If you run paid advertising for a property business, there is a good chance every pound of that budget currently goes to Google. That has been the sensible default for years. But a new channel has opened up, and almost none of your competitors are using it yet: ChatGPT Ads.
This is not a suggestion to abandon Google Ads. It is a look at a second channel that is currently cheap, low-competition, and largely untested by property businesses, which is exactly the position you want to be in before everyone else notices.
What are ChatGPT Ads?
ChatGPT Ads are advertisements that appear within conversations on ChatGPT, shown to users based on the context of what they are actually discussing rather than a single search term they typed into a box. Someone asking detailed questions about renovating a period property, or comparing architects for a rear extension, generates far richer intent signals than a one-off Google search ever could.
Instead of bidding on keywords, advertisers target based on the context and intent of the conversation itself. The ad is designed to sit naturally within that conversation rather than interrupt it, which changes how the ad needs to be written and where it needs to send the visitor.
How ChatGPT Ads differ from Google Ads
Google Ads targets what someone typed. It is a single, isolated moment of intent. ChatGPT Ads target the context of an ongoing conversation, which means the platform can distinguish between someone who typed 'kitchen renovation' once out of curiosity and someone who has spent several messages working through the details of their own kitchen renovation, budget, and timeline.
The two channels complement rather than replace each other. Google Ads still captures people at the exact moment they search. ChatGPT Ads reach people earlier in the process, while they are still researching and forming their decision, which for property services, often high-value and rarely impulsive, is frequently where the more valuable enquiries begin.
Why property businesses should pay attention now
- Costs are lower while the platform is new: cost per click and cost per lead both rise as more advertisers arrive, which is true of every advertising channel that has ever launched
- Competition is close to zero in most property niches: architects, renovation companies, and developers running ChatGPT Ads today are competing against almost no one else in their sector
- It reaches an audience Google Ads cannot: people researching a project conversationally, before they have settled on the exact search terms that would trigger a Google ad
- Early advertisers get more room to test: with less competition for attention, there is more space to learn what messaging and targeting actually works before it matters at scale
None of this is a permanent state. As more advertisers discover the platform, the advantage narrows in the same way it did for early Google Ads and early Facebook Ads adopters. The businesses testing it now are the ones who will have a working, optimised campaign in place before the cost of entry rises.
Which property businesses are best suited to ChatGPT Ads
The channel works well anywhere a prospective client researches before committing, which describes most of the property sector:
- Property developers seeking off-plan or site enquiries
- Renovation and construction companies with high-value projects
- Architects and interior designers working with considered, research-heavy clients
- Holiday rental and Airbnb management companies reaching property owners
- Landscaping and garden design companies for larger residential projects
What a ChatGPT Ads campaign actually looks like
A properly built campaign is not a copy-paste of an existing Google Ads account. Context signals need to be defined specifically for your services and your market. Ad copy needs to read naturally within a conversation rather than as an interruption. Conversion tracking needs to be set up correctly from day one, or you will have no way of knowing which enquiries the channel is actually generating.
The businesses that get the best results treat it the same way they should treat Google Ads: as a system, not a standalone advert. That means a landing page built specifically to receive this traffic, not a generic homepage, and tracking that connects an enquiry back to the exact campaign that produced it.
What it costs
As with Google Ads, there are two separate costs: ad spend paid to the platform, and a management fee for the strategy, setup, and ongoing optimisation. £1,500 per month is a realistic floor for ad spend, not a ceiling to aim for. Given what a single project or client is worth in this sector, most property businesses find it makes more sense to commit meaningfully to a new channel than to test it with a budget too small to produce a reliable signal.
Getting started
The main risk with any new advertising channel is not overspending. It is under-investing in the setup so badly that the results tell you nothing useful either way. A ChatGPT Ads campaign needs the same care that a well-run Google Ads account does: proper context signals, tracking that actually works, and a landing page built to convert the specific kind of visitor this channel sends you.
At Colonnade, ChatGPT Ads management is built and run alongside Google Ads as part of a single strategy, not as a separate experiment bolted on afterwards. For property businesses that want both channels working together with one team behind them, the full lead generation system combines campaign management with a website built to convert the traffic both channels send.
Curious whether ChatGPT Ads could work for your business?
Most property businesses in your market haven't tried this channel yet. That gap closes as more advertisers arrive, which makes now the moment to test it properly.