At UNBOUND, OpenAI CMO Colin Fleming shared a stat that caught my attention: about 1 in 5 ChatGPT queries has direct commercial intent.
That means a lot of people are using ChatGPT while they decide what to buy, who to hire, which company to trust, or which option makes the most sense for them.
For a founder, that creates a new marketing question. It is no longer enough to ask, “Do we show up on Google?” You also need to know what happens when someone asks ChatGPT for a company like yours.
Do you show up? What does it say about you? Who shows up instead? And can you track whether any of that turns into leads or revenue?
Those are the questions that matter as AI becomes part of the buying process.
ChatGPT Is Changing How Customers Research and Choose
Google search often starts with a few words. Someone may type “best medical school admissions consultant,” “hormone clinic near me,” or “personal injury lawyer after accident.”
ChatGPT lets that same person give much more detail. They can explain their problem, share what they have tried, add a budget, list what matters to them, and ask follow-up questions without starting over.
A prospective medical school applicant might ask:
“I’m applying next year. My grades are strong, but my MCAT score is low. I need help with school choice and my personal statement. What kind of consultant should I look for?”
Then they can ask about price, compare two options, check what to avoid, and narrow down their list.
That is a different type of buying journey. Search captures a query. ChatGPT can stay with the buyer as the decision develops.
OpenAI has said people use ChatGPT to explore options, compare choices, and work toward decisions.
OpenAI: Reimagining advertising with AI
What does “commercial intent” actually mean?
The 1-in-5 stat does not mean one out of every five ChatGPT users is ready to buy something that second. It means the question is tied to a buying decision.
That can happen at several points:
- Learning: The buyer is trying to understand what type of help they need.
- Searching: They are looking for a company, service, or expert.
- Comparing: They are weighing different options.
- Checking trust: They are looking at price, reviews, proof, or experience.
- Choosing: They are getting close to a decision.
For many founder-led businesses, these questions happen before someone fills out a form or books a call. That is why they are worth paying attention to.
Marketing Dive: OpenAI on commercial intent in ChatGPT
Showing up once is not a strategy
AI answers change. ChatGPT may mention your company for one question and leave you out of another. Gemini or Perplexity may use different sources altogether.
So the goal is not to type your company name into ChatGPT once, see it appear, and call the job done.
A better scorecard asks:
- Buyer questions: Do we show up for the questions people ask before hiring us?
- Share of voice: How often do we appear compared with other companies?
- Brand accuracy: Is AI saying the right things about who we help and what we offer?
- Source strength: What sites and pages is AI using to form its answer?
- Revenue: Are AI visits or campaigns turning into leads, deals, and customers?
This is where AI visibility becomes part of the larger marketing system instead of another number to put in a report.
Related: AI Visibility + AEO
There Are 3 Places Your Business Needs to Show Up
There are now three different parts of the AI buying journey to think about: the answer, the ad, and what happens after the click.
They connect to each other, but they need different strategies.
| Area | What it means | What to track |
|---|---|---|
| AI visibility | Whether AI understands, mentions, or cites your business | Mentions, citations, share of voice |
| ChatGPT Ads | Paid ads shown near relevant conversations | Impressions, clicks, leads, cost per lead |
| Revenue tracking | Whether AI-driven interest turns into business | Opportunities, CAC, closed revenue |
1. Earn your way into AI answers
You cannot pay ChatGPT to recommend your company in its answer. OpenAI says ads do not control what ChatGPT says, and paid placements are kept separate from the answer.
That means organic AI visibility has to be earned. A strong place to start is the set of questions prospects ask before they contact you.
Your site should make it easy to understand:
- Who you help: Be specific about the people or companies you are best suited to serve.
- What you do: Explain your offer without making people dig for it.
- How it works: Show the steps, timeline, and what happens next.
- What it costs: Give useful pricing guidance when it makes sense for the business.
- How options differ: Answer common comparison and “versus” questions.
- Why people trust you: Use reviews, outcomes, credentials, data, and case studies.
- What buyers ask: Build clear pages and FAQs around the questions that come up before a sale.
That is the core of AEO. It is not about stuffing more AI-written content onto your site. It is about making your business easier to understand and easier to trust.
Related: How Marketing Spend Gets Disconnected From Closed Revenue
2. Use ChatGPT Ads as a test, not a replacement
ChatGPT Ads create a second way to get in front of buyers. OpenAI can show sponsored placements near conversations where the ad may fit what the person is asking about.
It is also testing Sponsored Agents. These would let someone choose to open a separate chat with a business after seeing an ad, ask more questions, and move closer to the next step.
