ChatGPT launched its advertising pilot in Australia on 5 May 2026 and the messages started coming in almost immediately. Should we be on it? Are we missing out? Do we need to move fast?
Mel jumped on it the day it launched, spent $701 of 3BY2’s own money and has the data to show exactly what happened. Eleven thousand impressions. Thirty-six clicks. Zero conversions. At roughly $20 a click, it is the most expensive paid channel 3BY2 is currently running. So before you redirect your marketing budget toward the shiny new thing, it is worth understanding what the numbers actually say.
AI advertising is not going anywhere. OpenAI has floated ad revenue targets of $100 billion by 2030 and the platform will only expand. The question for most Perth SMBs right now is not whether to be in AI, but how, and whether now is actually the right time to be spending.
In Episode 20 of Raising The Bar, Mel and Mon go through the live trial data, explain why the free version of ChatGPT is probably not where your B2B buyers are, and make the case for where Perth business owners should actually be putting their energy in 2026.
Key Takeaways:
- The live trial data: $701 spent, 11,000 impressions, 36 clicks and zero conversions in month one. At around $20 a click, it is the dearest click 3BY2 buys anywhere. The targeting controls are nowhere near what Google Ads offers and the reporting is thin. Mel spent her own money so you do not have to.
- Know who is actually seeing these ads: ChatGPT ads only appear on the free and $8 per month versions. Anyone on a paid plan sees zero ads. If your buyers are B2B decision-makers or knowledge workers, the paid tier is likely where they live, which means your ad may never reach them.
- You cannot pay to be recommended: The ads sit beside ChatGPT’s answer in a clearly labelled sponsored card. You cannot pay to change what ChatGPT says or to appear inside the recommendation itself. That is probably not what most business owners have been told.
- Organic AI is already delivering better leads: 3BY2 has closed seven leads that came through organic AI mentions since the start of 2026, every one of them with more context and higher intent than a typical Google lead. That is the opportunity worth chasing right now.
- If it is your real lead-gen budget, Google still wins: The same $500 buys roughly 60 clicks on Google at suburb level with full reporting, or 25 clicks on ChatGPT at state level with almost nothing you can measure. If the phone needs to ring this quarter, that is not a hard call yet.
- Get your GEO foundations in order now: A growing share of AI search has no paid slots at all. Strong Google Business Profile, genuine reviews and being mentioned in the right places pays off organically today and sets you up for paid later. You cannot buy back the time of getting in early.
Raising The Bar is a fortnightly podcast hosted by Mel Strutt, delivering blunt, experience-backed marketing guidance for Australian business owners. Joined by Monique Jecks, they address what matters, call out the fluff and raise the standard of what marketing must deliver for your bottom line.
