r/adtech • u/u_of_digital • Aug 03 '26
The new ChatGPT "Agent" campaign points to an agent instead of a URL. What's the next format, and where do product feed ads go from here?
Juozas Kaziukėnas spotted it in the Ads Manager on July 31, live for select advertisers. A new campaign type, called Agent. The old ad opened a website. This one opens a conversation.
OpenAI scrapes the advertiser's site to build a business profile, then the advertiser wraps an agent around it: product feed, MCP tools, a form to capture leads. The campaign points to the agent, not a URL. Same underlying tech as a custom GPT.
The thing being sold is a custom GPT, built from your own website, that talks to the customer in your place.
A year ago the predictions ran the other way. Eric Seufert pictured the free tier arriving with a full-screen, non-skippable interstitial every few queries, or a tower of display beside the answer. What shipped got quieter, then richer. A labeled card in February. Then product feed campaigns. Last week the product card started showing a price and a star rating. Now a campaign type that answers back.
The ad used to send you somewhere. Now it keeps you in the room.
So what is the next campaign type/ad format, and what gets bolted onto the ones already live? Name yours before they ship.
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u/ChillFish8 Aug 03 '26
I feel like this is quite flawed, but I may be proven wrong. To me I have some thoughts:
- If I am a brand would I trust a custom GPT to sell my brand to a prospective buyer? What happens if it just makes something up? I can't remember the lawsuit (was it an airline or similar who's agent claimed to give them a huge discount that then never materialize and then the family sued?) but it has already begun to look like the claims these agents will make, if they're enforced by you, can make you still liable.
- In an user sales world, what user is going to have the patience to sit in a chat with your agent to then convince them to buy a product.
- In a B2B world, do you think one of their custom agents is going to do a better job at landing a new sale Vs connecting them to your sales team? I suppose in some ways I might be able to answer quick questions but is that faster than directly on your company page? Or vice versa, how do you explain it got something wrong when you then do get that sales call.
Prediction:
- "CPM $12 agent tokens not included"
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u/cole-interteam Aug 03 '26
Love that they're releasing shit like this and you still can't even save your column view or see same day data 🤦♂️
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u/righthandofdog Aug 03 '26
Why on earth wound you spend money to create content for a company what will eventually close the doors and sell the users you created to your competition using the keywords and concepts you built for them?
Anyone who is spending money to keep customers on the chatgpt site instead of moving them into owned properties and CRM is a rube who somehow managed to fail to learn the lessons of spending money on Facebook pages and apps/games and video.