On May 5, 2026, ChatGPT began allowing local home services businesses to advertise in conversations related to their services. According to TechCrunch, the platform gives businesses the opportunity to appear in more than 330 relevant home services prompts every day from users in the United States.

For local businesses, this represents an entirely new advertising channel. Instead of waiting for someone to search Google, businesses can now be part of the conversation as potential customers ask questions like:

• "Who's the best HVAC company near me?"

• "How much does roof replacement cost?"

• “How do I get rid of rats in Chicago?”

• "Should I repair or replace my AC?"

• "Who's the highest-rated plumber in Dallas?"

Instead of scrolling through search results, people are increasingly having conversations. That shift creates a new opportunity to reach customers earlier in their buying journey, but getting started is not quite as simple as it looks.

Since ChatGPT Ads launched, we've spent countless hours testing campaigns, refining targeting, and learning what actually drives qualified leads.As one of OpenAI's technology partners for ChatGPT advertising, Scorpion helps businesses plan, launch, and manage ChatGPT ad campaigns through the same platform they already use to manage their digital marketing.

As Ashlie Kim, Senior Vice President of Advertising at Scorpion, puts it:

"Clients have been asking me about ChatGPT Ads almost every day for months. We know this is something our clients have been looking forward to. We're honored to be a technology partner and are ready to see the impact ads in ChatGPT can have for local businesses."

The platform is evolving incredibly quickly. New capabilities are released regularly, which means advertisers who monitor and optimize their campaigns consistently will have a significant advantage.

Here are the biggest do's and don'ts we've learned so far.

DO: Start with a Strong Campaign Setup

Like any advertising platform, a little preparation goes a long way.

Before launching your first campaign, you'll need to complete your account setup, verify billing information, and allow time for ChatGPT to review and approve your account. Depending on the account, this process can take one to four business days, so plan accordingly if you're trying to launch around a seasonal promotion or busy time of year.

Once your account is approved:

• Verify your campaign is targeting the United States if that's where you do business.

• Exclude countries you don't serve to avoid wasting impressions.

• Check back often. ChatGPT's advertising capabilities are expanding quickly, and new targeting options are being released on a regular basis.

DO: Build Custom Audiences

If you have enough first-party customer data, Custom Audiences can become a powerful way to improve campaign performance.

You can use Custom Audiences to:

• Reach previous prospects with new messaging.

• Exclude existing customers from prospecting campaigns.

• Build campaigns around high-value customer segments.

Currently, you'll need at least 25k contacts in your audience before ChatGPT can use it for targeting or exclusions. Once uploaded, matching users can take up to 24 hours.

DON'T: Treat Context Hints Like Keywords

This is where most advertisers make their biggest mistake.

Google Ads are built around keywords. ChatGPT Ads are built around conversations.

While ChatGPT positions Context hints as ‘optional’ they are truly anything but optional. Context Hints are unique to ChatGPT and arguably the most important part of your campaign. If there's one part of your campaign to get right, it's this. This is where the magic happens. Instead of simply telling the platform which keywords to target, you're teaching the model who your ideal customer is, what they care about, and when your business is the right recommendation.

Focus on Conversations, Not Keywords

Traditional search advertising revolves around keywords.

ChatGPT understands intent.

Instead of building campaigns around short search phrases, think about the conversations homeowners have when they're looking for help.

High-performing campaigns often focus on conversations around:

• Emergency service requests

• Repair or replacement decisions

• Pricing and budgeting

• Finding a trusted local provider

The goal isn't simply to match words. It's to be relevant at the exact moment someone needs your business.

Help ChatGPT Recognize Buying Intent

Not every conversation is equally valuable.

Some users are researching. Others are ready to hire.

Strong Context Hints help ChatGPT recognize the difference by emphasizing conversations that indicate commercial intent, such as comparing providers, requesting estimates, evaluating repair versus replacement, or looking for a local company to schedule service.

Be Clear About Who Shouldn't See Your Ads

One of the biggest opportunities isn't deciding who should see your ads.

It's deciding who shouldn't.

Great campaigns clearly exclude conversations that aren't likely to generate qualified jobs, including DIY questions, educational research, employment searches, and users outside your service area.

These exclusions help reduce wasted spend while improving the quality of the leads your business receives.

Continue Refining Your Context Hints

Context Hints aren't something you write once and forget.

As your business grows, your service areas change, or ChatGPT introduces new capabilities, your Context Hints should evolve too.

Some of the best-performing campaigns we've managed today look very different than they did just a few months ago.

Like every other part of digital marketing, optimization is an ongoing process.

Additional Guidance

Finish with clear guardrails for the model.

Reinforce what your business does, who the ad is intended for, and that the ad should only appear when ChatGPT is confident the user is a qualified business decision-maker. If intent is ambiguous, instruct the model not to show your ad.

The better your Context Hints, the better ChatGPT understands when your business belongs in the conversation. That's one of the biggest advantages of advertising in a conversational platform instead of a traditional search engine.

DON'T: Ignore Your Bids

One of the biggest differences between ChatGPT Ads and many other advertising platforms is that bidding currently requires a more hands-on approach.

If your bid isn't competitive, your ads simply won't receive enough delivery, even if your targeting is excellent.

Monitor your campaigns regularly and keep an eye on:

• Impression volume

• Delivery

• Spend

• Bid competitiveness

• Lead quality

This isn't a platform where you should launch a campaign and walk away.

DO: Keep Optimizing

ChatGPT Ads are changing quickly.

Features that weren't available a month ago may already exist today, and new targeting capabilities continue to roll out daily.

The businesses seeing the strongest results aren't necessarily spending the most. They're continually refining:

• Context Hints

• Custom Audiences

• Geographic targeting

• Ad copy

• Bidding strategy

Treat your first campaign as Version 1. The real gains come from ongoing testing and optimization.

The Bottom Line

Advertising in ChatGPT is fundamentally different from advertising on traditional search engines.

Instead of matching keywords, you're matching intent. Instead of optimizing for searches, you're optimizing for conversations.

That creates tremendous opportunity for local businesses, but it also means success requires a different strategy.

If reading through this guide has you thinking, "This sounds like a lot to manage," you're probably right. Between campaign setup, Context Hints, bidding, audience management, and ongoing optimization, there's a lot to stay on top of, especially as the platform continues to evolve.

That's where Scorpion comes in.

As an OpenAI technology partner, Scorpion helps local businesses plan, launch, optimize, and manage ChatGPT advertising alongside their broader digital marketing strategy. We're constantly testing new features, refining Context Hints, monitoring performance, and applying what we learn across hundreds of campaigns so our clients don't have to figure it out on their own.

Whether you're exploring ChatGPT Ads for the first time or looking to improve your existing campaigns, our team is here to help you reach more qualified customers where the next generation of search is already happening.