AI Max for Search: what Google's upgrade changes in your account, and what to check.

What happened, with dates

On 15 April 2026 Google announced on its Ads and Commerce blog that AI Max for Search campaigns was leaving beta, and that three older features would be upgraded into it:

• Dynamic Search Ads (DSA);
• automatically created assets (ACA);
• the campaign-level broad match setting.

The timeline

The timeline in Google's post, as updated on 11 June 2026:

• From April 2026: advertisers could upgrade voluntarily. DSA users got tools to move their settings and data into standard ad groups; ACA and broad match users saw an upgrade banner.
• September 2026: automatic upgrades for automatically created assets and campaign-level broad match. Google said it expected eligible campaigns to be upgraded by the end of September.
• February 2027: the DSA sunset and automatic upgrade begin, moved back from September after advertisers asked for more time.

We checked these dates against Google's post on 24 October 2026. If you are reading this later, check the post for changes.

What AI Max actually is

AI Max is not a new campaign type. It is a set of features you switch on inside a normal Search campaign. The main parts are:

• Search term matching: your ads can show on searches beyond your keywords, using your landing pages, ads and assets to work out what is relevant. It works like broad match, extended further.
• Text customisation: Google writes headline and description variations based on your site and the search.
• Final URL expansion: Google can send the click to a page on your site it thinks fits the search better than the one you chose.

Google says that AI Max campaigns "see an average of 7% more conversions or conversion value" at a similar cost per acquisition or return on ad spend, compared with using search term matching alone, when using the full feature suite. Its footnote says that figure is Google internal data from 2026, for non-retail advertisers. It is an average across many accounts, not a promise for yours.

What the automatic upgrade switches on

According to Google's post, the upgraded settings look like this:

• Dynamic Search Ads: dynamic ad groups become standard ad groups, with search term matching, text customisation and final URL expansion all on. Your old URL controls are kept.
• Automatically created assets: search term matching and text customisation are on by default.
• Campaign-level broad match: search term matching is on by default.

The practical effect: a campaign that used to show only on your chosen keywords, with ads you wrote, may now show on a wider set of searches with text Google generated. For some accounts that will be welcome. For a small local business with a tight budget, it can mean money going on searches you never wanted.

Eight checks to run on your account

If you advertise on Google Search, open your account this week and work through these. None of them needs a developer.

• Find out what changed. Look at the change history for September and early October for upgrade entries on your campaigns.
• Check which AI Max features are on, campaign by campaign. Decide on purpose rather than accepting the default.
• Read the search terms report for the last 30 days. Add negatives for anything you would never want to pay for. This matters more now than before. Our weekly search terms routine shows how to do it in 20 minutes.
• Set brand controls if brand matters to you. Google's AI Max help page lists brand inclusions (campaign or ad group level) and brand exclusions (campaign level only), so you do not pay for competitors' names or your own brand in the wrong campaign.
• Check URL controls. If some pages should never receive paid traffic (careers, blog posts, old offers), add them as URL exclusions at campaign level, or turn final URL expansion off.
• Review the ad text Google generates. If you work in a regulated area, such as health, finance or legal services, make sure the text is accurate and compliant. Text customisation and final URL expansion can each be turned off in campaign settings (final URL expansion needs text customisation on).
• Use the reporting. The search terms report now shows AI Max as a match type, with a column showing whether a match came from broad match expansion or keywordless matching, and the landing pages report shows which pages AI Max chose.
• Compare conversions and cost per conversion before and after the upgrade, using the same date length, and check that the conversions are real leads in your CRM.

Should you turn it all on?

Our view, from running lead generation accounts: AI Max can find good searches you would not have thought of, especially for businesses with many services or products and plenty of conversion data. It needs three things to work well.

• Reliable conversion tracking that counts real leads, not page views. If your tracking is weak, any automation optimises towards the wrong thing.
• Enough budget for the system to learn. A campaign limited by budget every day has little room to test new searches.
• Someone reading the search terms every week.

If you have all three, test it properly. Google offers one-click experiments, and in August 2026 it announced that AI Max experiments now support brand and location settings, so you can test with your guardrails in place. If you are missing any of them, fix those first and keep tighter control in the meantime.

What has not changed

Your keywords still matter. Negative keywords still work. Exact and phrase match still exist. Location targeting, ad schedules and budgets are still yours to set. And nothing about AI Max changes the basics: a clear offer, a landing page that answers the search, and a fast response to every enquiry.