Guides ChatGPT ads for the UAE

How does OpenAI Ads Manager actually work, from account to ad

gptads.ae / by / updated 21 September 2026

Every level of OpenAI Ads Manager explained: account, campaign, ad group and ad, what each screen shows, what cannot be edited later, and a launch checklist.

On this page
  1. The short version
  2. What OpenAI Ads Manager actually is
  3. The four levels, in one table
  4. Level 1: the account
  5. What the interface looks like day to day
  6. The ChatGPT Ads Manager plugin: running your account from a conversation
  7. Beta limitations: what OpenAI confirms today
  8. Brand safety and where ads can't appear
  9. Level 2: the campaign
  10. Level 3: the ad group
  11. Level 4: the ad
  12. Inside the campaign builder, step by step
  13. Two ways to build: guided or bulk upload
  14. Reading performance in Ads Manager
  15. Editing after launch
  16. Why a campaign shows Not serving
  17. Common mistakes
  18. Two UAE launch scenarios
  19. Launch checklist
  20. What OpenAI has not published
  21. A short glossary
  22. How this compares to Google Ads and Meta Ads Manager
  23. The UAE specifics
  24. Quick answers

The short version

OpenAI Ads Manager has one structure everywhere: account, then campaign, then ad group, then ad. The account holds billing and users. The campaign holds the objective, budget and country targeting. The ad group holds context hints and bids. The ad holds the actual title, copy, image and landing page. Get the order right and every setting below has an obvious home. This guide walks the whole hierarchy, tours the screens themselves as we saw them in our own account, names what cannot be changed after launch, and ends with a checklist to run before you submit.

OpenAI Ads Manager overview screen for a new account, showing required setup tasks for billing and account logo and an empty performance trend
A brand new account. Ads Manager will not serve ads until billing is set up and an account logo is uploaded. OpenAI Ads Manager, captured 21 September 2026 from our own account

What OpenAI Ads Manager actually is

OpenAI describes Ads Manager Beta as the platform for creating, launching and managing campaigns in ChatGPT Ads, with tools to monitor performance and make updates in one place, and is explicit that it is a beta product that will keep evolving. Three workflows sit inside it, in OpenAI's own framing: create and manage campaigns, either individually in the guided workflow or at scale with bulk upload for supported campaign types; monitor performance, tracking impressions, clicks and spend across campaigns, ad groups and ads through table views, charts and CSV exports; and manage account settings, covering members, permissions, API keys, billing details and change logs. Because the beta is still evolving, OpenAI is upfront that some capabilities are limited today and more will be added over time.

Logging in

Ads Manager lives at ads.openai.com and needs an OpenAI account to sign in; if you do not already have one, OpenAI lets you create it during the same sign up flow. From there, sign up walks through business details, account details, and identity verification, covered in full below. There is a second entry point too: an eligible business advertiser can begin the same self serve setup from inside a ChatGPT conversation through ChatGPT Ads Manager, detailed further down this guide.

Who can use it, and who sees the ads

Ads Manager itself is for the advertiser. The ads it produces are shown to a different, separate audience: OpenAI states that ads may appear for users on the no cost plan and the Go plan, while Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Edu accounts do not see ads at all, and OpenAI does not show ads to any account identified as belonging to someone under 18, based on account level age information and age prediction where available. A no cost plan user who would rather not see ads can also switch to an ads off option in ChatGPT settings, trading ads for lower usage limits rather than paying for a subscription. None of this is something an advertiser configures; it is a platform wide rule that applies regardless of your campaign settings.

No cost and Go plansMay see ads, subject to age and brand safety rules.
Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise, EduNever see ads, on any plan tier.
Under 18 accountsNever shown ads, based on account signals and age prediction.
Temporary ChatsDo not show ads.

The four levels, in one table

Level What lives here Can you have more than one?
Account Legal entity, billing, currency, users and roles One per advertiser, though a company can hold several accounts for different brands
Campaign Objective, budget, dates, country and platform targeting, custom audiences Many per account, up to 5,000
Ad group Context hints, bid strategy, bid amount, audience bid adjustments Many per campaign, up to 5,000 total
Ad Title, copy, landing page, image, advertiser name and favicon Many per ad group, up to 5,000 total

This structure is identical whether you build in the guided workflow or through bulk upload. If you have not opened an account yet, start with our account setup guide, which covers the five onboarding steps in full, or read our full step by step walkthrough for the whole journey in order.

How an account is structured. Settings made at the top cannot be overridden lower down. Illustration by gptads.ae

Level 1: the account

The account is where OpenAI verifies who you are and where the money comes from. OpenAI's own setup guidance breaks it into five steps: access Ads Manager and create the account, complete onboarding and verification through a provider called Persona, complete account information, set up billing and payment, then invite team members. Only one account owner should create the advertiser account, and campaigns will not deliver until every required step is complete.

Inside the account you manage:

  • Account info: the advertiser name and logo that appear on every ad. OpenAI states ads will not serve until these are set, in Settings, then Account info.
  • Billing: a billing profile with business name, invoice email and address, plus a payment method, in Settings, then Billing.
  • Users: team members invited with a role, covered below, in Settings, then Users.
  • Change logs and API keys, for teams that need an audit trail or programmatic access to send data to measurement partners.

