We’re talking with Gabe Kwakyi today, who was actually our first guest! He is a mobile app OG, was previously the CEO of Lingvano, the #1 sign language app, and is now doing consulting, advising and fractional head of growth for apps. As well as building some stuff on his own.
This is a pretty cool episode because Gabe has been testing ChatGPT ads, and we get to learn from his real experience about how they work, what works today, and what the future could look like.
Gabe has run ChatGPT Ads tests across his own portfolio of apps and several client apps since the self-serve platform launched in May 2026. He walks through the setup, shares the context hints that flopped and the ones that drove conversions, and explains why an app icon beat every other creative he tried. He also makes the case that ChatGPT Ads will become a serious channel once OpenAI has enough conversion data; until then, most tests will fail.
What you’ll learn:
• How ChatGPT Ads are structured: campaigns, ad groups, ads, and the handful of targeting options available today
• What context hints are and why they’re the main lever you control
• Why ChatGPT Ads deliver decent CPMs, CPCs and CTRs but very few trials or purchases
• How Gabe’s test across eight apps turned out, and why most apps saw zero purchases
• Why users on ChatGPT’s free and Go plans may be harder to convert into subscribers
• Why OpenAI’s missing conversion data, not its targeting tech, is the real blocker
• How conversation “turns” affect whether a user is ready to see an ad
• Which context hint patterns worked: conversation context, user goals, rejected ideas, and the “layup insertion”
• Why keyword-style context hints only sometimes work
• Why a plain app icon outperformed screenshots and Meta creative
• What URL parameters ChatGPT passes and what the “oppref” parameter is
• How to tailor your onboarding to ChatGPT traffic intent
• How to tell whether ChatGPT Ads are lifting your organic ChatGPT referrals
• When it’s worth testing now and when to wait
• Gabe’s feature wish list for the ChatGPT Ads team
Key Takeaways:
Context hints are your creative. ChatGPT Ads give you almost no creative surface, so the context hint does the work that ad creative does on Meta. Gabe spends his testing budget there first and treats headline and copy as secondary.
Clicks are cheap; buyers are rare. Across Gabe’s eight-app test, CTR averaged 1.68% and install rate 3.36%, but purchase conversion averaged 0.14%. Most apps saw zero purchases. Industry reports match: one review of 35 case studies found 22 with zero conversions.
The blocker is data, not targeting. Meta became a great performance channel because every advertiser sent conversion events back. ChatGPT Ads launched in May 2026 and hasn’t collected enough postbacks to know which users buy. That will change as more advertisers integrate their MMPs.
Target the moment, not the topic. “Users who want date ideas” brings volume. “User keeps rejecting every date idea and wants better ones” brings people who still have the problem and are open to a new solution. Gabe’s best results came from these frustrated, self-qualifying moments.
Use your app icon. The ad image is a small square next to the answer. Screenshots and text-heavy banners are unreadable there. An icon looks like a product recommendation, which is what users expect.
Testing is cheap, so treat it as learning. The minimum budget is $25 a day and setup takes minutes with an MMP tracking link. Gabe recommends testing every couple of months so you’re ready when performance turns, and skipping it if you need a new channel to work this quarter.
Check your organic referrals. One advertiser spent $600 with no attributed conversions but saw organic ChatGPT referrals rise. If you test, watch untracked traffic and “how did you hear about us” answers.
Links & Resources
• Gabe Kwakyi on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gabrielkwakyi/
• Rhythmic apps: https://rhythmicapps.com/
Timestamps
00:00 Why Gabe started testing ChatGPT Ads
01:45 How the ChatGPT Ads platform works
03:15 What context hints are
07:30 Great clicks, low conversions: results from eight apps
10:00 Free and Go users, and the missing conversion data
13:00 Is ChatGPT closer to search or social?
15:30 Conversation turns and the right moment for an ad
17:30 Rejected ideas and the “layup insertion”
20:45 Why campaigns are so volatile
22:00 More context hint categories to test
26:00 Personalizing onboarding by traffic intent
28:30 URL parameters and tracking
30:00 Why the app icon beats every other creative
35:15 Is it worth testing right now?
