Researchers find OpenAI ChatGPT Ads underperform vs Google search

A working paper by researchers Maximilian Kaiser and Christian Schulze found that ad visits from ChatGPT brought in significantly less revenue and converted at lower rates than paid Google search ads in U.S. traffic. The study analyzed data from 102 advertiser sites following OpenAI's U.S. ad launch, calculating a parity price for ChatGPT ad clicks at approximately $0.26 compared to $2.45 for a paid Google search ad visit. The authors also estimated a moderate decrease of roughly 6% to 8% in organic ChatGPT referrals to websites following the introduction of ads. Open article →