“ChatGPT is one of the largest advertising audiences ever assembled, and it’s gonna be amazing for brands.”
— Ezra Firestone ($250M Shopify Founder)
The next big ad channel is already here.
ChatGPT now has 800 million weekly users, and about 95% of them aren’t paying.
With most of their users on the free plan, the next logical business move is ads. And the brands who are prepared for this before the channel opens up in Q4 2026 will have the biggest edge.
Here’s the timeline we’re predicting for the ChatGPT ads rollout:
- Q1 2026: Testing phase
- Q2–Q3 2026: Expanded rollout
- Q4 2026: Self-serve for any brand
How ChatGPT ads are different
Google ads run on keywords and budget. You search for a term, the company with the highest budget behind their ad shows up.
ChatGPT can’t lean too hard on that model without breaking trust. If every recommendation feels bought, the product stops feeling useful.
So sponsored placements need to stay separate, clearly labeled, and driven by context, not just a keyword.
ChatGPT ads will look more like Meta
Context is what will make ChatGPT ads feel a lot closer to Meta than Google.
Like Meta, it’s about inferred intent, what the platform understands about the user’s interests, habits, and likely next move. In other words, discovery over search, context over keywords, and creative over budget games.
As Ezra puts it, ChatGPT ads are basically Meta ads for intent.
“If you know how to run Meta ads, you’re gonna have a real advantage with ChatGPT ads.”
— Ezra Firestone
(We broke down how to master Meta Ads post Meta AI’s Andromeda Update. Read it here.)
What ChatGPT ads actually look like
Here are two real examples from Ezra’s recent 2026 Shopify Training.
A ChatGPT user asks for a carne asada recipe. ChatGPT gives the recipe, and a sponsored result appears alongside it: “Trying this recipe? Here’s a hot sauce worth picking up.”
Or someone asks, “What are the best things to do in Santa Fe, New Mexico?”
ChatGPT gives the list, then shows a sponsored tour or desert cottage the user can ask follow-up questions about right inside the chat.
This is where ecommerce is heading, making purchases inside AI conversations, without sending users off-platform.
The one thing you can do right now
As of right now, most brands can’t run ChatGPT ads yet, but ChatGPT is already recommending products to hundreds of millions of weekly users.
The brands most likely to show up aren’t the biggest ones. They’re the ones with the cleanest product data. If your descriptions, attributes, and structured data are weak, AI has a harder time scanning your product pages.
That’s why our free tool ShopRank matters more than ever right now. It audits your store, gives you an AI Readiness Score, shows you what to fix:
If you want a head start for when ChatGPT ads roll out later this year, this is the work to do right now, not after the channel gets crowded.
The bigger shift is the real story
ChatGPT ads are one piece of a much bigger shift. New acquisition channels are showing up fast, and some are already beating Meta and Google for ROAS.
That’s why Ezra Firestone put together this free guide of his Top 5 New Ad Channels for 2026.
It covers the five best acquisition channels he’s running for his own brands and his 8-figure agency clients. ChatGPT is the fourth channel in the guide (and coming soon).
Inside, he breaks down the rest, shares templates and examples, and shows you how to start testing them in your own store.
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