The initial phase of ChatGPT's advertising trial, launched by OpenAI in early February, has been criticized as 'hasty' and 'chaotic'. Industry experts have commented that its advertising experience is inferior to earlier attempts by Google, Meta, and others. Currently, the minimum spending requirement to participate in ChatGPT's advertising trial is $200,000, limiting participation to only ultra-large advertisers whose budgets are primarily allocated for testing purposes, thus posing no substantial threat to Google's search advertising market. From a technical standpoint, ChatGPT's advertising platform exhibits significant shortcomings, such as a lack of performance data tracking, absence of CRM system integration, reliance on manual operations for ad placement, and a primitive bidding mechanism. In terms of commercialization, its performance has been mixed; while sponsored recommendation ads command high CPMs, they suffer from low conversion rates, exorbitant cost-per-click, and difficulty in maintaining a positive return on investment. Experts predict that ChatGPT's advertising platform will require 6 to 12 months to refine its basic functionalities and lower the barriers to entry. To challenge Google's dominance in the search advertising arena, significant breakthroughs in core capabilities will be necessary.
