Advertisers can now push their existing first-party audience data into ChatGPT Ads through an expanded partnership between LiveRamp and OpenAI.

The integration lets marketers use LiveRamp's RampID identifier to activate customer and prospect audiences in ChatGPT Ads. Supported sources include CRM systems, loyalty programs, websites, apps and other first-party data. Advertisers can use those audiences to reach or suppress specific customers and prospects — targeting controls that have long been standard on Google and Meta.

For marketers already running LiveRamp elsewhere, the update makes ChatGPT another destination for data they may already be activating across their media plans.

RampID Extends a Measurement Deal Into Activation

The audience integration builds on a partnership that started with measurement. In June, LiveRamp became a measurement partner for ChatGPT Ads, giving advertisers a way to connect ad exposure with downstream conversions. RampID now extends that relationship into audience activation.

LiveRamp describes RampID as its identifier for connecting customer data across advertising platforms and other destinations. For existing customers, ChatGPT becomes one more activation point.

The integration is initially available in 11 markets. LiveRamp plans to expand into additional markets as ChatGPT Ads rolls out there.

Advertisers Don't Need LiveRamp to Do This

OpenAI also supports Custom Audiences directly through Ads Manager. Advertisers can upload a CSV or TXT file containing email addresses, phone numbers, hashed versions of either, or Google Advertising IDs. Those audiences can be included or excluded at the campaign level, with bid multipliers available at the ad group level.

LiveRamp's value proposition is convenience. Instead of preparing and maintaining separate audience files, advertisers already using RampID can add ChatGPT as another activation point alongside the rest of their first-party data program.

How Close Is This to Google and Meta Targeting?

For advertisers familiar with Customer Match in Google Ads or Custom Audiences in Meta, the mechanics look recognizable: decide who to reach, who to exclude and how much to bid for specific audiences.

But identical feature lists don't guarantee identical results. Google and Meta have years of advertiser and conversion data behind their platforms. ChatGPT Ads is still new, conversation context influences which ads users see, and there is very little public performance data on Custom Audiences in ChatGPT so far.

That makes suppression a reasonable starting point. A retailer could stop paying to acquire someone who just purchased; a subscription business could exclude current customers from an introductory offer. Using first-party data to find and bid up specific audiences carries more unknowns — OpenAI's audience-size requirements limit how narrowly advertisers can segment, and no public benchmarks exist comparing these audiences against ChatGPT's other targeting options.

Should Advertisers Test This Now?

For advertisers that already have first-party data organized through LiveRamp, testing ChatGPT Ads may require little additional setup. LiveRamp points to one early example: Allegiance Group & Pursuant (AGP) is implementing the integration for a nonprofit client.

Megan Morris, Director of Integrated Media Solutions at AGP, said in the LiveRamp announcement:

"We're continually optimizing the channels we use to reach our customers, and with ChatGPT Ads becoming an increasingly popular engagement surface for donors, it's important for us to view the omnichannel impact of our ads across all of our investments."

Easy access alone isn't a reason to shift budget, though. Advertisers still need evidence that ChatGPT adds something Google, Meta or other channels don't — reaching the same customers at a different point in their research, testing whether conversation context changes response rates, or finding additional conversions from a known audience. With little public performance data, a smaller test is easier to defend than a meaningful budget shift, particularly when the money would come from campaigns with established results.

Advertisers that would need significant work to prepare their first-party data have even less reason to rush. The integration will still be there as more performance data accumulates.

Will First-Party Audiences Cost More?

OpenAI's documentation doesn't identify separate pricing for Custom Audiences. ChatGPT Ads supports CPM and CPC buying, along with conversion-optimized campaigns billed on clicks or impressions.

Advertisers can adjust bids when someone matches a Custom Audience. OpenAI allows bid multipliers from 0.1x to 10x at the ad group level. A 2x multiplier tells the system to raise the maximum bid for members of that audience — letting a retailer bid differently for previous purchasers, or another advertiser pay more for qualified CRM prospects.

What's missing are benchmarks. OpenAI reports average CPC and CPM in Ads Manager, but it hasn't published comparative performance data for first-party audiences. If those audiences carry higher costs, advertisers will need to weigh conversion rates and customer value against the targeting they already use.

LiveRamp says it plans to share results from marketers using the integration. Those results could answer how first-party audiences compare with ChatGPT's native targeting and whether higher bids translate into better business outcomes. Until then, advertisers have two ways to bring first-party audiences into ChatGPT Ads — but not enough data to know how much those audiences should change their investment in the platform.