Google Ads AI Max: what changed in Search and what you still control

AI Max for Search is Google's AI bundle for Search campaigns. It rolls three features into one setting: search term matching (your ad can enter auctions beyond your keywords, including queries matched from your landing pages and assets), text customization (Google writes headlines and descriptions) and final URL expansion (Google picks the landing page). In September 2026, campaigns using automatically created assets or campaign-level broad match were migrated to it automatically. Dynamic Search Ads (DSA) were pushed to February 2027.

If you run Search accounts, the question is no longer whether AI Max exists. It is which campaigns are already on it, with which features switched on, and what changed in your search terms and ad copy since.

The three features, one at a time

Search term matching moves the most money. The other two change the message and the page, which matters more in regulated industries, for offers with fine print, or on sites with pages that should never receive paid traffic.

The migration timeline

Google split the change into two phases, according to the Google Ads Developer Blog:

• August 3, 2026: creating campaign-level broad match settings or legacy automatically created assets (ACA) was blocked in the UI, Google Ads Editor and the API.
• September 1 to 30, 2026: campaigns using either feature were upgraded progressively.
• How each one landed: campaign-level broad match got search term matching only. ACA campaigns got search term matching and text customization. Final URL expansion stayed off for both. Existing brand lists carried over.
• Dynamic Search Ads: on June 11, 2026, Google moved the DSA auto-migration from September 2026 to February 2027 and restored DSA creation from June 15. Creation goes away again in January 2027, a reminder goes out to affected accounts on January 15, and the automatic upgrade runs February 1 to 28, 2027.

DSA advertisers can still upgrade early from the campaign settings. Google itself recommends testing with an experiment rather than waiting for the automatic switch.

Reading the 14% claim properly

Google Ads Help says advertisers who activate AI Max typically see 14% more conversions or conversion value at a similar CPA or ROAS. That is Google's own number, from internal 2025 data on non-retail advertisers. In 2026 Google added another: using all three features delivers on average 7% more conversions than search term matching alone. Same source.

Three caveats before you repeat it to a client:

1. It is an average across many accounts. Yours can land above, below or flat.
2. A conversion is whatever your account counts. If the action is a call click or an unqualified form fill, "more conversions" can mean more junk leads.
3. The fair test is the same account, same dates, run as an experiment. Before-and-after September mixes seasonality, auction pressure and bid changes.

If you want to know whether the extra volume turns into revenue, you have to look past Google Ads. The point is the same one behind target ROAS: Smart Bidding chases the conversion you feed it, not the one you meant.

What you gain and what you lose

The upside is reach on queries you would never have listed, and copy that mirrors what the searcher asked. Accounts with thin keyword lists and big sites see this fast.

The downside is predictability. Your keyword list stops being the boundary of what you buy, and your ad can run with a line you did not write. If you used to manage match types tightly, it feels like going back to broad match, now with the landing page and copy bundled in. When CPCs drift up after the switch, start with the diagnosis in Google Ads CPC too high.

The middle ground that tends to hold: search term matching on, with negatives kept current; text customization on only after you have read what Google wrote; final URL expansion on only with URL exclusions set.

The controls you keep

• Negative keywords still apply and are your main brake. The routine is in Google Ads search terms.
• Brand lists, under Tools, Shared library, Brand lists. Apply them as inclusions or exclusions in the AI Max settings panel at the campaign or ad group level.
• URL inclusions and exclusions, to tell AI Max which pages it may or may not use.
• Locations of interest, set at the ad group level when AI Max is on.
• Google-generated assets, labeled Google AI, can be removed. For bulk removal, Google Ads Help points you to Editor or the API.

A 15-minute audit of your own account

1. Open each Search campaign and check whether AI Max is on and which features are enabled.
2. In the search terms report, filter the AI Max match type and compare its cost and conversions with the rest.
3. Add the Source column to separate traffic from your keywords from traffic AI Max expanded into.
4. In the keywords report, read the AI Max total rows at the bottom.
5. In the asset report, filter assets added by Google and read every headline.
6. In change history, find the date the campaign switched in September and compare two weeks before with two weeks after, knowing this does not replace an experiment.

If the goal is to cut waste this week, start with negatives. Negative keywords with AI shows how to review them in bulk.

Your next step

Run the 15-minute audit this week, campaign by campaign, and write down which ones migrated and with which features. Then negate what AI Max pulled in from outside your market and decide feature by feature, with an experiment where volume allows. To read search terms and manage negatives in a single conversation instead of clicking through every account, see the plans: from US$ 31.20 a month on the annual plan, with the first 7 days for US$ 2.99.