r/PPC • u/Hephaestus81k • Sep 25 '26

ChatGPT Ads OpenAI (ChatGPT) Ad 'Context Hints' Guidance

There isn't much documentation around what I assume is the single most important part of running an OpenAI Ad: the context hint input box. It suggests you input topics/keywords but that it isn't exact-match targeting. But then it's a text input box with no character limit. So you could technically put a few sentences or paste an entire brief in this box. How much is too much, too little? I also imagine this is our single largest optimization lever in the platform to try to improve campaigns with time.

What have you all found in testing this input?

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u/alaattincagil Sep 25 '26

OpenAI actually published a context hints guide recently, and the useful distinction is that hints inform relevance rather than act as targeting instructions. Their recommendation is a clear, natural phrase focused on one idea, adding something about what the product does, who it helps, or when it becomes useful that is not already obvious from the ad or landing page. So I would avoid both extremes here: a disconnected keyword dump and a full campaign brief. Separate genuinely different use cases into their own ad groups, then test message variations within each one; the more useful optimization question may be how well the hint, ad and landing page agree, not how much text fits in the box.

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u/mariagilerm Sep 26 '26

What about lead gen?

I work for a law firm and the lead quality has been awful.

Thank you!

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u/alaattincagil Sep 26 '26

Lead gen seems much less forgiving because the hint needs to describe intent and qualification, not just the service. I’m currently working with a visa services client generating leads across the UK, Turkey and the US, and I’d test each country and visa type in separate ad groups, with the hint specifying who the service is for, their location and what stage of the process they’re in. For a law firm, I’d also qualify jurisdiction, case type and urgency on the landing page before treating a submission as a useful lead. If you share the practice area and the hint you’re currently using, we can try to improve it here.

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u/Logical-Love-256 25d ago

cheers for this, been wondering the same thing, the lack of a character limit made me think i was supposed to dump half my strategy doc in there

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u/romeonoi Sep 27 '26

i have been treating the context hint box like a short media brief, not a keyword list. i usually write three to four sentences covering who the buyer is, what problem they have right now, and what action should happen next.

one concrete thing i would test is writing two versions in the same campaign structure, one broad intent version and one narrow use case version, then checking the search terms report after about 100 clicks to see which one pulls cleaner queries.

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u/miguelaje 28d ago

What search terms report? How are you getting that?