The Google Ads AI Max Upgrade Starts in September: What It Changes

If you run Google Ads Search campaigns with automatically created assets or the campaign-level broad match setting turned on, the AI Max upgrade will change your account next month whether you do anything or not. Google confirmed on The Keyword that from September those campaigns move to AI Max automatically, with all eligible upgrades expected to conclude by the end of the month. You get a notification in the account beforehand. You do not get a veto.

Here is what actually changes, what stays the same, and the half hour of work worth doing before it lands.

AI Max is a layer, not a campaign type

The most common misreading of this is that Google is migrating you to a new campaign format the way Smart Shopping became Performance Max. It is not. Google's documentation is unusually plain about it: AI Max is an optimisation layer within existing Search campaigns, not a new campaign type. Your campaign, its budget, its bid strategy and its history all stay where they are.

What switches on are three features sitting on top:

Search term matching finds queries beyond your keywords using broad match, asset-based targeting and keywordless technology.

Text customisation generates headlines and descriptions from your domain, landing pages, existing ads and the keywords in the ad group.

Final URL expansion sends traffic to whichever page on your site Google judges most relevant to the query, rather than the final URL you set.

Whether all three land on you depends on which legacy setting you were running.

Who gets moved, and into what

Two groups are in scope in September.

If you use automatically created assets, your campaigns upgrade with search term matching and text customisation enabled by default. Final URL expansion is not switched on for you.

If you use the campaign-level broad match setting, your campaigns upgrade with search term matching enabled by default.

Dynamic Search Ads advertisers get a reprieve. Google originally bundled DSA into the same September deadline, then updated the announcement in June to push the DSA sunset and auto-upgrade back to February 2027, citing advertiser feedback that the transition needed more time. If you run DSA and assumed you were safe because of that extension, check whether the same accounts also use automatically created assets. That half of the change did not move.

The numbers Google is quoting

Google says advertisers activating AI Max in Search campaigns typically see 14% more conversions or conversion value at a similar CPA or ROAS, and that using the full feature suite delivers an average of 7% more conversions or conversion value than search term matching alone.

Both figures are Google internal data for non-Retail advertisers, unaudited and averaged across a population you know nothing about. Averages like that are usually carried by accounts that were structurally poor beforehand: thin keyword coverage, one generic ad, no negative list. If your account is already tightly run, the honest expectation is a smaller lift, and possibly none. That is not a reason to fight the change. It is a reason not to plan your quarter around a 14% number.

The control most people will miss

Final URL expansion is the setting that quietly undoes work you have already paid for.

When final URL expansion is on and Google picks a more relevant landing page, pinned responsive search ad assets are not respected, because a pinned headline may no longer match the intent behind the chosen page. If you have pinned your brand name or a compliance-required phrase into position one, that pin stops being a guarantee.

Text customisation is also a prerequisite for final URL expansion — switch text customisation off and URL expansion goes with it. That coupling matters if your only objection is to AI-written copy.

What to do before September

Find the exposure. In Settings, filter or add columns for AI Max settings and identify every campaign currently using automatically created assets or campaign-level broad match. If the answer is none, you can stop here.

Decide on final URL expansion deliberately. If your site has pages you do not want ads landing on — old blog posts, careers, terms, out-of-stock lines — add URL exclusions at campaign level before the upgrade, not after you spot the traffic in reporting.

Set brand controls. Brand inclusions and exclusions are the sharpest lever AI Max gives you. Use them if you sell in a market where competitor or reseller queries are a problem.

Write text guidelines. If you operate anywhere with regulated language — finance, health, legal — define your term exclusions and tone restrictions now rather than reviewing generated copy after it has served.

Baseline your numbers. Export search terms, CPA or ROAS, and impression share for the four weeks before your upgrade date. Without that, you will spend October arguing with yourself about whether September was AI Max or seasonality.

Should you upgrade early?

For most accounts, yes. Upgrading on your own schedule means you choose the settings, you know the date, and you have a clean before-and-after. Waiting for the automatic upgrade means the defaults choose for you during a week you may not be watching.

The case for waiting is narrower than Google's messaging suggests. If your site is thin, if your landing pages do not clearly match distinct search intents, or if your budget is small enough that a bad fortnight of query expansion is material, fix the site first. AI Max is an amplifier, and a good amplifier makes a weak signal worse. That is a conversion problem before it is a bidding one.

Either way, this is not a change to sit out. The upgrade is coming to eligible campaigns regardless, and the only real variable is whether the settings that land are yours or Google's.

We have taken accounts through every one of these forced migrations since Smart Shopping, and the pattern holds: the advertisers who move early with a plan keep their numbers, and the ones who wait spend the following month reverse-engineering what changed. You can see the kind of work that involves in our case studies, or read more about how we run Google Ads day to day.

If you want someone to audit which of your campaigns are in scope and set the controls before September, get in touch. It is a short job now and a long one afterwards.