Context hints are additional details about your business, product, or service that help our systems understand when your ads may be relevant in ChatGPT. Add them at the ad group level to share useful information that may not be clear from your ad or landing page.
How to write context hints
Ask yourself: What else should we know about your product, who it helps, and when it’s useful?
What: Relevant product features, services, pricing, availability, or service areas.
Who: Customer needs, preferences, or circumstances your offering is suited for.
When: Situations or decisions where your offering may be useful.
Use what you know about your best-fit customers and the situations that lead to stronger business outcomes to describe needs your offering can meet.
Write a clear, natural phrase focused on one idea rather than a list of disconnected keywords. Each hint does not need to cover all three.
What makes a good context hint
Strong context hints are:
Additional: Add useful context beyond what is already clear from your ad or landing page.
Specific: Describe a concrete product feature, service detail, customer need, or situation.
Relevant: Explain a genuine connection between your offering and the use case.
Accurate: Reflect your actual offering. Update hints when features, pricing, promotions, availability, or service areas change.
A detail can already appear on your landing page and still be useful if the hint connects it to a customer need. For example, “breathable running shoes for training in warm weather” explains why a feature matters.
Examples of context hints
These examples are illustrative. Use details that accurately reflect your business.
| Business or product | Example context hint |
|---|---|
| Running shoes | Cushioned everyday running shoes for beginners training for their first 5K |
| Local plumber | After-hours residential plumbing in [city], with an $89 service-call fee for urgent repairs |
| Accounting software | Bookkeeping software for growing retailers that need to reconcile online and in-store sales |
Hints can also describe another genuine use case. For example, supportive athletic shoes may suit people who spend long work shifts on their feet, if the product supports that use. Wanting to reach a customer group does not, by itself, make your offering relevant.
Business context and delivery controls
Context hints inform relevance. People do not need to use the exact words in your hint for the underlying need or situation to be relevant.
Hints are not targeting rules or delivery instructions. They do not guarantee that your ad will appear for particular conversations, audiences, or situations, and they cannot enforce geographic limits, schedules, or exclusions.
For example, “Residential plumbing services available in Chicago” describes your business. “Show this ad only to people in Chicago” is a delivery instruction. Use supported product controls for delivery restrictions, where available.
You can also describe which products an ad group promotes. This clarifies product scope; it does not exclude particular people or conversations.
Keep context hints focused on the ad group
Group hints around a shared product, service, theme, or customer need. Related situations can belong in the same ad group. Consider separate ad groups when use cases require different messaging or landing pages.
For more guidance, see Create Ad Groups for ChatGPT Ads.