Keywords are dead. This is what replaced them.

Your Google or Meta campaigns live and die by keywords. You build lists. You bid. You optimize. You know the drill inside and out.

Then you hit ChatGPT Ads. The first thing you notice is there are no keywords. This is where many operators get stuck, because the model is entirely different.

OpenAI calls the targeting primitive “Context Hints” (OpenAI, “Creating and Managing Ads,” 2026). It sounds like abstract marketing speak, but it’s not. This is the signal for the AI. It tells the model what conversations it should connect your ad to. Think of it as painting a picture of the ideal user context where your ad belongs.

Imagine you sell high-performance camping stoves on Shopify. With Google, you bid on “lightweight camping stove” or “backpacking stove.” On Meta, you target interests like “hiking” or “outdoor gear.”

In ChatGPT, you give the AI hints. You might suggest “users discussing long-distance treks” or “conversations about essential wilderness equipment” or “people researching fuel efficiency for camping.” This is not a keyword match. It is a contextual understanding.

The AI looks for the essence of the conversation, not just a specific word. It reads the whole interaction, from the user’s initial prompt to subsequent replies. It looks for intent. Then it decides if your ad fits. This is a fundamental shift in how you think about ad targeting.

This is exactly why ChatGPT ads convert about double what you typically see on other channels. The intent is already baked into the conversation itself. The buyer is actively asking before they buy, often deep in a research phase. You just need to show up when they ask about your specific solution.

Your job as an operator is to define that context with precision. The AI then does the heavy lifting of finding the actual right conversations where your product is the answer.

Here is your action for today: log into your OpenAI Ads Manager. Look at how you are currently defining your ad contexts for your campaigns. Are you giving the AI rich, clear hints about the user’s intent and the nature of the conversation? Or are you still thinking in terms of exact-match keywords you would use on Google? The difference in approach makes a real, measurable impact on your ad spend and your conversion rates.

Sacha June 30, 2026 · Issue #23

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If you want this signal four times a week, Get the Wire.

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Sources

1. OpenAI, “Creating and Managing Ads,” 2026 - https://help.openai.com/en/articles/20001211-creating-and-managing-ads

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Correction policy. If anything in this post is wrong, I’ll fix it inline and add a Correction line above this notice with the date, what was wrong, what’s correct, and the source. No silent edits.