Google Search Ad Visits Out-Earned ChatGPT Ads In U.S. via @sejournal, @MattGSouthern

In U.S. traffic, a visit from a ChatGPT ad brought in $0.89 in revenue, against $2.45 for a visit from a paid Google search ad, according to a working paper by Maximilian Kaiser and Christian Schulze. The paper, dated October 2026 and under review, follows site traffic and sales through OpenAI’s country-by-country ad launch. Its paid-ad figures come from 102 advertiser sites with full sales tracking. At paid search’s rate of return, the authors value a ChatGPT ad click at about $0.26. The largest publicly known account paid $1.72 per click. OpenAI’s ads FAQ says ChatGPT Ads “does not yet have performance benchmarks across advertisers, industries, or campaign types.” ChatGPT ad visits converted at 0.37 percent in U.S. traffic versus 1.17 percent with paid search.