OpenAI is charging premium fees, such as a 4% take rate on Shopify sales and ad CPMs three times higher than Meta's. This signals a value-based strategy, betting that high-intent AI users will deliver superior conversion rates that justify the hefty premium over established digital platforms.

Despite CEO Sam Altman previously calling an ad-based model a "last resort," OpenAI is launching ads in ChatGPT. The company justifies this by framing it as a necessity to fund free access for all users, addressing immense operational costs and signaling a strategic move toward a sustainable, IPO-ready business model.

The potential for OpenAI's advertising business is staggering. A back-of-the-envelope calculation suggests that at their scale, monetizing just 0.22 ads per prompt (one in five) at a plausible $50 CPM for high-intent discovery would generate $25 billion in revenue, rivaling established ad giants.

Traffic from ChatGPT ads is expected to convert at a far higher rate than traditional search. Early advertisers can capitalize on this by buying ads for much less than their true value before the market matures and costs normalize, creating a significant arbitrage window.

Unlike Meta or Google, OpenAI's early ad offering for ChatGPT will not provide detailed attribution data or conversion tracking. Advertisers will only receive high-level metrics like impressions and clicks, a significant step back from the granular performance measurement they are accustomed to.

To effectively sell ads, OpenAI must provide advertisers with targeting tools and performance data. This will inadvertently open up a treasure trove of analytics for all marketers, offering the first real glimpse into user behavior, popular topics, and prompt trends within ChatGPT.

Unlike search ads that target keywords, ChatGPT ads will target a user's intent inferred from a conversation. The system essentially qualifies the user's needs *before* showing an ad, resulting in traffic that is already in a buying mindset and more likely to convert.

Despite an $8M+ price tag, a Super Bowl ad's cost-per-thousand-impressions (CPM) of $60-$80 is comparable to LinkedIn's $35-$80 range. Given the Super Bowl's high engagement and cultural impact versus passive scrolling on social media, the relative value can be a strategic bargain for large brands.

OpenAI's initial ad offering is intentionally basic (CPM-based, low targeting) to gather data and advertiser feedback. This MVP approach is necessary to build the foundation for a more sophisticated, conversion-optimized platform like Meta's, even if it seems underdeveloped at first.