The three options
| Run it yourself | AI visibility tool | Agency | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What you get | Your own ChatGPT campaigns in OpenAI Ads Manager | Tracking of how often your brand appears in AI answers | Campaigns built and run for you, often with organic work and reporting |
| Typical cost | Media only: $25/day minimum in the US (about $750/mo for one always-on campaign) | Roughly $29 to $549/mo for published plans; enterprise tools are custom-priced | From $1,000/mo (us, media included) to $5,000+/mo retainers elsewhere |
| Your time | Setup plus 2 to 4 hours a week | An hour a week to read reports, plus the work to act on them | A monthly review |
| Buys ads | ChatGPT only (Google and Microsoft are separate accounts) | No | Depends on the agency; ask which platforms |
| Improves organic answers | No | No, it measures them | If the agency offers it |
| Best for | Marketers comfortable in ad platforms with a tested landing page | Teams with in-house SEO and content who need measurement | Owners who want results across assistants without running it |
Run it yourself
OpenAI's self-serve Ads Manager has been open in beta since May 5, 2026, with no account minimum. You'll need a pixel or the Conversions API in place, ad groups built around the conversations you want to appear in, and a habit of checking cost per lead weekly. Our step-by-step ChatGPT guide covers every step. The catch: it's one platform. Ads in Google AI Overviews and AI Mode come from Google Ads campaigns and ads in Copilot from Microsoft Advertising, where the platform decides placement, and none of it changes what the assistant says in its answer.
Use an AI visibility tool
Tracking tools run prompts against assistants and tell you how often you're mentioned. Published pricing we found when we checked: Otterly.AI from about $29 a month, and Semrush's SEO plus AI search plans from $199 a month. Profound and Peec AI offer plans with custom or partly published pricing. These are useful if someone on your team will act on what they show; on their own they don't change your visibility.
Hire an agency
Agencies vary widely. Some only run ChatGPT ads, some only do organic optimization, and published prices run from a few hundred dollars to $5,000 or more a month before media. We compare eleven of them, including us, in ChatGPT advertising agencies compared.
Which one fits you
you already run Google or Meta ads, have conversion tracking working, and want to test ChatGPT on one service.
you have SEO and content people in-house and the gap is measurement, not execution.
you want paid and organic across ChatGPT, Google AI Mode and Copilot handled together and reported in one place.
Whatever you choose, measure the same way every month: a fixed list of the questions your customers ask, checked across assistants, with paid and organic appearances counted separately.
Prices from each provider's public pricing page on October 13, 2026. Platform rules from OpenAI's Ads Manager help center. Prices and plans change; check the provider before buying.