ChatGPT Ads Manager — Account Setup From Zero

Short answer: Setting up an OpenAI Ads Manager Beta account is a five-step process — sign-up, onboarding + verification, account info, billing, and inviting team members. OpenAI reviews applications in a rolling queue. Campaigns do not deliver until every step is complete. Most of the friction we see comes from two steps people skim past: identity verification through Persona, and the account-info step that controls how your business name and logo actually render in the ad unit.

Below is the operator's walkthrough. We've onboarded enough client accounts to know where the actual sharp edges are. Read this before you start the form, not after.

Before you start: prerequisites

Have these ready before you open Ads Manager Beta:

• A business email tied to the account owner. Use a domain email, not a personal Gmail.
• Your legal business name and website. These need to match.
• A 1:1 square logo, ideally a transparent PNG. This becomes the favicon in your ad unit.
• Industry classification for your business — accurate, not aspirational.
• Country, currency, and time zone. Pick the country that matches your billing entity.
• A government-issued ID for the account owner. Persona will ask for it during verification.
• A business credit card with billing address that matches your business.
• Invoice delivery email — ideally a shared finance@ alias, not an individual.

The five steps

Step 1: Sign up and create your account

Navigate to OpenAI's Ads Manager Beta sign-up page. You need an OpenAI account first. If you don't have one, the flow lets you create one inline — but use your business email so the account is properly tied to the business, not your personal address.

OpenAI explicitly states that each business should have only one account owner create the advertiser account. Pick that person carefully — they'll be the default admin. After the account exists they can invite the rest of the team.

Step 2: Complete onboarding and Persona verification

Step 2 has three sub-steps per OpenAI's docs:

1. Business details: business name, website, logo, industry.
2. Account details: country, currency, time zone, and any other required fields. By creating the account you accept OpenAI's Terms and acknowledge the Privacy Policy.
3. Account verification: a few additional questions handled through Persona, OpenAI's identity verification partner.

Then your application goes into the review queue. OpenAI states clearly that "as part of the verification process, we consider whether advertisers offer products or services that are eligible for ads under our Ads Policies." Read the Ads Policies before you apply — getting flagged because you didn't realise your category is restricted is the most common preventable rejection we see.

Step 3: Complete account information

This is the step most people underrate. Once OpenAI emails you that platform access is granted, navigate to Settings → Account info and confirm two fields:

• Account name — this is the "Advertiser name" that renders in your ad unit. Spell it exactly as you want consumers to read it.
• Logo — this becomes your favicon in the ad unit. A clean 1:1 image with strong contrast renders best at small sizes.

OpenAI is explicit: "Ads will not serve unless this step is complete." We've seen clients launch campaigns and wonder why they aren't delivering, only to discover this step was skipped after access was granted. Don't skip it.

Step 4: Set up billing and payment

Per OpenAI's docs, billing setup has two parts:

1. Create a billing profile. Business name, invoice delivery email, and billing address. Match the country/region shown on your account. Include state/region and postal code where required. The invoice delivery email is used for finance communication, so use a shared alias.
2. Add a payment method. Credit card details with a billing address that matches.

Until both billing pieces are in place, campaigns cannot deliver — even if everything else is configured.

Step 5: Invite team members

After the account is set up, the owner invites the rest of the team. Go to Settings → Users → Invite, enter the email addresses of the people you want to add, and assign their roles.

We invite at minimum: one media buyer (campaign edit), one analyst (read-only / reporting), and one finance lead (billing visibility). Agencies typically get a media buyer seat.

If you manage multiple advertisers

OpenAI is clear: each advertiser needs its own account. There is no master "agency account" with multiple advertiser children — at least not in 2026. The implication for agencies and holding companies:

• Repeat the full five-step setup for every advertiser business you manage.
• The client should be the account owner; you join as a team member. (Re-stating because this matters operationally.)
• Each account has its own billing profile and payment method. If you bill the client and pass media spend through your agency's card, you'll typically want to be the billing contact while the client retains account ownership.

What's actually in Ads Manager Beta after access is granted

From OpenAI's Ads Manager Beta Overview, the platform supports three core workflows:

1. Create and manage campaigns — either through the guided UI flow or by bulk upload. Bulk upload is critical if you're launching dozens of ad groups against a taxonomy of context hints.
2. Monitor performance — impressions, clicks, and spend across campaigns, ad groups, and ads, via table views, charts, and CSV exports.
3. Manage account settings — members, permissions, API keys, billing details, and change logs.

OpenAI flags that some capabilities are limited at beta. Expect new features (richer reporting, audience controls, more objective types) to land over the next 12-18 months.

Common rejection reasons we've seen

From client setups we've shepherded through verification:

• Category mismatch — the industry chosen during onboarding doesn't match what the website actually sells.
• Restricted category — the business operates in a vertical that is restricted under OpenAI's Ads Policies. Check the policy doc before applying.
• Domain mismatch — the email domain used to sign up doesn't match the business website domain. Easy to avoid.
• Persona failures — ID expired, selfie mismatch, or a delegate completing verification.
• Account info incomplete — access granted but Settings → Account info never filled in. Campaigns appear live in UI but don't deliver.

What to do once you have access

1. Complete Settings → Account info immediately. This is the silent gating step.
2. Add billing the same day. No reason to delay.
3. Build your first campaign in the guided UI, even if you intend to use bulk upload later — understanding the schema by hand makes your bulk file cleaner.
4. Define your UTM convention before you launch a single ad. (We cover this in Pillar 05.)
5. Brief your first ad-group context hint following our framework in Pillar 03 — Context Hints.
6. If you want help getting an account approved or want to skip the setup altogether, book a discovery call with Tarun. We've onboarded enough accounts to spot the snags before you hit them.

Procedural facts in this guide are sourced from OpenAI's Ads Manager Beta Account Setup and Ads Manager Beta Overview documentation as of May 2026. "What we've seen" notes reflect GPT Ads AI client onboarding experience and are observational, not OpenAI policy.