The list of tools that can measure ChatGPT ads got a lot longer this week. On October 5, OpenAI announced an expanded measurement program that names attribution partners for conversion tracking, reporting, and click attribution, a separate group of full-funnel measurement partners, and early work on geo-based incrementality experiments. For an e-commerce brand deciding whether to test the channel before the holidays, that changes the question from whether you can measure it at all to which kind of measurement you need.
I covered the basics of how attribution tools handle the channel in do attribution tools work with ChatGPT ads?. This post is the tool list, sorted from the measurement you get for free to the measurement that costs real money.
OpenAI Ads Manager
ChatGPT’s own Ads Manager is where every test starts. It reports delivery, clicks, and conversions, and its pixel and Conversions API feed the optimization behind conversion-focused campaigns. OpenAI also announced integrations with Hightouch, Tealium, and LiveRamp for sending conversion data from systems you already run. Use it for pacing and for training the algorithm. Do not use it as the final word on whether the channel worked, for the same reason you do not take Meta’s ROAS column at face value. It is the platform grading itself.
ThoughtMetric
ThoughtMetric added a ChatGPT Ads integration in late August. (Disclosure: ThoughtMetric sponsors this site.) It pulls spend from your Ads Manager with an API key and reports ChatGPT Ads at the campaign, ad group, and ad level with spend, clicks, CPC, ROAS, CAC, and new versus returning customers, matched against your own orders through a tracking parameter on the ads. It is not one of the partners OpenAI named in this week’s announcement, which describes its list as examples rather than a complete roster. Pricing starts at $99 a month for 50,000 pageviews with every feature included, which makes it the least expensive way here to see ChatGPT next to Meta and Google in one attribution view.
Triple Whale
Triple Whale is on OpenAI’s partner list and says its ChatGPT Ads integration is available to all of its customers from the integrations page. ChatGPT Ads shows up alongside other paid sources in its pixel reporting, though its help center notes you still need Triple Whale’s UTMs on the ads to attribute orders. The most-cited data point in OpenAI’s announcement came from Triple Whale, which found that 93 percent of one brand’s ChatGPT Ads visitors were new. If you are already on Triple Whale, this is the obvious first stop.
Northbeam and DV Rockerbox
Northbeam and DV Rockerbox are both named partners and both aimed at larger spenders. Northbeam’s Starter plan is listed from $1,500 a month. Rockerbox, now part of DoubleVerify, supplied the announcement’s other headline figure, a WeightWatchers cost per acquisition on ChatGPT Ads 15.3 percent below its blended paid-search benchmark. For a brand already running either platform, adding ChatGPT is a configuration task. Neither is a reason to adopt a new attribution platform just to test one channel. Cost details are in how much does Northbeam cost and how much does Rockerbox cost.
Incrementality partners
OpenAI listed Fospha, Measured, and INCRMNTAL as full-funnel measurement partners, and said it is working with Haus, Measured, and WorkMagic on geo-based experiments to estimate the causal effect of ChatGPT Ads. It also describes that incrementality work as early. WorkMagic reported statistically significant lift for one wellness brand, with two thirds of incremental purchases from new customers. These are the tools that can answer whether the channel created sales rather than just collecting credit for them. They also need meaningful spend and time to produce a readable result, which rules most first tests out.
What the tools cannot fix
The hard part of ChatGPT Ads is behavioral, not technical. People see a product in the middle of a research conversation, finish the conversation, and buy later through a branded search or a direct visit. Click attribution hands that order to search no matter which tool you use. The workaround is the same one I use on any new channel. Add ChatGPT as an option on your post-purchase survey, watch branded search volume while the test runs, and compare survey mentions against attributed orders. I walked through how I read a new channel in how I judge a new ad channel in its first 30 days.
Picking one
- Just launching a small test? OpenAI’s Ads Manager for optimization, plus a survey question.
- Want ChatGPT next to every other channel in your own attribution at a low price? ThoughtMetric (our sponsor).
- Already on Triple Whale? Connect its ChatGPT Ads integration and add its UTMs.
- Already on Northbeam or DV Rockerbox? Turn on the integration you are paying for.
- Spending enough to justify a lift study? Ask Haus, Measured, or WorkMagic about geo tests.
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