ChatGPT serves ads. Here's the full attribution loop
5 hours ago
- #ad attribution
- #OpenAI platform
- #ChatGPT ads
- OpenAI's ad platform consists of two parts: ChatGPT's backend injects structured ad units into conversations, and the OAIQ SDK on merchant pages tracks views and clicks.
- Ads are selected based on the conversation's context; tests showed different ads for topics like travel, food, sports, and productivity, but it's unclear if prior chat history is considered.
- Each ad includes four encrypted tokens for attribution: ads_spam_integrity_payload, oppref, olref, and ad_data_token, with oppref stored as a cookie for linking clicks to merchant events.
- When a user clicks an ad, it opens in ChatGPT's in-app webview, and the OAIQ SDK logs data to OpenAI's servers, using domains like bzrcdn.openai.com and bzr.openai.com for tracking.
- The encryption used allows recovery of token mint times, revealing details like click latency, with observed delays of up to 95 seconds.