In this solo commentary, Adam Bensman explains OpenAI’s January 16 announcement that ChatGPT will soon incorporate advertising, and he interprets what this means for the roofing industry’s lead generation strategies. Bensman outlines how ads might appear within LLM responses, compares the upcoming model to Google’s paid search and local service ads, and discusses potential billing structures such as pay‑per‑click, impression‑based, or conversion‑based pricing. He raises privacy and trust concerns—questioning whether ads will truly remain independent of answers and whether user conversation data will stay protected. Bensman predicts a new competitive landscape where roofing companies must optimize both Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) for organic visibility and paid placements across multiple LLMs (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini, Grok). He speculates on the emergence of ad brokers that could distribute ads across these platforms, and on possible “ad vortex” scenarios where manufacturers could steer consumers toward in‑network contractors. He also notes that while advertising could democratize exposure for small businesses, the high intent nature of roofing searches may drive up costs. Throughout, Bensman urges roofers to prepare now, references his 2025‑2028 Roofing Market Report, and invites viewers to join the Roofing Service & Repair Association (RSRA) for further guidance.
Chapters
This was just announced and it's going to change roofing lead generation forever. It's a brand new platform that's gonna be selling ads, a platform that people are drawn to, the platform that people turn to first for answers. They used to be just pure help. What am I talking about? Well, I'm gonna add it right now and you see it here. ChatGPT just announced January 16th that they are introducing advertising on their platform. And in this video, I wanna give you a competitive edge to start thinking through how this will be used in your strategy to show up not only in answer engine search, this new world of AEO, but also what the future of lead generation could look like for you. I've been preaching this and talking about the, the changes that are coming to roofing in the 2025 to 2028 Roofing Market Report. You can get access to that by clicking the link in the description right now. It's entirely free. There's no catch, but I want to break down this article because we, in my opinion, are mixing up some fluff, like some marketing fluff with what really will be coming to the future of lead generation. All right. I do have a link to this in the description as well. So you can read through this on your own. Now, one thing that is really fascinating to me is this part. People trust ChatGPT for many important and personal tasks. So as we introduce ads, it's crucial we preserve what makes ChatGPT valuable in the first place. That means you need to trust that ChatGPT's responses are given what's objectively useful, never by advertising. Interesting. Do you agree? Do you disagree? I mean, let me know in the comments because I have my own opinions on that one. I do think that's going to be a fine line. I think that the ad placement will be relevant to search words, terms, and intent. But this is where it gets interesting. It says you need to know that your data and conversations are protected and never sold to advertisers. Now, when I look at this, I'm saying, okay, now it may not be directly sold to advertisers saying, here's a list of all the people that have searched this, but it ultimately is being sold to advertisers because ChatGPT and you, or whichever LLM you work with, develops a relationship with you. They know what you're searching for. They know about you and what you want to hear and see. So as you start searching for home improvement projects or maybe a roofer near you, you will be fed ads. So of course, that's not maybe that the data is being shared, but it is absolutely being monetized strategically to place the right ads in front of you as it senses the highest level of buying intent based on the questions and engagements that you ask. Now, of course, it says you can turn these ads off, etc., etc., and then if you pay, you don't have them. So it's a very similar approach that we've seen with pretty much every single social media platform. Now, further on, it breaks down the ad principles like that. They're principles to ensure AGI benefits all of humanity. Now that's interesting. Sounds good and fluffy and nice, but I'll let you decide how you feel on that. Here's another one. Answer independence. Ads do not influence answers ChatGPT gives you. So I want to, I'm just curious what you think about that. Do you think that's true? Because they say this now, but I just wonder if it is really true. I think that with all monetization plans, greed at some point can win. Because it can easily influence. You could do it in a very covert way. Now, do I know for certain if that's gonna happen? Absolutely not. But I am just sharing my predictions. All right. They're claiming conversation privacy, that your conversations are private from advertisers. Now, if you think of this from a business standpoint, that really means that ChatGPT really holds the cards, uh, and holds the power and will give them a competitive advantage to, you know, charge more as I predict this will become a bidding platform just like Google Pay-Per-Click and LSA. That's local service ads as well. Now, choice control. It says you can control how your data is used. You can turn off personalization, etc., and you can pay to get ads removed. But here's what, what's interesting. It says we're not launching ads yet. So you might be thinking, Adam, this is premature, but here it is. We do plan to start testing in the coming weeks. So they are testing these ads and it is clearly, they're saying be clearly labeled and separate from the organic answer. Now they have a screenshot which you're gonna see me scroll down 'cause I'm gonna break down this ad placement and my theories behind how this can be used and how you should be prepared to get the highest return from these ads, uh, that will be coming to ChatGPT and likely all other LLMs as this rolls out. Because right now Google has been the monopoly for search. Search intent traffic. If someone were to search roofer near me, they will see a series. Look at this. We've got sponsored ads up here. We have the businesses up here, and then we've got our organic results down here. Okay? Now, if I click show more, these are all sponsored. Every single one of these is paying for this placement. Okay? And then it'll continue if I even want more and more and more. So every single one of these is sponsors, people that are throwing their money on it. But as it stands, there's no other platform where people are taking a high search intent and asking for recommendation on a roofer. But that's all changing with now not only ChatGPT, but Perplexity, Claude, Gemini, Grok, wherever people have their own preference, or maybe even using various ones. Now these networks, I'm very