Checked 19 October 2026
There are no keywords. There are context hints.
This is the biggest difference from Google Ads, and it trips up people who know Google well. You do not bid on what someone types. You describe the conversation you want to appear inside.
How the match happens
Ads are matched contextually, against the topic of the conversation in progress, plus past chat history and previous ad interactions where the user has left personalisation on.
Your job at ad group level is to supply context hints: short descriptions of the situations your product belongs in. Not a keyword list. Not a phrase match.
OpenAI has been explicit that ads never influence the answer. The answer is written to be helpful, and your ad sits next to it, labelled as sponsored and visually separated.
High intent, low control
You will hear this phrase a lot, and it is accurate. High intent means the person is close to a decision. Low control means you cannot choose exactly where the ad shows.
Someone describing a problem to ChatGPT in 3 paragraphs is much deeper into a decision than someone typing 2 words into a search box. That is the intent half.
The control half is that you cannot see the exact prompt, cannot add negative keywords the way you would on Google, and cannot pin yourself to one query. You steer, you do not aim.
How to write a hint
Describe the moment, not the product. Write the sentence your customer would say to a friend before they knew your category existed.
Then write 2 more for adjacent moments. Thin hints starve for volume; a hint that covers 3 related situations tends to deliver.
Stop doing this
Porting your Google keyword list across. It produces hints that describe your category rather than your customer’s problem, and those match badly.
Start doing this
Read your own support tickets. The phrasing customers use when something has gone wrong is almost exactly the phrasing they use with ChatGPT.
Measurement
Install the measurement pixel (tracking code on your site) and the conversions API (the same signal sent from your server) before you spend. Without them you cannot tell which hints bring in sales and which just spend.
Translation
Keyword to context hint
The same intent, rewritten as a situation rather than a search string.
| If your Google keyword was | Your context hint is closer to |
|---|---|
| project management software | Conversations about missed deadlines, unclear ownership and messy handovers between teams |
| running shoes | Conversations about knee pain after running, choosing a first marathon shoe, or replacing worn trainers |
| accounting software small business | Conversations about VAT deadlines, chasing unpaid invoices, and first-time self-assessment |
| crm for startups | Conversations about losing track of leads in a spreadsheet and handing a pipeline to a first sales hire |
Next
Once the hint is right, the constraint moves to the creative. And the creative is very small.
Keep reading
ChatGPT Ads custom audiences
Customer lists, the 25,000 match floor, exclusions and bid multipliers.
Read the guideChatGPT ad specs and character limits
Every field, every limit, and what fits in a 24 character title.
Read the guideAnswer engine optimization vs ChatGPT ads
One earns a mention in the answer, the other buys a spot next to it.
Read the guideHave us do it
We write and test the hints for you. Fixed fee to launch, live in 14 days, then month to month.