OpenAI Ads Destination Setup Guide

Set up and configure OpenAI Ads as a destination in RudderStack.

4 minute read

This guide helps you set up OpenAI Ads as a destination in the RudderStack dashboard. It also lists the configuration settings required to correctly send data from the supported sources to OpenAI Ads.

Connection compatibility

Destination Information
Status: Generally Available Supported sources: Android (Java) , Android (Kotlin) , iOS (Obj-C) , iOS (Swift) , Web, Unity, AMP , Cloud, React Native , Flutter, Cordova, Shopify Refer to it as OpenAI Ads in the Integrations object.

Connection Modes
Source	Cloud mode	Device mode	Hybrid mode	Device Mode Transformations
AMP
Android (Java)
Android (Kotlin)
Cloud
Cordova
Flutter
iOS (Obj-C)
iOS (Swift)
React Native
Shopify
Unity
Web

Supported Message Types
Source	Identify	Page	Track	Screen	Group	Alias	Record	AudienceList
Cloud mode
Supported sources
Device mode
Web

Setup

In your RudderStack dashboard, add a source. Then, from the list of destinations, select OpenAI Ads.

Connection settings

Setting	Description
Destination name	Assign a name to uniquely identify the destination.
OpenAI Ads account	Select or create an OpenAI Ads account. The account requires a Pixel ID. Conversions API key is mandatory for cloud mode connections.

While creating an OpenAI Ads account, configure the following fields:

Field	Description
Account name	Enter a name to identify the OpenAI Ads account in RudderStack.
Pixel ID	Enter your OpenAI Ads Pixel ID. RudderStack uses it to initialize the Measurement Pixel in web device mode and as the `pid` value for cloud mode Conversions API delivery.
API Key	Enter your OpenAI Ads Conversions API key. This field is required for cloud mode delivery and optional for web device mode connections.

Configuration settings

Configure the following settings to send your data correctly to OpenAI Ads:

Setting	Description
Default currency	Enter an optional fallback ISO 4217 currency code. Use a three-letter uppercase code, such as `USD`.
Default action source	Select an optional fallback `action_source` value used when the event does not include one. Supported values are `web`, `mobile_app`, `offline`, `physical_store`, `phone_call`, `email`, and `other`.
Enable hashing	Enabled by default for both cloud mode and web device mode. When enabled, RudderStack normalizes and SHA-256 hashes email, phone number, first name, last name, and user ID before sending them to OpenAI Ads. Disable this setting only if you send these values already normalized and SHA-256 hashed. RudderStack rejects unhashed values — cloud mode fails the entire event, while web device mode drops only the affected identifier and still fires the event. When no user ID is present, RudderStack hashes the anonymous ID automatically.

This table does not include user ID normalization because cloud mode and web device mode currently handle its case differently. If you disable Enable hashing, don’t assume the name rules above apply to user IDs.

Identifier normalization

When Enable hashing is enabled, RudderStack normalizes the following fields before hashing them:

Field	Normalization
Email	Trims leading and trailing whitespace and converts the value to lowercase.
Phone	Keeps digits only, strips leading zeros, and doesn’t include a leading `+`.
First name and last name	Converts the value to lowercase and removes ASCII punctuation. Cloud mode trims leading and trailing whitespace only, while web device mode removes all whitespace, including spaces inside the value.

The phone format isn’t E.164, the format required by Google Ads. If you disable Enable hashing, do not reuse phone values hashed for Google because the normalized values differ and can cause OpenAI Ads matches to fail silently.

Event mapping settings

Use the event mapping settings to map RudderStack events to OpenAI Ads events.

Setting	Description
Event mappings	Click Set up mapping to map RudderStack event names to OpenAI Ads standard events, or choose Custom and provide a custom event name. You can configure only one OpenAI Ads event mapping per RudderStack event name.
RudderStack event name	Enter the source `track`, `page`, or `screen` event name you want to map.
OpenAI Ads event	Select the OpenAI Ads event to receive the RudderStack event. Supported standard events are `app_installed`, `app_opened`, `appointment_scheduled`, `checkout_started`, `contents_viewed`, `items_added`, `lead_created`, `order_created`, `page_viewed`, `registration_completed`, `subscription_created`, and `trial_started`.
Deduplication key path	Enter an optional dot path, such as `properties.orderId`, to use as the OpenAI Ads event ID. If this path is empty or does not resolve to a value, RudderStack uses the message ID.
Custom event name	Required only when the mapped OpenAI Ads event is Custom. You can’t configure this field for standard OpenAI Ads events.

Other settings

Setting	Description
Client-side event filtering	Specify which web device mode events should be discarded or allowed to flow through to OpenAI Ads. Choose No events filtering, Filter via allowlist, or Filter via denylist. See Client-side Event Filtering for more information.
Consent management settings	Configure the consent management settings for the specified source by choosing the Consent management provider from the dropdown and entering the relevant consent category IDs. See Consent Management in RudderStack for more information on this feature.