Who’s actually buying ChatGPT ads? Lessons from Jotform, Resume.io, Monday.com and 98,000 ads

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By Saj Ali, founder and editor · Last updated 31 Oct 2026

So far, ChatGPT ads are mostly bought by software companies selling to people who already use AI. In the largest public dataset, Graphite and Similarweb’s analysis of more than 98,000 ChatGPT ads, B2B SaaS took 19.9% of US impressions. Monday.com, Jotform and Resume.io led on worldwide impression share. Only Jotform and Resume.io stayed in the weekly top 10 for all 20 weeks measured.

This case study pulls together what is public as of 31 October 2026: OpenAI’s own figures and Jotform case study, the Graphite and Similarweb report, and independent coverage from PPC Land, Search Engine Journal and Business Insider. Every figure is linked to where it came from, and we’ve said who published each one, because most ChatGPT ads data comes from companies that sell ChatGPT ads data.

How big is the ChatGPT ads market now?

ChatGPT ads have grown fast since OpenAI confirmed on 16 January 2026 that it would test ads in its Free and Go tiers. The key dates, as recorded by PPC Land and OpenAI:

Two caveats on the headline numbers. PPC Land notes that the $1 billion run rate projects one month across twelve, and reports that Digiday derived it from roughly $83 million in monthly revenue. And Graphite’s report says ChatGPT “officially launched ads in March 2026”, which doesn’t match the 9 February pilot start; PPC Land flagged the discrepancy.

OpenAI’s 21 October announcement also says ChatGPT has 1.2 billion weekly users. Ads only reach the Free and Go plans. Plus, Pro and Enterprise stay ad-free, and OpenAI’s help centre adds Business and users under 18 to the ad-free list.

Who is actually buying ChatGPT ads?

The best public answer is “The State of ChatGPT Ads”, a 32-slide report published on 28 September 2026 by Graphite, a growth agency, using panel data from Similarweb. According to PPC Land’s breakdown, Graphite analysed more than 95,000 US ChatGPT ads from over 500 advertisers, collected between 1 April and 16 August 2026. The summary slides say 98,000+, and the methodology slide says 95k+ for the US collection. It also crawled more than 8,000 landing pages.

Which brands have the biggest share of ChatGPT ad impressions?

Source: Graphite and Similarweb, as reported by PPC Land. The report says the ten share one trait: each sells “something a user can immediately purchase online”.

Which industries spend the most?

Top six of 18 categories, from Similarweb with Graphite’s taxonomy (PPC Land). The report says retailers have been “largely absent”, but its own table puts retail second. Other vendors measure differently too: PPC Land notes that Sensor Tower put shopping and retail at 21% of US ChatGPT ad spend in August, so treat category shares as rough.

Why software? Graphite CEO Ethan Smith told Business Insider: “It’s self-selecting people who are necessarily AI-forward.” People already using a chatbot are likely buyers of other AI and software tools. OpenAI’s ad policies also shape the mix: during the initial test, ads are mainly limited to consumer areas such as lifestyle and household goods, local services, travel and digital products or education. Gambling, alcohol, tobacco, dating and political ads are disallowed, and financial, health and legal ads are only approved case by case.

What can we learn from Jotform’s ChatGPT ads?

Jotform is the clearest case study, because it shows up in every dataset and OpenAI has published a customer story about it. Bear in mind that the story is published by OpenAI, covers July 2026, and its footnote says “Results may vary”.

What results does Jotform report?

• More than 10% of ChatGPT ad clicks became signups.
• Cost per signup about 30% lower than paid search and 60% lower than paid social.
• CPC in line with paid social and more than 40% lower than other non-search paid media.
• Paid traffic up 3.4x with no change in monthly investment.

What did Jotform actually do?

According to OpenAI’s case study, Jotform made more than 100 optimisations from April onwards. Three stand out:

1. Use-case landing pages. Sending clicks to pages for the specific form the user needed lifted the signup rate 2.5x.
2. Moving from reach to click campaigns. This cut CPC by 4 to 5 times. Jotform moved through reach, then clicks, then conversions.
3. Creative testing. Creative work lifted CTR by 65%.

