Can marketers run paid advertising on AI platforms? The state of play in 2025.

As generative AI platforms become essential tools for work, research, and consumer queries, marketers in financial services are asking the question: Can you buy your way into the conversation on AI engines? 

This potential shift for finance brands could disrupt established digital ad strategies and offer early-mover opportunities—or force a rethinking of how to gain AI visibility.

Are paid ads available on mainstream AI platforms?

ChatGPT
As of 2025, traditional display or search-style pay-per-click ads are not available within ChatGPT. You cannot pay to have your brand featured explicitly in responses or to appear in the answer feed. 

ChatGPT’s answers are driven by its training data, live web integrations (for pro users), and references to trusted online sources, not sponsorships or paid placements in the Google Ads sense. 

The focus is on not breaking user trust and ensuring answers remain neutral and data-driven.

However, there are indications ChatGPT’s maker OpenAI will include ads in 2026. OpenAI CEO, Sam Altman, has shifted from calling advertising a “last resort” to stating, as reported in Mashable “We haven’t done any advertising product yet… I’m not totally against it… I think ads on Instagram are kind of cool… It would take a lot of care to get right,” Altman said.

Reports indicate OpenAI is forecasting major new revenue from “free user monetisation” with ads targeting non-subscription users. The model is expected to borrow mechanisms from Google Ads and Facebook, featuring familiar bidding, targeting, and creative tools.

Google
Google has a couple of approaches being trialled right now. Its AI Mode is similar to ChatGPT where users applying conversational prompt. Inclusion in answers is governed by the model’s algorithms, which reference trusted sources and sites with high topical authority.

At present, advertisers cannot purchase ad placements or sponsored responses directly within AI Mode. There is no bidding system and no ad auction—meaning brands must rely on organic visibility driven by quality content and recognised authority.

On the flipside, AI Overviews appear within the standard Google Search results as summaries generated by AI at the top of the search page and are determined by the algorithm for now.

However, Google has confirmed it is experimenting with sponsored answers inside AI Overviews, blending paid listings with AI summaries.  According to Search Engine Land, Google is running pilot programs where sponsored products or services appear contextually within AI answers, marked with clear labels. 

This hybrid model could redefine paid search by merging generative responses with ad placement, potentially creating the most influential paid media real estate in digital history.

Claude (Anthropic)
There is currently no direct ad product, paid search, or traditional sponsorship within the Claude platform. 

Claude instead has piloted an influencer marketing program, supporting sponsored posts from creators showing how to use Claude for things like LinkedIn workflow tutorials or solving industry challenges. 

These influencer partnerships are shaping how the brand is perceived by professionals, allowing brands to influence conversation indirectly via “influencer adjacencies” rather than direct platform placements.

Anthropic recently launched a web search API for Claude which some marketers are using for search strategy and trend monitoring, but not for paid listing or ads.

Perplexity AI
Perplexity is the first mainstream AI search engine to offer direct, in-platform ad opportunities. In 2025, it’s testing two primary formats:

• Sponsored questions: Appear as follow-up prompts to a user’s query, labelled as “sponsored.” Clicking generates a new response tied to the partner brand’s message.

According to Perplexity’s VP Business Development, Ryan Foutty, “Sponsored follow-up questions are a really incredible brand advertorial. It’s additive because you’re helping users figure out the next question, … (not) just putting something in their face.”

• Media ads: Video placements in the app’s sidebar, visible but not interruptive.

Perplexity’s ad model is built for contextual relevance and charged on a CPM basis. Targeting is based on keyword associations, but ad content cannot alter the platform’s neutral AI-generated answers. 

The system is still in closed beta, but it signals the direction conversational advertising is heading.

Microsoft Co-Pilot, Gemini, and Others
As of September 2025, these platforms do not offer commercial paid sponsorships or native ad placements. Like ChatGPT, they are exploring influencer/ambassador programs and are likely watching Perplexity’s early-mover tests closely.

How can brands get visibility now?
Since direct advertising may not be generally available, most brands are focusing on:

• Building digital authority: Earning mentions in reputable articles, news, and databases that AI models crawl for citations.
• Optimising for AI mentions: Cleaning up schema, ensuring consistent entity linking, and earning references in industry news and expert lists.
• Influencer/integrated content programs: Partnering with thought leaders, creators, and professionals who publish workflows and tips that trigger model responses.

The Head of Paid Media at The Dubs Agency, Tara Cimino, said while finance brands can’t run broad advertising yet on AI search platforms they can optimise their brand to show up in answers.

“Gaining AI visibility should absolutely be a focus of finance brands right now,” Cimino said. “Key to this is prioritising top quality content that gets you trusted mentions and builds brand reputation.”

“Going forward marketing strategies will change too. Pure placement approaches driven by just bid price will have to make room for authority built by authentic content,” Cimono said.

So what comes next?
Paid placement within generative AI is emerging, but the open, self-service ad ecosystems marketers know from Google and Meta remain 1–2 years away for most platforms. 

Perplexity is forging ahead with contextual ad experiments, while OpenAI is preparing to monetise free user ad units by 2026. 

The lessons for financial marketers right now should be to focus on building authoritative, reference-worthy content and exploring influencer partnerships that align with AI discovery models. 

Those who learn to ethically earn AI mentions will have the biggest head start as the new paid media channels mature.

If you liked this article and want to know more contact The Dubs Agency we’d love to help.

[For full disclosure: The author used Perplexity to research this article while the podcast was created using ElevenLabs]