OpenAI launches ChatGPT advertising at $60 CPM starting February 10, 2026, while Google deploys AI Mode shopping ads and updates Discover algorithm targeting clickbait content.
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The artificial intelligence advertising landscape shifted dramatically this week as OpenAI commenced testing advertisements within ChatGPT on Monday, February 10, 2026. The deployment marks a watershed moment for conversational AI monetization, with initial placements commanding premium rates of approximately $60 CPM while carefully avoiding sensitive categories including mental health and politics during the test phase.
Only a subset of eligible users currently receive advertisements, limited to signed-in adult users on free and Go tiers querying specific topics. Within several weeks, the advertising test will expand to all qualifying users, with logged-out users joining subsequent testing rounds. An OpenAI spokesperson clarified these phased rollout details to AdExchanger on February 13.
The platform's sensitive content restrictions stem from internal research conducted mid-2025, which revealed 9.2% of queries focused on "providing consultation and advice to others" while another 8.5% addressed "making decisions and solving problems." These consultation-heavy query patterns create challenges for safe advertising placement that traditional search engines don't encounter. The vulnerability of user conversations—ranging from medical concerns to religious speculation—prompted at least one former OpenAI researcher to resign after the advertising announcement, arguing in The New York Times that the intimacy of these exchanges "creates a potential for manipulating users in ways we don't have the tools to understand, let alone prevent."
PPC Land reported on February 15 that OpenAI's monetization head Asad Awan envisions a future where small businesses create campaigns through prompts instead of hiring performance marketers to manage ChatGPT advertising. This vision of prompt-based ad creation represents a fundamental reimagining of how advertising campaigns are constructed and executed.
The ChatGPT advertising launch represents just one component of a broader AI advertising push that dominated Super Bowl LX on February 8. Adweek reported that 23% of advertisers—equivalent to 15 out of 66 commercials—promoted AI and AI companies during the game, including spots from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and AI.com. The AI.com advertisement crashed its own website immediately after airing, forcing the company to bring systems back online before users could sign up for personal AI agents designed to organize work, send messages, and execute actions across applications.
Google deploys shopping ads directly into AI Mode conversations
Google countered OpenAI's advertising launch by introducing shopping ad formats within AI Mode on February 11, 2026. Vidhya Srinivasan, Google's Vice President and General Manager of Ads, positioned this deployment as part of a broader shift toward agentic commerce where AI assistants conduct product research and purchases on behalf of users.
The new advertising format integrates sponsored product listings directly into conversational AI responses, enabling advertisers to reach consumers during discovery phases of shopping journeys. Srinivasan outlined her five-point framework for navigating AI transformation during discussions about the launch: focusing on customer needs, investing in experimentation, building cross-functional collaboration, maintaining data discipline, and developing talent capabilities for AI-powered marketing.
The executive detailed how Gemini-powered tools will enable real-time optimization while maintaining personalization at scale, aiming to eliminate the traditional choice between speed and certainty in online shopping experiences. The strategic vision represents Google's attempt to maintain advertising dominance as search behavior migrates toward conversational interfaces.
The timing of Google's AI Mode advertising launch coincided with a major algorithmic update targeting its Discover feed. Google released the February 2026 Discover core update on February 5, which Search Engine Roundtable reported would roll out over approximately two weeks, initially affecting only English-language users in the United States before expanding globally.
The Discover update specifically targets three content categories: non-US publishers appearing in American feeds, clickbait or sensational content, and shallow articles lacking depth. The algorithm now prioritizes locally relevant content from websites based in the user's country, in-depth original reporting, and timely content from sites with demonstrated expertise. Glenn Gabe noted on February 5 that Google's Discover documentation now includes "Provide a great page experience" as a recommendation, warning publishers against overloading pages with annoying advertisements and auto-playing content.
Recipe publishers expose dangerous AI-generated content
The Discover update's focus on quality comes amid growing concerns about AI-generated content accuracy. Recipe creators demonstrated on February 11 how Google's algorithms create inaccurate recipes while appropriating brand names and photographs from legitimate publishers. Inspired Taste baked an AI-generated key lime pie to expose how the system produces what they termed "Frankenstein" dishes—recipes combining incompatible ingredients or incorrect proportions that could yield dangerous or inedible results.
The demonstration revealed Google's AI systems scraping publisher content, remixing instructions, and presenting the composite as authoritative guidance while stripping attribution and revenue opportunities from original creators. This content appropriation extends beyond recipes, affecting publishers across multiple verticals as PPC Land reported on February 12 that Penske Media filed opposition arguments accusing Google of shattering "the fundamental exchange that sustained the open internet for decades."