curious to what will happen in the future if there's gonna be brokers that will distribute your ads to all these networks, or if you're gonna need to set up accounts with each individual LLM as they roll out responses. One might also begin to wonder, Because OpenAI and Apple have structured a deal, could this mean that Siri will now feed you ads as you ask for recommendations nearby, or Google's Assistant? Well, let's take a look at what this might actually look like. Now, if I go back to these results here on Google, you will notice that Google, when I search for a roofer near you, we see all these options. We have our, our paid ads up, up top, and then our local, uh, or our business ads here. And then we get into organic ads. But look at what's different with ChatGPT. They are placing one ad, and my belief here is that they are taking inspiration from TikTok. Their algorithm is the most addicting of any to date, and what this has empowered people to do is pay attention to what's in front of them, and that's it. So you'll notice they give just enough for you to cycle through to look at the next ad, and they're showing this on mobile, which is indicative of how users are using ChatGPT using mobile devices, less usage, most likely, on a computer like I'm using right now. So they're going to give one at a time. Now, I want to show an example. If I— let's say I want to turn to ChatGPT, and I would say, by the way, I'm using WhisperFlow. Pro tip, I can press a key and talk to my computer, and it's going to type for me. Recommend a roofing company near me in Dallas, Texas. I'd like to work with a company who's local. They've been around for a while. They have really good reviews and they offer financing. And I'd much prefer if they have an online estimate tool because I just want to get an estimate and don't want to talk to someone. Okay, so now I'm going to just go ahead and hit enter and we're going to stay logged out for this one. And I just want to see the difference because people might just say, recommend a roofing company near me. But if I am very specific about what I want, Just like that, I have these options. I've got New View Roofing, Bold Roofing, K-Post Roofing, Blue Hammer, T-Rock, Priority Roofing, Arrington, and Burke. And tips for getting an online estimate. Okay, great. Financing options. I got a new view there. So imagine this, imagine I scroll through this and I see this one company. Let's just say it's, let's see, Bold Roofing shows up. I know Priority Roofing was in this list. And if Priority Roofing is running an ad and I'm reading them here, But then at the way bottom, if we look at what they're showing an example of Priority Roofing Company is here. This will be a much higher likelihood, in my opinion, after studying marketing of driving a click to the paid ad versus just paying for placement. Because if all of AI's recommendations are here, but the, the ad that you are paying for at the bottom, you're not in that list. It's telling the user, the homeowner who's shopping, that you're just paying to play, and it might not be in line with what your website and your, your digital presence is telling the world. So here's my summary of what I believe, and then we're, we'll finish going through these theories here. If you are not doing both showing up on answer engine optimization, and what I mean by that is having the pages that are indexed, so when ChatGPT, Perplexity, Grok, Claude, whichever LLM you're using will search the internet and then recommend you. You want to be doing that and this new paid media platform. Now it's too soon to tell because it's not live yet, which platforms will likely see the most traffic from a search intent, whether or not you'll be able to work with new agencies that will distribute your paid media placement across various LLMs. Or if you need one for Grok and one for Perplexity and one for, for ChatGPT, one for Gemini. So we are about to embark on a very, very interesting journey here. Now, as we go through here, I wanna highlight a few things. It says the best ads are useful, entertaining, and help people discover new products or services. So this is where things get really interesting to me. Now, I wanna, I want you to think of this, and then I'm gonna pull back, pull back up this example for you. Now imagine that you search roofing company near me and you see this list of roofers, and then at the bottom there's an ad and it says, choose this roofing company. Well, you also know that if you click that, maybe AI prompts you with a follow-up question. What if this starts to lead into an ad vortex? What we don't know is how ChatGPT will bill you for these ads. Will it be pay-per-click? Will it be pay-per-conversion? Or will it be pay, pay based on impression? Because if you're paying for the impression alone, well, what's to stop AI from just saying, hey, I noticed you're searching for a local roofer. Do you want recommendations for the best roofing products? And then suddenly maybe you have all the manufacturers that are paying for advertising to start selling more product direct to consumer. And the follow-up question might even be something like, Hey, I noticed that you were interested in blank company's products. Are you interested in working with a certified contractor in their network? And then there we go. Now we're in this ad vortex. So I, although this entire platform says that it wants to be helpful and informative, it also wants you to discover new things. And through strategic question prompting, it could very easily start swaying and directing consumers in these very unique ways that have not been done before. And I'm curious what you think. Do you think manufacturers could start playing in this landscape in a way they've never done before, pushing contractors that are in-network or have higher status with an individual manufacturer? I don't know. I think it could. It's very, very possible. Now, the part that I do find fascinating here, it says ads can also be transformative for small businesses and emerging brands who are trying to compete. Do you think that's true or not? I think it could be, but I do think that roofing is an expensive place to play. It's become one of the most expensive pay-per-click words out there, and I think it could continue to be even more expensive here on these new LLMs like ChatGPT. Now these ads are going into testing, they're getting feedback, and then the game will change. Mark my words. I hope this video helped get you thinking ahead. I've been saying this and I mean it. We are approaching a divisive time in our industry in roofing where companies who do not adapt and are not looking ahead will not only fall behind, they will go out of business. Things are moving so freaking fast and together in RSRA, we are challenging the status quo. We're sharing our winning secrets and we're finding better ways to grow together. So if you're interested in joining us, click the link in the description below. I look forward to seeing you inside if it's a good fit. But that's all for now. I'll see you on the next one.
