Before you start
- A company email and someone who can complete identity verification.
- A payment card. Card verification places a temporary hold; it isn't a charge.
- Access to your website to add the measurement pixel.
- Your privacy notice updated for ad measurement.
Step by step
- Create the account in your company's name, so the data stays yours if you change agency.
- Complete verification early. OpenAI notes that new self-serve accounts may be limited to their home country until identity verification is approved and required spend is reached.
- Add the pixel and, if you can, the Conversions API. Create a lead event for demo requests.
- Invite your team or agency with the access each person needs.
- Create the first campaign: title, objective, budget, start and end dates and countries are required.
- Add ad groups with context hints, ads and landing pages.
- Check the serving checklist: verification and billing complete, campaign and ads active, dates include today, ads passed review.
Settings people get wrong
- The objective can't be changed after the campaign is created.
- Countries must be included explicitly. To restrict delivery to the US, include the US; exclusions alone don't restrict it.
- Budget type changes aren't always reversible. A campaign-total budget can't be switched back after moving to daily.
- Publishing early can lock the start date. Don't publish until dates are final.
Who should own what
| Task | Owner |
|---|---|
| Account owner and billing | Marketing leader or finance |
| Identity verification | A company director or authorised person |
| Pixel and Conversions API | Web developer or marketing ops |
| Campaigns and creative | Paid media lead or agency |
| Reporting | Marketing ops |
A pre-launch checklist
- Verification approved, billing complete.
- Pixel fires after consent; test lead recorded.
- Customer exclusion list uploaded and matched.
- Campaign dates final before publishing.
- Ads reviewed and approved.
- Landing pages live and fast.
- UTM convention agreed and documented.
Questions
Can an agency create the account for us?
It can help, but create it in your company's name with your own billing, so you keep the account and its history.
How long does setup take?
We set up the account, pixel and first campaigns in the first two weeks after kickoff, alongside the audit and strategy. Identity verification and ad review run in that window, so ads can go live in week 3. Company identification starts as soon as the tag is on your site.
Can we run several brands from one account?
Ads Manager supports members and permissions at account level. For clearly separate brands, separate ad accounts keep reporting clean.
Start here: ChatGPT ads for B2B. More articles in ChatGPT ads.