ChatGPT ad targeting is garbage: a real-world test with data

ChatGPT ad targeting is garbage

Indie dev Andy Brice spent £289 on ChatGPT ads for his seating-plan app. 2,988 clicks led to 14 installs—a 0.46% conversion rate, vs 5.3% on Google Ads and 4.2% from free ChatGPT referrals in the same period. He ruled out click fraud, bad creative, and bots (FouAnalytics flagged ~30% suspicious, but most traffic was human). 88% of visitors moved their mouse but didn't click; average time on page was 7 seconds. The takeaway: ChatGPT's paid ad targeting is so poor the traffic is essentially worthless.