SE Ranking: 14.35% of ChatGPT Ads Show No Topical Link to the Prompt

August 13, 2026 · mediapost.com

About one in seven ads inside ChatGPT carried no topical connection to the prompt that generated them, according to a study SE Ranking released this week. The search agency analyzed 50,006 commercial prompts across 20 U.S. niche markets, the same prompt set it used for earlier research into Google AI Mode ads, and found the mismatch rate exceeded 50% in categories such as Relationships and News/Politics. ChatGPT cited an advertiser as a source in its answer in only 3.63% of ad placements, versus 11.53% for Google AI Mode. Among 1,159 unique advertisers testing the format, fintech platform BestMoney, operated by Natural Intelligence, accounted for 13.56% of all ChatGPT ad units on its own.

Campaigns built around AI visibility tools, rank tracking and SEO APIs pulled more than 97,000 impressions and 1,263 clicks from three campaigns, eight ad groups and 48 ads that SE Ranking ran itself over two weeks across the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand, yet produced very few sign-ups. ChatGPT ads reach only Free and Go plan users, and SE Ranking's own ideal customers, agency owners, SEO leads and in-house specialists, are heavy AI users who are more likely to pay for an ad-free plan, narrowing the pool the agency could actually reach. Vadym Hryshchenko, a paid search specialist at SE Ranking, wrote in the blog: "The problem is who's behind those clicks: ads only reach Free and Go users, and the more someone looks like our ICP, the more likely they're on a paid, ad-free plan." Delivery also ran unevenly, with the two largest ads in a group typically capturing around half of all impressions while others barely ran.