ChatGPT Ads creative enhancements are about to switch on by default. OpenAI’s help page says: “Starting Thursday, October 29, 2026, creative enhancements will be enabled automatically for new and existing campaigns.” The email OpenAI sent to advertisers, which Search Engine Roundtable (SER) published as a screenshot on October 20, says: “Starting Friday, October 30, 2026, we’ll enable creative enhancements for your new and existing self-serve campaigns.” Each lets you opt out before its own date.
What are creative enhancements in ChatGPT Ads?
Creative enhancements are an Ads Manager setting that lets OpenAI tailor an ad to the conversation or to user interests, drawing on your existing ad and landing-page content. According to the help page, that can mean new or updated headlines and descriptions, image resizing, destination-URL optimization and translation into other languages. When the setting is enabled, the ads can run automatically without you reviewing or approving each version.
Which date applies, October 29 or October 30?
We report both as published. The wording on scope differs too.
| Source | Date | Scope wording |
|---|---|---|
| Help page | Thursday, October 29 | “new and existing campaigns” |
| Advertiser email | Friday, October 30 | “new and existing self-serve campaigns” |
An opt-out made before October 29 comes ahead of both dates. Per the help page, existing account-level and campaign-level opt-outs are preserved, and campaign-specific settings take priority over your account default. The email says the same.
What can change in your ads?
| Element | What OpenAI says |
|---|---|
| Headlines, descriptions | New or updated text |
| Language | Ad text may be translated into another language |
| Images | May be resized to fit the ad format |
| Destination URL | May be optimized to direct people to a relevant page on your website |
| Preview | “The experience does not provide a preview of every variation.” |
OpenAI’s own example: in a conversation about quick weeknight dinners, the headline “Fresh groceries delivered” becomes “Groceries for quick weeknight dinners”. The help page adds that actual wording may vary. In the Ads Manager screenshot SER published, a “Creative enhancement” toggle under Settings shows “On” in the account of SER’s Barry Schwartz. The toggle shows the setting’s state, not whether enhanced ads are already running.
Who answers for generated ads?
You do, under the Ad Tools Terms. The settings toggle describes the feature as “Subject to the Ad Tool Terms.” Section 3.2 makes the advertiser responsible for “all Generated Creatives that you approve or use, or that are applied to your Campaign”, and for the accuracy of material representations, including “claims related to pricing, availability”. Section 3.3 says OpenAI does not guarantee that generated creatives will be accurate or consistent with your intended meaning. The help page asks advertisers to keep prices, promotions, product details and availability up to date on ads and landing pages, so that creative enhancements have “useful, accurate source information”.
What happens to your tracking parameters?
OpenAI documents two places for them. The “Create Ads” help page says you may add UTM tags to individual creative URLs. The Measure Results page describes “Landing page query parameters”, which can use macros such as {campaign_id}, {ad_group_id}, {ad_id} and {ad_account_id}. The hierarchy is Ad URL, then Ad, then Ad Group, then Campaign, and a parameter set at the Ad URL level is not overwritten by the others.
The creative-enhancements article does not say what happens to either when the destination URL is optimized. The other OpenAI pages we checked do not say either, so we do not know whether the tags carry over. If you keep the setting on, build one consistent set of UTM parameters first, so a later check compares against a known pattern. The same opt-out-by-date shape showed up in OpenAI’s earlier Automatic Advanced Matching default, which OpenAI set to switch on for existing Web pixels on August 17.
What to do before October 29
- Opt out. The help page points to Manage settings in Ads Manager, and opt-outs exist at account and campaign level. The campaign setting wins over the account default, and both sources say you can change settings at any time in Ads Manager.
- Or keep it and check. OpenAI’s Conversion Measurement page says its click reference, oppref, is appended to the end of the landing page URL. The creative-enhancements article does not say whether that also holds for an optimized destination. After the switch-on, look at the landing pages of ChatGPT ad traffic for pages you never set as a destination, and for whether those sessions still carry your UTM values.
- Keep landing pages accurate. Under Section 3.2 of the terms, you answer for the accuracy of pricing and availability claims in generated creatives.
Be careful with before-and-after comparisons. The creative-enhancements article lists impressions, clicks, spend, CTR and attributed conversions (if conversion measurement is set up) at campaign, ad group and ad level, then adds: “Changes over time do not, on their own, establish the effect of creative enhancements.”
