Shoppers who clicked ChatGPT ads brought US retailers $0.89 in revenue per visit, compared with $2.45 from Google search ads, according to a working paper by researchers at the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management and the Vienna University of Economics and Business that hasn’t been peer reviewed. The gap comes from conversion, since ChatGPT ad visitors bought 0.37% of the time against 1.17% for Google, even though they spent more per order. By the researchers’ math, ChatGPT clicks would have to drop to roughly 26 cents to pay off as well as Google’s, but the largest known advertiser in their data paid $1.72. The paper, which followed 1,898 online stores for 60 weeks as ads rolled out by country, also found that unpaid ChatGPT referrals to those stores fell 6% to 8% once ads arrived.
