ChatGPT ads mistake or genius move? Anu breaks it down
Mordy Oberstein and Anu Adegbola debate whether brands should advertise on ChatGPT yet, examining OpenAI's questionable reputation and the frothy hype around AI advertising.
Early adopters face $60 CPMs with no performance data, while competitors like Anthropic position themselves as ethical alternatives.
The conversation challenges the wave of self-proclaimed ChatGPT optimization experts, arguing that real PPC strategy still depends on understanding your customer, not chasing trends.
Adegbola stresses that fundamentals haven't changed: know where your audience is and what they need, whether that's a newsletter, print, or an AI interface.
The duo also discusses whether tools like robots.txt carry genuine SEO weight or represent pure hype.
Welcome back to Let's Chunk. You know the drill. Actually, you don't know the drill. It's the second episode, but by now you know the drill. It's five questions, 15 seconds each, short droplets of pure insight suitable for anyone's LLM strategy, which for the record, I am not endorsing or not endorsing chunking. Like that, you'll have to figure out on your own. Blowing chunks with me today is the founder of PPC Live. You can see her work on Search Engine Land. She's the one she's the only Anatoly. How are you? I'm good. Thank you. I'm so good. Thank you. Morning, like such a great intro, but no, I'm not going to be blowing chunks with you. I do you I Do you know what that means to some people? No blowing chunks. We're sharing the floor. Oh. Yeah, something like that. Does it really mean something else besides vomiting? Cuz I don't want to now I have to change the intro. Don't Google it. Today we're talking about ads in LLMs.
Uh Gosh. And And my first question for you is are the brands who have already advertised on ChatGPT idiots? 15 seconds. Yes. Yes. Done. Yeah. Yes. Yeah, I mean the The first people who go after this thing is Yeah, it's a bit of like, you know, brave idiots. ChatGPT and OpenAI having a lot of like very questionable reputation right now. So if you are the first one to to head into that into that kind of little cesspool, good luck. It's crazy. 15 seconds is up. By the way, I'm not actually timing it. I don't actually have a a stopwatch, which I should. Like it's 15 seconds, right? But it is crazy. There's no data, which I'm going to get to a question on that in a in a minute. And it's $60 at the time of this recording for an impression. It's Super Bowl money. Oof. Which brings me to my next question. Competitors like Anthropic or Perplexity, which maybe you know, I don't know. That's the only competitor anymore. Um they smell blood in the water. Mhm. But will they be able to actually do anything? Which I know is not a PPC question, but we're here anyway.
What do you mean do anything? In terms of actually compete with them in terms of ads, because I don't think they want to and I think that's a great idea. Right. Well, that's what I mean. Like are they going to be able to actually cuz they're not Anthropic is not trying to compete for that ad space and they smell blood in the water. Are they going to able to actually push ChatGPT further out of the market or is just all >> I think so. Even literally as of like today, there was this new story about Anthropic deciding not to take on like a Pentagon deal. And yeah, ChatGPT, you know, swept swept into it. And like literally and in the article video and everything like literally somewhere there's a whole, you know, get off ChatGPT link and this whole website and try to tell people like you know, you know, get away from ChatGPT. And I think it's a whole thing. There's a lot of like, you know, of course with media, you never know whether what you're saying is true or just people trying to make up stories to, you know, fight against the competitor, but there's a lot of compelling stories that show that OpenAI have been doing some dodgy stuff and are still doing some dodgy stuff. So
I do think generally my own crystal ball moment is that Anthropic are going to be able to push push ChatGPT out of the water. I like Anthropic and what they're doing, but we only have 15 seconds to go into it and I really want to ask you about the dirty laundry, but forget it. Um yeah, so question. So as of now the recording of this, so ChatGPT is not really offering any real data on the advertising. No. Do will they will they ever feel any sense of urgency or do the advertisers just blindly give over their tons of money? Is this crazy? I think unfortunately because of because of companies like a Google who have created this big monopoly of being like who else are you going to go to? I think that is what they actually trying to be in the AI world because what we actually did see was that ChatGPT were the ones that pulled Google into actually getting into AI. So, Chat GPT almost look like they're the Yeah, they're trying to be the monopoly of the AI world that even Google was behind them. And they have a bit of I feel a lot of arrogance is what
I'm seeing with Chat GPT. Arrogance of Chat GPT and OpenAI thinking that they don't need to Who else are you going to do it for? We have pretty much the way you you do like in terms of like um like Google search. It's you know, you say Google something. You don't say something. Google is a verb. They I think they're trying to be the verb of the AI world. They're like Chat GPT this. I speak to my friends and even the the people who are into the tech of things, they know about Claude, but like the general person who's just like, you know, who are the people who are you who work in fashion, they work as lawyers. All they know in terms of AI, they think Chat GPT. And I feel that they feel Chat GPT feel like they've monopolized that all Yeah, if you're going to do AI anything, it's Chat GPT. But I think that arrogance is is uh is is unfounded. F- First off, great point. Secondly, to s- see the arrogance, all you need to do is Google Fireman Sam. And thirdly, I don't know where you are right now, but is 15 seconds something different for you? Yes.
