OpenAI is about to switch on creative enhancements for ChatGPT Ads by default. Unless you opt out, it can rewrite your headlines and descriptions, translate your ad text, resize your images and send clicks to a different page on your site, without anyone approving each version. UK advertisers should decide whether they want that before it starts.
The answer in brief
- Creative enhancements adapt your ads to the conversation or the user’s interests: new headlines and descriptions, translation, resized images and different destination pages on your site.
- They switch on by default for new and existing campaigns; OpenAI’s email names self-serve campaigns. Opt-outs you have already set stay in place, and enhanced versions can run without a preview of every variation.
- OpenAI’s published start dates conflict: 29, 30 and 31 October have all appeared. Check your settings now, because the setting may already be on in your account, and finish by Wednesday 28 October, our recommended date.
- You can opt out at any time under Manage settings in Ads Manager. Check every campaign as well, because a campaign setting overrides the account default.
- OpenAI’s Ad Tools Terms make you responsible for enhanced versions applied to your campaign even if you never approved them, and the CAP Code puts primary responsibility for an ad on the marketer.
What are ChatGPT Ads creative enhancements?
They are automatic changes OpenAI makes to your ads so they fit the conversation in which they appear. OpenAI’s help page on creative enhancements says the system can draw on the conversation or the user’s interests, your existing ad and the content of your landing page. Variations can be prepared in advance or created in real time, enhanced versions can run without anyone approving them, and Ads Manager does not show a preview of every variation. OpenAI says ads, enhanced or not, do not change ChatGPT’s answers.
When do creative enhancements switch on?
Late October 2026, but OpenAI’s published start dates conflict. The advertiser email reproduced by Search Engine Roundtable on 20 October gives Friday 30 October 2026 for “new and existing self-serve campaigns”. The help page said Thursday 29 October a day later, according to PPC Land, and now reads “Starting Thursday, October 31, 2026”, a date that falls on a Saturday.
We recommend finishing your settings review by Wednesday 28 October, ahead of the earliest date reported, and checking any notice in your own account. Do not assume the feature stays off until then: the screenshot Search Engine Roundtable published on 20 October already showed the setting switched on in that account. Switching the default off until you have tested it is the cautious choice, and you can reverse it at any time. UK businesses buying through self-serve Ads Manager are covered like everyone else; our guide to ChatGPT Ads in the UK explains how access works here.
What can creative enhancements change?
Four things: the headline and description, the language, the image size and the page a click lands on.
If the table extends beyond the screen, scroll sideways to view all columns.
| What can change | OpenAI’s description | What to check |
|---|---|---|
| Headlines and descriptions | OpenAI’s descriptionNew or updated text that connects your offer to the conversation or the user’s interests | What to checkPrices, offers or claims your original ad did not make |
| Language | OpenAI’s descriptionAd text translated into another language | What to checkWording nobody on your team can read, and claims that change meaning in translation |
| Images | OpenAI’s descriptionResized to fit the ad format | What to checkWhether text, logos and product details in the image still read at the new size |
| Destination URLs | OpenAI’s descriptionClicks sent to another relevant page on your website | What to checkOld, out-of-stock or thin pages, and conversion tracking that only runs on your chosen landing page |
OpenAI’s own example turns “Fresh groceries delivered” into “Groceries for quick weeknight dinners”, and it assumes the original ad and landing page support the new wording. That assumption is where the risk sits. The system builds new copy from your landing pages, so an expired promotion, an old price or a product you no longer stock can find its way into an ad.
How do you turn creative enhancements off?
In Ads Manager, select Manage settings and switch creative enhancements off for the account, then open each campaign, because a campaign setting takes priority over the account default. The screenshot Search Engine Roundtable published, also described by PPC Land, shows one “Creative enhancement” toggle covering all four kinds of change, and OpenAI’s help page documents no separate controls, so check what your own account offers before assuming you can switch off one type.
OpenAI’s email names self-serve campaigns, while the help page speaks of new and existing campaigns without qualification. Neither says how campaigns bought through OpenAI’s sales team or its technology partners are treated, and an agency running your account does not by itself make it a managed buy. Ask whoever runs the account which route your campaigns use and which settings govern them.
Who is responsible for an enhanced ad?
