How to Reach Customers in ChatGPT in 2027

Ask ChatGPT the question a buyer would ask before they know your name. If you sell inventory software, try “Which inventory tools can sync two Shopify stores without giving both teams access to the same stock?” Note which companies come up, what the answer says they can do, and which sources support it. That gives you three decisions for 2027: what information to fix, whether to pay for a placement, and whether customers need a conversation before they click through.

Start with the three ways a customer can encounter you

• ChatGPT’s answer. It can name your business or link to a page on your site as a source. The answer and the citations can vary with the question and context.
• A sponsored placement. An eligible user may see a labeled ad below an answer. OpenAI says the ad runs separately from the answer and cannot change its recommendations.
• A business profile or agent. Eligible businesses can claim a profile through Business Hub. Some can publish an agent that answers questions about their own products and policies in a separate conversation.

For teams looking to buy the shared workspace for employees, OpenAI calls that subscription ChatGPT Business. For the customer-facing features, see OpenAI’s guides to Search, ads, and Businesses in ChatGPT.

Build an organic baseline before you change the site

Write down 10 questions customers ask when they compare options. Include the constraints that change the answer: budget, location, compatibility, lead time, or who the product is for. Run the same questions more than once in fresh chats and record the date and whether ChatGPT searched the web.

Record three things separately: whether your brand was named, whether it was recommended for the job, and whether a source pointed to your site. A buyer can see your brand without ever receiving a link. A source can cite your research without recommending your product. Use the ChatGPT visibility measurement guide to turn those observations into a repeatable baseline.

When you’re missing, open the sources behind the competitors that did come up. If those pages answer a specific buyer constraint and yours doesn’t, fix that gap on the page a buyer would land on. If public pages are blocked or hard to read, start with the free website check. The diagnostic guide covers how to separate an access problem from a weak answer to the buyer’s question.

Use paid ads when you have a specific buying decision to test

Choose one buyer situation and send people to the page that answers it. An ad for software that works with two Shopify stores should land on a page that shows how stock sync and team access work. A homepage forces the visitor to go looking for the details that brought them there.

Confirm where your account can advertise, decide what counts as a useful conversion, and set a spending limit before launch. Keep ad clicks and conversions separate from the record of independent ChatGPT answers. Start with how to advertise in ChatGPT and how to budget and measure a first test.

Prepare an agent around a question that delays a purchase

If customers usually need a second answer before they buy, an agent may earn its place. A furniture retailer might start with doorway clearance and delivery options. A software company might start with plan limits and integration requirements. Collect the approved answers, tell the agent when to refer someone to the site or sales team, and test questions it should decline to answer.

OpenAI announced Business Hub in beta on November 10, 2026. Eligible U.S. ecommerce and online service businesses can set up a Business Agent. Access to using an agent as a paid ad destination has its own conditions. See the 2027 guide to Sponsored Agents for what the limited test covers and what to prepare.

If you want to find out which buyer questions ChatGPT sends to competitors, start with the CiteMine visibility audit. If you already know what you want to test, talk to CiteMine about running a ChatGPT Ads pilot.