ad that carries several pictures instead of one gives a brand room to show different products, angles or steps in a single placement.

Open beta means a feature is open to everyone who uses the product but is still being tested, so details can change as OpenAI gathers feedback. The word “all” matters here: access is not limited to a select group of early participants, which sets this release apart from invite-only tests.

OpenAI’s help center adds format details the report leaves out. Multi-image ads use square images in a 1:1 ratio, every image links to the same destination URL, and Learn more is currently the only call-to-action option. How many images an ad may contain, what file requirements apply and whether the format is priced differently from single-image ads remain unclear.

The Shopify integration goes international

The Shopify integration is now available internationally. Shopify is a hosted platform on which many merchants run online stores, and an integration with an ad product generally exists to link a store to its advertising. The source gives no information on what the ChatGPT Ads integration actually connects or which features it includes.

What the update does establish is the direction of the change. A connection that was not available everywhere is now offered across borders, in step with the wider country rollout. Whether it covers all 89 countries or a subset is not stated.

Creative enhancements are switched on automatically

Creative enhancements are being auto-enabled for advertisers. Auto-enabled means the setting is turned on by default and does not wait for an advertiser to opt in. Search Engine Roundtable covered this change in an earlier, separate update.

OpenAI’s creative enhancements page sets out what they can alter. The enhancements can rewrite existing headlines and descriptions or write new ones, translate ad text, resize images and change an ad’s destination URL so it points to a more relevant page on the advertiser’s site. The reporting does not say whether advertisers can switch them off or limit them per campaign. For agencies that answer to clients on brand wording and imagery, that missing detail matters, because a default that changes an ad’s appearance affects approvals.

What the update means for agencies and content teams

The practical effects follow directly from the facts. More countries means a client in a newly covered market can now be considered for ChatGPT Ads. The wider card and the multi-image format add presentation options, and the fact that the new unit needs no action means existing campaigns carry over.

Teams that report on paid and organic channels together will see a new place where brand messages appear, next to search results and owned content. The update gives no data on how ChatGPT Ads perform, so any decision on budget has to wait for results from the advertisers’ own accounts.

The default-on creative enhancements are the item most likely to need checking, since the source gives no detail on control over them. Agencies that give clients review rights over published material have reason to confirm how the setting behaves before relying on it.

What is still not known or confirmed

The update leaves several questions open, including some that people often search for about the product.

• The names of the 26 newly added countries.
• When the wider ad unit reaches every advertiser, beyond the fact that it is rolling out.
• How multi-image ads are built, including the number of images and any limits.
• What creative enhancements change and whether they can be turned off.
• Pricing, including cost per click (CPC, the amount paid each time a user clicks an ad), and any results data.
• Anything about an Ads Manager, self-serve access, early access, certification or how tests have gone. The source does not address these.
• Whether the Shopify integration works the same way in every covered country.

Sources

• Search Engine Roundtable
• OpenAI announcement
• OpenAI help center, creating ChatGPT Ads

Photo by Search Engine Roundtable