OpenAI is activating creative enhancements, a feature that allows its advertising system to automatically change ads based on the conversation they appear in, by default for new and existing ChatGPT Ads campaigns starting Friday, Oct. 30, according to OpenAI’s help page.
With this setting on, the advertising system can change the copy of an ad to fit the conversation it appears in and choose which pages on the advertiser’s website the ad will direct users to after clicking the ad. These variations of the same ad can run without the need for each one to be reviewed or approved by the advertiser, and Ads Manager doesn’t display a preview for every version of the ad.
Any opt-outs saved at either the account level or campaign level stay intact.
What Creative Enhancements Can Change
OpenAI’s ad system may rewrite headlines and descriptions or write new ones, translate ad text into another language, resize images to fit the ad format, and optimize the destination URL to send people to a relevant page on the advertiser’s website.
To create the variations, the system relies on the subject matter of the conversation or the user’s interests, what exists (the advertisement), and what is on the landing page of the advertisement. It may create versions ahead of time or create them during a conversation.
On September 16th, OpenAI introduced the AI-powered text customization feature in an optional feature set-up process. This was defined by OpenAI as adjusting current titles and descriptions to match the conversation flow and translating the advertisement copy into the preferred language of the user. The Creative Enhancements Page also includes other adjustments to the ad including text and translations, as well as resizing images and changing destination URLs. As of October 30th, this page does not specify how these options relate to the previous September option.
According to an October 21st engineering post by OpenAI that SEJ covered last week, the company already writes a brief intro for every ad. These introductions exist separately from the advertisers’ title, description, destination link and call-to-action. Unless you opt out of creative enhancements, you can have your title, description and destination link modified to fit the conversation.
Account And Campaign Controls
Advertisers may opt out of creative enhancements by changing the settings at any time through Ads Manager (Manage settings). Account-level settings are used as the default, while campaign-level settings take precedence over those settings.
The help page, as of October 30th, describes enhancements as one setting. It does not describe additional options to control text, translations, images, or destination URLs.
Landing Pages, Tracking, And Reporting
OpenAI’s ad creation guide tells advertisers to add tracking parameters, such as UTM tags, directly to each ad’s destination URL. Its ChatGPT Ads basics page says static parameters added that way persist on ad clicks. Ads Manager also lets advertisers append landing page query parameters at the campaign, ad group, and ad levels, with parameters on the ad URL taking precedence, according to the Measure Results page.
The Creative Enhancements page indicates that the system may modify the destination URL to direct users to a relevant page on the advertiser’s website. As of October 30th, this page does not discuss how tracking parameters are passed forward when the destination is changed, or whether advertisers have the capability to exclude certain pages.
Ads Manager provides reporting for campaigns, ad groups and ads. Neither the Measure Results page nor the creative enhancements page as of October 30th detail a specific report that will show you each enhanced version individually. On the creative enhancements page, OpenAI states:
“Changes over time do not, on their own, establish the effect of creative enhancements.”
Multi-Image Ads Enter Open Beta
OpenAI introduced a multi-image format in Ads Manager on Oct. 26 as an open beta. Advertisers choose Multiple images under Ad format, and the option is available for standard campaigns with Reach, Clicks, or Conversions objectives. Single-image ads are still available.
A multi-image advertisement utilizes 4-6 square format images (aspect ratio of 1:1). Each one will link to an identical destination URL. Currently, Learn more is the only call to action (CTA) that can be applied to these types of advertisements.
SEJ reported OpenAI’s Oct. 5 announcement of a separate test for visual ads displayed while generating an image within ChatGPT. The ad creation guide and creative enhancements page, both of which were reviewed on October 30th, give no indication if creative enhancements are applicable to multi-image ads.
Why This Matters
With creative enhancements on, the ad that a person views may differ from the one you created. Additionally, you will not see all of the different versions of the ads prior to them running. Since the system uses your ad and landing page as its base, pricing, promotions, product information and availability on your landing page must be current.
Check where you set up your analytics for the changes to the destination URL, since what happens to your tracking parameters isn’t something indicated by the creative enhancements page. Verify that ChatGPT clicks continue to include your UTM tags and land on pages which are acceptable to receive paid traffic.
On iOS, according to the ad creation guide published by OpenAI (the company behind ChatGPT), using Share to copy the link allows users to access the full URL of an ad due to the fact that ChatGPT’s in-app browser only shows the hostname.
Looking Ahead
OpenAI describes Ads Manager as a beta and plans to add more metrics, reporting views, and insights over time. You can change the creative enhancements setting whenever you like, so turning it off for now still leaves you free to try it later.
Featured Image: Tetiana Yurchenko/Shutterstock
