Both put your brand in front of someone with a question. The mechanics could not be more different:
| Google Ads | ChatGPT ads | |
|---|---|---|
| Moment | A typed query, seconds long | A conversation, often minutes long |
| Targeting | Keywords, audiences, bids | Described situations plus geography down to ZIP code |
| Pricing | Auction, price moves daily | Fixed insertion order, price agreed upfront |
| Format | Text ad above results | Native ad below the answer, clearly labeled |
| Competition | Every advertiser in your category | Very few advertisers today |
| Measurement | Mature: conversions, value, scripts | Young: reach, visits, brand effect |
The reason this channel matters is what people use ChatGPT for. Around 900 million people use it weekly, and the shopping-related conversations span the whole funnel: roughly a third of buying conversations are product discovery, a fifth are product comparison, and about a quarter are evaluating one specific product before purchase. That middle of the funnel, where Google shows ten blue links and a wall of ads, is where an assistant gives one answer, and where a brand inside that answer stands alone.
I have bought Google clicks for 20 years, and I am not telling you to stop. I am telling you what I see in the auction data: Google gets more expensive every year, and the space next to an AI answer is, for a short window, almost empty. Windows like that close. The advertisers who tested Meta in 2013 or TikTok in 2019 remember how that felt.
Not through a self-serve dashboard. ChatGPT ads run on fixed insertion orders through a small circle of selling partners, live in the US, UK, Canada, Australia and further markets. We book them for clients as part of a US plan: here is exactly how that works.
A 30-minute strategy call: whether ChatGPT inventory fits your product, what a test costs, and what stays on Google.
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