The publisher litigation centers on Google's alleged pattern of extracting content value while offering publishers a "forced choice" between allowing AI scraping or losing search visibility entirely. Penske Media's February 12 filing argues this ultimatum breaks the longstanding web bargain where publishers provided free content in exchange for traffic and advertising opportunities.
Search algorithm volatility continues amid infrastructure changes
Search volatility extended beyond Discover updates this week. SE Ranking analyzed 100,000 keywords across 20 nichesrevealing that 15% of top 10 pages dropped from the top 100 entirely after Google's December 2025 core update. The research, published February 14, found domains aged 15 years or older continue dominating search results despite the algorithmic turbulence affecting newer sites.
Search Engine Roundtable noted on February 9 that January 2026 experienced "incredibly volatile" ranking movement, with multiple unconfirmed updates creating sustained fluctuations. The publication's daily forum recap highlighted discussions about Google matching random number sequences to keywords, with one SEO professional documenting the algorithm pairing "347 222" with "Workers Comp Lawyers" despite no semantic connection.
Google made several operational changes affecting publishers during the week. Search Engine Roundtable reported on February 11 that Google AdSense added three new triggers for vignette advertisements effective February 9, 2026. The six total triggers now include: reaching the end of a page's main article element followed by scrolling back up or 5-10 seconds of inactivity, remaining inactive for 30 seconds followed by user interaction, and navigating backward using supported browsers including Chrome, Edge, and Opera.
Publishers have until March 9, 2026 to opt out of the new triggers, which will automatically activate after the one-month review period. Google emphasized that existing frequency cap settings will continue preventing excessive ad exposure despite the expanded trigger mechanisms.
The company also replaced its Google Ads support form with an AI agent as of February 2, redirecting support.google.com/google-ads/gethelp to a chat experience powered by the Ads Advisor system. Google Ads introduced multi-party approval processes for enhanced security, aiming to prevent account hijacking by requiring multiple stakeholders to authorize significant account changes.
ChatGPT traffic analysis reveals dramatic click-through disparity
The competitive dynamics between traditional search and AI chat interfaces became clearer this week. PPC Land reported on February 14 that ChatGPT handles 12% of Google's search volume but sends 190 times less traffic to websites, with a click-through rate 96% lower than Google's search engine. The analysis reveals fundamental differences in how conversational AI surfaces information compared to traditional search results pages.
ChatGPT's contained information delivery—providing answers within the interface rather than directing users to source websites—threatens the traffic-based business models supporting most online publishers. This dynamic intensifies concerns about AI systems extracting publisher content value without providing commensurate compensation or attribution.
Microsoft attempted to address these concerns by introducing the AI Performance dashboard in Bing Webmaster Tools on February 14. The dashboard shows publishers citation data from Copilot and AI-generated answers for the first time, offering visibility into how Microsoft's AI systems reference their content. Microsoft also released updates on February 15 explaining how grounding technology powers nearly every major AI assistant, introducing new Bing Webmaster Tools features for Generative Engine Optimization visibility.
Microsoft published an updated AI marketer's guide on February 15 with technical explanations of how large language models surface brands through paid placements and organic visibility strategies, attempting to demystify the mechanisms determining brand prominence in AI-powered search experiences.
Programmatic advertising evolves toward agentic infrastructure
The advertising technology infrastructure supporting these AI experiences continues evolving. Index Exchange CEO Andrew Casale detailed on February 15 how agentic sell-side decisioning moves intelligence upstream in programmatic advertising, eliminating cloud tax while enabling real-time optimization at the impression level.
The shift toward impression-level AI represents programmatic advertising's response to increasing complexity and the need for faster, more precise targeting decisions. Casale's framework positions autonomous decisioning as the next phase of programmatic evolution, moving beyond static rules toward systems capable of learning and adapting in real-time.
Index Exchange also integrated xpln.ai's predictive attention metrics directly into its supply-side platform on February 12, enabling programmatic buyers to optimize campaigns based on eye-tracking data before placing bids. The integration represents growing emphasis on attention metrics as supplements to traditional viewability and completion rate measurements.
Generative Engine Optimization emerged as a distinct discipline this week. AdExchanger reported on February 11 that Evertune announced functionality letting advertisers run programmatic campaigns directly on sites and pages most frequently cited by AI chatbots. The capability includes partnerships with The Trade Desk on the buy side and Index Exchange for ad sales, creating a bridge between traditional programmatic infrastructure and emerging AI citation patterns.
