Shirofune has added ChatGPT Ads to its advertising management platform, bringing the channel into the same interface used for other digital media campaigns.
The move is aimed at brands and agencies that want to test advertising in AI-driven conversational environments without creating separate workflows. Users can manage budgets, bids, ads and reporting for ChatGPT Ads alongside search, social, retail media and eCommerce activity.
The addition reflects a wider push by advertising technology providers to adapt to the growing role of generative AI in consumer decision-making. As users increasingly turn to conversational tools for recommendations and product information, marketers are assessing whether those interactions can become a meaningful source of traffic, conversions and customer acquisition.
According to Shirofune, ChatGPT Ads differs from established search advertising because campaigns are shaped by conversational context and relevance signals rather than direct keyword matching. That changes how advertisers design, test and assess campaigns, particularly as they evaluate whether spending on an early-stage channel can support both immediate returns and longer-term customer value.
Shirofune positions the integration as a way to avoid creating a new operational silo at a time when media buying is already spread across multiple platforms. Keeping the channel within an existing campaign management system allows advertisers to compare results across channels and see how AI-led placements fit into a broader media mix.
New channel
Highlighted features include centralised campaign management, unified reporting, and the ability to set budgets and bids without switching between ad consoles. The integration is also intended to help teams run context-driven campaign tests in an environment where user intent is inferred from conversations rather than explicit search terms.
That marks a notable shift for performance marketing teams, which have spent years refining practices around keyword bidding, social audience targeting and retail media placements. Conversational AI introduces a model in which intent may emerge earlier in the buying journey, before a user reaches a retailer site or performs a standard web search.
Shirofune pointed to a broader shift in digital advertising, with AI assistants becoming an early touchpoint for research, comparison and product discovery. It cited ChatGPT, Perplexity AI, Gemini, Claude and Rufus as examples of platforms starting to influence purchase consideration.
Market shift
For agencies and in-house media teams, that trend presents both an opportunity and a measurement challenge. Traditional campaign metrics such as return on ad spend remain important, but marketers also need to judge whether AI-native ad placements bring in new customers, higher-quality visits or stronger lifetime value over time.
Founded in 2014, Shirofune said more than 13,000 accounts and 300,000 active campaigns have been managed through its system. The platform already supports major digital advertising channels including Google, Microsoft, Meta, TikTok, X, LinkedIn and Reddit, along with eCommerce and analytics tools.
The addition of ChatGPT Ads continues the company's effort to broaden support across fragmented media environments. Shirofune argued that advertisers often struggle to connect campaign data, creative learning and performance history when new channels emerge, making unified oversight more difficult as digital media becomes more dispersed.
Mitsunaga Kikuchi, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Shirofune, said the format's early stage is one reason marketers should begin experimenting with it. "ChatGPT Ads is still in its earliest stage as an advertising platform, but that is exactly why brands and agencies should start learning now," he said.
Kikuchi said the format demands a different approach from established channels. "The mechanics are different from search or social. Advertisers are not simply bidding on keywords; they are trying to understand how their message fits into a user's context and intent. By integrating ChatGPT Ads into Shirofune, we are helping marketers experiment with this new channel while keeping it connected to the same automation, optimization, and reporting workflows they already rely on," he said.
He also framed the launch as a way to maintain tighter control over spending and performance analysis as more ad environments emerge. "Every new ad platform creates opportunity, but it also creates complexity," Kikuchi said. "Our goal is to make sure advertisers can adopt emerging channels like ChatGPT Ads without losing control of their data, budgets, or performance strategy. Shirofune gives teams a practical way to test what is new while keeping their media operations disciplined, measurable, and scalable so they can optimize for both near-term ROAS and long-term customer growth."