Curious about the future direction of OpenAI's advertising division? Take a look at its current job openings, as the company gears up to cater to smaller advertisers.
OpenAI is in the process of establishing a specialized advertising unit aimed at small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), as evidenced by several active job listings analyzed by Digiday. These positions cover various functions, including growth, data science, demand strategy, and sales operations.
At the forefront of this initiative is a position for a "Lead Data Scientist for SMB Ads Growth" based in San Francisco, with a salary range from $293,000 to $515,000. The primary objective of this role is to develop an analytics framework for SMB advertisers, focusing on aspects like targeting, optimizing sales funnels, and forecasting. The ideal candidates for this position are expected to have experience with major tech firms like Meta, Google, or LinkedIn, suggesting that OpenAI seeks individuals who possess proven expertise in this field.
Following this is a role for a Growth Lead for SMB Ads, which offers between $284,000 and $315,000, and a Growth Marketing Manager position with a salary range of $177,000 to $196,000, both also located in San Francisco. The Growth Lead will work on scaling methods that enable small businesses to find, adopt, and expand their presence on OpenAI’s ad platform. The Growth Marketing Manager will focus on transitioning SMB advertisers from mere interest or sign-up to their first substantial expenditure and ongoing retention. Similar to the data scientist posts, OpenAI is targeting candidates with backgrounds from companies like Google, Meta, TikTok, Amazon, and Reddit.
In Dublin, OpenAI is also looking for a Senior Vendor Manager for SMB Sales, though this position currently does not list a salary. The role entails overseeing the performance of OpenAI's external sales vendors, responsible for both inbound and outbound sales, along with API sales. Notably, the listing emphasizes accountability over relationship management, as the manager will be conducting routine performance evaluations and developing scorecards to ensure optimal vendor performance, along with implementing corrective action plans when necessary.
In essence, OpenAI appears to be following a model akin to that of Google and Meta, leveraging external vendors for SMB sales rather than building a large in-house team.
Two additional positions in San Francisco complete the picture. One is a Senior Mid-Market & SMB Demand Strategist, with a salary range of $266,000 to $295,000, who will focus on generating demand for both mid-market and SMB clients, operating within a different team than the SMB Ads Marketing group. The other role available is an Analytics Engineer for SMB with a salary range of $220,000 to $335,000, which will form an integral part of a newly established data team in OpenAI’s go-to-market organization. The job description indicates that the data infrastructure for this unit is still in its infancy, implying that the selected candidate will help build it from the ground up.
OpenAI's approach to its advertising business is marked not just by significant moves but also by the rapid pace of its evolution. Targeting smaller advertisers has always been a logical step; they represent the essential foundation for a sustainable advertising business. A survey from Morgan Stanley in 2024 revealed that 75% of SMBs utilized Facebook for their advertising needs, and since then, Meta has increasingly relied on AI to streamline these advertising processes, likely contributing to a growth in that number.
“Depending on whose estimates you believe, SMBs make up the majority of ad revenue for Google and Meta,” explained eMarketer’s principal analyst for AI in marketing and commerce, Nate Elliott. “Any somewhat ambitious ad business will need to generate billions annually from these smaller advertisers, and with ChatGPT, ambition is certainly a key trait.”
As of now, OpenAI has not responded to inquiries from Digiday regarding these developments.