OpenAI: Reimagining advertising with AI
OpenAI has also reported that ChatGPT Ads reached a $1 billion annualized advertising revenue run rate in less than 200 days. That does not mean advertisers have already spent $1 billion. It means the current pace of ad revenue would equal about $1 billion over a year if it continued.
OpenAI: Expanding access to AI with ChatGPT Ads
The growth is worth watching, but a new ad channel is still a test. Do not move money out of a Google, Meta, or other campaign that already produces customers just because ChatGPT Ads are new.
Instead, start with an offer that already works. Use a small test budget. Make sure tracking is in place before launch. Then compare the results with your other channels.
3. Track what turns into revenue
OpenAI named HubSpot its first CRM partner for ChatGPT Ads. Businesses using the integration can connect their ad account, manage campaigns, track ad activity, and connect contacts and deals back to ChatGPT ad spend.
HubSpot: Connect and manage ChatGPT Ads
That gives you a much better path to measure:
ChatGPT → website → lead → sales opportunity → closed revenue
That last step is important. Clicks can tell you whether an ad got attention. Leads can tell you whether people raised their hands. Closed revenue tells you whether the channel worked for the business.
If your HubSpot setup cannot tell you where customers came from now, adding another channel will not fix the problem. Clean up the tracking first.
What Founders Should Do Next
You do not need to rebuild your whole marketing plan because people are using ChatGPT. Start with the parts of the buying journey that are closest to revenue.
- List buyer questions: Write down 20–30 questions prospects ask before they hire you. Start with price, fit, timing, comparisons, risks, proof, and alternatives.
- Check AI visibility: Search those questions in ChatGPT and other major AI tools. Track when your company appears, who appears instead, and what sources are being used.
- Fix decision-stage content: Improve the pages people need before they buy, such as service pages, comparison pages, FAQs, case studies, process pages, pricing guidance, and proof.
- Build outside trust: Look at reviews, industry sites, directories, expert quotes, press, podcasts, YouTube, LinkedIn, and other places that may help buyers understand your company.
- Clean up attribution: Make sure forms, UTMs, lead sources, lifecycle stages, deals, and closed revenue are tracked correctly in your CRM.
- Test paid AI traffic: If ChatGPT Ads fit your market, start with a controlled budget and an offer that already converts somewhere else.
- Judge it by revenue: Track leads and clicks, but make budget decisions based on customer acquisition cost, qualified opportunities, and closed business.
There is one more thing I would watch. AI has made it easy to create more content. That does not mean companies need more content.
When everyone has access to the same tools, the basic stuff gets easier to copy. A clear point of view, useful proof, specific examples, and good judgment become more important.
Use AI to help you understand and serve the buyer. Do not use it to flood the internet with more of the same.
Frequently Asked Questions About ChatGPT and Buying Decisions
What does it mean that 1 in 5 ChatGPT queries has commercial intent?
OpenAI CMO Colin Fleming has said about 20% of ChatGPT queries have direct commercial intent. That can include people researching services, comparing companies, checking options, or moving toward a purchase. It does not mean every one of those users is ready to buy right away.
Can a business pay ChatGPT to recommend it?
No. OpenAI says paid ads do not control ChatGPT's answers. Sponsored ads are separate from the normal response and are labeled as advertising.
Should businesses move money from Google to ChatGPT Ads?
Not just because ChatGPT Ads are new. Keep funding channels that already produce profitable customers. If ChatGPT Ads fit your audience, test them with a smaller budget and compare the cost and quality of the leads.
How do you know if your company shows up in AI answers?
Start with the questions your customers ask before they buy. Search those prompts across tools such as ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity. Track whether your company appears, what is said about it, who else appears, and which sources are cited.
How can you track leads and revenue from ChatGPT?
Use tagged links, forms, lead-source data, CRM records, deal stages, and closed-revenue reporting. Businesses using HubSpot can also connect ChatGPT Ads to HubSpot to help tie ad activity to contacts and deals.
Your customers do not care whether their path to your business fits neatly inside a Google Ads report, an SEO report, or an AI dashboard. They will use whatever helps them make a decision.
Your job is to know where those decisions are happening, whether your company is part of them, and whether your marketing is turning that attention into revenue.
If you are not sure where you show up—or your marketing data cannot tell you what is driving customers—we can help you find the gaps.
A Market Like a CMO strategy session is a 45-minute working session for scaling founders. We look at your visibility, lead flow, HubSpot setup, attribution, and revenue path, then show you the two or three fixes we would tackle first.
Book your strategy session: Find the gaps in your marketing and revenue system