ChatGPT now rewrites advertisers' ads on its own unless they opt out

ChatGPT's advertising system can now rewrite advertisers' ads on its own. OpenAI switched on a setting called creative enhancements by default on Friday, Oct. 30. It applies to new and existing ChatGPT Ads campaigns. Advertisers who want to keep full control have to opt out.

What changed

With the setting on, the system can change an ad to fit the conversation it appears in. It may rewrite headlines and descriptions or write new ones. It can translate the text into another language and resize images to fit the ad format. It can also change which page on the advertiser's website the ad sends people to.

To do this, it draws on the topic of the conversation or the user's interests, the original ad, and the landing page. Versions may be made ahead of time or during a conversation.

Why advertisers should care

These variations can run without the advertiser reviewing or approving each one. Ads Manager, the tool advertisers use to run their campaigns, does not show a preview of every version. So the ad a person sees may differ from the one the advertiser wrote.

The system also builds on the landing page. Prices, promotions, product details and availability on that page need to be current.

The tracking questions

OpenAI tells advertisers to add tracking tags, such as UTM tags, to each ad's web address. Its materials say tags added this way persist on ad clicks. But the creative enhancements page does not say how those tags carry over when the system changes the destination. It also does not say whether advertisers can exclude certain pages.

Reporting is another gap. As of Oct. 30, OpenAI's pages describe no report that shows each enhanced version on its own. OpenAI's page also states: "Changes over time do not, on their own, establish the effect of creative enhancements."

What to do

• Open Ads Manager and choose Manage settings to see whether creative enhancements is on.
• Opt out at the account level or for single campaigns. Campaign settings override account settings.
• Test that ChatGPT clicks still carry your UTM tags and land on pages suited to paid traffic.
• Keep prices, offers and product details on your landing pages up to date.

Opt-outs saved earlier at either level stay in place. The setting can be changed at any time, so turning it off now does not rule out trying it later.

What is not clear yet

OpenAI introduced a text customization option on Sept. 16 as an optional setup step. The current help page does not say how it relates to the new default. The page also describes enhancements as one setting, with no separate controls for text, translations, images or links.

A multi-image ad format entered open beta on Oct. 26. OpenAI's pages do not say whether creative enhancements apply to it. OpenAI calls Ads Manager a beta and says it plans to add more metrics and reporting over time.