Two things worth your attention if you do any form of paid traffic, YouTube or social media marketing: ChatGPT ads are now live and open to advertisers, and Google Search Console has a new feature that shows how your social content performs in Google search.
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ChatGPT ads now live and available to advertisers
Earlier this year OpenAI started testing ads in ChatGPT in the US, and the rollout has ramped up fast. Last month around half of all replies to free users in the US were showing an ad. Australia, Canada and New Zealand are next on the rollout list.
The format is very basic right now: a labelled sponsored box that sits below the end of the answer, as in the image above. The ads don’t change the answer itself, and paid ChatGPT plans don’t see ads at all.
Previously it was invite only, but access has now been opened up. It is still in beta so it is a little buggy.
If you are running paid traffic right now it might be worth a look. We have been testing it for a handful of clients over the last week. The results are not conclusive yet, but it does look like about half the traffic is bots, so it doesn’t look great. That said, it is a new ad platform and performance is going to vary greatly depending on your market.
Learn more and sign up at ads.openai.com.
Track social accounts and YouTube in Google Search Console
Google has started rolling out what it calls “platform properties” in Search Console. You can now connect your Instagram, TikTok, X and YouTube accounts and see how your social content performs in Google search, the same way you already can for your website.
The setup is simple: open Search Console, hit the property selector, choose “Add property”, pick the platform and authorise the connection. Once it is connected you will see which search terms are surfacing your posts and videos, plus clicks and impressions for each piece of content. It has been rolling out over the last week or so and should now be available to everyone.
Connect your accounts this week
It is a 5 minute job and it is free data you simply couldn’t get before. Even if you only post occasionally, connect everything you have.
YouTube especially
YouTube gets special treatment in Google and AI search results. Now you can actually see which searches are surfacing your videos.
Mine the query data for website content ideas
If one of your Instagram or TikTok posts is ranking for a search term, that is Google telling you there is demand for that topic. Build a proper page on your own website for it and rank with an asset you own instead of renting space on social. No page, no rank: the same principle applies here.
More on the update at Search Engine Journal.
Connect your social and YouTube accounts to Search Console now, and if you are already spending on paid traffic, run a small ChatGPT ads test with your eyes open about bot traffic. Both are cheap experiments with real data on the other side.
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