The GEO category focuses on influencing how AI models cite brands, through earned media generation and data optimization. Evertune's approach recognizes that AI citation represents a new form of distribution requiring distinct optimization strategies beyond traditional SEO and paid search.
Out-of-home advertising receives taxonomy update and major acquisition
The Out of Home Advertising Association of America introduced an updated OpenOOH venue taxonomy on February 10, replacing generic categories like "retail" or "transit" with granular subcategories enabling programmatic buyers to understand exact inventory characteristics before bidding. The OAAA folded its OpenOOH Taxonomy Working Group into a permanent OAAA Taxonomy Committee responsible for maintaining and developing the standard.
The taxonomy update arrived days before Mubadala Capital and TWG Global announced they will acquire Clear Channel Outdoor for $6.2 billion at $2.43 per share on February 11. The transaction represents a 71% premium over previous trading prices and ranks among the advertising industry's largest leveraged buyouts, signaling sovereign wealth confidence in out-of-home advertising's programmatic transformation and digital upgrade trajectory.
Retail media faces fragmentation pressures and client losses
Retail media networks confronted challenges this week despite continued growth projections. Criteo reported on February 14 that it faces a $75 million revenue headwind in 2026 after major retailers reduced managed services spending. The client cuts erase approximately one year of growth, forcing Criteo to recalibrate its retail media expansion strategy.
CEO Megan Clarken acknowledged during the earnings call that several large retail partners chose to bring more capabilities in-house rather than relying on Criteo's managed services. The shift reflects broader industry trends toward retailer self-sufficiency in advertising operations as platforms mature and internal expertise develops.
Separately, proxy advisors Glass Lewis and ISS recommended shareholders approve Criteo's Luxembourg redomiciliation before the February 27 vote on February 14. The cross-border conversion would move Criteo's legal domicile from France to Luxembourg, potentially improving operational flexibility and corporate governance structures.
AppLovin demonstrates AI-powered advertising profitability
Mobile advertising platform AppLovin provided a counterpoint to retail media struggles. The company reported Q4 2025 earnings of $3.24 per share on $1.66 billion revenue with 84% EBITDA margins on February 14, demonstrating what executives called a rare combination of hyper-growth and profitability powered by AI-driven advertising models.
The 66% revenue surge year-over-year stems from AppLovin's AXON advertising engine, which uses machine learning to match advertisers with high-value users across its mobile gaming network. The technology's effectiveness attracted increased spending from gaming companies seeking efficient user acquisition at scale.
CEO Adam Foroughi emphasized during the earnings call that AppLovin's AI models continuously improve through exposure to billions of daily advertising events, creating a competitive moat that widens as the platform processes more data. The operational leverage inherent in AI-powered advertising enabled AppLovin to achieve industry-leading margins while sustaining rapid growth.
Reddit advertising surges despite stock price decline
Reddit reported $690 million in Q4 2025 advertising revenue on February 5, representing 75% year-over-year growth. The platform achieved its first $2 billion annual advertising revenue milestone, with 2025 total ad revenue reaching $2.1 billion—74% higher than 2024 performance.
Active advertiser count grew 75% year-over-year in Q4, demonstrating Reddit's success attracting new brands to its community-based advertising opportunities. However, the company's stock declined 38% over the preceding month despite these revenue gains, potentially due to insider selling activity and analyst concerns about small and midsize advertiser sustainability.
The disconnect between Reddit's advertising growth and stock performance mirrors broader market uncertainty about social platform valuations amid AI disruption and changing user engagement patterns.
IAB introduces AI disclosure framework and demands publisher compensation
The Interactive Advertising Bureau addressed AI transparency concerns by launching a framework on February 9 standardizing when AI usage in advertisements should be disclosed to consumers. The standards aim to establish consumer trust without creating "label fatigue," said Caroline Giegerich, VP of AI at the IAB, though significant questions remain about disclosure visibility and implementation consistency.
The framework provides advertisers with guidelines for identifying when generative AI tools used in content production require explicit disclosure versus when AI involvement can remain unstated. The standards attempt to balance transparency with practical advertising realities where AI tools increasingly augment human creative processes.
IAB CEO David Cohen demanded AI companies pay publishers for content used in training and inference during the IAB Annual Leadership Meeting on February 4 in Palm Desert, California. Cohen refuted criticisms that the trade organization has drifted from its publisher-focused roots, stating: "The health of the publisher community is critical to the health of our overall business. If we don't have publishers, we don't have content. What are we optimizing? What are we reading?"
The IAB also unveiled Project Eidos focused on measurement standardization, examining attribution, marketing mix modeling, and outcomes measurement in an AI-driven advertising environment where targeting increasingly focuses on autonomous agents rather than individual humans.
