OpenAI opened self-serve ChatGPT Ads Manager on 31 August to eligible advertisers across Europe, India, the Middle East and North Africa. Spain is listed as Available. Sign-up is at ads.openai.com. The same Monday, Brussels designated ChatGPT a Very Large Online Search Engine under the DSA — the first standalone AI chatbot treated as search at that scale. The inventory you can buy this morning now sits on a surface the Commission has labelled search.
Previously, European inventory was agency- and partner-only. Ads began serving to Free and Go users in 31 European markets on 24 August; Plus, Pro and Enterprise stay ad-free. Access ran through OpenAI’s Ads Solutions team and groups such as Publicis, Omnicom, WPP, Havas, Dentsu and MediaPlus. Self-serve was promised for “later this summer.” Now a Spanish business can open an account, set a budget and bid without that introduction. The stack includes CPC and conversion-optimised bidding, geo-targeting, custom audiences, the OpenAI Pixel and the Conversions API. Ads sit in the conversation, labelled and separate from the answer. OpenAI says they do not steer replies or hand advertisers private chats. Categories stay policy-gated; campaigns go through review before they serve.
Spain is Available. Buy a test, not a Google replacement.
If you already spend on Search, this is a second SERP you can open today — not a reason to move the budget. Read the restricted-category list before you upload a creative; regulated, health, finance and a long tail of claims still bounce in review. Install the Pixel and Conversions API first, or you will be staring at reported clicks that never appear in your own analytics. Start with a small euro budget on queries you already buy: service plus city, product comparisons, “best X in Málaga.” Do not expect week-one volume, city-level precision, or a clean ROAS story. Early agency testers said they could not prove performance; some small tests reported clicks that never reached the site. Measurement improved after self-serve, but the inventory is young and only reaches Free and Go.
Kill the headline number while you are there. OpenAI’s “$1 billion in under 200 days” is an annualised run rate, not cash in the bank. Digiday’s snapshot is about $83 million a month. That is real demand. It is not proof the channel works for a local service business.
This week’s job is narrow: policy check, pixel plus CAPI, a modest test, and a screenshot of whether your brand appears next to the answer. ChatGPT is legally search in Brussels as of yesterday. Self-serve is how you bid on that attention.