Custom Audiences: The Feature that Changes the Targeting Calculus
Advertisers can now upload lists of 25,000 or more identifiers, email addresses or phone numbers to include or suppress specific users at the campaign level. Bid multipliers can also be set per audience at the ad group level.
It is a basic feature by the standards of any mature platform. Practitioners already in the beta have described it as comparable to the time when Facebook introduced custom audiences more than a decade ago. That comparison is accurate, and it matters.
Why This Matters for eCommerce Brands
For eCommerce businesses, the implications are immediate.
Custom audiences make it possible to:
- Exclude existing customers from acquisition campaigns
- Protect margins by avoiding unnecessary impressions
- Retarget high-intent shoppers who have already demonstrated purchase intent
- Improve media efficiency using first-party CRM data
These capabilities simply weren’t available on ChatGPT Ads until now.
The Catch
Match rates will be lower than on Meta or Google. ChatGPT accounts are less ubiquitous than Facebook profiles, and users may have registered with a different email or phone number than the one in your CRM. Only people whose details match an OpenAI account will be found: a modest match rate is normal, not a sign anything is wrong. If you plan to use audience exclusions to protect spend on upper-funnel activity, size your list conservatively. A 25K upload does not guarantee 25K matched records. Build in that gap before committing to the budget.
Account Monitoring Gets A Proper Overview Tab
The update also introduces an Overview tab inside Ads Manager, an account health summary, recommended optimisation tasks, and a larger trend chart for key performance metrics. Functional, not transformational. It brings the platform’s monitoring capability closer to what advertisers expect from any self-serve interface.
Suggested Ad Drafts: Pre-fill, Not AI Generation
A third addition: suggested ad drafts. If a campaign lacks coverage, advertisers may see an option to add a new ad. The platform uses existing website metadata to pre-fill an image, title, and description. OpenAI is explicit that this does not generate new copy or creative using AI; it pulls from what already exists on the site. The advertiser reviews, edits, and assigns it before anything goes live.
Early field reports from practitioners are not encouraging. One paid media agency CEO criticised the automated ad-drafting process after testing it in July 2026. Worth testing before relying on it.
Japan and South Korea Now Live
ChatGPT Ads are now running in Japan and South Korea. The platform launched in February for US users and has been expanding its geographic footprint since then. The UK went live on 6 June 2026, with Tesco, Hilton, Hiscox and Next among the first brands live. All Dentsu clients, WPP, Omnicom, and Publicis are also confirmed as holding company launch partners. Japan and South Korea represent the first markets in Asia.
Refreshed Ad Card Format
A more compact static ad card format is rolling out across web and mobile, with larger visual elements. No performance data has been published yet on whether the format change affects CTR. Worth monitoring in reporting once live.
Where ChatGPT Ads Stand Today
Key Milestones in 2026:
Feb 2026: Formal ad pilot launches. US only, invite-only, $200K–$250K minimum spend, CPM ~$60.
Apr 2026: CPC bidding introduced. Minimum spend cut to $50K. Self-serve Ads Manager opens to a subset of advertisers.
5 May: Self-serve open to all US businesses. Minimum spend removed. Conversions API published. CPC is recommended at $3–$5.
14 May: Custom audiences added: CSV/TXT upload up to 512MB. Minimum 25K identifiers.
6 Jun: UK launch via agency partners. Dentsu, WPP, Omnicom, Publicis confirmed. Self-serve is expected in Q4 2026.
Jul 2026: Audience bid multipliers, overview tab, suggested ad drafts, Japan and South Korea expansion confirmed.
What This Means For Advertisers
The speed of feature accumulation since February has been notable. In roughly three months, OpenAI moved from a closed pilot with a $200,000 minimum spend to a self-serve Ads Manager open to all US businesses, with cost-per-click bidding and a Conversions API. Custom audiences, geo-targeting, daily budgets, and suggested creative have all followed.
The channel’s case rests on two things improving together: click economics and targeting precision. If audience matching sharpens relevance, a low CTR on a high-intent impression can still work, especially at a $3–$5 CPC with no minimum spend. The brands learning that math now, on small budgets, will be the ones with a defensible position when the tools and the audience both scale.
For eCommerce brands with first-party data, this update is worth attention. The suppression and retargeting use cases now exist. Match rates will be modest and the platform is still maturing, but the infrastructure is being built quickly.
360 OM Verdict
Useful
Custom audience suppression is the most immediately actionable feature. If you have a clean CRM list, upload it. Protecting spend by excluding existing customers is low-risk and directly measurable.
Caution
Match rates will disappoint if you’re coming from Meta. ChatGPT account penetration is not Facebook-level. Plan for a fraction of your list matching, and build media plans around that reality, not a theoretical audience size.
Suggested ad drafts are not ready to rely on. Early practitioner reports are critical. The feature pulls from website metadata, not AI generation, but the output quality is inconsistent. Review everything before it goes live.
Honest
This is still a test budget channel, not a primary performance channel. The infrastructure is being built fast, but reporting depth, brand safety controls, and optimisation tooling are not at Google or Meta parity. Treat it accordingly.
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At 360 OM, we specialise in helping businesses take their marketing efforts to the next level. Our team stays on top of industry trends, uses data-informed decisions to maximise your ROI, and provides full transparency through comprehensive reports.
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