It split campaigns into generic, brand and use-case groups. The outside data backs up how much volume it runs. Graphite counted 933 Jotform ads live on ChatGPT in the trailing 28 days to August 2026, against 31 on Meta and 371 on Google Search (PPC Land). Business Insider reported it “ran more than 930 varieties of ChatGPT ads in just a month” (BI). Its ads follow a template that names the exact document, for example “Free Landlord Verification Form PDF”.

The lesson: Jotform has thousands of templates, so it can match a specific ad and landing page to almost any form someone asks ChatGPT about. If you have a large catalogue of use cases, products or locations, you can copy this approach.

What can we learn from Resume.io and Monday.com?

Resume.io: write for the chat

Resume.io was one of only two advertisers in the top 10 every week from 4 May to 14 September (Search Engine Journal). None of its ChatGPT headlines matched its Google Search headlines exactly, and its example ad names the platform it appears on: “Turn ChatGPT content into a real resume.” It speaks to what the user is doing in the chat right now. That’s the main creative lesson from the report.

Monday.com: measure the halo

Monday.com tied for the biggest impression share, and its trajectory was “fluctuating” rather than steady (PPC Land). Its most useful contribution is about measurement. In a LinkedIn post, Yoav Rubin of Monday.com wrote that comparing daily ad impressions with organic ChatGPT traffic showed “a strong day-by-day relationship”, with organic clicks at times “up to 5x the baseline”. His theory: people see an ad, don’t click, then ask ChatGPT about the brand and click an organic answer. This is one company’s observation, not a controlled test, but it’s a cheap check anyone can run.

How do ChatGPT ads compare with Meta and Google Search?

Graphite counted live ads over the trailing 28 days to August 2026 for 10 advertisers active on all three channels (PPC Land). These are counts of ads, not spend or impressions.

Five of the ten run more ads on ChatGPT than on Meta. Nine of the ten run more on Google Search than on ChatGPT; Jotform is the only exception. In the report’s words, “Google Search still carries far more ad volume than ChatGPT or Meta.”

What does the data say about ChatGPT ad creative?

• Write new copy. Across ten advertisers on both ChatGPT and Google Search, only 1.9% of ChatGPT headlines exactly matched their paid search headlines. Resume.io was at 100% new and Jotform at 99.6%, down to 83.9% for Cursor (PPC Land). PPC Land notes the base is narrow and the test is exact match only.
• Run more variations. Among 400+ US advertisers, the median advertiser ranked 1 to 50 by impression share ran 191 distinct ads; ranks 401 to 496 ran 18. That shows a link, not cause.
• Use more landing pages. 60% of advertisers used five or fewer landing pages, but 63% of the top 50 used six or more.
• Be early in the conversation. 51% of impressions landed in a chat’s first three turns, and the report says CTR was 48% higher in the first four turns.
• Expect competitor prompts. In September, 61% of exchanges with an ad named a brand, against 36% without. The report’s example is a prompt asking for Wix alternatives that showed an ad from Lovable.

OpenAI’s own creative guidance points the same way: build coverage with many distinct variations, write clear, specific, benefit-focused copy, and send people to the most relevant landing page. It also warns not to block the OAI-AdsBot or OAI-SearchBot crawlers. A multi-image format with 4 to 6 square images entered open beta on 26 October 2026.

What CTR should I expect from ChatGPT ads?

OpenAI’s help centre says there are no performance benchmarks yet (SEJ). The only market-wide figures come from Similarweb’s panel (Similarweb):

CTR here means clicks per ad-bearing exchange across all advertisers, not a campaign CTR, and each market has between five and 25 weeks of data (SEJ). Brazil and Mexico only went live on 17 August, so their figures rest on about a month. The report gives no cost, conversion or incrementality data.

How do I start ChatGPT ads without wasting budget?

1. Check your category is allowed. Read OpenAI’s ad policies first. Finance, health and legal need manual approval.
2. Budget it as a test. Graphite’s playbook recommends treating ChatGPT as a test, incremental to search rather than a replacement (Similarweb).
3. Start with clicks. OpenAI’s basics guide lists views, clicks and conversions as billing options, and recommends a starting max CPC of $3 to $5.
4. Write context hints, not keywords. OpenAI says context hints are not exact-match keywords. Describe the conversations you want to appear in.
5. Write chat-native copy. Answer the task the user is working on, as Resume.io does.
6. Build use-case landing pages. Jotform’s 2.5x signup lift came from this.
7. Tag everything. UTMs are supported. Reporting refreshes about every 15 minutes, and spend can lag 7 to 8 hours (OpenAI).
8. Measure the halo. Track organic ChatGPT referrals and branded search next to impressions, as Monday.com did, or run a holdout.
9. Re-test monthly. Expect top advertisers and prices to keep moving.