Country, billing currency and time zone are set once at account creation and OpenAI says they cannot be changed afterward; the stated fix for a wrong entry is to create a new advertiser account. Get these right the first time. For a UAE company that is United Arab Emirates, AED and Gulf Standard Time. A company can also hold more than one advertiser account, for example for different brands or legal entities, and one OpenAI login can be used across all of them, though OpenAI caps self serve account creation at 10 accounts belonged to in total, counting accounts you created and accounts you were invited to.

Managing multiple ad accounts

Each advertiser needs its own separate account; one account cannot advertise for several unrelated businesses. To add one, sign in with your existing login, select an eligible self serve account on card billing, and use Create account from the account menu where available. Once you belong to 10 accounts, whether created or joined by invitation, you cannot create another yourself, though you can still be invited into further ones. Agencies working across several clients typically hit this ceiling fastest, so plan which login holds account creation rights before it becomes a blocker.

Roles and who should hold them

Access to Ads Manager depends on two separate things: a permitted sign in method, and a role assigned to the correct advertising account. Being part of the same company tenant, or using single sign on, does not by itself grant access.

Global adminTenant wide. Manages sign in policy and directory connections, can create eligible advertising accounts.
Ads adminTenant wide. Can create eligible advertising accounts. Does not automatically get access to existing ones.
Ad account adminOne account. Manages that account and its users. OpenAI requires at least one effective admin to remain on every account.
Ad account memberOne account. Uses and updates campaigns, ad groups and ads without account level administration.
Ad account viewerOne account. Views performance and settings without editing rights.

Our view: put the admin role with someone inside your company, and add an agency as a member. If a person has more than one path to access, OpenAI applies whichever role is highest, in the order Admin, then Member, then Viewer, and removing a direct role does not remove access a group still grants, so check both when someone leaves. For companies using single sign on, OpenAI recommends leaving the Ads sign in policy on Optional while testing, since a Required policy can still let someone already signed in through without re-authenticating. Synchronised users and groups come from a tenant wide directory, not a separate one per account, so access still has to be assigned account by account.

Account settings, tab by tab

OpenAI names members, permissions, API keys, billing details and change logs as what account settings cover. Here is what sits behind each label, drawn from the account setup, billing and identity articles.

Settings tab What it holds
Account info Account name and logo, exactly as they should appear inside every ad unit
Users Invite team members by email and assign Admin, Member or Viewer for this account
Billing Billing profile (business name, invoice email, address), payment method, tax and VAT IDs, account limits for eligible postpaid accounts
API keys Created here for measurement partner integrations such as Fospha, Hightouch, LiveRamp, Singular, Triple Whale and WorkMagic
Change logs An audit trail of account level changes, for teams that need to trace who changed what

What the interface looks like day to day

What follows is what we saw in our own account on 21 September 2026, with setup not yet finished, so labels and empty states may change as the beta evolves.

Left navigationOverview, Campaigns, Tools, Billing, Settings. Tools expands into Conversions, Feeds, Change History and Audiences.
Overview screenA Tasks row, showing items such as finishing billing setup and uploading an account logo, both marked Required, plus a prompt to create your first campaign. Below it, a Performance trend module with a segment selector, a campaign selector, date ranges of 7d, 14d, 30d or Custom, and four tiles: Spend, Impressions, Clicks, CPC.
Campaigns screenTabs for Campaigns, Ad groups and Ads, a Create button, filter and column icons, and a date range picker. The empty state before a first campaign invites you to create one, describing campaigns as how you promote your products or services across available ad placements.
FooterA Timezone selector, showing Gulf Standard Time on our account, alongside a separate note that billing itself runs on UTC.
Audiences screenUnder Tools. The empty state before a first audience invites you to upload raw or hashed emails and phone numbers to use as audience filters for campaigns.
Feeds screenUnder Tools, with Feed Connection and Upload History tabs. The empty state, before any feed is connected, points to uploading a product feed by SFTP to keep ads updated with current items, prices, availability and metadata. The Create feed button was disabled until account setup finished.
Conversions screenUnder Tools. On our account it did not load any content while account setup was still unfinished, consistent with OpenAI's own point that campaigns and their supporting tools will not fully activate until account information and billing are both complete.

An incomplete account shows a persistent banner explaining that ads cannot serve until account setup is finished, pointing specifically at billing and the account logo, with a link through to finish setup, matching OpenAI's own written guidance that account information and billing are separate gates from approval. A sidebar card also promotes a ChatGPT native path for creating, editing and managing campaigns directly from a conversation. This is a real, supported workflow for eligible business advertisers, letting you begin self serve setup and work with supported campaigns, ad groups, ads and performance insights from inside a ChatGPT conversation, though remaining billing, payment, tax or identity verification steps still finish in Ads Manager itself, and agencies creating accounts on a client's behalf are not supported through this path.

The Timezone footer note is worth pausing on: reporting runs on the account's chosen time zone while billing uses UTC, a reconciliation gap worth knowing before the first invoice lands.

