Question 1

What are ChatGPT Ads?

Accepted Answer

Sponsored placements that appear inside ChatGPT conversations, directly below the answer, when someone is researching or comparing products. Each ad shows your brand name, logo, a title, short copy and an image, and links straight to your site.

Question 2

Are ChatGPT Ads available in South Africa?

Accepted Answer

Yes. ChatGPT Ads launched in South Africa on 21 October 2026, as part of an expansion to 89 markets. South African brands can run them through Criteo, with 365 Digital as Criteo’s exclusive partner in South Africa.

Question 3

Who will see my ads?

Accepted Answer

Ads appear only to users on ChatGPT’s Free and Go plans; Plus, Pro and Enterprise users don’t see ads. They show only in conversations relevant to shopping, and never in sensitive or brand-unsafe ones.

Question 4

Do ads influence ChatGPT’s answers?

Accepted Answer

No. Ads are clearly labelled, sit separately from the answer, and have no effect on what ChatGPT says. Advertisers receive only aggregate performance data, such as views and clicks. Conversations and personal information are never shared.

Question 5

How is targeting different from search ads?

Accepted Answer

Search ads match keywords. ChatGPT matches ads to the context of the conversation: the need, the occasion, the budget. Criteo then adds Commerce Audiences, based on what people have actually browsed and bought. Instead of bidding on “running shoes”, you reach someone planning their first marathon who has been shopping for running gear.

Question 6

What are Prompt Smart Ads?

Accepted Answer

Criteo’s AI-generated ad creatives for ChatGPT. Criteo writes several variations per product from your catalogue and matches them to the way shoppers phrase their questions, which widens the range of conversations your products can appear in. You review sample creatives before launch. Prompt Smart Ads are currently in beta.

Question 7

Why buy through Criteo and 365 Digital instead of self-serve?

Accepted Answer

Self-serve means you build, launch and troubleshoot campaigns yourself, and reporting is limited to delivery metrics. Through Criteo and 365 Digital, you get set-up and approval support, Commerce Audiences and your own CRM data for targeting, and Prompt Smart creatives. You can also run ChatGPT alongside open web and social, and reporting covers visits, sales, products and creatives.

Question 8

I already advertise with Criteo. What do I need to do?

Accepted Answer

Very little. If you’re integrated through OneTag or server-to-server, you’re already ChatGPT-ready, with no new contract or separate invoicing. You’ll need to send your brand favicon and preferred display name, and allow OpenAI’s crawler to access your landing pages.

Question 9

I’m new to Criteo. Can I still run ChatGPT Ads?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Brands with a product feed can launch product-led campaigns. Without a feed, you can start with brand ads that send traffic to your homepage or category pages, or with a defined list of products. We’ll recommend the right starting point in your consultation.

Question 10

What do I need to get started?

Accepted Answer

Your brand favicon and preferred display nameA product feed, or a defined product list or brand ad assetsOneTag or server-to-server tracking, needed to measure sales; without it, you’ll see impressions and clicks onlyOpenAI’s crawler (OAI-AdsBot) allowed in your robots.txt

Question 11

What results can I measure?

Accepted Answer

Without tracking, you see impressions, clicks, spend, click-through rate and cost per click. With OneTag, you also see visits, sales, conversion rate, cost per order and average basket. Criteo adds product-level, creative-level and conversation-theme reporting, so you can see what resonated.

Question 12

Can I run ChatGPT Ads alongside my other campaigns?

Accepted Answer

Yes. You can run ChatGPT as a standalone test, or blend it into a campaign with open web and social inventory and shift budget between channels mid-flight. ChatGPT results are always reported separately, so you can see exactly what it contributes.

Question 13

Is my industry eligible?

Accepted Answer

Most retail and e-commerce categories are eligible. Some regulated categories currently aren’t, including gambling, financial services, healthcare, pharmaceuticals, alcohol, dating, weapons and political advertising. Speak to us to check your category.

Question 14

How long does it take to go live?

Accepted Answer

For brands already on Criteo, typically a few days after we receive your assets. OpenAI reviews every advertiser and landing page, so allow extra time for approvals, especially ahead of Black Friday.

Question 15

Which markets does this cover?

Accepted Answer

365 Digital is the authorised media sales representative for Google Ads in four markets: Côte d'Ivoire, Mauritius, Seychelles and Réunion. If you advertise in or into any of these markets, you can run and be billed for Google Ads through us.

Question 16

What's the difference between buying through 365 Digital and buying from Google directly?

Accepted Answer

You get a local commercial point of contact, billing in your local currency, French or English account management, and a dedicated team running and optimising your campaigns — backed by our Africa Centre of Excellence. Google continues to directly manage a select group of clients in market; for everyone else, we are your in-market access point.

Question 17

What languages do you operate in?

Accepted Answer

French and English across all four markets, with in-market teams in each territory.

Question 18

What is the 30-Day Conversion Sprint?

Accepted Answer

Our onboarding programme for new advertisers. Within the first 30 days we deliver a full account audit, implement or validate conversion tracking and measurement, and run the first cycle of optimisation,  so your investment shows measurable movement inside the first month.

Question 19

How is performance measured?

Accepted Answer

Against commercial outcomes, not vanity metrics. We implement proper conversion tracking and measurement frameworks up front, report against the KPIs we agree at the start of each cycle, and reallocate budget toward what's working.

Question 20

What does data protection look like across the four markets?

Accepted Answer

Réunion campaigns are operated under EU GDPR controls. Côte d'Ivoire, Mauritius and Seychelles are operated under POPIA-grade internal controls, applied in line with each market's local data-protection framework.

