The short version
Setup has five steps and one waiting period. Get the country, currency and legal name right the first time, put the account under someone inside your company, and finish the account name, logo and billing before expecting a single impression.
What to prepare
- A UAE legal entity. OpenAI requires the entity that advertises and is billed to be based in a listed country.
- The legal business name exactly as it appears on the trade licence.
- Your website, logo and industry.
- A company credit card and billing address.
- One named owner inside the business with an OpenAI login, or an email address to create one.
The five steps
- Create the account. Go to Ads Manager and follow the sign up flow. An OpenAI account is required and can be created during sign up.
- Onboarding and verification. Enter business details, then account details: country, currency and time zone. You then answer verification questions in a step that runs through Persona. The application goes into review, where OpenAI also considers whether your products or services are eligible under its ads policies.
- Complete account information. After the access email arrives, open Settings, then Account info, and set the account name and logo exactly as they should appear in the ad. OpenAI states that ads will not serve until this is done.
- Billing and payment. Create a billing profile with business name, invoice email and billing address, then add a card. Campaigns cannot deliver until both are complete.
- Invite the team. Settings, then Users, then Invite.
Decisions that are hard to undo
OpenAI tells advertisers to review country or region, currency, time zone, legal business name, advertiser website and billing details before submitting. Treat these as permanent. For a UAE business that means United Arab Emirates, AED and Gulf Standard Time. The minimum daily budget follows the billing currency, and for dirham accounts it is AED 65.
Who should own the account
Put the owner role with a person in your company, not with an agency and not with a staff member's personal email. Agencies and freelancers are invited as users. If the relationship ends, access is removed in one click and nothing is lost.
If you run several brands, each advertiser needs its own account. One login can move between them.
Why approved accounts still show no delivery
| Symptom | Usual cause |
|---|---|
| Campaign is live, zero impressions | Account name or logo not completed in Account info |
| Campaign will not start | Billing profile or payment method incomplete |
| Ad rejected | Creative, image or landing page conflicts with OpenAI's ads policies |
| Landing page flagged | The site blocks OpenAI's user agents, OAI-AdsBot or OAI-SearchBot |
After setup
Build the first campaign with one clear objective, UAE as the target country and a daily budget you can hold for four weeks. Then write context hints and several distinct ad variations per offer.
Quick answers
How long does account approval take?
OpenAI does not give a time. It says applications are reviewed in a rolling queue, verification may take some time, and the person who created the account is emailed when full access is ready.
Can an agency open the account for us?
OpenAI says each business should have one account owner create the advertiser account, and each advertiser needs its own account. The owner then invites team members. We recommend the owner is someone inside your company.
Why are my approved ads not serving?
Two setup items block delivery. The account name and logo in account info must be complete, and billing with a payment method must be fully set up.
How many ad accounts can one login hold?
One OpenAI login can access multiple ad accounts. Once you belong to 10 or more, you cannot create another yourself, though you can still be invited to existing ones.