AI assistants are now a regular part of how shoppers discover, compare, and decide. For marketers, that shift changes where attention and intent now live, and ChatGPT Ads has become one of the best ways to show up in those moments.
Criteo has worked with OpenAI as an advertising technology partner since March 2026. Since then, we’ve helped thousands of brands run ChatGPT Ads through Criteo’s platform. That track record has given us real operating experience in a channel that’s still taking shape, including ongoing learnings about best practices and performance.
Here’s why it’s such an exciting opportunity, what advertising in ChatGPT looks like in practice, and why and how Criteo advertisers are activating it today.
AI-assisted shopping is already mainstream
According to Criteo’s Global Shopper Survey (September 2026, n=8,124), the majority of consumers are already using AI assistants to shop, mostly in the earlier stages of the journey. Of the respondents, 63% use AI assistants for research, 50% for discovery, and 43% for evaluating products. Just 9% have completed a purchase using an AI assistant, meaning the vast majority are still clicking out to a merchant or retailer site to complete transactions.
ChatGPT is a leading choice for shoppers
The same Global Shopper Survey also found that ChatGPT is the leading AI assistant when searching for a product, with the largest share of consumers (52%, 13 points above the next AI assistant) saying it’s the most helpful. Given ChatGPT’s scale — more than 1.2 billion weekly active users as of October 2026, according to OpenAI — that concentration of commerce activity on a single platform is a huge opportunity for brands and retailers.
ChatGPT Ads help ensure visibility
Making it onto an AI assistant’s shortlist of recommendations isn’t a guarantee. With so many options and such limited space (assistants usually try to limit recommendations to around five to avoid cognitive overload), advertising is a key way to be seen by the audiences you can help with your products, solutions, or services. Whether users are exploring new ideas, comparing options, or making decisions, relevant ads that are thoughtfully integrated into the experience can create value for both shoppers and advertisers throughout the journey.
Access ChatGPT Ads through Criteo
Our partnership enables access ChatGPT Ads directly from within Criteo campaigns. This means our customers don’t need to navigate a new platform or relationship from scratch. They can onboard and activate quickly through the Criteo interface they already know.
ChatGPT Ads may appear below a response. They’re clearly labeled as sponsored and are visually distinct from the response itself. In this way, ChatGPT Ads complement rather than interrupt the experience. The trigger for an ad to show doesn’t have to be an explicit product search — a shopper asking what to cook for a holiday gathering might get recipe suggestions from ChatGPT, along with a relevant ad from a grocery retailer alongside it. ChatGPT Ads are surfaced based on intent signals within the conversation, and don’t influence the organic response.
What advertisers are seeing so far
Since expanding advertising in ChatGPT to more than 2,000 brands across 89 markets globally (as of 10/21/26), Criteo has seen positive engagement and measurable performance signals from ChatGPT Ads traffic:
- More than 80% of visitors from Criteo ChatGPT Ads are new to site, underscoring its role as a discovery and acquisition channel.
- Criteo’s Prompt Smart Ads capability, which writes ads in the language of the conversation, has shown approximately 4x higher delivery vs feed-based creative, helping advertisers scale investment more efficiently.
- Roughly three in four clicks land directly on a product page, shortening the path from intent to purchase.
Turkish Airlines put this to the test with its agency, OMG, activating custom ChatGPT Ads creatives to reach high-intent travelers during trip planning. The results included a 183% increase in site landings from ChatGPT Ads with Criteo and a 118% boost in relevance using Criteo Prompt Smart Ads. To learn more, read the full Turkish Airlines case study.
Why activate ChatGPT Ads with Criteo
Criteo helps advertisers turn an emerging AI shopping channel into a practical, measurable part of their existing media strategy. That includes the access, service, optimization, and reporting needed to activate ChatGPT Ads with confidence.
- Fast, low-friction integration. Launch ChatGPT Ads campaigns quickly — no new integration or paperwork required for existing Criteo clients.
- Dedicated specialists. Get help with setup, prompt strategy, context hints, troubleshooting, and ongoing optimization from experts who’ve been learning the ropes and gathering best practices since our partnership with OpenAI began in March 2026.
- Prompt Smart Ads. No headaches around optimizing feeds at the product level or creating tons of context hints. Our Prompt Smart Ads automatically optimize ad creative for conversational prompts and create multiple variations to expand and diversify messaging.
- Commerce Audiences*: Make your ChatGPT Ads more relevant by layering in our Commerce Audiences that are built from real commerce signals from above and beyond ChatGPT to provide a deeper understanding of intent.
- Automated bid optimization. Criteo dynamically optimizes bids towards the ad set objective, continuously improving the efficiency and performance.
- Consolidated buying and cross-channel optimization. Buy and optimize ChatGPT Ads alongside your other Criteo channels in one platform, improving the efficiency of your overall spend.
- Measurement excellence. Connect ChatGPT exposure to onsite behavior and sales with Criteo’s identity resolution and conversion tracking to capture a more complete view of ChatGPT’s commercial impact.
Get started
If you’re already working with Criteo, talk to your Account Strategist about activating ChatGPT Ads. If you’re new to Criteo, fill out our form to talk to an expert and we’ll help you figure out what advertising in ChatGPT could look like for your business.
*Commerce Audiences available in the US and APAC in late October 2026, and in EMEA in Q1 2027.