Super Bowl LX advertising generates mixed reception and record viewership
Super Bowl LX delivered complex results for advertisers. NBCUniversal reported the game averaged 125 million viewers on February 10, making it the second most-watched Super Bowl ever despite a relatively uneventful contest where the Seattle Seahawks defeated the New England Patriots 29-13. The viewership figure represents a decline of approximately 2.8 million from 2025's record.
Bad Bunny's halftime performance averaged 128.2 million viewers between 8:15 and 8:30 PM ET, down from Kendrick Lamar's 133.5 million in 2025 but generating record social media engagement. Total social consumption of the halftime show reached four billion views in the first 24 hours, up 137% year-over-year according to Ripple Analytics. Duolingo reported on February 9 that the all-Spanish performance drove significant spikes in Spanish language learning activity on its platform.
Advertising reception proved contentious. Adweek documented on February 9 that viewers expressed particular frustration with the concentration of AI advertising, with 23% of commercials promoting AI companies or AI-related services. Social media users criticized what they perceived as tone-deaf messaging around autonomous AI decision-making, with Amazon's ad featuring AI making purchases without human approval generating especially negative reactions given widespread concerns about AI autonomy.
Ring's surveillance-focused advertising and Coinbase's cryptocurrency spot also faced harsh criticism as Bitcoin and Ethereum experienced significant value declines in preceding weeks. Lay's executed a QR code campaign on February 9 promising to deliver 100,000 bags of chips from potato to doorstep in under 72 hours, with all inventory claimed in less than 20 minutes—some regions exhausting supply in just five minutes.
Creator economy expands Super Bowl presence amid platform changes
Brands increased creator activations at Super Bowl LX beyond previous years according to Digiday's February 13 reporting. Jason Tartick, founder and CEO of Rewired Talent Management, stated: "The creator activations and IRL experiences have deeply evolved." The NFL's decision to move the Pro Bowl closer to the Super Bowl extended the event week, creating additional opportunities for brand-creator partnerships.
The creator economy expansion occurs amid significant platform changes. YouTube CEO Neal Mohan outlined changes affecting creators in 2026 on January 21, according to Digiday's February 4 analysis. The platform will introduce AI tools allowing creators to make Shorts using their own likeness and produce games and music through text prompts, while cracking down on AI-generated content lacking human creative direction.
YouTube plans to offer creators tools to modify baked-in advertisements embedded directly into videos, enabling them to negotiate new deals or renegotiate existing agreements and swap advertisements into existing content. The platform will also update YouTube Shopping offerings to allow in-app purchases rather than redirecting to external stores, mimicking TikTok Shop's approach and reducing creator dependence on advertising revenue alone.
Digiday reported on December 5 that the U.S. creator economy advertising spend is projected to reach $43.9 billion in 2026, up from $37.1 billion in 2025 according to IAB data. The bulk of growth comes from paid amplification of creator content, with $13.2 billion expected from social media amplification (up 48% from $8.9 billion) and $11.1 billion from amplification beyond social platforms (up 56% from $7.1 billion).
Publishers see Q4 advertising gains while planning beyond search dependence
Publishers experienced strong Q4 2025 advertising revenue according to Digiday's February 5 Media Briefing, buoyed by improved economic stability and renewed advertiser confidence after months of hesitation. The late-year momentum carried into early 2026 forecasts, generating cautious optimism tempered by traffic erosion, volatile programmatic markets, and AI-driven shifts in content discovery.
People Inc. CEO Neil Vogel highlighted the company's InStyle fashion franchise "The Intern" during earnings calls, noting advertisers pay between $500,000 and $700,000 to sponsor the show despite minimal production costs. Vogel described this model as "the future" with "strong growth from non-session-based revenue streams led by our growth on all platform audiences and D/Cipher," the company's in-house contextual ad tech platform.
The publisher strategy reflects industry-wide shifts from search traffic dependence toward diversified revenue streams including social video, commerce integrations, and proprietary advertising technology. Traffic from Google and other platforms continues declining, forcing publishers to prove relevance and value beyond raw reach numbers.
Spotify engineers stop manual coding as AI transforms development
Spotify reported on February 13 that its developers have used Claude AI exclusively for coding since December 2025, eliminating manual programming while the streaming platform achieved record metrics of 751 million users and €701 million operating income in Q4 2025.
The development workflow transformation represents one of the most aggressive AI adoption strategies among major technology platforms, with entire engineering teams relying on AI-generated code for production systems. Spotify executives emphasized that AI coding tools enabled the company to maintain development velocity while expanding features and improving platform stability.