Question 21

How do I get started?

Accepted Answer

Book a strategy session below. We'll run a short diagnostic, scope the right products and budget for your market, and — for priority accounts — kick off the 30-Day Conversion Sprint.

Go to our registration page and we will contact you within 3 business days.

Question 22

Is Truecaller advertising available outside South Africa and Kenya?

Accepted Answer

Currently, 365 Digital holds exclusive reseller rights for Truecaller Ad Solutions in South Africa and Kenya. These are the only two markets where you can access the full suite of Truecaller ad formats — including premium placements like Caller ID, Masthead, and Sponsored Bubble — through us. If you're operating in other African markets, speak to us about complementary platforms we manage that offer comparable verified reach.

Question 23

What level of geographic targeting is available within South Africa?

Accepted Answer

Truecaller's geo-targeting allows you to include or exclude specific regions, provinces, and metropolitan areas within South Africa. You can target at national level for broad reach campaigns, or narrow to specific metros — Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban, Pretoria — for localised activations. This can be layered with device type, appography, and behavioural signals to build hyper-relevant audience segments within your chosen geography.

Question 24

Can I run a campaign in South Africa and Kenya simultaneously?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Multi-market campaigns across South Africa and Kenya can be structured and managed through 365 Digital as a single engagement. Each market requires its own creative and audience strategy — consumer behaviour, device penetration, and category dynamics differ meaningfully between the two. We'll advise on whether a unified or market-specific approach is more appropriate for your brief.

Question 25

Are the 9.4 billion monthly impressions specific to South Africa, or combined across markets?

Accepted Answer

The 9.4 billion monthly impressions figure is specific to South Africa. Kenya has a separate and significant Truecaller user base — Truecaller is one of the most-installed apps on the continent — and we can provide market-specific reach estimates for Kenya during the strategy session. Combining both markets materially increases your total addressable audience.

Question 26

Can I target users in specific South African provinces, or only at national level?

Accepted Answer

Both are possible. You can run a national campaign for maximum scale, or apply provincial and metro-level geo filters to focus spend where your business operates or where category demand is strongest. For brands with regional distribution (retail, financial services, telecoms), geo-fencing by province or city allows you to align media investment directly with commercial footprint.

Question 27

My brand operates across multiple African markets beyond SA and Kenya. Can Truecaller reach those audiences?

Accepted Answer

Not through Truecaller specifically — our exclusive partnership covers South Africa and Kenya only. For broader SSA reach, we'd typically recommend layering in Smadex (programmatic across SSA) or TikTok, both of which we manage with regional capability. If pan-African reach is your objective, we can build a multi-platform strategy that includes Truecaller where available and supplements with other verified inventory elsewhere.

Question 28

What minimum media spend do you recommend?

Accepted Answer

It depends on your channels and markets. For single-market programmatic campaigns, we typically recommend a minimum of R150K per month in media spend to generate statistically meaningful data for optimisation. For multi-market or multi-platform strategies, budgets scale accordingly. We'll advise during the diagnostic phase — we'd rather turn down a brief than waste your money.

Question 29

Do you work with brands outside South Africa?

Accepted Answer

Yes. While our deepest expertise is in South African and Sub-Saharan African markets, our platform partnerships (Criteo, TikTok, Meta, Smadex) are global. We currently manage campaigns across multiple African markets and have supported activations in MENA and Southeast Asia. If your audience is on the continent, we likely already know how to reach them.

Question 30

How do you measure incrementally — not just attribution?

Accepted Answer

Attribution tells you who clicked. Incrementality tells you what actually worked. We use controlled holdout testing, geo-lift studies, and platform-level incrementality tools (including Criteo's commerce media measurement suite) to isolate the true uplift generated by your media spend. If a campaign can't prove it moved the needle, we reallocate.

Question 31

What makes 365 Digital different from other performance agencies?

Accepted Answer

Three things. First, 27 years of operating in African markets — we understand local media behaviour, infrastructure constraints, and audience dynamics that global playbooks miss. Second, our platform partnerships aren't reseller agreements — we hold direct, senior-level relationships with Criteo, TikTok, Truecaller, and others that give our clients priority access to inventory, betas, and support. Third, we're performance-only. We don't do brand campaigns. Every rand we manage is measured against a commercial outcome.

Question 32

What does the engagement model look like?

Accepted Answer

We structure most partnerships as monthly retainers with a performance component. The retainer covers strategy, campaign management, and reporting. The performance component aligns our incentives with yours — we earn more when you grow. Typical engagements run in 90-day cycles with clear KPIs set at the start of each cycle. No long-term lock-in contracts.

CRITEO COMMERCE GROWTH SOLUTIONS

Global Technology. Local Expertise

How 365 Digital Drives E-commerce Growth Using Criteo

WHY CRITEO?

One Platform. Total Commerce Coverage

Aquire

Convert & Retain

Expand Reach

Activate Audience

Global Technology. Local Expertise

Make every shopping moment smarter.

SOLUTION MATRIX

Meet the Shopper Wherever They Are.

CRITEO

Real Results for the African Market.

NEW · CHATGPT ADS

Reach shoppers inside ChatGPT, powered by Criteo

Why 365 Digital + Criteo?

Commerce Audiences

Win new-to-brand shoppers

Already on Criteo? You're Ready

Managed, not self-serve.

of ChatGPT referrals land directly on product pages, up from 50% a year earlier²

of ChatGPT Ads site traffic is new to brand¹

more delivery with Prompt Smart Ads¹