For more detail on setting up campaigns, read our full guide to ChatGPT ads for digital marketers and our roundup of the best AI paid ads tools. If you’re a SaaS brand, see why most SaaS brands struggle with paid ads. For copy volume, try our lists of AI copywriting tools and AI paid ads agents. Since ads and organic answers sit side by side, it’s worth tracking your organic visibility too: see our guides to answer engine optimisation and generative engine optimisation, our list of AI visibility tools, and our Peec AI and Profound reviews. And keep your other channels tight with our Google Ads checklist, Facebook marketing tools and LinkedIn ads guide.

What are the limits of this data?

• Vendor sources. Similarweb sells the AI Ads dataset, Graphite sells SEO and paid search services, and the report sits behind a lead form (PPC Land). OpenAI published the Jotform story.
• Shares, not totals. Similarweb shows percentages only, so you can’t size audiences.
• Nine markets. The panel covers nine markets, while OpenAI now lists 89.
• Audience shift. Comscore data reported by PPC Land puts ChatGPT at 50% of US desktop AI prompt volume in June 2026, down from 70% in January, with Gemini at 30% and Claude at 11%.

Sources

• OpenAI: ChatGPT ads expands to 26 new countries, 21 Oct 2026; Jotform customer story; Ads in ChatGPT: The Basics; Creating ads for ChatGPT Ads; Ad policies, updated 10 Sep 2026
• Graphite and Similarweb: The State of ChatGPT Ads, 28 Sep 2026
• PPC Land, Luis Rijo, 4 Oct 2026
• Similarweb: ChatGPT Ads CTR by Country, 8 Oct 2026
• Search Engine Journal, Matt G. Southern, 29 Sep 2026
• Business Insider, Stephen Council, 29 Sep 2026
• Yoav Rubin, Monday.com, on LinkedIn

This case study uses public sources only, as of 31 October 2026. We have not run ChatGPT ads for these brands or seen their accounts. Digital Marketing Supermarket is an independent directory, and this piece hasn’t been sponsored or paid for by OpenAI, Graphite, Similarweb or any brand mentioned.

Frequently asked questions

Who advertises on ChatGPT the most? In Graphite and Similarweb’s report, the advertisers with the largest share of worldwide ChatGPT ad impressions were Monday.com and Jotform (2.23% each), Resume.io (2.16%), Booking.com (1.42%) and Design.com (1.19%), followed by Cursor, ManageEngine, Shopify, HubSpot and Cloudflare.

Which industries buy ChatGPT ads? B2B SaaS is the biggest category, with 19.9% of US ChatGPT ad impressions from 30 March to 4 August 2026, across 1,210 advertisers. Retail and consumer brands were second with 10.4% across 1,510 advertisers, per the same report.

How many advertisers use ChatGPT ads? OpenAI said on 21 October 2026 that more than 100,000 advertisers had used ChatGPT ads since launch, and that ads were available in 89 countries.

What is a good CTR for ChatGPT ads? OpenAI’s help centre says there are no performance benchmarks yet. Similarweb’s panel shows all-time market-level CTRs of 0.60% to 0.75% in the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, and 1.21% to 1.91% in Brazil, Mexico, Japan and South Korea, measured as clicks per ad-bearing exchange.

Do ChatGPT ads work for B2B? The only detailed public case study is Jotform’s, published by OpenAI. It reports that more than 10% of clicks became signups in July 2026, at a cost per signup about 30% lower than paid search. It is a vendor-published result, so test it yourself.

Who can’t advertise on ChatGPT? OpenAI’s ad policies disallow categories including adult content, alcohol and tobacco, gambling, political content and dating. Financial services, health and legal services are only allowed for approved advertisers case by case, mainly in the US.

Can I see ChatGPT ads if I pay for ChatGPT? No. OpenAI says ads appear only on the Free and Go plans. Plus, Pro, Business and Enterprise users don’t see ads, and neither do users under 18.