AI Advertising Placements
Your Customers Are Asking AI. Your Ads Should Show Up in the Answer.
ChatGPT, Google’s AI Overviews and AI Mode, Microsoft Copilot and Perplexity are answering questions your customers used to type into a search box, and some of those answers now carry paid placements. Buying that inventory well means knowing which surfaces are actually open for business and which ones are still a press release. We fold AI-surface buying into the paid media practice we already run for you, not a separate experiment with its own fee.
What Is AI Advertising?
AI advertising, on this page, means buying ad placements that appear inside AI products and AI-generated answers rather than a traditional search results page or social feed. That includes ads inside ChatGPT, placements served into Google’s AI Overviews and AI Mode, advertising inside Microsoft Copilot, and sponsored placements now being tested inside Perplexity and a handful of other AI tools. You pay for the placement the same way you pay for any other media buy.
This is different from using AI to run a campaign, which is a question of automation and bidding, not media placement. That work still matters, it just lives on our paid media page now, because it is a separate decision from where an ad actually appears. This page is about the buy itself, the surfaces where AI answers now carry ads and how we decide which ones deserve your budget.
Four Pillars
Google AI Overviews and AI Mode
ChatGPT Advertising
Microsoft Copilot Advertising
Emerging AI Answer Surfaces
How Buying AI Placements Actually Works
This page used to be about using AI to manage campaigns, things like automated bidding and algorithmic optimization inside Performance Max and Advantage+. That is real, useful work, and it still matters, but it is a different decision than the one covered here. It now lives on our paid media page, because managing a campaign with AI and buying a placement inside an AI product are two separate questions with two separate answers.
Buying into AI answer surfaces splits into two paths. The first is inventory your existing campaigns already reach without a separate setup, such as Performance Max and Search placements that Google extends into AI Overviews and AI Mode. The second is a dedicated buy inside an AI product itself, such as ChatGPT, Copilot or Perplexity, each with its own account relationship, creative requirements and targeting rules that have to be set up on their own.
Measurement gets harder here, not easier. AI answer surfaces often give less click-level detail than a standard search or social campaign, and a user can act on what an AI tool told them without ever clicking through to your site. That makes the discipline we already require for every paid channel even more important for this one: your CRM and revenue numbers have to be the final word, not whatever a platform dashboard reports back.
Our approach is the same one we apply everywhere else. We would rather tell you a placement is not ready than take your budget for one that only looks good in a screenshot. Some of these surfaces are worth testing today. Others are worth watching for another quarter. We will tell you which is which before we spend a dollar of your money finding out the hard way.
Where We Place
- Google Search and Performance Max inventory that surfaces inside AI Overviews and AI Mode
- Ads placed directly inside ChatGPT through OpenAI's advertising tools, where genuinely available
- Microsoft Advertising placements that appear inside Copilot and Bing Chat
- Sponsored placements inside Perplexity and other AI answer tools as access opens up
- Your existing search and social campaigns, kept in sync so budgets are not competing against themselves
What You Get
- One retainer covering AI-surface placements and traditional channels, no separate AI fee
- Placement decisions based on where your buyers actually are, not on chasing every new AI product launch
- Creative and targeting built for how people ask an AI assistant a question, not repurposed banner copy
- Reporting that separates AI-surface results from your existing search and social numbers
- A straight answer when a given AI placement is not worth your spend yet
PRICING
Priced as Performance Media-
Launch $2,000: One Platform, Spend to $10K
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Growth $3,500: Two Platforms, Spend to $30K
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Scale $5,000: All Platforms, Spend $30K and Up, Plus 8% of Spend Above $50,000
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AI Placements Included in Every Tier, No Separate AI Surcharge
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Setup $2,500, Waived When Bundled With a Measurement Build
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Measurement Build or a Passed Growth Signal Audit Required Before We Manage Spend
AI Surcharge
Get an AI Placement Review
Tell us which platforms you already run and which AI tools you are curious about, ChatGPT, AI Overviews, Copilot or otherwise. We will tell you honestly which AI surfaces are worth a placement right now and which ones are better left alone for another quarter.
Accolades & Partners
Frequently Asked Questions
What is AI advertising, in this context?
AI advertising here means buying ad placements that show up inside AI products and AI-generated answers, such as ChatGPT, Google’s AI Overviews and AI Mode, Microsoft Copilot and Perplexity. It is not the same as using machine learning to manage a traditional campaign. That is campaign automation, and it is covered on our paid media page. This page is about the media buy itself, where the ad runs, not how a bidding algorithm behaves once it is live.
Is this the same as Generative Engine Optimization?
No, and the names get confused constantly since both involve AI and both have “AI” in them. Generative Engine Optimization is organic work, earning a citation inside an AI answer without paying for the placement, priced separately as AI Visibility starting at $2,500 a month. AI advertising is a paid media buy, billed like any other ad platform. Different budget line, different mechanism, same paid media team. See our Generative Engine Optimization page for the organic side.
Is this part of your regular paid media plans?
Yes. AI placements are sold inside the same Performance Media retainer as search, social, display and geofencing, starting at $2,000 a month. There is no separate AI line item and no surcharge for testing a ChatGPT or Copilot placement instead of, or alongside, a Google campaign. See the full channel list on our paid media and advertising page.
Can I actually buy ads inside ChatGPT?
In some form, yes. OpenAI has been building out advertising options inside ChatGPT. Exactly what is available to buy, how targeting works and what it costs is still evolving, so we confirm current availability and format before recommending a budget. If a given option is not yet open in a way that makes sense for you, we will say so instead of selling you a placeholder.
How do my ads end up inside Google's AI Overviews or AI Mode?
Largely through campaigns you may already be running. Google has been extending Performance Max and Search inventory into its AI-generated answer experiences, so a well-built account can pick up these placements without a separate campaign type. We structure and monitor your account so this inventory is something we can see and account for, not a mystery line in a report.
What is a "PMax AIO placement"?
It is shorthand for a Performance Max ad that shows up inside an AI Overview rather than a traditional results page. Exactly which assets qualify and how they are selected is still developing, so we treat this as inventory to monitor closely inside your existing Performance Max structure rather than a placement type you can target on its own.
Does Microsoft Copilot show ads?
Microsoft has been adding advertising into Copilot and its chat surfaces, typically through the same Microsoft Advertising account already used for Bing search campaigns. If you run Microsoft Ads with us, this is usually the simplest AI surface to test first, since the account structure, billing and reporting already exist and do not require a new platform relationship.
What about Perplexity or other AI tools?
A few AI answer engines, including Perplexity, have started testing sponsored placements inside their responses. Access, self-serve tools and targeting options vary and change often. We keep a current read on what is genuinely open for business and will tell you plainly when a surface is not there yet, rather than billing you to experiment on something unproven.
How do you measure whether an AI placement is working?
The same discipline we apply to any paid channel: conversion data that reflects what actually closed, not just what the platform reports. AI surfaces often give less click and attribution detail than a standard search or social campaign, so we lean harder on your own CRM and revenue numbers to judge whether a placement earned its budget.
Do I need a Measurement Build before you manage AI placements?
Yes, the same requirement that applies to every paid channel we manage. A Measurement Build starting at $7,500, or a passed Growth Signal Audit at $4,500, comes first, because AI placements are even harder to judge on faith than a standard search campaign. We will not point spend at an AI surface if we cannot tell whether it produced a customer.
Blogs & Resources
Reviews & Testimonials
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Find Out Which AI Placements Are Actually Worth Your Budget
No agency theater. Send us your accounts and the AI platforms you are curious about, and we will tell you honestly which surfaces are ready to buy and which ones to skip for now.