ChatGPT Ads Targeting: Geo, Platforms, Custom Audiences

You can't set up targeting in ChatGPT Ads the way you do in Meta Ads. There's no familiar choice of age, gender, interests, or lookalike audiences. Instead, advertisers set the locations where ads can appear, choose platforms, and use their own audiences if needed. The system then considers the context of the current conversation, the ad content, and other signals to select a relevant ad.

Below, we cover which targeting tools are available in ChatGPT Ads as of October 2026, how they work, and what to consider when planning campaigns.

Which targeting settings are available in ChatGPT Ads

In ChatGPT Ads Manager Beta, targeting is set at the campaign level: location, platforms, and custom audiences. At the ad group level, you can also set bid adjustments for audiences.

Location and platforms determine where ads can appear. Custom audiences narrow the pool of potential viewers or affect the bid.

No single setting guarantees that an ad will be shown to a specific user. The system also considers available ad inventory, ad relevance, and other delivery factors.

1. Location targeting: choosing countries and regions

Location targeting in ChatGPT Ads lets you define where your ads can be shown to users.

At the campaign level, you can select countries and, in supported markets, more specific locations: states or regions, cities, markets (designated market areas, or DMAs, in the US), and postal codes. The level of detail available depends on the country and campaign type.

For example, a company can target the entire US market or limit a campaign to specific cities, if that option is available in the ad account.

How to set up location targeting

When creating a campaign:

1. Open the Campaign settings in Ads Manager.
2. Find the location targeting section.
3. Select the countries or available locations you need.
4. If you need to limit delivery, check your location inclusion and exclusion settings.
5. Before launch, make sure the selected locations are supported for your account.

Important: to show ads in only one country, you need to explicitly add it to your campaign locations. Excluding all other countries doesn't limit delivery to that country on its own.

You can check the current list of available locations directly in Ads Manager. OpenAI also provides a location catalog for advertisers.

What to consider when choosing locations

A country being available for targeting doesn't always mean your account can advertise there right away.

Some new self-serve accounts can initially advertise only in their home country, the country associated with the ad account. The ability to advertise in other supported markets becomes available once identity verification is approved and the required ad spend in the home country is reached. OpenAI doesn't publish the spend threshold.

Creating a campaign or setting a budget alone doesn't lift this restriction.

So before planning an international campaign, check not only whether the country is on the list, but also any restrictions that apply to your specific ad account.

Can you target specific cities?

Yes, if those locations are available for the selected market and campaign type.

Standard campaigns support more detailed location targeting, including cities and regions. Product feed campaigns have separate limits, though: for new campaigns of this type, location targeting and exclusions are available only at the country level.

Tip: if you're testing a new market, don't overcomplicate location targeting. Start with locations that match your actual sales market, then review results in the available reports. Narrower targeting makes sense when it's tied to your business model, logistics, or local terms of your offer.

2. Platform targeting: where to show ads

In ChatGPT Ads, you can choose the platforms where a campaign is eligible to appear.

When setting up a campaign in Ads Manager, five options are available:

• iOS app — the ChatGPT app for iOS;
• iOS web — ChatGPT in a browser on iOS;
• Android app — the ChatGPT app for Android;
• Android web — ChatGPT in a browser on Android;
• Desktop web — ChatGPT on a computer.

You can select one or more platforms depending on your campaign goal.

How to choose platforms

1. Open the campaign settings.
2. Find the Platforms field.
3. Select one or more available platforms.
4. Save the settings and review the campaign configuration.

If you don't set a platform restriction, all available platforms are used by default when the campaign is created.

How web differs from apps

It's important not to confuse the user's device with the platform where the ad appears.

For example, someone may open ChatGPT on an iPhone through Safari. In that case, they count as iOS web, not the ChatGPT app for iOS.

So selecting only iOS app won't reach iPhone users who access ChatGPT through a browser.

Which platform to choose for a test

If you don't have your own data on ChatGPT ad performance yet, it makes sense to start with all available platforms and then review the reports, which can be broken down by platform.

Limiting delivery to one platform at launch makes sense when you have a solid hypothesis. For example, if your product is designed for desktop use or the ad leads to a mobile app.

Don't automatically copy your device budget split from Meta Ads: user behavior in ChatGPT may differ from what you see on social media.

3. Custom audiences: your own audiences

Custom audiences let you use your own lists of customers and prospects to set up campaigns.

For example, you can use custom audiences to:

• limit a campaign to existing customers or qualified leads;
• exclude current customers from a new customer acquisition campaign;
• raise the bid for an audience that is especially valuable to your business;
• lower the bid for a lower-priority audience.

ChatGPT Ads offers three ways to work with custom audiences: inclusion, exclusion, and audience bid adjustments.

What data you can upload

According to OpenAI's documentation, custom audiences support the following identifiers:

• email addresses;
• phone numbers;
• hashed (SHA-256) email addresses;
• hashed (SHA-256) phone numbers;
• Google Advertising IDs (GAID).

Lists are uploaded as UTF-8 CSV or TXT files. Each file can contain only one identifier type. CSV files require a header row; in TXT files, each identifier goes on its own line.

A file can be up to 500 MB and contain up to 5,000,000 identifiers. Processing usually takes 20–30 minutes, depending on file size.