However, Anthropic research released on February 13 revealed AI coding assistance reduces quiz scores by 17% even as developers complete tasks faster, challenging assumptions about skill development in AI-augmented workplaces. The research suggests productivity gains may come at the cost of fundamental skill acquisition, potentially creating long-term expertise deficits.
Privacy regulation developments span multiple jurisdictions
Privacy regulation evolved across multiple jurisdictions this week. California Attorney General announced a $2.75 million settlement with Disney on February 12 over CCPA violations affecting opt-out requests across Disney+ and Hulu streaming platforms. The settlement addresses failures in privacy control implementation that prevented users from exercising data sale opt-out rights.
Europe's Court of Justice ruled on February 14 that companies can directly challenge European Data Protection Board binding decisions, overturning lower court precedent and potentially reshaping GDPR enforcement across the European Union. The decision provides data controllers with new mechanisms to contest regulatory determinations without first exhausting national-level remedies.
European data protection authorities strongly opposed proposed GDPR modifications in the Digital Omnibus package on February 13, warning the changes would weaken privacy rights rather than simplify compliance. The regulatory pushback suggests significant amendments before any GDPR modifications receive approval.
The European Data Protection Supervisor established a binding framework on February 13 requiring prior consent for dismissing data protection officers across EU institutions, strengthening protections for privacy compliance personnel.
India mandated on February 11 that social media platforms remove unlawful content within three hours, down from 36 hours, creating compliance challenges for Meta, Google, and X operating in the world's most populous democracy.
Advertising spend forecasts show moderated growth expectations
Media spending projections for 2026 show moderated growth according to Digiday's January 8 analysis of multiple forecasting sources. Madison & Wall consultancy principal Brian Wieser projects U.S. advertising revenue will grow 6.6% in 2026 (excluding political advertising), following an 11% surge in 2025 that managing director Luke Stillman termed "one of the best years we have on record."
WPP's Business Intelligence unit predicts 7.4% growth while Morgan Stanley analysts forecast 10% expansion in 2026. The variance reflects differing assumptions about economic stability, political advertising impact from midterm elections, and AI investment patterns across advertiser categories.
Wieser cautioned: "We are mindful of a lot of concerns that we have, and anyone should have about reasons why the economy could go over the cliff. It hasn't happened yet—that doesn't mean it won't. Risks are elevated on so many levels, and yet the current environment is good despite—not because of—the current economic policies we see in the United States."
Forrester research asking 1,000 marketing professionals about their top challenges found 33% cited measuring marketing ROI as their primary concern, while 24% identified budget constraints as the second biggest challenge. The emphasis on measurement reflects increasing pressure to justify marketing expenditures amid economic uncertainty and AI-driven efficiency expectations.
Retail and commerce developments signal infrastructure shifts
Amazon made several operational changes affecting sellers and consumers. The company announced on February 15 that industry speculation points to June 23-26, 2026 timing for Prime Day, shifting the promotional event to redistribute revenue across fiscal quarters. Amazon will require resellers to apply Amazon-specific labels on all FBA inventory starting March 31, 2026, ending manufacturer barcode eligibility.
Amazon Pharmacy will nearly double its geographic reach for same-day medication delivery by the end of 2026 according to February 14 announcements, adding nearly 2,000 cities and towns to address growing medication access challenges across the United States.
Consumer behavior analysis published February 13 revealed clicks surged 2% while transactions fell 5% across 2,300 U.S. retail brands in 2025, signaling fundamental changes in purchase journeys. Consumers researched extensively but purchased selectively, potentially reflecting economic caution or increased price comparison shopping enabled by digital tools.
Technology infrastructure investments continue despite market uncertainty
Meta announced construction of a 1-gigawatt data center campus in Lebanon, Indiana on February 15, representing over $10 billion in infrastructure investment including commitments for 4,000 construction jobs and 300 operational positions. The facility will support Meta's artificial intelligence expansion and increasing computational demands from AI-powered features across Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.
Dentsu abandoned plans to sell its international operations on February 13 while naming Takeshi Sano as global CEO after recording a $2.18 billion loss driven by goodwill impairment charges. The strategic reversal suggests challenges in separating international operations from Japanese core business while maintaining operational coherence.
This week's developments illustrate digital advertising's fundamental transformation as AI systems reshape content creation, distribution, and monetization across platforms. The tension between AI efficiency and human expertise, between automated optimization and creative judgment, between traffic extraction and fair compensation defines the industry's current trajectory. Publishers, platforms, and advertisers navigate this transformation while regulators struggle to establish frameworks balancing innovation with consumer protection and competitive fairness.
