How to set up a ChatGPT Ads campaign: context hints and chat cards

Setting up a ChatGPT Ads campaign boils down to three decisions: how much you will spend (campaign budget limit), which conversations you will appear in (context hints) and the most you will pay per click or impression (CPC/CPM max bid). For the bigger picture of what the platform is, start with our What is ChatGPT Ads guide; this article focuses on setup practice.

1) How do you set up the campaign and budget?

When creating a campaign in Ads Manager (ads.openai.com) you set a name and a spend limit: daily or lifetime. Since there is no minimum spend you can start with a test budget; in practice, a daily limit that buys at least 30-50 clicks produces meaningful signal. Budget lives at the campaign layer; bids are defined in the next step, on the ad group.

2) How do you choose context hints?

Context hints are short phrases that decide which conversation topics your ad group competes in. A solid starting structure is two groups: one with 5-8 broad hints describing your category (discovery), another with 4-6 narrow hints catching purchase intent (comparison, 'which tool should I buy' style topics). Write hints in the target market's language; on this US/UK-heavy platform that is mostly English.

• Broad hint examples: 'project management', 'team productivity' (high volume, medium relevance)
• Narrow hint examples: comparison topics like 'best project management tool for small teams' (low volume, high intent)
• Avoid: generic topics loosely tied to your brand; they burn impressions and depress CTR

3) CPC or CPM, and what should the max bid be?

You pick the billing type on the ad group: CPC if you want clicks, CPM if you want awareness. The max bid is the ceiling you will pay for that event. Because the channel is young, the safest path is entering with a conservative cap, raising it gradually if you cannot win impressions, and locking it once CTR and cost per click settle.

4) How do you write the chat card?

A chat card has four parts: title, 1-2 sentences of copy, an image and a target URL. The critical principle is tonal fit: in the middle of a conversation the card must read like a natural answer to the question being discussed, not a slogan. Use a clear benefit in the title, one concrete value proposition in the body, a clean product image and a directly relevant landing page.

5) How does setup work via the Advertiser API?

For programmatic setup you issue an API key in Ads Manager → Settings; each key is scoped to one ad account. The flow is three calls, with money expressed in micros (1 unit = 1/1,000,000):

1. POST /v1/campaigns: name, status and budget (e.g. lifetime_spend_limit_micros).
2. POST /v1/ad_groups: campaign_id, the context_hints list, billing_event_type (impression/click) and max_bid_micros.
3. POST /v1/ads: ad_group_id plus the chat_card creative (title, body, target_url, file_id).
4. For reporting, GET /v1/ad_account/insights returns impressions/clicks/spend daily.

Once setup is done the real work begins: tracking which hint earns clicks and which card earns CTR. Connect your account in the Ads Sensor beta and that tracking becomes automatic; on the conversion side, pixel and Conversions API logic follows the same principles as Meta's.