OpenAI Ads Manager campaigns screen with the Create campaign menu open showing Create campaign and Upload bulk
Two ways to start: build a campaign in the interface, or upload in bulk. OpenAI Ads Manager, captured 21 September 2026 from our own account

The ChatGPT Ads Manager plugin: running your account from a conversation

Alongside the ads.openai.com dashboard, OpenAI supports a second, ChatGPT native path called ChatGPT Ads Manager, which is what the sidebar card in our account was promoting. It is built for eligible business advertisers, and OpenAI is specific about what it does and does not replace.

  1. Open ChatGPT Ads Manager and connect

    Open it from within ChatGPT and connect your account when prompted.

  2. Ask ChatGPT to set up a business advertiser account

    Select an eligible organisation, or create a new one where that option is available.

  3. Review the details before confirming

    Advertiser name, website, business country or region, currency, time zone and logo, since several of these lock permanently once the account exists.

  4. Finish the rest in Ads Manager itself

    Any remaining billing, payment, tax or identity verification steps happen back in Ads Manager. Campaigns may not serve until required setup and review are complete.

Two limits are worth knowing before you rely on this path. First, individual advertiser onboarding is not supported, and neither is an agency creating an advertiser account on a client's behalf; an agency can only be invited to an account once the client itself has created it. Second, once an account exists, eligible business advertisers can go on to work with supported campaigns, ad groups, ads and performance insights from inside ChatGPT, though OpenAI notes available actions can vary, so treat it as a genuinely useful companion to the dashboard rather than a full replacement for it, especially for detailed bulk upload work.

Beta limitations: what OpenAI confirms today

OpenAI is direct that ChatGPT Ads is still in beta and in the early stages of scaling. Its own account of the timeline: a focused pilot ran from February through April, and the platform is now expanding through self serve onboarding in Ads Manager Beta. As it stands today, OpenAI states Ads Manager Beta supports core campaign creation, billing, access management and reporting workflows, along with conversion measurement and CPC bidding, and that these capabilities will keep being expanded. Two practical consequences follow directly from beta status, in OpenAI's own words: ongoing improvements to delivery systems and models can cause delivery and spend to fluctuate during the beta, and for conversion optimised campaigns the stated goal is to improve conversion outcomes, not simply to use the full budget. Budget advertisers accordingly, particularly in the first few weeks of a new account, and expect settings, defaults and even navigation labels to shift as the product matures.

OpenAI Ads Manager new campaign panel showing an AI generated campaign summary with objective Clicks, location United Arab Emirates, five eligible platforms and an average daily budget of AED 260
The builder opens on an AI generated draft built from the account details. Every value can be edited, or you can choose Create from scratch. OpenAI Ads Manager, captured 21 September 2026 from our own account

Brand safety and where ads can't appear

OpenAI's stated policy is to place ads only near chats that are safe, appropriate and aligned with user trust and brand safety, with safeguards designed to prevent ads appearing in sensitive user contexts or brand unsafe environments. Two rules sit underneath that policy statement. Ads are not eligible to appear near sensitive or regulated topics, including personal health, mental health or politics, regardless of who the advertiser is. Separately, advertisers in sensitive or regulated categories such as health and financial services may still be eligible to advertise, but only if they meet OpenAI's own strict eligibility criteria during account verification, and even an eligible advertiser in one of those categories will not have its ads placed near sensitive personal conversations. OpenAI also states plainly that ads do not influence ChatGPT's answers, run on separate systems from the chat model, and that seeing an ad is not an endorsement by OpenAI. If your business sits in a regulated UAE sector, expect this screening in addition to, not instead of, your own regulator's advertising rules.

Level 2: the campaign

A campaign defines the objective, the budget and who is eligible to see the ads inside it. OpenAI lists these fields on every campaign: title, objective, conversion event where relevant, budget, start and end dates, countries to target, platforms to target and custom audiences to include or exclude.

Choosing the objective

Views (CPM)Billed per 1,000 impressions. Best for visibility and exposure rather than a specific action.
Clicks (CPC)Billed per valid click. Best for driving traffic to a site or product.
Conversions, click billing (oCPC)Billed per valid click, delivery optimised toward one chosen conversion event that follows a click.
Conversions, impression billing (oCPM)Billed per 1,000 impressions, delivery optimised toward the chosen conversion event across a broader set of eligible signals, including views that convert without a click.

OpenAI is explicit that you never pay per conversion, whichever conversion billing option you choose. It is also explicit that the objective and billing model cannot be changed after the campaign is created; existing CPM, CPC, oCPC or oCPM campaigns cannot be switched to a different objective. If you built a Clicks campaign and later want oCPC, you build a new campaign, though an existing conversion campaign can be cloned to speed up creating a new oCPM version. Full detail on conversion campaigns, including how Bid Cap actually works, is in our conversion campaigns guide and on pricing in our cost guide.

Setting the budget

Two budget types exist, and OpenAI is direct that the choice between them is one of the harder ones to reverse: a campaign total budget can later be changed to a daily budget, but OpenAI says you cannot change it back. If you are new to the platform, start with a daily budget so you can watch delivery before committing to a fixed lifetime number.

