Are $60 CPMs from OpenAI worth it?
BTW, that's the same CPMs as the Super Bowl!
We’re back. After a week off involving Austin battling the flu (and a double-shot vaccine combo) and a power outage in the snow with a broken home generator, we made it to Episode 13.
Lucky number 13 was a spicy one. We dove deep into OpenAI’s aggressive ad pricing, the blurring line between reality and AI video, and why “Kevin” from The Office is the ultimate B2B influencer. Here is the download.
1. The OpenAI Gold Rush: $60 CPM
The biggest news hitting the feed is OpenAI officially releasing details on their advertising platform. The headline? They are charging a $60 CPM.
For context, that is roughly 3x what Meta charges. It’s premium, it’s expensive, and right now, it’s purely impression-based. No conversion optimization, no fancy pixel tracking—just “pay us $60, and we’ll show your ad to 1,000 people.”
Pranav’s Take: It’s a gold rush. Even without the sophisticated tracking, they are going to print money. I’m making a bold prediction: OpenAI will generate $10 to $20 billion in revenue off ads this year alone, potentially wiping out their burn rate entirely,.
Austin’s Napkin Math: Let’s look at the numbers. OpenAI reportedly has 200 million daily active users.
If every user sees just one ad per day...
At a $60 CPM...
That’s roughly $4-5 billion in annual revenue.
That is the floor. If they show four ads a day? Or if the user count is higher? You get to Pranav’s $20B number very quickly.
While OpenAI is taking the high road with “high-intent” ads, Google is going the opposite direction. Google is now allowing links and contextual ad citations directly inside their AI Overviews. We are entering an era where technically literate users will mentally filter out the “garbage” in AI answers, while the mass market will consume it—just like the early days of internet display ads.
2. The Turing Test for Ads
We played a game this week. Pranav pulled up a Breaking Bad “Popcorners” commercial.
The Question: Was this AI-generated or real?
We both struggled. Pranav thought it was AI; Austin thought it was real but admitted AI could have done it. The verdict? It was a real Super Bowl ad from 2023.
But the fact that we had to pause and debate it proves we are at the tipping point. Our brains can no longer distinguish between high-end CGI/filming and high-end AI generation.
It’s getting weirder. “Khaby Lame” (the guy famous on TikTok for his silent hand gestures) recently sold his likeness rights to be used in AI videos. Disney is launching an AI ad agent for vertical video, and Amazon launched a creative agent at CES.
The Takeaway: The “mass market” of content creation is moving to AI tools. While Adobe and Figma will remain the domain of true professionals requiring granular control, the rest of the world is moving toward “one-shot” prompting.
3. The Great Tool Consolidation
Speaking of tools, we are both seeing a massive consolidation in our personal tech stacks. We’ve both largely moved away from ChatGPT.
Austin: Down to Gemini for daily tasks (email, Drive integration) and Claude for coding.
Pranav: All in on Claude. Gemini as backup. Still paying for GhatGPT but likely to churn at some point.
The Killer Use Case: Pranav had to deal with a finance spreadsheet entirely in Japanese this week. He dropped it into Claude, asked for a translation, and boom—perfect English, zero friction. Austin’s wife did the same thing traveling in Japan, photographing signs and menus and translating them instantly. We are effectively global from day one now.
4. Ramp, The Super Bowl, and Millennial Nostalgia
Finally, we looked at the new Super Bowl ad from Ramp, featuring Brian Baumgartner (Kevin Malone from The Office).
Is a Super Bowl ad worth it for B2B?
Surprisingly, yes. When you look at the cost, Super Bowl ads often run around a 60−70 CPM—the exact same price OpenAI is charging.
If you are a mass-market B2B player like Ramp (where everyone from a 3-person startup to a Fortune 500 needs expense management), the math works.
Why it worked: They nailed the casting. Brian Baumgartner plays an accountant/finance guy. But more importantly, he appeals specifically to the 30-to-40-year-old demographic—the exact generation that grew up on The Office and is now sitting in operating roles making purchasing decisions.
It’s a brilliant strategy: Use TV and nostalgia as a source of creative trust.
One last thing
We mentioned StackAdapt raising $235M to build an AI bidding engine. As ad spend on Meta and Google hits a point of diminishing returns, brands have to look elsewhere—CTV, audio, and programmatic are the next frontier.