> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.athenahq.ai/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Ads > Show sponsored ads captured across ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, and Google Search/AI Overview responses to tracked prompts, and which advertisers are buying them. `app.athenahq.ai/ads` ## Purpose The Ads page helps marketers understand the paid search landscape around their tracked AI queries. When answer engines like ChatGPT and Google serve sponsored advertisements alongside their organic AI answers, Athena captures them. This page reveals which advertisers (including your tracked competitors) are buying ad placements against your tracked prompts, what creative copy or products they are promoting, and how frequently those ads appear over time. This competitive intelligence allows you to monitor who is bidding on your brand and industry terms in the AI era. ## What's on the page ### Page header & Platform tabs The top header includes the "Ads" title with an info tooltip explaining the page: *"Shows sponsored ads captured across ChatGPT and Google responses to your tracked prompts, and which advertisers are buying them."* Next to the title is a set of platform tabs: **ChatGPT**, **AI Mode**, and **Google Search**. Selecting a tab updates the entire page to show only ad data for that specific platform. ### Filter row A customizable filter bar where you can narrow data by **Date Range**, **Topics & Prompts**, **Prompt Tags**, **Personas**, **Locations**, and **Countries**. You can also use the **Views** dropdown to save and load your favorite combinations of filters. ### Ads hero (Ad pressure) The large top card provides a high-level summary of your selected date range: * **Ad pressure**: A percentage metric showing how often ads appeared. It includes the text: *"Sponsored ads ran against \[X] of \[Y] \[Platform] answers to your tracked prompts."* * **View answers with ads**: A clickable link that takes you to the Responses page to see the specific AI answers that carried ads. * **Trend sparkline**: A smooth area chart plotting the number of ads captured per day over your selected date range. * **Top advertisers on your prompts**: A mini leaderboard showing the top 4 advertisers buying ads on your prompts, alongside a progress bar and their ad count. Tracked competitors are badged "Competitor" and your own brand is badged "You." ### Stat rail A row of summary tiles below the hero section: * **Ads captured**: The total number of ads found. For ChatGPT, the tooltip notes: *"Every sponsored ad ChatGPT reported for your tracked prompts, including auctioned placements that did not render."* For Google platforms, the tooltip notes: *"Every sponsored ad captured in these answers. Google returns placements that rendered."* * **Advertisers**: Total distinct advertisers found. * **Competitors advertising**: How many of your explicitly tracked competitors bought ads. * **Surface-specific 4th tile**: Depending on your platform tab, this fourth tile changes: * **ChatGPT - Ads shown**: Includes a breakdown of ads actually rendered vs reported as "not shown." Tooltip: *"Shown means the placement rendered in the captured response. ChatGPT can also report an auctioned placement that did not render, which still reveals who is bidding."* * **Google Search - Inside the AI Overview**: Breaks down ads found directly inside the AI Overview vs standard search results on the same page. Tooltip: *"Google places some ads inside the AI Overview itself and others in the search results on the same page. Both are captured; this splits them."* ### Ad click warning banner On the Google platforms tabs, a yellow warning banner appears above the creatives table: *"Warning: Clicking an ad link may result in a charge to the advertiser."* This ensures users know that clicking out to a live creative URL interacts with a real ad network. ### Advertisers table A paginated table titled "Advertisers" with a subtitle explaining *"Who is buying ads against your tracked prompts."* An info tooltip notes: *"Advertisers ranked by ads captured in the selected period. Tracked includes your brand and tracked competitors. Expand a row to see which prompts trigger their ads and the latest creative."* * **#**: The advertiser's numerical rank by ad volume. * **Advertiser**: The name and domain of the advertiser. May include a "You" or competitor badge. * **Ads**: The number of ads captured for this advertiser, with a relative visual bar. * **Shown**: The number of ads that actually rendered (appears on the ChatGPT tab only). * **Prompts**: The number of distinct tracked prompts that triggered an ad from this advertiser. * **Last seen**: The most recent date an ad from this advertiser was captured. * **Expand (Chevron icon)**: Clicking the arrow expands the row to reveal a detailed drilldown. Hovering over it says *"Show prompts for \{advertiser}"* or *"Hide prompts for \{advertiser}."* **Advertiser Drilldown**: Expanding a row reveals two additional panels: * **Prompts triggering these ads**: A list of specific prompts the advertiser showed up on. Clicking a prompt here drills down to the Responses page filtered to those exact ads. * **Latest creative**: The most recent headline, body text, and destination link used by that advertiser. ### Creatives / Sponsored products table The bottom table lists the actual ad copy or products promoted. On the ChatGPT and Google Search tabs, it is titled "Top creatives". On the AI Mode tab, it is titled "Sponsored products". An info tooltip explains: *"Creatives are grouped by advertiser and ad copy, so tracking URL variations count toward the same creative. Captures and shown counts measure exposure in tracked responses, not clicks, conversions, spend, or performance."