A daily budget is treated as an average over a seven day week that OpenAI defines as Sunday through Saturday in the account's time zone. Spend on one day will not exceed twice the daily budget, and spend across the week will not exceed seven times it, subject to proration when the budget changes mid week. If a campaign uses its weekly allowance early, it can stop delivering for the rest of that week even while marked active. A campaign total budget instead paces against your remaining budget and, where set, your end date; OpenAI recommends setting one, because a campaign without an end date defaults to a 60 day planning window, up to a maximum pacing period of 365 days with one set. Changing your bid strategy does not override total budget pacing. Our daily budgets and pacing guide has the worked numbers.

Dates, countries and platforms

Give a campaign enough runway to gather meaningful data before judging it, and think about seasonality, launches and promotions when picking the end date. Country targeting decides where ads are eligible to appear, and for most campaign types you are not limited to country level: OpenAI supports targeting sub-national locations such as states, cities, markets and postal codes where available, searchable during setup. Product feed campaigns are the exception, supporting geographic targeting only at country level for new campaigns.

OpenAI flags one trap for new self serve accounts: some can initially advertise only in their home country, and selecting other countries does not override that. Eligibility elsewhere opens up once identity verification is approved and the account has spent enough in its home country, not simply by creating a campaign or raising a budget.

Platform targeting is optional and lets you choose from five surfaces, all selectable together or separately in the campaign dialog.

Platform surface What it is
Android app The ChatGPT Android application
Android web ChatGPT accessed through a browser on Android
Desktop web ChatGPT accessed through a browser on desktop
iOS app The ChatGPT iOS application
iOS web ChatGPT accessed through a browser on iOS

Insights can be segmented by platform afterward, in the Segment menu, to see how each of the five performed.

Custom audiences at campaign level

A campaign can include or exclude custom audiences built from your own customer lists. Full detail, including file preparation and identifier formatting rules, is in our custom audiences guide.

Identifier type Notes
Email address Normalised to lowercase, spaces trimmed, one @ required
Phone number E.164 format with country code; numbers without one are rejected
SHA-256 hashed email 64 character hex digest of the normalised, lowercase, trimmed email
SHA-256 hashed phone 64 character hex digest of the normalised E.164 number
Google Advertising ID (GAID) Used as is, not hashed, dashes kept

Uploads are a UTF-8 CSV or TXT file up to 500 MB, mixing identifier types is allowed in one CSV, and an audience can hold more than five million members, added across multiple uploads if needed. The rules worth knowing at campaign level: inclusion targeting needs at least 25,000 matched users, 100,000 recommended, while smaller lists can still be used for exclusions; a campaign can use inclusion, exclusion, or both, and if both are used the audience remaining after exclusions must still clear 25,000; and for the EEA or Switzerland, OpenAI's advice is to avoid custom audiences while ads personalisation is unavailable there. Uploaded audience files themselves are deleted after processing, usually within 24 hours.

Campaign step of the OpenAI Ads Manager builder with campaign name, objective dropdown set to Clicks and a daily budget of AED 260 showing a maximum daily spend of AED 520 and a maximum seven day spend of AED 1,820
The campaign step. Ads Manager itself states the pacing rule: at AED 260 a day, one day can reach AED 520 and seven days cannot pass AED 1,820. OpenAI Ads Manager, captured 21 September 2026 from our own account

Level 3: the ad group

An ad group is where a campaign's budget gets pointed at a specific theme, product or customer need. OpenAI's own example is a plumbing business running separate ad groups for emergency repairs and preventive maintenance, same company, different need, different messaging.

What lives on the ad group

Context hintsPlain sentences describing what you offer, who it suits and when it is useful. Set at ad group level, not campaign or ad level. Full guidance in our context hints guide.
Bid strategyMaximize results, which OpenAI selects by default for eligible new ad groups, or Manual: Max bid, which is a fixed ceiling you set yourself.
Max bid or bid capA maximum CPM bid for Views campaigns, a maximum CPC bid for Clicks campaigns, or a Bid Cap for conversion campaigns representing the most you will bid per predicted conversion, not a guaranteed price paid.
Audience bid adjustmentsAn optional multiplier, between 0.1x and 10x, set in the ad group's Advanced settings, that raises or lowers the ad group's max bid when the viewer matches a chosen custom audience. If a viewer matches more than one selected audience, the highest multiplier applies.

Bid strategy in plain terms

Maximize results hands bid decisions to OpenAI's system, aiming to get as many clicks or conversions as the budget allows. OpenAI states it prioritises result volume and does not guarantee a specific cost per result, CPA, CPC or ROAS. For a hard ceiling on what you pay per click or per 1,000 impressions, choose Manual: Max bid instead; there is no recommended bid amount, so it is set from your own numbers and adjusted as delivery data comes in. See our bidding strategies guide for the full comparison.

Structuring ad groups well

OpenAI's guidance, in order: choose a clear focus, use a descriptive title, separate meaningfully different use cases into their own ad groups, and put multiple ads inside one to test messaging on the same theme. Our own addition: keep one landing page per ad group. When a group mixes two customer needs it usually needs two landing pages too, and that is the signal to split it.

Level 4: the ad

The ad is what a ChatGPT user actually sees. OpenAI lists six parts of every standard ad: advertiser name, favicon, title, copy, landing page and image, and the first two are inherited from account settings rather than set per ad.

Laptop showing an analytics dashboard, used as the square image in an illustrative ad
Sponsored
Advertiser name and favicon
Title: what you offer, plainly

Copy: new information that expands the title, in plain language.

