AI

    OpenAI is taking the Netflix approach to launching ads in ChatGPT and going for the premium price point from the jump

    From Adweek:

    OpenAI is asking select advertisers to commit at least $200,000 as it rolls out beta ads

    From The Verge:

    OpenAI is reportedly asking a high price to advertise on ChatGPT, around $60 per 1,000 views, or triple what ads on Meta’s platform usually cost

    It’s likely that these cost targets plus a long road to figuring out what works best means it’ll be a while until self-serve ChatGPT ads are available to most advertisers.


    Why is OpenAI focusing on creating a social media platform?

    I know every big tech company wants one for attention and data capture. But how does this vision overlap with the core OpenAi brand premise?

    Biometric verification is not synonymous with OpenAI in my mind. Is it just a slop spot?


    Running Google Ads? This AI Max for Search post is worth a read.

    My read, this is the account structure to use:

    • Search campaign with highest value / most important keywords (exact match)
    • AI Max to expand the audience and add incrementality
    • PMax / Demand Gen for off-search reach

    The pattern for breakthrough marketing:

    Pick a side. Make enemies. Build a tribe.

    via Bots Gone Wild


    SEO 4 AI is Just SEO

    SEO 4 AI is the buzzy topic of the moment (with the acronym collection to prove it). But is it any different from normal SEO?

    Nope!

    Thanks for reading…

    In case that’s not enough for you, here’s what a founder in the space has to say about it.

    But first!

    Why listen to what I’m about to copy-paste below? These are the reasons why Lorelight shut down.

    What is Lorelight?
    According to its about page:

    a generative engine optimization (GEO) platform to help businesses track their brand mentions in AI search engines like ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity.

    Back to the point of all this, SEO 4 AI is just SEO.

    Straight from the Lorelight shut down post (bolding is mine):

    After analyzing hundreds of queries across ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity, I found that brands with high AI search visibility all had the same characteristics:

    • Quality content that genuinely helped people
    • Mentions in authoritative publications
    • Strong reputation in their space
    • Genuine expertise and thought leadership

    Sound familiar?

    It should. Because it’s the exact same stuff that’s always worked for SEO, PR, and brand building.

    There was no secret formula. No hidden hack. No special optimization technique that only applied to AI.

    The AI models are trained on the same content that builds your brand everywhere else. They cite the same authoritative sources. They reference the same trusted publications.

    There’s no such thing as “GEO strategy” or “AI optimization” separate from brand building. At least not for the vast majority of brands.

    Focusing on AI tactics or SEO tactics or social algorithm hacks is a distraction. You’re building on rented land with a lease that can change at a moment’s notice.

    Focus on what you can control and own.
    Your brand.
    Your channels.
    Your story.

    Everything else is an amplifier. Amps need inputs.

    The internet is word of mouth with a steroid problem.

    Co-create your brand with your audience.


    OpenAI has entered the AI browser wars


    Fistful of Google Ads Bits

    Google is continuing its transformation to Meta Ads:

    The agents are coming: Open Source Google Ads API MCP Server

    The Model Context Protocol (MCP) is the open standard that allows Large Language Models (LLMs), like Google Gemini, to connect with and act upon external data sources and applications. By releasing an MCP Server specifically for the Google Ads API, we are making it possible for any MCP-compatible AI application to understand and analyze advertising campaigns through natural language.

    (If you don’t know what any of that means, you’re fine.)

    Old news at this point, but Google is trying to toss some pennies at the publishers that took a traffic hit after its AI glow up with Offerwall:

    Offerwall lets publishers give their sites’ readers a variety of ways to access their content, including through options like micropayments, taking surveys, watching ads, and more.

    Getting a lot of spam from PMax?
    Block app placements: tools > content suitability > excluded placements


    Coming Soon: AdsGPT?

    OpenAI wants to monetize ChatGPT via ads (which isn’t a surprise, just think of the Google Search budgets waiting to be reallocated).

    The company recently hired for a “Growth Paid Marketing Platform Engineer” (listing is no longer up) that :

    would be responsible for “developing campaign management tools, integrating with major ad platforms, building real-time attribution and reporting pipelines, and enabling experimentation frameworks to optimize our objectives.”

    There is currently an open role called Growth - AI Workflows, Martech, Creative Systems that will:

    Design and launch AI-powered creative systems (dynamic content generation, automated asset production, experimentation tooling) that enable rapid, personalized campaigns across multiple channels.

    &

    Build and scale a modern martech stack (data pipelines, automation platforms, experimentation frameworks) that supports sophisticated targeting, measurement, and real-time optimization.

    Connecting ad functionality to Instant Checkout is an obvious first step. The trap is building an ad system that looks like the current heavy hitters.

    Turning responses into pay-to-play performance PR outputs kills trust.
    Plopping Google Search Ads style placements somewhere in the chat pane is lazy and annoying.

    Utilizing the unique understanding of a user, content, and intent to create a new paradigm of contextual advertising that provides value and isn’t reliant on hoovering up user data is the opportunity.


    ChatGPT adds Instant Checkout (which sounds a lot like Perplexity’s Pro Shop).

    Buy from Etsy sellers (Shopify coming soon) without leaving your chat thread. This continues the trend of every platform trying to become a shopping platform (see: Google Shopping, Meta Shops, TikTok Shop, etc.)

    Merchants pay a small fee on completed purchases, but the service is free for users, doesn’t affect their prices, and doesn’t influence ChatGPT’s product results.

    The processing fee is a marketing expense. This could be great for early adopters.


    Beware your metrics: Google capped search results at 10 / page. No more 100 results on a page.

    A lot of rankings tools are reporting issues and I’m noticing improved reported average ranks across Google Search Console accounts, likely from deep page data loss.

    How are ChatGPT results changing?


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