How ChatGPT Search Ranks Products and Merchants

RJ Hamster

13 hours ago

Scale & Strategy

together with

Delve

This is Scale & Strategy—when your friends ask if you’ve heard about that hot new business trend or deal, we’re the reason you say, “Yeah, I was on that ages ago”

Here’s what we’ve got for you today:

What Zuck Recommends for Ads… and What Actually Works Instead
How ChatGPT Search Ranks Products and Merchants

What Zuck Recommends for Ads… and What Actually Works Instead

In a recent interview, Mark Zuckerberg described a future where ads are fully automated:

“You’re a business. You don’t need creatives, you don’t need targeting—just connect your bank account and we’ll do the rest.”

Sounds dreamy. But in reality, Meta’s AI isn’t ready to run solo—and blindly trusting the algorithm is a fast way to waste your budget.

What actually works in Meta Ads today—and what to avoid.

1) Be strategic with your campaign objective.
Meta pushes options like “Traffic” or “Leads,” expecting you to let the AI handle the rest.

But here’s the catch: Meta takes those goals at face value. Choose “Traffic,” and you’ll get traffic—but not the kind that converts. Expect low-intent clicks and high bounce rates.

Better move: Choose “Conversions” and define a custom conversion tied to real value (like checkout or sign-up). The AI won’t question your goal—so make it count.

2) Don’t fall for the Conversions API hype.
After iOS14, Meta and vendors aggressively promoted server-side tracking as a must-have.

It’s not. Yes, it helps—if you’re a high-volume brand with technical resources. But for smaller brands, custom setup costs often outweigh the benefits. Ad blockers and privacy laws still limit what it can recover.

Bottom line: It’s useful, not magical. And for many, it’s not essential.

3) Advantage+ is powerful—but not a silver bullet.
Advantage+ is Meta’s fully automated targeting option—Zuck’s dream of AI-run ads in action.

It’s good for broad reach and lower CPMs, and it can find likely converters at scale. But you’re giving up control—and the wrong campaign setup can tank performance.

Smarter play: Use manual broad targeting. It offers nearly the same reach, with more control over who sees your ads.

Final word:
Automation is getting better. But Meta’s AI is still just a tool—not a replacement for strategy. If you want performance, don’t set it and forget it. Stay sharp, test smart, and keep a human at the wheel.

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How ChatGPT Search Ranks Products and Merchants

AI isn’t just answering questions anymore—it’s helping people shop.

But how it picks and ranks products is more complex than it seems.

Danny Goodwin dug into OpenAI’s documentation, and if you’re in e-commerce, this is something you’ll want to understand:

1) How does ChatGPT choose what to show?
When you enter a shopping query, ChatGPT pulls product listings based on:

Your search intent and context
Structured third-party data
Its own AI-powered reasoning

It also factors in filters like budget—if you give it one.

Important: These are not ads. No brand pays to be featured.

2) What do the results look like?
Products are displayed in a visual carousel with:

Images
Short titles and descriptions
Prices
Direct purchase links

You’ll sometimes see AI-generated tags like “most popular,” star ratings, or review summaries to guide your decision.

But it’s not perfect—product availability and pricing may occasionally be outdated, and relevant items can get skipped.

3) How are merchants ranked?
ChatGPT doesn’t decide this. Merchant order comes from third-party data providers—and it’s not currently sorted by price, shipping speed, or return policies.

At least, not yet.

The big picture:
ChatGPT is evolving into a product discovery engine—and fast. It’s no longer just a tool for answers, but a guide for what to buy and where.

If you’re in e-commerce, this shift is happening now. Make sure you’re ready.