Field OpenAI's guidance
Title 16 to 24 characters recommended, 50 maximum. Spell out the value clearly, prioritise useful detail over broad marketing language
Copy 32 to 48 characters recommended, 100 maximum. Complement the title with new information rather than repeating it
Landing page Link to the specific product or content page, not a generic homepage. Must be reachable and must not block OpenAI's OAI-AdsBot or OAI-SearchBot
Image PNG or JPG, square, no larger than 1200 by 1200 pixels, publicly accessible and opening directly to the image. OpenAI names public Google Drive links, AWS S3 or CloudFront, or your own domain or CDN as supported hosting
Tracking Add your own UTM parameters to each destination URL

OpenAI's overall advice is to build for coverage, not one message: many distinct title and copy variations per offering, each a different angle, so the system can find more moments where an ad is genuinely relevant. Full worked examples for UAE industries are in our ad examples guide and context hint examples guide.

Dynamic URL parameters

Beyond a static UTM tag, Ads Manager supports dynamic landing page query parameters using your own text or OpenAI's macros, including {campaign_id}, {ad_group_id}, {ad_id} and {ad_account_id}, filled in automatically at delivery. Configure these from the three dot menu on Campaigns, Ad groups or Ads: Edit, then Landing page query parameters. When the same parameter is set at more than one level, the more specific one wins: Ad URL, then Ad, then Ad Group, then Campaign.

Suggested ad drafts

Ads Manager can offer an "Add new ad" option that prefills a draft from your existing website metadata, image, title and description included, for you to review and edit. OpenAI is explicit that this feature does not generate new copy or imagery with AI. It reuses what is already on your site.

Targeting section of the OpenAI Ads Manager campaign builder with included and excluded locations, United Arab Emirates selected, the creative text optimization toggle and eligible platforms
Targeting sits at campaign level: locations to include, locations to exclude and eligible platforms. Creative text optimisation is on by default. OpenAI Ads Manager, captured 21 September 2026 from our own account

Inside the campaign builder, step by step

Everything above describes what each level holds. This is what the guided builder actually showed us, field by field, in our own account on 21 September 2026, opened, viewed and discarded, with nothing saved or published. Clicking Create, then Create campaign opens a full screen panel called New campaign, with a left rail listing Campaign, Ad groups, Ads and Review, a Save as draft option, and a close button.

It opens on an AI generated draftA Campaign summary panel marked AI generated, prefilled from the account itself: campaign name, campaign type Standard, objective Clicks, locations United Arab Emirates, all five eligible platforms, and an average daily budget already filled in. A Create from scratch button sits alongside it for anyone who would rather start blank.
Text customisation defaults to onA toggle, tagged Recommended, that lets AI generate and translate versions of the ad's headline and description automatically, which OpenAI's own interface text says may be shown without individual review or approval. It is on by default and has to be deliberately turned off if you want only the exact words you wrote to run.
The Campaign step has two sectionsDetails, for campaign name and the objective dropdown, with helper text explaining that the objective decides how you bid in the ad auction and which ad formats are available; and Budget & schedule, for budget type and amount.
The pacing rule is written into the budget field itselfWith a daily budget entered, Ads Manager's own helper text spells out the average amount per day, alongside the resulting maximum daily spend and maximum seven day spend. Seeing our own numbers land at exactly double and seven times the entered figure is the platform confirming, in its own interface, the same rule this guide describes above.
Targeting sits inside the Campaign stepA locations to include search box, a separate locations to exclude section noting that an excluded location overrides an included one for the same person, and an eligible platforms dropdown.
The Ad group step is shortName, a Bid strategy field showing Maximize results, and an Ad delivery & tracking section holding an optional Context hints text area and tracking parameters.
The Ad step carries the real limitsAd name, an Ad Destination URL field, a tracking parameters field with placeholder text showing campaign_id={campaign_id}&ad_id={ad_id} and confirming {campaign_id}, {ad_group_id}, {ad_id}, {ad_account_id} and {oppref} as supported placeholders, a Title field with a live counter capped at 50 characters and a truncation warning shown before that limit, a Description field capped at 100 characters with a validation message requiring at least 3 characters, and an image uploader asking for a square PNG or JPG of at least 256 by 256 pixels.
A live preview sits next to the Ad stepA Preview creative panel showing the image, the business name, an Ad label, the title and the description together, so you see the assembled unit before submitting, not only its separate fields.
Ad field, as the builder showed it Limit
Title 50 character counter, with a truncation warning shown before the limit
Description 100 character counter, minimum 3 characters required
Image Square PNG or JPG, at least 256 by 256 pixels, no larger than 1200 by 1200 pixels per OpenAI's published maximum
Tracking parameters Placeholders {campaign_id}, {ad_group_id}, {ad_id}, {ad_account_id}, {oppref}

Two things stood out to us. First, the oppref placeholder appearing directly in the tracking parameters helper text confirms, first hand, that the click reference our conversion tracking guide describes is something you can deliberately include in your own tracking URL, not only something OpenAI appends automatically. Second, the image uploader's minimum of 256 by 256 pixels sits alongside OpenAI's separately published maximum of 1200 by 1200 pixels; between those two figures is the working range for an ad image. Until every campaign is submitted, the Publish button stays disabled, and a red banner on our unfinished draft flagged the unfinished ad by name and told us to fix it before moving to review. Closing the builder without publishing offers a choice between cancelling, discarding the draft or saving it, with an on screen reminder that a saved draft keeps your progress but not the campaign's budget.

