ChatGPT Ads Stops Capping Bids and Starts Chasing Averages
OpenAI’s 12 November advertiser update, following help-centre changes, confirms ChatGPT Ads has moved from manual ceilings to average-cost targets: from 9 November new conversion campaigns set Target CPA instead of Max Bid and new click campaigns set Target CPC, “Maximize Results” was renamed intelligent bidding, and existing Max Bid and Max CPC campaigns retire on 1 January 2027. From 18 November, API partners sending values through the legacy fields have them read as average targets rather than caps — a quiet semantic change that can reprice live integrations. OpenAI is explicit that a target is not a limit: bids may exceed it in individual auctions, and a target set below recent performance can throttle delivery entirely.