You are, under OpenAI’s terms. In the Ad Tools Terms (the current version is dated 21 October), its creative tools may “automatically apply” generated creatives to a campaign, and the advertiser is responsible for any that are, approved or not, including the “accuracy, completeness, currency, and substantiation” of their claims about prices and availability. OpenAI does not guarantee that they will be accurate, compliant with law or consistent with your intended meaning. Archived copies kept by AI Docs Watch show the wording changed earlier: the 31 July version said the advertiser was responsible for reviewing generated creatives before use, and the version dated 24 August had already dropped that line and added automatic application.
UK rules point the same way. Under the CAP Code, “primary responsibility” for an ad falls on the marketer, and agencies and publishers also accept an obligation to follow the code. Rule 3.7 of the code requires documentary evidence for objective claims before an ad is distributed or submitted for publication, and rule 3.9 says an ad must not mislead by leaving out significant limitations and qualifications. A rewritten headline can make a claim nobody on your side wrote, or drop a qualification your original carried, in a version nobody approved. An ad you never saw is still your ad.
How should you test creative enhancements?
With a controlled budget and working tracking. The help page warns that changes in performance over time do not, on their own, show what creative enhancements did, and OpenAI’s measurement guide says attributed conversions can take 24 to 48 hours to appear. Before switching the feature on for one campaign, agree a spending limit, the measures that count and when you will stop. Compare conversions and lead quality, not only click-through rate, and treat a comparison between two campaigns as a guide rather than proof. A daily budget is not a hard cap either: OpenAI’s daily budgets guide treats it as an average over seven days and says your maximum daily spend is twice your daily budget, so set the test limit with that in mind. Lowering the budget during a day does not help that day, because the day’s maximum is based on the highest budget active at any point in it, and spend figures appear 7 to 8 hours late, so a stopping rule based on the spend shown can react late.
What should UK advertisers do now?
Make the decision on purpose before the default starts, and keep a record of it.
- Check how your campaigns are bought. If you buy through OpenAI’s sales team, an agency or a technology partner, ask in writing whether the default applies and who controls the setting.
- Opt out now, and by 28 October at the latest. We recommend this until you have tested the feature. Switch creative enhancements off in Manage settings, then open each live campaign and confirm it shows the setting you expect.
- Record the change. Save a dated screenshot of the account and campaign settings. Agencies should do this for every client account, so the decision is on file if a client or the ASA asks.
- Bring landing pages up to date. Check prices, promotions, product details and availability on the pages your ads link to and on any other page a click could plausibly land on. Make significant qualifications clear, and check that they support the main claim rather than contradict it.
- Check conversion tracking before you spend. Because enhancements can change the destination URL, check that the OpenAI Pixel covers the relevant landing pages and conversion journeys, that each conversion event fires only when the intended action happens, that the click reference (oppref) survives redirects and that consent choices are still respected, as OpenAI’s conversion measurement guide advises. A test submission from a direct visit shows the event arrives, but it does not prove attribution, so check that once real campaign traffic comes in, using the reporting window set in Ads Manager. OpenAI counts click-through conversions and, unless the window is set to 0 days, view-through conversions within a day of an eligible impression. OpenAI’s measurement guide warns that an event that does not match the campaign’s conversion setting shows as zero, and that mismatched events do not backfill. Our GA4 audit guide for ChatGPT traffic covers attribution from ChatGPT more broadly.
- Turn the feature on only for a planned test. Use one campaign, a test limit that allows for daily spend of up to twice the daily budget, and the stopping rules you agreed.
Which details still need confirmation?
Three: the start date, how managed buys are treated and how to see what ran. The published dates conflict, so read the help page again on 28 October. The email and the help page do not say how the default applies to campaigns bought through OpenAI’s sales team or technology partners. And neither the help page nor the measurement guide says how to see each enhanced version after it has been served; the reports run at campaign, ad group and ad level, with CSV exports. Until OpenAI explains that, ask your account contact before you turn the feature on.
OpenAI’s default turns control of your ad copy into a setting you have to choose. With creative enhancements on, OpenAI does more of the writing while the responsibility stays with you, so whichever way you go, record who made the decision and why.
If you want help setting up a clean test, or checking the settings across several accounts, talk to AIWIZ.