Two ways to build: guided or bulk upload

  1. Guided campaign creation

    Build directly in Ads Manager: click Create, then Create campaign, fill in every field, save, then repeat for ad groups and ads. Best for a first campaign or a small number of them.

  2. Bulk upload

    Download the ad schema template from Create, then Upload bulk. Fill campaigns, ad groups and ads tabs, keeping names consistent across tabs, then upload. Best for launching many campaigns at once. See our bulk upload guide for the full column by column checklist.

Bulk upload cannot currently create product feed campaigns; those are always built through the guided flow, covered in our product feed guide. Each ad account holds up to 5,000 campaigns, 5,000 ad groups and 5,000 ads in total, whichever method you use.

Ad group step of the OpenAI Ads Manager builder showing the Maximize results bid strategy and an optional context hints box
The ad group step: bid strategy, then the optional context hints box and tracking parameters. OpenAI Ads Manager, captured 21 September 2026 from our own account

Reading performance in Ads Manager

Reporting lives across three views: table view, the default for monitoring campaigns, ad groups and ads directly; chart view, opened from the chart icon next to the three dot menu, for tracking impressions, clicks and spend over a chosen date range; and CSV export, for offline analysis, offering export of the current table view, cumulative values for selected rows only, or daily values.

Metric What it shows
Impressions Times an ad was shown
Clicks Times an ad was clicked
Spend Amount billed to date, can lag behind impressions and clicks
CTR Clicks divided by impressions
Avg CPC / Avg CPM Average cost per click or per 1,000 impressions
Conversions Attributed conversion events, click through plus eligible view through, once measurement is set up

Impressions, clicks and CTR can appear within minutes; spend reporting can take longer, so a displayed spend of zero does not necessarily mean nothing has been charged. The Segment menu adds Device, Country and Platform breakdowns but not conversion event columns; those come from Edit columns instead, where you can also switch to Conversions (by conv. time) and set click through attribution to 7, 14 or 30 days alongside a 1 day or disabled view through window. This is last touch attribution, not multi touch, and changing the window changes reporting only, never optimisation, bidding or billing. Order Created Sales and Order Created ROAS, where shown, are calculated only from attributed order_created events. For product feed campaigns, the Products tab is a reporting view fed by delivery data, not a full inventory list, covered in our product feed guide.

Conversion measurement, briefly

The Conversions section under Tools is where measurement is set up: creating a data source there gives you a Pixel ID and a Conversions API key. OpenAI's own click reference, oppref, is appended to the landing page URL after a click and stored in a first party cookie so a later conversion event can be tied back to it. On our account this screen showed no content at all while setup was unfinished, a reminder that measurement setup, like campaign delivery, waits on account information and billing being complete first. Full attribution and export mechanics are in our reporting guide, and conversion setup itself, including the Pixel, the Conversions API and how UAE businesses without web checkouts should track WhatsApp or phone leads, is in our conversion tracking guide.

Editing after launch

OpenAI gives two editing paths, and which one you use depends on the size of the change.

Method Use for How
In-line edit Quick, one off changes: budget, ad copy, pausing a campaign Hover the object, open the three dot menu, select Edit, change the field, save
Bulk edit Structural changes at scale: context hints, landing pages, copy across many objects Select the objects, click Export for edit, change the downloaded file, then upload it through Create, Bulk upload

Two rules matter here. Always start a bulk edit from a fresh Export for edit, since that file carries current IDs and values, and starting from an old file risks overwriting someone else's changes. And when you bulk update an ad group's context hints, OpenAI treats the uploaded list as the complete replacement value, not an addition, so upload the full set you want live, not only the new ones. New ad groups or ads can also be added through the same bulk file by copying the parent ID into the row and leaving the new object's own ID blank.

What cannot be edited, ever

Account country, currency, time zoneFixed at account creation. A wrong choice means opening a new account.
Campaign objective and billing modelFixed at campaign creation. Build a new campaign to change Views, Clicks, oCPC or oCPM.
Conversion event on a conversion campaignFixed once chosen. A different event means a new campaign, though an existing campaign can be cloned into a new oCPM version.
Campaign total budget back to dailyA campaign total budget can become a daily budget, but OpenAI states that change cannot be reversed.
Ad step of the OpenAI Ads Manager builder with destination URL, tracking parameters, a title field with a 50 character counter and a live creative preview
The ad step with its live preview. Tracking parameters accept placeholders for campaign, ad group, ad, ad account and the oppref click reference. OpenAI Ads Manager, captured 21 September 2026 from our own account

Why a campaign shows Not serving

Hover over any Not serving status in Ads Manager for the specific reason OpenAI gives. The table below groups the causes OpenAI names in its own troubleshooting article.

