ChatGPT Ads Update: Sponsored Agents, Shopify and HubSpot, and Conversion Optimization Billed on Impressions

OpenAI shipped nine ChatGPT Ads changes in the week of 14 September 2026. The announcement on 16 September, "Reimagining advertising with AI", brought Sponsored Agents in a US test, Shopify and HubSpot integrations, AI help creating ads and opt-in text customization. The Help Center changed the same week: conversion optimization billed on impressions, adjustable attribution windows, five-way platform targeting and an event quality assessment. The product email that followed bundled all nine.

Sponsored Agents, a US test

The newest ad format is a conversation. OpenAI's wording: "After seeing a relevant ad, a user can choose to start a clearly labeled conversation with a business-sponsored agent in ChatGPT." The agent answers follow-up questions about the advertiser's offer, and OpenAI keeps it apart from both ChatGPT's independent answers and the user's original conversation.

It is a test with select advertisers in the United States, with no self-serve access. For everyone else the practical point is what it signals: the unit after the click may move inside ChatGPT, which puts more weight on the facts an agent would be given about your business.

Shopify and HubSpot

Shopify. US-based merchants can use the ChatGPT Ads app in the Shopify App Store to create and manage campaigns. Products come in through Shopify Catalog, so there is no feed to build, and measurement connects in the same app. OpenAI dates the international launch: from 23 September 2026, in markets where ChatGPT Ads is available.

HubSpot. Businesses on HubSpot can connect a ChatGPT Ads account, create ads, track performance and follow up on leads inside HubSpot, live from 16 September. OpenAI's Help Center has a setup article for it.

AI help writing the ad, and text customization

Two changes touch the words in the ad.

When drafting an ad in Ads Manager, advertisers can receive suggested copy and imagery based on the landing page and the campaign objective, and edit them before adding them to a campaign. OpenAI's blog says it is rolling out; the email says it is in testing, with broader availability in the coming weeks. The Help Center's ad creation article still describes the older drafts feature, which prefills from website metadata and generates nothing with AI, so expect the two to vary by account for a while.

Text customization is opt-in. If enabled, it adapts existing headlines and descriptions to the context of a conversation and translates ad copy to the user's preferred language. For a Portuguese or Arabic-speaking audience that is a real change: a single English ad set can reach a conversation held in another language. It also means the copy a user sees may differ from the copy you wrote, which matters for regulated categories and for anyone with strict brand wording. Leave it off until you have read what it produces.

oCPM: conversion optimization billed on impressions

OpenAI's Help Center now documents oCPM next to oCPC: "oCPM campaigns are billed based on impressions served and optimize toward conversions while accounting for a broader set of eligible conversion signals, including actions that follow ad clicks and ad views." The product email calls it generally available and "our recommended model for maximizing performance".

Two cautions. An existing campaign cannot switch: "Existing CPM, CPC, oCPC, or oCPM campaigns cannot be changed to a different objective or billing model at this time." And the Advertiser API reference still says conversion optimization remains click-through-based, so the API documentation and the Help Center disagree on this point today. The comparison worth running is a new oCPM campaign against your current oCPC one, over two weeks, with the same conversion event.

Measurement: attribution windows and event quality

Attribution windows. When customizing columns, Ads Manager offers a 7, 14 or 30-day click window and a 0 or 1-day view window, applied to every conversion column displayed. OpenAI is explicit that this "affects reporting only; it does not change campaign optimization, bidding, or billing." A 30-day window will show more conversions on the same campaign, so change it before comparing periods and leave it fixed afterwards.

Event quality. Each pixel or Conversions API data source now gets its own assessment in Ads Manager, refreshed daily over seven complete days, with warnings for gaps: missing email or customer ID, missing click reference, delayed Conversions API events, duplicate matches, limited event types. The email describes it as a 1 to 10 score under Tools > Conversions. Neither the score nor the assessment is available through the Advertiser API yet.

Platform targeting

Campaigns can now target five platforms separately: Android app, Android web, desktop web, iOS app and iOS web, and Insights can be segmented by each. In the Advertiser API the field is targeting.platforms.included, and the older catch-all web value keeps working on existing campaigns. The August announcement split iOS, Android and web; this one splits the apps from the browsers, which matters when a landing page converts well on desktop and poorly in a mobile in-app browser.

Where each of these fits in a campaign is in the conversion optimization guide and the measurement guide. The same week, four more countries joined the advertiser list.