Google’s AI Max Migration: What Small Advertisers Should Check

Google's AI Max migration for Search campaigns passed an important milestone on 30 September 2026. During September, Google automatically moved Search campaigns that still used campaign-level broad match or legacy automatically created assets into AI Max, its AI-driven set of targeting and ad copy features. If you run Google Ads yourself, or someone runs them for you, your campaigns may now behave differently from how they were set up, even if nobody has logged in to change anything.

What Happened in the AI Max Migration

Google first announced the change on 15 April 2026 in a post on its official Keyword blog. The plan was to retire three older Search features, namely Dynamic Search Ads (DSA), automatically created assets (ACA) and the campaign-level broad match setting, and to replace them with AI Max for Search campaigns. Advertisers could upgrade voluntarily first, after which the remaining eligible campaigns would be upgraded automatically.

The timeline was later adjusted. According to Search Engine Land on 14 August 2026, Google stopped allowing new campaign-level broad match and legacy automatically created assets on 3 August 2026, and migrated existing campaigns using those settings to AI Max between 1 and 30 September 2026. Dynamic Search Ads were given more time. Advertisers with legacy DSA ad groups will get reminders from 15 January 2027, and the automatic DSA migration is scheduled for February 2027, when the option to create new DSA ad groups disappears permanently. Google's blog post confirms that the DSA deadline was moved to February 2027 in an update dated 11 June 2026.

What a campaign switches on depends on where it started. According to Google’s announcement, campaigns that used automatically created assets are upgraded with search term matching and text customization enabled by default, while campaigns that used campaign-level broad match are upgraded with search term matching enabled. When DSA ad groups are migrated, they become standard ad groups with all three AI Max features turned on, including final URL expansion, and the existing URL controls are kept. Search Engine Land reports that Google says campaigns are migrated “in place” and that existing brand inclusions and exclusions carry over.

Why It Matters for a Small Business

For a small advertiser, the main change is that you have less direct control over which searches trigger your ads and what the ads say. Google’s help documentation explains that search term matching uses broad match and keywordless technology to find queries based on your keywords, ads and website. Text customization combines your existing ad text, landing page copy and assets with generative AI to write ad variations. Final URL expansion can send visitors to the page on your site that Google considers most relevant, rather than the page you chose.

Google says that AI Max campaigns using the full set of features see an average of 7% more conversions or conversion value at a similar CPA or ROAS, compared with using search term matching on its own. That figure is Google's own average and is not a promise for any single account. For a business with a small budget and modest conversion volume, results can vary a great deal. Broader matching can bring in useful new searches, but it can also spend money on irrelevant ones, and automatically written copy can make claims about prices, availability or services that you would not have approved yourself.

There is also an AI search angle. Google's help page on ads and AI Overviews recommends broad match or the keywordless targeting in AI Max for reaching ad placements in AI Overviews. However, the same page lists the countries where ads in AI Overviews are currently available, all in English, and Denmark is not one of them. For Danish advertisers, AI Max is therefore mainly a change to ordinary Search campaigns for now, not a direct way into AI-generated answers.

Practical Next Steps After the Migration

Start by checking which campaigns were upgraded in September. Open each Search campaign and look at its AI Max settings, so you know whether search term matching, text customization and final URL expansion are switched on. Google’s documentation says each of these can be turned off: search term matching at ad group level, and text customization and final URL expansion at campaign level. Whether to keep them is a business decision, and it is better to make it deliberately than by default.

Next, review the search terms report. Google has added match type labels showing which queries came through AI Max, together with the headlines and landing pages that were used. Look closely at the first few weeks of data and add negative keywords where spend is going to searches that do not fit your business. If you sell only in certain areas, check the location settings, as AI Max includes location-of-interest controls at ad group level.

Then protect your brand and your landing pages. Use brand exclusions if you do not want to appear for competitors or unrelated brands, and use URL exclusions to keep traffic away from pages such as job listings, terms and conditions or old campaign pages. If text customization is on, read the generated headlines regularly and remove any that are inaccurate. Make sure your website states prices, opening hours and service areas correctly, because the system draws on that copy.

If you are unsure whether AI Max helps or hurts, test it. Google offers AI Max experiments that split traffic within a single campaign into a control arm with AI Max off and a trial arm with it on. This is often a more reliable basis for a decision than comparing before-and-after periods, which can be distorted by seasonality. Accurate conversion tracking is a precondition for any of this, since the system optimises towards the conversions you report.

Preparing for the Dynamic Search Ads Deadline

If you still use Dynamic Search Ads, you have until February 2027 before the automatic migration. Upgrading voluntarily before then lets you choose the settings yourself rather than accept the defaults. A sensible approach is to map which pages your DSA ad groups currently target, decide which of those should remain landing pages, and set up URL exclusions before switching.

None of these changes requires a large budget or a new agency, but they do require attention. For many smaller businesses, a short review of each account now will prevent wasted spend later. Brenvard helps startups and smaller businesses with this kind of hands-on account review as part of its customer and marketing services, and the same checklist applies whoever manages your campaigns.

Brenvard's perspective

For Brenvard, AI Max changes the shape of Google Ads work rather than removing it. Less time goes into building keyword lists by hand, and more goes into checking search terms, guarding brand and landing pages, reviewing AI-written ad text and making sure conversion tracking is accurate, since the system optimises towards whatever it is told counts as a result. That is a gain for advertisers who want fewer manual settings, but it also makes it easier to spend money without noticing where it goes. For a provider like us, the risk is that letting Google decide looks good enough to some small advertisers. The opportunity is that review and control work becomes more important, not less. In practice, an AI Max settings check and a regular review of generated headlines now belong in every routine Search account review, including ours.

Sources

Google – Google’s Dynamic Search Ads are upgrading to AI Max (15 April 2026, updated 11 June 2026)
Google Business – We’re upgrading Dynamic Search Ads to AI Max (15 April 2026)
Search Engine Land – Google sets AI Max migration timeline for Search campaigns (14 August 2026)
Google Ads Help – How AI Max for Search campaigns works (accessed 1 October 2026)
Google Ads Help – About AI Max experiments (accessed 1 October 2026)
Google Ads Help – About ads and AI Overviews (accessed 1 October 2026)