Question number four. Question number four. What do you say to the whole new industry of Chat GPT optimizers? What's your message for them? Piss off. hell. Sorry. Yeah. There is it's It's It's about doing marketing well. It's about doing building content that your customers want to see. The whole There's a whole new way of optimizing and it's all it's all about what AI is going to do. Do you know that there's agencies who have started You can buy code your whole marketing strategy and you're like, yeah, sorry. My answer is piss off. And I think that was 15 seconds. You made this point the day after they announced this was coming that now everyone's LinkedIn bio is going to be chat GPT ads optimization. Leading experts. And I'm like, what? Are you a robot now? I mean, that's what I'm thinking. You're Am I now speaking to a robot? Bye then. Sorry. Now you don't know No, that's
great. Okay, so a real question then. What's your best advice in optimizing real PPC ads, like, you know, like on Google? The fundamentals have not changed. Guys, the fundamentals have not changed. It's still about what your What what do your customers need to see? How can you get to them faster? Where are they? You know, a brand whose customer is, you know, you know, an older couple in their 50s, their 60s, their 70s, don't care about trying to advertise on, you know, try to be AI discoverable because they You know, they Maybe they still want a newsletter. Maybe they still want a little a little like, you know, paper coming through their post box Yeah. Oh, yeah. >> talks to them for a little bit. You know, like it it really depends on who your customer is. And you know what? Fair enough. Maybe your customer is someone who's very tech savvy and they're on AI all the time. Yeah, figure out how to do that better, but it's not for everyone. It's not for every brand.
It's not for every single brand out there. It's not. Wow. Yeah. Good advice. My My wife's a nurse at a nursing home, and their their her patients are constantly reading newsletters all the time. YES. NO, I'M JOKING. THEY'RE NOT READING NEWSLETTERS. They're not reading newsletters the way we read newsletters. They're like newspapers. I'm so Oh, A PAPER. YEAH. YEAH. So that makes sense. What's the latest magazine? Like, they're they're reading stuff. They're they're opening stuff. Oh, that still exists? Wow. Okay. So bonus question. I'm asking everybody the same question. I know this is not your wheelhouse at all, but we're just going to go with it anyway, yeah? On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is an L M S dot txt file? Oh god. You know, a a very good friend, mutual friend, Crystal Carter, we've talked about this actually. And she I I'm I'm very I'm very with her on her whole like people being so frustrated or being being frustrated about oh, but it's working for me, but I see that Google I using it, but other some other person and I
think there's just there's just so much hype and you need to just stop with the hype and everybody's looking for which thought leader is telling them what to do. Like is is Mark William Cook saying that I should use it? Is is Mordy saying I should not use it? Or is this person saying I should you know, like dude, test and see if it works for you. And if it doesn't work for you, scrap it. Is is it that hard a thing to test? Or is it No, and SEO we have to fight about everything. Also, thank you for doing that because my next guest is Crystal Carter. Hey! My sister. I love it. So many good so good. Well, that's all the spewing of hot chunks we have for you today. Don't forget to follow Anu on LinkedIn. Yes, I'm there all the time. Anywhere else? Just LinkedIn? Really just LinkedIn. Maybe Instagram. No, LinkedIn. Don't follow me on Instagram. I see you pop up on my Instagram a few once in a while. Don't forget to look out for a new episode of Let's Chunk next week on the SE Ranking
social media channels. LinkedIn, like and subscribe. You can't like and subscribe on a social media platform like LinkedIn, but you know what I'm talking about. Goodbye for now and until we chunk again.
Key takeaways
Chapters
Q&A
Yes, early adopters are brave idiots. OpenAI has a questionable reputation, there's no data to justify the spend, and CPM rates are $60—equivalent to Super Bowl advertising costs. — Anu Adegbola
Anthropic is deliberately avoiding the ChatGPT ad market and instead positioning itself as an ethical alternative. There's evidence that OpenAI is engaging in dodgy practices, and Anthropic's strategic approach may help them gain ground over time. — Anu Adegbola
Like Google's monopoly in search, OpenAI is trying to establish dominance in AI. Their arrogance means they likely won't feel urgency to provide data—they believe they're the only game in town and advertisers will spend regardless. — Anu Adegbola
Piss off. Real marketing is about building content customers want to see, not chasing the latest AI trend. Agencies claiming to build AI-optimized strategies without understanding fundamentals are contributing to hype, not value. — Anu Adegbola
Fundamentals haven't changed: focus on what your customers need, where to find them faster, and tailor strategy to their demographics. Not every brand should advertise on AI—some customers still prefer newsletters or print. — Anu Adegbola
Stop obsessing over whether thought leaders endorse specific tools and instead test what actually works for your business. There's too much hype; experimentation is more valuable than expert consensus. — Anu Adegbola
Quotes
“The first people who go after this thing is yeah, it's a bit of like, you know, brave idiots. ChatGPT and OpenAI having a lot of like very questionable reputation right now.” — Anu Adegbola
“They're like ChatGPT this. I speak to my friends and even the the people who are into the tech of things, they know about Claude, but like the general person who's just like, you know, who are the people who you work in fashion, they work as lawyers. All they know in terms of AI, they think ChatGPT.” — Anu Adegbola
“It's about doing marketing well. It's about doing building content that your customers want to see. The whole there's a whole new way of optimizing and it's all it's all about what AI is going to do. My answer is piss off.” — Anu Adegbola
“The fundamentals have not changed. Guys, the fundamentals have not changed. It's still about what your customers need to see? How can you get to them faster? Where are they?” — Anu Adegbola
“Test and see if it works for you. And if it doesn't work for you, scrap it. Is is it that hard a thing to test?” — Anu Adegbola