When ChatGPT Ads first became available, interest in the new advertising channel came with an obvious limitation: there was very little performance data available to advertisers. Businesses could understand the premise of reaching potential customers inside ChatGPT conversations, but there wasn’t much evidence showing whether those placements could generate signups, trials, pipeline or revenue.
That is beginning to change. OpenAI has published case studies from advertisers including Jotform, Stream and Talkpal, providing an early look at how businesses are using ChatGPT Ads and what they are seeing beyond impressions and clicks. The companies, campaigns and measurement methods are different, so their results shouldn’t be treated as benchmarks for what another advertiser should expect. Taken together, however, the case studies provide some of the first substantive evidence that ChatGPT Ads can function as a customer acquisition channel.
Jotform Reports More Than 10% of Ad Clicks Converted to Signups
Jotform began advertising in ChatGPT in April 2026 and approached the channel as a distinct advertising environment rather than simply transferring an existing paid search or social campaign. The company tested broader brand campaigns alongside campaigns organized around specific products, customer needs and workflows. As additional advertising capabilities became available, Jotform also experimented with landing pages, creative, bidding strategies and different conversion objectives.
According to Jotform, more than 10% of clicks from its ChatGPT Ads converted into signups. During July 2026, the company reported a cost per signup approximately 30% lower than paid search and 60% lower than paid social. Jotform also reported that paid traffic increased 3.4 times without increasing monthly investment.
The campaign details are as useful as the headline performance figures. Jotform reported that landing pages designed around specific use cases produced a 2.5-times increase in signup rate. Moving from reach campaigns to click campaigns reduced cost per click by four to five times, while changes to ad creative improved click-through rate by 65%. Those results suggest that the opportunity isn’t simply to place an advertisement inside ChatGPT. Campaign structure, message, conversational context and the experience after the click still have a significant role in determining performance.
Stream Builds Advertising Around the Problems Developers Are Trying to Solve
Stream provides APIs and SDKs used by developers to add chat, video, audio and other communications capabilities to applications. The company had traditionally relied on channels including content and paid search, but recognized that developers were increasingly bringing technical questions directly to AI assistants.
Its ChatGPT advertising strategy reflected that behavior. Rather than focusing exclusively on broad product terminology, Stream developed campaigns around problems developers might be actively working through, such as adding chat or video calling to an application. This allowed the advertising to connect the company’s product with the problem being discussed in the conversation.
During a test conducted from June 5 through August 5, Stream reported that more than 70% of clicks from ChatGPT Ads became website sessions, compared with less than 10% across the other channels included in its test. The company also reported approximately 2x return on ad spend, along with signups and pipeline generated by the campaign. According to the case study, Stream allocated approximately $10,000 in media spend to each test group.
For B2B advertisers, the pipeline component is particularly relevant. Website traffic has limited value if visitors don’t progress toward a commercial outcome. Stream’s experience provides an early example of a company measuring ChatGPT Ads against activity further into the customer acquisition process rather than evaluating the channel solely on clicks.
Talkpal Becomes a Top-Three Source of New Trials
Talkpal entered ChatGPT advertising with an established acquisition program already using search, social and programmatic channels. The AI language-learning company structured its ChatGPT campaigns around geography and different language-learning intents, using context hints to help describe the conversations and needs relevant to each campaign.
Within its first two months, Talkpal reported that ChatGPT Ads had become one of its top three acquisition channels based on total new trials. The company compared its results with an established native advertising channel it had been using for more than a year and reported approximately 26% higher return on ad spend from ChatGPT Ads. Between July 1 and September 9, Talkpal also reported a 51% lower cost per trial activation compared with that same channel.
Talkpal’s measurement extended beyond the initial advertising interaction to signup, trial activation and revenue. That makes the case study particularly useful when evaluating ChatGPT as an acquisition channel because it provides some indication of what happened after users left the conversation and entered the company’s own conversion funnel.
What the Early Results Have in Common
Three advertiser case studies are not enough to establish reliable performance benchmarks for ChatGPT Ads. Each company has a different product, customer, conversion process and advertising strategy, and the reported figures come from the advertisers’ own campaign data. The results are therefore better viewed as early evidence of what is possible than as a prediction of what another business will achieve.
There is, however, a notable similarity in how the three advertisers approached the channel. Jotform developed campaigns around customer needs, workflows and specific use cases. Stream organized advertising around technical problems developers were trying to solve. Talkpal structured campaigns around different language-learning intents. In each case, the advertiser had more to work with than a conventional list of search terms.
That distinction is central to the potential of ChatGPT advertising. Traditional search advertising often begins with the words someone types into a search box. A ChatGPT conversation can contain considerably more information about the underlying problem, the circumstances surrounding it and what the person is trying to accomplish. OpenAI describes ChatGPT Ads as an opportunity to reach people while they explore options, compare alternatives and make decisions.
For example, a search for “video API” provides a useful indication of interest, but relatively little context. A conversation about adding HIPAA-compliant video calling to a telehealth application can provide a much clearer picture of the problem being solved and the type of solution that may be relevant. The opportunity for advertisers is not simply another place to display the same advertising. It is the ability to develop campaigns around a richer expression of customer intent.
What Businesses Should Take From the First Case Studies
It is too early to conclude that ChatGPT Ads will outperform established advertising channels broadly. The available case studies don’t support that conclusion, and businesses evaluating the channel should be cautious about treating early advertiser results as universal benchmarks.
What the results do establish is that businesses are already generating measurable acquisition activity through ChatGPT Ads. Jotform is reporting signups, Stream is reporting pipeline and return on ad spend, and Talkpal is reporting trial activations and revenue. Just as importantly, all three examples show advertisers adapting their strategy to the conversational environment rather than treating ChatGPT as another location for a conventional digital ad.
For businesses considering the channel, that changes where campaign planning should begin. The starting point isn’t necessarily a list of keywords or a collection of existing search ads. It is understanding the conversations potential customers are likely to have when they encounter the problems a company’s products or services are designed to solve.
As ChatGPT advertising develops, campaign tools and available data will continue to change. The early results suggest that understanding those conversations, and the intent behind them, may be one of the most important parts of making the channel work.