* * **#**: The creative's numerical rank. * **Creative** (or **Product**): The ad's headline and body text. If a URL is captured, it acts as a clickable outbound link. AI Mode products include a thumbnail image. * **Advertiser**: The name and domain of the advertiser who ran the creative. * **Placement**: Appears on the Google Search tab only, indicating whether the ad was in the "AI Overview" or "Google Search" results. * **Captures**: How many times this exact creative was captured by Athena. * **Shown**: How many times the creative actually rendered (ChatGPT tab only). * **Prompts**: How many distinct tracked prompts triggered this creative. * **Last seen**: The most recent date the creative was captured. ## What you can do here * **Switch ad platforms**: Click the ChatGPT, AI Mode, or Google Search tabs at the very top of the page to swap which platform's ad data you are analyzing. * **Filter and search**: Use the top filter bar to narrow data by date range, specific prompts, locations, or personas. Use the search box above the Advertisers table to find specific domains, or the search box above the Creatives table to search for specific ad copy. * **Toggle All / Tracked advertisers**: Above the Advertisers table, click "Tracked" to hide unknown domains and only show ads bought by your brand or your tracked competitors. * **View answers with ads**: Click the "View answers with ads" link in the hero card (or click the "Ads captured" stat tile) to navigate directly to the Responses page, pre-filtered to show only answers that contained ads for the selected timeframe and platform. * **Drill into an advertiser's prompts**: Click any row in the Advertisers table (or the chevron icon on the right) to expand it. In the expanded view, click any of the prompts listed to navigate to the Responses page, pre-filtered to show exactly where that advertiser's ad appeared for that prompt. * **View a live ad landing page**: Click on a hyperlinked title inside the Creatives table (or in an advertiser's "Latest creative" detail panel) to open the destination landing page in a new browser tab. * **Dismiss the click warning**: Click the "X" icon on the warning banner to dismiss it. This preference is saved in your browser. * **Load more data**: Scroll to the bottom of the Advertisers or Creatives tables and click "Load more advertisers" / "Load more creatives" to fetch the next page of results. * **Manage saved views**: Click the "Views" dropdown in the filter bar to save your current filters as a new view, update an existing view, load a saved view, set a default view, or delete a view. ## Data shown The data on this page reflects sponsored advertisements captured directly alongside or inside the AI responses generated for your tracked prompts. This includes text ads, sponsored links, and AI Mode product carousels. The metric counts reflect how often Athena observed the ad during a prompt run. **They do not represent global impressions, clicks, conversions, or actual ad spend.** Advertiser identities are derived from the ad's destination URL root domain or the brand name provided by the platform. ## Common workflows **Investigating who is bidding on your keywords** 1. Go to the Ads page and set your desired Date Range in the filter bar. 2. In the Advertisers table, look at the top-ranked domains to see who is capturing the most ad real estate. 3. Click a competitor's row to expand it. 4. Review the "Prompts triggering these ads" list to see exactly which of your tracked queries they are successfully bidding against. **Reviewing competitor ad copy** 1. Scroll down to the Top Creatives table. 2. Type a competitor's name into the table's search box to filter the list. 3. Review the "Creative" column to read the headlines and body copy they are currently running. 4. Click the creative's title link to visit their landing page and review their destination experience. ## Empty, loading, and error states * **Empty (No ads data yet)**: If your tracked prompts have never returned a sponsored ad, the page displays a large illustration with the message "No ads data yet" and a button to "Manage prompts." Tracking more commercial prompts increases the likelihood of capturing ads. * **Empty (Date range has no ads)**: If your prompts have historically captured ads but none were found in your currently selected date range, the page displays a "No \[Platform] ads in this date range" message, suggesting you switch tabs to check other platforms. * **Empty tables**: If a search or filter yields no results in a specific table, it will display "No advertisers found" or "No creatives match \[your search]." * **Loading**: While the dashboard or tables fetch data, skeleton gray bars appear in place of the charts, text, and table rows. A full-page spinner appears if the system is verifying your plan access. * **Error**: If the dashboard fails to load, a red warning card appears stating "Couldn't load ads data" with a "Try again" button. If a specific table or advertiser drill-down fails, a localized "Couldn't load..." message and "Try again" button appears there. If the page cannot verify your subscription plan, a full-page "Something went wrong / Couldn't verify access" screen is shown. ## Linked from / links to * **Linked from**: You can reach this page by clicking "Ads" in the main left-hand navigation sidebar, or via shared links/saved views from your team. * **Links to**: The page links heavily to the **Responses** page (via "View answers with ads" and prompt drilldowns) to show the raw AI answers. It links to the **Prompts** page via the empty state's "Manage prompts" button. Creative links point outward to external advertiser landing pages. ## Common support questions **Why don't I see the "Shown" column on the Google tabs?** Google platforms only return ad data for placements that successfully rendered on the screen. Because every ad captured on Google was "shown," the column is unnecessary. ChatGPT, however, occasionally reports "auctioned" placements in its data that ultimately did not render in the UI, so the ChatGPT tab splits "Ads" (bids) from "Shown" (rendered). **Why am I seeing a warning about charging the advertiser?** Clicking an ad link in the Creatives table takes you to the actual live URL provided by the ad network. Because this is a real ad link, clicking it may register as a paid click for the advertiser. We provide the warning so you are aware before clicking competitor links. **Why does an advertiser show up as "Unknown"?** Athena attempts to identify advertisers by the root domain of their ad link. Sometimes, ad platforms (like Google AI Mode) return opaque click-tracking URLs without revealing the true destination domain, or they only provide a plain text brand name. When the system cannot confidently resolve a domain or name, the ad is grouped into a shared "Unknown advertiser" bucket. **Do these numbers match my Google Ads account?** No. The captures and ad counts on this page measure exposure specifically within the AI responses Athena gathered for your tracked prompts. They are competitive visibility metrics, not a reflection of global impressions, clicks, or ad spend from an ad network dashboard.