• OpenAI is expanding ChatGPT ads to Brazil and Mexico as part of its latest push to grow the product.
• OpenAI has been enhancing its ChatGPT ad tools, testing new ad styles and integrations.
• ChatGPT recently reached the milestone of 1 billion active users.

OpenAI is sprinting ahead with upgrades for ChatGPT ads.

The AI lab revealed a new raft of releases to advertisers in a Wednesday email reviewed by Business Insider, part of its rapid push to build up a cash-printing ads business from scratch as it explores routes to make more money. ChatGPT users are now guinea pigs for the quickly evolving tool, with new countries coming online and new ad styles in early testing.

The new releases arrive shortly after OpenAI announced in late July that ChatGPT had hit the milestone of 1 billion active users. A company spokesperson confirmed the email's contents to Business Insider.

OpenAI is launching advertising on ChatGPT in Brazil and Mexico in the coming week, the email said, adding to several other active markets: the US, Canada, the UK, Japan, Korea, Australia, and New Zealand. In July, the company launched the ability for advertisers to target users within geographic areas of a country.

ChatGPT users on Free or Go plans are the only ones who are served ads. They're now beginning to see a new ad style, with multiple products in a carousel. For now, these carousels are confined to a single advertiser's products, unlike the Google carousel, which often tops that site's search results.

OpenAI's email also announced improvements to the product's tools for tracking and measuring campaigns, which competitors Google and Meta have been developing for years. Advertisers on ChatGPT can now test ad campaigns that optimize for specific conversions, such as sales or sign-ups. The email also listed new partnerships with the adtech companies Hightouch and Triple Whale, adding more ways to measure an ad campaign's success.

OpenAI is also signaling that it could roll out "sponsored agents." While it wasn't included in the Wednesday email, OpenAI's latest advertising policies document, updated on July 31, defined "sponsored agents" as "conversational experiences that allow users to interact with an AI-generated representative for an Advertiser's business, products, or services." It indicates that the company is testing new ad styles built on generative AI. The OpenAI spokesperson declined to comment on this.

Advertisers see incremental changes to ChatGPT's ads tool practically every day, Juozas Kaziukėnas, who sold his market intelligence firm about two years ago and closely watches the e-commerce market, told Business Insider.

"The ad product is quite clearly one of the highest priorities for OpenAI, just from the rate and pace of change that is happening," he said.

Kaziukėnas views the possible foray into an "AI native" ad format as promising for marketers.

"We'll see if brands actually want that because we often find that despite many experiments from the companies, often advertisers just want traffic back to their sites," he said.

As popular as ChatGPT has become, OpenAI has a major feat of catch-up ahead. When the company last revealed its annual recurring ads revenue in May, it tallied $100 million. Google and Meta respectively raked in over $294 billion and $196 billion in ads revenue last year.

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• In 2023, I graduated into a volatile job market, but thankfully, I landed a job.
• I was living in New York, with an inordinately high cost of living, which made staying untenable.
• Moving to Texas, with its much lower cost of living, allowed me to succeed.

After graduating with a bachelor's in computer science in 2023, a software company offered me an exciting job that paid $60,000 a year.

The catch? I had to move away from home.

I had grown up on Long Island all my life, but the company didn't have an office within commuting distance of my parents' house. Moving felt daunting. Moving across the country? Even more so.

But I felt like I had no choice because of the difficult job market and the rising costs in New York, so I packed up and moved to Texas.

The East Coast was nearly impossible to afford

I did the math. The average rent for an apartment in most East Coast states is $2,000 to $3,000 a month.

Over the course of a year, on average, that would be $30,000. This was half of my annual income — before accounting for any other expenses.

New York State income taxes are also high, plus there's federal tax on top. Already, with back-of-the-napkin math, I found that I would be left with less than half of my annual salary before accounting for food, insurance premiums, utilities, and rainy-day savings.

After all that, there would be next to nothing left for student loan repayments, and I wouldn't be able to save any money to eventually buy a house.

Texas was the much cheaper option

Researching my options, I learned the company had an office in San Antonio. As I researched this unfamiliar city, what I found astounded me.

Even in a large city like San Antonio, rent averages $1,000 to $1,500 a month. Texas also has no state income tax.

I would have significantly more of my annual income to spend and save if I lived in Texas with the same job.

I decided to move across the country to Texas

Though the numbers were promising, I had never been south of Virginia until my move. I had no clue what San Antonio was like and had no family or friends there for support.

I found my apartment in this new, unfamiliar city remotely. I scanned Google Maps. I made a list of apartments with ideal locations and read their tenants' reviews. I focused on ones with two to four stars to avoid being misled.

As part of my research, I looked at crime statistics. I was happy to see it was very low. I then narrowed my commute down to five minutes.

I'm financially comfortable in Texas

After the move, I paid about $1,250 a month for a 700-square-foot, one-bedroom apartment with an in-home washer & dryer, community gym, and pool.

There is a rule in personal finance called the 50/30/20 rule. Ideally, you should spend 50% on needs, 30% on wants, and save 20% of what you earn. Living in Texas, I easily spent less than 50% on needs and saved more than 40% of what I earned.

All of that would not have been possible on the East Coast at my entry-level, new-grad salary.

Lastly, home prices in Texas are much lower, so my goal of homeownership finally felt achievable.

I made my cross-country move work for me

As a new graduate, I faced a market with low salary expectations, frequent mass layoffs, and high job volatility.

I made it work by moving away from a state with a high cost of living to one offering a 50% discount on life.

New graduates and early professionals may find success doing the same.