For decades, the question of where lawyers could advertise their services was governed by a patchwork of state ethics rules, court decisions and the occasional scolding from bar associations. Now the question has acquired a new wrinkle: artificial intelligence.

OpenAI, the company behind the ChatGPT chatbot, has updated its advertising policies to explicitly permit legal services advertising in the United States, including personal injury law firms. The change opens what may become a significant new channel for an industry that has long been among the most aggressive buyers of television time, billboard space and, more recently, Google search keywords.

The policy shift is particularly notable given the economics involved. Law firms in competitive practice areas have grown accustomed to paying hundreds of dollars for a single click on Google, where searches like "car accident lawyer" command premium prices. Early advertisers on ChatGPT report substantially lower costs, though volume remains far smaller than on established search platforms.

One agency, Adsquire, which describes itself as the first to place a lawyer advertisement inside ChatGPT — promoting a Pennsylvania personal injury practice in May — reported that a client generated 12 leads from approximately $2,000 in spending, or roughly $166 per lead. (Whether those leads become clients, and whether those clients become verdicts, is another matter entirely.)

The ChatGPT advertising system differs from Google's keyword-based model in ways that remain poorly understood. The platform can consider the context of a user's conversation and, when personalization features are enabled, draw on signals from a user's broader history with the chatbot. Which practice areas benefit most from this approach is, for now, a matter of speculation and proprietary testing.

OpenAI's advertising platform remains in beta, and the company has not disclosed how many advertisers are participating or what categories are generating the most interest. The legal industry, which discovered the infomercial, the highway billboard and the late-night television spot long before most other professions, will presumably not be far behind.

Original story published in Adweek: "ChatGPT Ads Just Opened the Door to Law Firms"