M+C Saatchi Performance Announces Direct Partnership with OpenAI for ChatGPT Ads
Conversational AI is reshaping how people research, compare, and make decisions, so we are pleased to announce a new direct partnership with OpenAI to help brands explore, launch, and optimize ChatGPT Ads with disciplined strategy, testing, and measurement frameworks.
“As AI-powered experiences become part of our everyday research and decision-making, advertisers are evaluating how conversational LLM environments can complement existing media investments. This direct partnership with OpenAI reflects our continued commitment to helping brands understand emerging media opportunities while applying the same performance discipline, measurement rigor, and commercial accountability expected across every channel.”
Kabeer Chaudhary, CEO, M+C Saatchi Performance
Why LLMs Matter
The way people discover products and services has evolved. Instead of typing short keyword-based queries, consumers increasingly ask complete questions, seek recommendations, compare alternatives, and work through decisions inside conversational interfaces. This creates a different environment for advertisers to navigate and test. Rather than focusing exclusively on isolated keywords, brands must consider the broader context surrounding a customer’s need, challenge, or decision.
For marketers, that means understanding not only what someone is looking for, why they are looking for it, and how much to bid on appearing as paid advertising next to the solution.
How ChatGPT Ads Differ From Traditional Paid Search
While there are similarities between search advertising and ChatGPT Ads, they should not be treated the same. Traditional search often begins with keyword intent. Conversational advertising such as ChatGPT, however, introduces additional layers of context through ongoing interactions and more detailed expressions of user needs. OpenAI offers contextual relevance, advertiser-provided context hints, landing-page relevance, and conversation intent in ad delivery.
For example:
Traditional search query:
- “running shoes”
Conversational context:
- “I’m training for my first marathon and need running shoes that provide extra support because I spend most of my day standing at work.”
Both indicate interest, but only one provides broader context around what someone is really researching.
That difference has important implications for campaign planning, creative development and measurement.
What does a direct partnership with OpenAI mean for advertisers?
Through this partnership, M+C Saatchi Performance will support advertisers across the full lifecycle of ChatGPT Ads campaigns.
For example:
- Strategic planning and channel evaluation
- Audience and conversation mapping
- Campaign setup and launch
- Creative and landing-page alignment
- Measurement framework development
- Conversion tracking implementation
- Testing and optimization programs
- Incrementality and media-mix assessment
Our specialist programmatic team brings strong prompt engineering expertise to help identify relevant customer conversations, develop effective context hints, and drive more effective ChatGPT Ads campaigns.
“Our approach is rooted in practical performance marketing principles rather than platform hype. We believe emerging channels create the strongest business value when they are integrated thoughtfully into a wider marketing ecosystem”.
Darryl Miranda, Global Partnerships Director, M+C Saatchi Performance
How Advertisers Should Approach Testing
If you are an advertiser interested in testing ChatGPT Ads, we can help with the entire planning, onboarding, and setup. Based on our experience evaluating this emerging channel, several considerations stand out, all of which our team can guide you through to avoid common pain points.
- Start With a Clear Hypothesis: Rather than asking whether ChatGPT Ads work, ask whether they can help influence a particular customer journey, category decision, or commercial outcome.
- Think in Conversation, Not Keywords: Translate important keyword themes into realistic customer questions and decision scenarios. This helps create stronger alignment between context, messaging and landing-page experience.
- Establish Measurement KPIs and Benchmarks Before Launch: Define conversion tracking, KPIs and reporting requirements before campaigns go live. OpenAI supports measurement solutions including Pixel, Conversions API and partner integration such as MMPs.
- Test Meaningfully Different Messages: Test fundamentally different customer needs, offers, use cases, and value propositions with different creative.
- Evaluate Incremental Contribution: Avoid measuring performance solely through last-click attribution. Remember LLMs may influence consideration and decision-making alongside broader performance channels.
Which Advertisers Should Consider Testing ChatGPT Ads?
ChatGPT Ads are likely to be most relevant for advertisers who:
- Rely on research-intensive purchase journeys
- Compete in categories where recommendation and comparison matter
- Already invest in paid search or lower-funnel performance channels
- Have robust measurement frameworks in place
- Want to understand how conversational AI may influence future customer acquisition
As with any emerging platform, advertisers should treat initial activity as a learning program rather than a scale program.
“Early movers on ChatGPT Ads will get to test the platform while it’s still cheap to experiment on, and establish their funnels in the ecosystem early. For an ad platform that did not exist at the beginning of 2026, it is incredible how impactful ChatGPT ads are becoming. Costs are likely to rise as more advertisers jump in and competition increases. Late movers will pay more for covering the same ground.” Emil Dewy, Senior Programmatic Manager, M+C Saatchi Performance
Ready to Explore ChatGPT Ads?
The opportunity for advertisers is not simply to reach people in a new placement. It is to understand how customer intent is expressed through conversation and how brands can add value at those moments.
If you’re evaluating ChatGPT Ads and want an experienced performance marketing partner to help structure, launch, and measure your testing program, we’d love to speak with you. Contact us to find out how we can help your business grow.