After upload, the system matches identifiers to users. The number of uploaded records and the number of matched users are not the same.

Before using an audience, make sure processing is complete and the audience is ready to use in a campaign.

How to create a custom audience

1. Open Ads Manager.
2. In the side menu, go to Tools → Audiences.
3. Click Create audience.
4. Enter an audience name.
5. Upload a CSV or TXT file.
6. Check the identifier format and wait for processing to finish.

Once created, an audience can be updated: you can add and remove members or replace the entire list. You don't need to recreate the audience or reconfigure the campaigns that use it. While the new version of the list is processing, campaigns keep using the old one.

This data must be used in line with OpenAI's data use requirements and applicable data protection laws.

Inclusion: showing ads to a selected audience

Inclusion narrows the pool of users who can be shown your ad.

If a campaign includes an audience of existing customers, ads will only be eligible to show to users who match that audience and the other targeting conditions.

This is useful for campaigns aimed at a specific group of customers or prospects, such as qualified leads.

There is a limit, though: for inclusion, an audience must contain at least 25,000 matched users. This refers to matched users, not the number of rows in the original file.

Exclusion: removing an audience from delivery

Exclusion lets you remove selected users from a campaign.

For example, if you're promoting a product to new customers, you can exclude existing buyers so you don't spend budget on people who have already converted.

Smaller audiences can also be used for exclusion: the 25,000 matched-user minimum doesn't apply.

You can use inclusion and exclusion in the same campaign. In that case, delivery is limited to users in the included lists, except those who belong to excluded audiences.

The same list can't be both included and excluded in one campaign.

Audience bid adjustments: adjusting the bid for an audience

In addition to inclusion and exclusion, ChatGPT Ads lets you change the bid at the ad group level for users in a selected audience. The bid multiplier can be set from 0.1× to 10×.

It's important to understand the difference between inclusion and bid adjustments.

When you include an audience, users outside it are not eligible to see the ad.

When you apply a bid multiplier, users outside the selected audience can still see the ad. Only the bid for matches with that list changes.

Bid multipliers also require at least 25,000 matched users.

An important limit for Europe

Custom audiences are not supported in campaigns targeting the European Economic Area (EEA) and Switzerland, where personalized ads are not yet available.

If you're launching a campaign in these countries, build your targeting on location and platforms.

4. How targeting works in ChatGPT Ads: what to keep in mind

Even with a relatively small set of familiar settings, targeting in ChatGPT Ads isn't just a matter of choosing three parameters.

Location, platforms, and custom audiences define who could potentially see an ad and where. Within those limits, the system selects ads based on the conversation context, ad content, landing page, and other signals. We explain how context hints help with this in this article.

It's important to distinguish eligibility from actual delivery.

Even if a user matches the selected location and audience, that doesn't mean they will see the ad. The system also considers relevance, auction results, available ad inventory, and other delivery conditions.

Which familiar settings are missing

If you're coming to ChatGPT Ads from Meta Ads, don't bring over your expectations about the usual set of targeting options.

OpenAI's available documentation doesn't describe the following as standard campaign settings:

• age or gender targeting;
• classic interests chosen from a predefined list;
• lookalike audiences built from an existing customer base.

This doesn't mean the system ignores user-related signals altogether. Ad selection considers the context and intent of the current conversation and, when ads personalization is on, certain signals from the user's broader ChatGPT experience.

However, advertisers can't control these signals directly the way they control audience settings in traditional ad platforms.

So when planning a campaign, rely on the tools that are available rather than counting on settings that aren't in the interface.

5. How to test targeting in ChatGPT Ads

Since the set of options differs from familiar ad platforms, start testing with a clear hypothesis.

Rather than trying to test every possible combination of location, platforms, and audiences at once, break the test into stages.

Step 1. Define your location

Choose a market where your product is actually available and where your ad account is allowed to run ads.

If you're testing several countries, consider whether it makes sense to combine them in one campaign. For markets with very different budgets, offers, or business goals, separate campaigns are easier to manage.

Step 2. Decide whether you need custom audiences

If you have a large and relevant enough customer base, test including or excluding your own audiences.

Before that, check the number of matched users and make sure the audience meets the minimum requirements.

If your goal is acquiring new customers, excluding existing buyers may be more useful than limiting the campaign to a small audience.

Step 3. Choose platforms

At first, you can keep all available platforms so you don't limit potential reach without a confirmed reason.

Once you have data, review results broken down by platform. If one platform consistently performs better, test a separate campaign for it.

Step 4. Analyze results

Compare results by country and platform and check whether your targeting combination drives the business actions you need.

If results are weak, don't change all settings at once. Change one targeting setting at a time so you know what made the difference.

If there are no impressions at all, check your combination of location, platforms, and audiences: together, they may leave too few eligible users.

Bottom line

Targeting in ChatGPT Ads works differently from familiar social media platforms. Advertisers control location, platforms, and custom audiences, and the system handles the rest based on the conversation context.

Start with the tools that are available, form a hypothesis, and test results step by step. That way, you'll learn which combinations of settings work for your audience without relying on targeting features the platform doesn't support yet.

If your company is registered in a country where self-serve isn't open yet but your audience is in open markets, Evido by Aitarget can help you set up an account and launch campaigns in those countries. Submit a request, and we'll share with you what are the available opportunities for your specific case.