Nine months after OpenAI launched its ChatGPT advertising pilot in the US and following its expansion to the European Union last month, the advertising system has now been launched in Israel. As of yesterday, advertisers can run campaigns targeting Israeli users, so that that while using the AI tool, a relevant ad may appear beneath the conversation.
What does this look like in practice? After a conversation progresses through two or three exchanges of questions and answers, an ad related to the topic appears at the bottom of the subsequent response. This occurs without the advertiser seeing the conversation or determining the timing. In effect, the advertiser provides ChatGPT with a large number of digital ads that they believe will address users' queries, and the algorithm selects which ad to insert and when. If OpenAI deems an advertisement aggressive or misleading, it is rejected.
Israeli companies are already involved
ChatGPT has roughly one billion monthly users, 95% of whom are on the free plan. The remainder are divided among the Go ($8/month), Plus ($20/month), and Pro ($200/month - used mainly by big corporations) plans. To boost revenue, the decision was made to adopt an advertising model. Earlier this month, Sam Altman’s company announced that annual recurring revenue (ARR) from this channel had exceeded $1 billion.
In recent months, only a handful of Israeli digital advertising companies have advertised on ChatGPT - including Dentsu Israel, which joined during the early alpha stage (thanks to its parent agency), and Natural Intelligence, which joined during the beta stage and operates comparison sites Top10.com and BestMoney.
Both companies operate primarily in the US. Dentsu, for instance, has run campaigns for Israeli firms such as Nice, Lightricks, GlassesUSA, and the startup ZyG. Natural Intelligence boasts the status of the platform's largest financial advertiser and ranks among the top ten advertisers across multiple sectors. Now, as noted, advertising opportunities are open to all Israeli players - agencies and brands alike.
"It allows advertisers to manage optimization down to the final conversion, making it the Holy Grail of the advertising world. The advertiser connects with the consumer at their most open moment, and the level of engagement is extremely high," explains Dentsu Israel CEO Mirit Rabinovitz. According to her, several of Dentsu’s biggest clients are expected to begin advertising in Israel in the coming days. "This is a major moment for the local market," she says. "After nine months of working on the platform with dozens of clients - learning, refining, and witnessing the emergence of new capabilities and features almost daily - it is clear to us that this is not just another advertising channel, but an entirely new language.
"When an ad reaches a user with high intent within an environment they trust, the precise alignment between the ad, the prompt content, and the conversational context is critical. A relevant, useful ad does not interrupt the experience but instead adds value and reinforces trust."
High Conversion Rates
Natural Intelligence CPO Tomer Fuss says, "When the pilot was announced, we said the primary metric for success would be trust and that if it were perceived as intrusive or irrelevant, users would react immediately. Six months and billions of impressions later, it turns out users haven't walked away."
On advertising effectiveness, Fuss notes: "We are achieving high conversion rates in the chat interface, even before the platform has fully matured. Launching in Israel, following the EU, which is considered the most challenging market from a regulatory standpoint, indicates that there are no remaining complexity barriers, only commercial and operational considerations.
"What Israeli advertisers need to understand is that this is a completely different kind of product. There are no keywords to target but instead, the system selects the option most relevant to the user's intent from among tens of thousands of variations. You don't buy a specific placement, you declare what you are offering and to whom, and let the platform make the choice. Those who build this capability will reap rewards that extend beyond ChatGPT, as this technology will be integrated into all platforms within two or three years."
Natural Intelligence VP Marketing Hila Gil added, "The arrival of ChatGPT advertising in Israel is happening faster than expected. We have been on the platform since the closed beta, with nearly 100 million impressions across about 50 categories, and what we've seen is that chat interfaces have become a decision-making environment. Conversational advertising is not Google 2.0 - it is a new layer in the consumer journey. Israeli advertisers now have a rare opportunity to enter this channel at an early stage, while the rules of the game are still being written.
"There are no keywords here, and there is no control over timing. What does work: helping the platform understand the value propositions and intents you can fulfill, communicating them sharply and clearly to users, and delivering on those promises. In a conversational model, there is no room for a banner, there is only room for trust. The overall advertising market will expand further, just as it has every time a significant new channel has joined the digital arena. Existing platforms will integrate AI experiences and advertising in more ways and formats, serving as a core growth engine for them. Competition between platforms will intensify, ultimately benefiting advertisers and users, who will receive better, more experiential, and highly relevant ads."
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on September 17, 2026.
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