38:30 The organic referral halo
41:00 Gabe’s feature wish list
46:15 Have fun with it: the return of real marketing
This is a pretty cool episode because Gabe has been testing ChatGPT ads, and we get to learn from his real experience about how they work, what works today, and what the future could look like.
Gabe has run ChatGPT Ads tests across his own portfolio of apps and several client apps since the self-serve platform launched in May 2026. He walks through the setup, shares the context hints that flopped and the ones that drove conversions, and explains why an app icon beat every other creative he tried. He also makes the case that ChatGPT Ads will become a serious channel once OpenAI has enough conversion data; until then, most tests will fail.
What you’ll learn:
• How ChatGPT Ads are structured: campaigns, ad groups, ads, and the handful of targeting options available today
• What context hints are and why they’re the main lever you control
• Why ChatGPT Ads deliver decent CPMs, CPCs and CTRs but very few trials or purchases
• How Gabe’s test across eight apps turned out, and why most apps saw zero purchases
• Why users on ChatGPT’s free and Go plans may be harder to convert into subscribers
• Why OpenAI’s missing conversion data, not its targeting tech, is the real blocker
• How conversation “turns” affect whether a user is ready to see an ad
• Which context hint patterns worked: conversation context, user goals, rejected ideas, and the “layup insertion”
• Why keyword-style context hints only sometimes work
• Why a plain app icon outperformed screenshots and Meta creative
• What URL parameters ChatGPT passes and what the “oppref” parameter is
• How to tailor your onboarding to ChatGPT traffic intent
• How to tell whether ChatGPT Ads are lifting your organic ChatGPT referrals
• When it’s worth testing now and when to wait
• Gabe’s feature wish list for the ChatGPT Ads team
Key Takeaways:
Context hints are your creative. ChatGPT Ads give you almost no creative surface, so the context hint does the work that ad creative does on Meta. Gabe spends his testing budget there first and treats headline and copy as secondary.
Clicks are cheap; buyers are rare. Across Gabe’s eight-app test, CTR averaged 1.68% and install rate 3.36%, but purchase conversion averaged 0.14%. Most apps saw zero purchases. Industry reports match: one review of 35 case studies found 22 with zero conversions.
The blocker is data, not targeting. Meta became a great performance channel because every advertiser sent conversion events back. ChatGPT Ads launched in May 2026 and hasn’t collected enough postbacks to know which users buy. That will change as more advertisers integrate their MMPs.
Target the moment, not the topic. “Users who want date ideas” brings volume. “User keeps rejecting every date idea and wants better ones” brings people who still have the problem and are open to a new solution. Gabe’s best results came from these frustrated, self-qualifying moments.
Use your app icon. The ad image is a small square next to the answer. Screenshots and text-heavy banners are unreadable there. An icon looks like a product recommendation, which is what users expect.
Testing is cheap, so treat it as learning. The minimum budget is $25 a day and setup takes minutes with an MMP tracking link. Gabe recommends testing every couple of months so you’re ready when performance turns, and skipping it if you need a new channel to work this quarter.
Check your organic referrals. One advertiser spent $600 with no attributed conversions but saw organic ChatGPT referrals rise. If you test, watch untracked traffic and “how did you hear about us” answers.
Links & Resources
• Gabe Kwakyi on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gabrielkwakyi/
• Rhythmic apps: https://rhythmicapps.com/
Timestamps
00:00 Why Gabe started testing ChatGPT Ads
01:45 How the ChatGPT Ads platform works
03:15 What context hints are
07:30 Great clicks, low conversions: results from eight apps
10:00 Free and Go users, and the missing conversion data
13:00 Is ChatGPT closer to search or social?
15:30 Conversation turns and the right moment for an ad
17:30 Rejected ideas and the “layup insertion”
20:45 Why campaigns are so volatile
22:00 More context hint categories to test
26:00 Personalizing onboarding by traffic intent
28:30 URL parameters and tracking
30:00 Why the app icon beats every other creative
35:15 Is it worth testing right now?
38:30 The organic referral halo
41:00 Gabe’s feature wish list
46:15 Have fun with it: the return of real marketing