Symptom Likely cause What to check
Not serving right after submission Ad review incomplete, or a landing page or copy policy mismatch Status tooltip on the Ads tab for the exact reason, then edit and resubmit
Zero impressions after 24 hours Account verification or billing incomplete Account info and billing profile both fully complete, not just approved
Delivery stopped mid week Daily budget's seven day allowance used early Today's spend and the current week's total, not just today
Delivering, now behind pace Campaign total budget pacing slowing delivery ahead of schedule Remaining budget against the end date; a bid strategy change will not override total budget pacing
Ads stopped after a payment issue Failed card charge at the payment threshold Payment method in Ads Manager; campaigns, ad groups and ads may all show Not serving until resolved
Raising the bid did not fix delivery Relevance, not bid size, is the limiting factor Context hints, ad variety and landing page match, since a higher bid does not guarantee delivery
New account, no delivery outside home country New self serve international targeting restriction Verification approved and a spend threshold met in the home country first

If none of these resolve it, contact [email protected] with the ad account ID, campaign and ad names, the launch date, and a screenshot showing zero delivery.

Common mistakes

  • Editing a live campaign's objective instead of building a new one. It cannot be done, and support cannot do it for you either.
  • Treating the daily budget as a hard daily cap. It is a seven day average. A campaign can spend double the daily figure on one strong day.
  • Writing one ad per ad group. OpenAI's own advice is many distinct variations, not one message.
  • Replaying a bulk upload file after a partial failure. Reuploading rows with a blank ad ID after some already succeeded can create duplicate ads.
  • Assuming Maximize results targets a cost ceiling. It optimises for volume, not a CPA or CPC target.
  • Leaving account info or billing incomplete after approval. Ads will not serve until the account name, logo and full billing profile are done.
  • Assuming a synced directory grants Ads access. A shared tenant or SSO group does not by itself grant a role on a specific account.
Ad fields in the OpenAI Ads Manager builder: title limited to 50 characters, description limited to 100 characters and an image upload asking for a square PNG or JPG of at least 256 by 256 pixels
The limits as the builder shows them: title 50 characters, description 100 characters, square PNG or JPG of at least 256 by 256 pixels. OpenAI Ads Manager, captured 21 September 2026 from our own account

Two UAE launch scenarios

These are illustrations built from OpenAI's published rules, not real campaigns or results.

Aesthetics clinic, lead generationOne campaign, Conversions objective with oCPC billing toward a lead form submission. Two ad groups, body contouring and facial treatments, since OpenAI's guidance is to separate meaningfully different customer needs, each with two to five context hints and at least four distinct ads.
Online perfume store, catalogue salesA product feed campaign built in the guided workflow, since bulk upload does not support feed campaigns, alongside a small standard Clicks campaign for two or three hero fragrances, using the default Maximize results bid strategy. See our product feed guide for the full setup.

Launch checklist

  1. Account

    Account name and logo set exactly as they should appear. Billing profile and payment method both complete. At least one admin who works inside your company.

  2. Campaign

    Objective matches the goal you actually want to pay for. Budget type chosen deliberately, since campaign total to daily is a one way door. Dates give the campaign enough time to gather data. Countries and platforms match where you can actually serve customers.

  3. Ad group

    One clear focus per group. Two to five specific, accurate context hints. Bid strategy chosen on purpose, not left on the default without checking it fits your goal.

  4. Ad

    Several distinct ads per group, each with a different angle. Titles and copy inside OpenAI's recommended character ranges. Landing pages tested against OAI-AdsBot and OAI-SearchBot. UTM parameters on every destination URL.

  5. After submission

    Check status in Ads Manager. If an ad shows Not serving, hover for the reason, since most issues can be fixed by editing and resubmitting. Allow up to 24 hours, and up to 7 hours of reporting lag, before treating zero impressions as a problem.

OpenAI Ads Manager Customize columns dialog listing conversion columns and the click-through and view-through attribution window switches
Customize columns. Eight conversion columns, and the attribution windows: 7, 14 or 30 days after a click, 0 or 1 day after a view. OpenAI Ads Manager, captured 21 September 2026 from our own account

What OpenAI has not published

OpenAI states there are no performance benchmarks across advertisers, industries or campaign types, since the platform is still early in scaling. There is no recommended bid amount for Bid Cap on conversion campaigns. There is no published typical turnaround time for account verification or ad review, only that both sit in a rolling queue support cannot expedite. There is no stated cap on how many context hints an ad group can carry, and no published language restriction for ad creative, so whether to run English, Arabic or both is left to the advertiser. Where our guides recommend a number with no published OpenAI figure behind it, such as two to five context hints, it is labelled as our own view.

A short glossary

opprefOpenAI's own click reference, appended to a landing page URL after an ad click and stored in a first party cookie so later conversion events can be tied back to it.
Serving / Not servingThe delivery status shown on the Ads tab. Hovering over Not serving reveals OpenAI's specific reason.
OpenAI Ads Manager Change History screen with filters for campaign, user and date and columns for activity, item, details, user and time
Change History, under Tools: every edit with the user and the time, filterable and exportable. OpenAI Ads Manager, captured 21 September 2026 from our own account

How this compares to Google Ads and Meta Ads Manager

We manage all three platforms, so this section is our own comparison, not an OpenAI publication; nothing here is a Google or Meta specification, only how the campaign building blocks map across the three at a structural level.

Building block Google Ads Meta Ads Manager OpenAI Ads Manager
Match signal Search keywords the user typed Audience and interest targeting Conversational context, plus advertiser written context hints
Structure Account, campaign, ad group, ad Account, campaign, ad set, ad Account, campaign, ad group, ad
Automatic bidding Several Smart Bidding strategies Advantage+ automated bidding One automatic strategy, Maximize results
Catalogue ads Shopping campaigns from a Merchant Center feed Catalogue sales from a connected catalogue Product feed campaigns, guided workflow only

The practical difference for a UAE advertiser is upstream of any setting: Google Ads meets a shopper who has already typed a query, Meta meets someone scrolling based on inferred interest, and ChatGPT ads meet someone mid conversation, already describing a need in their own words, which is why OpenAI's own creative guidance leans so heavily on benefit focused, specific copy over a punchy line built for a feed. See our ChatGPT ads vs Google Ads guide for the fuller comparison, including budgeting differences.

The UAE specifics

Billing runs in AED once the account is set up with United Arab Emirates as the country, with a minimum daily budget of AED 65. The working week for most UAE teams runs Sunday to Thursday, which lines up with OpenAI's Sunday to Saturday budget week, so a Thursday pacing check catches most issues before the weekend. Set the account time zone to Gulf Standard Time at creation, since it cannot be changed afterward, even though the Campaigns screen footer reminds you that billing itself is tracked in UTC. Ads can run in English or Arabic; OpenAI publishes no language restriction, so the decision is yours. If you operate in a regulated sector such as healthcare, finance or real estate, confirm your local regulator's advertising rules before launch, separately from OpenAI's own ads policy screening during account verification. For services on getting an account running, see our account setup service and full management service.

Quick answers

What is the structure of an OpenAI Ads Manager account?

Four levels. One account holds campaigns, each campaign holds ad groups, and each ad group holds ads. Objective and budget live on the campaign, context hints and bid strategy live on the ad group, and creative lives on the ad.

Can I change a campaign's objective after I create it?

No. OpenAI says the objective and billing model are not intended to be changed after creation. If you picked wrong, build a new campaign rather than editing the old one.

How many campaigns can one ad account hold?

OpenAI's bulk upload limits are 5,000 campaigns, 5,000 ad groups and 5,000 ads per ad account.

What is the difference between in-line edits and bulk edits?

In-line edits are quick changes made directly in Ads Manager, such as pausing a campaign or updating one ad's copy. Bulk edits export a schema file, change it, and re-upload it, which OpenAI recommends for structural changes at scale such as updating context hints across many ad groups.

Who should hold the ad account admin role?

At least one person inside your company, because OpenAI requires every advertising account to keep at least one effective admin at all times. Agencies are added as members or viewers, not as the sole admin.

Why is my campaign showing Not serving after I submitted it?

Hover over the status in Ads Manager for the specific reason. OpenAI lists incomplete account verification, incomplete billing, a campaign date that has not started, exhausted budget, and ad or landing page policy issues as common causes.

What is Maximize results and should I use it by default?

It is OpenAI's automatic bid strategy, selected by default for eligible new ad groups, which adjusts bids to get as many clicks or conversions as possible within budget. OpenAI states it does not target a specific CPA, CPC or ROAS, so switch to manual max bid if you need a hard bid ceiling.

What does the Ads Manager navigation actually contain?

Left navigation reads Overview, Campaigns, Tools, Billing and Settings. Tools expands into Conversions, Feeds, Change History and Audiences, based on our own account observed on 21 September 2026.

Can I use ChatGPT itself to manage my ads?

Yes, for eligible business advertisers. OpenAI's ChatGPT Ads Manager lets you begin self serve account setup and work with supported campaigns, ad groups, ads and performance insights from inside ChatGPT, though available actions can vary and remaining billing, payment, tax or verification steps still finish in Ads Manager.

What is a dynamic URL parameter and how does it decide which value wins?

A macro such as {campaign_id} or {ad_group_id} that Ads Manager fills in automatically on the destination URL. Parameters can be set at Ad URL, Ad, Ad Group or Campaign level, and OpenAI's hierarchy gives the most specific level priority: Ad URL beats Ad, which beats Ad Group, which beats Campaign.

How many matched users does a custom audience need before I can target it?

At least 25,000 for inclusion targeting or an ad group bid adjustment, with 100,000 recommended by OpenAI. Audiences below 25,000 can still be used for exclusions. Full detail is in our custom audiences guide.

Does OpenAI publish what makes a good campaign result?

No. OpenAI states plainly that, as an early platform, ChatGPT Ads does not yet have performance benchmarks across advertisers, industries or campaign types, and that results depend on objective, creative, landing page experience, relevance and overall setup.

Does the campaign builder write my ad for me?

It can, if you leave a toggle called Text customisation on. On our own account this defaulted to on, described in the interface as AI automatically generating personalised and translated versions of your headlines and descriptions, which may run without your individual review. Turn it off if you want only the exact words you wrote to appear.

What are the minimum and maximum image sizes for a ChatGPT ad?

The builder we saw asked for a square PNG or JPG of at least 256 by 256 pixels. OpenAI's published creative specification separately caps images at no larger than 1200 by 1200 pixels, so the working range sits between those two figures.