Google AI Max for Search: What It Is and How to Test It

Google AI Max for Search, explained

Open a new Search campaign in Google Ads and AI Max may already be selected. Open an older campaign built around campaign-level broad match or automatically created assets, and Google may have moved those settings into AI Max during its September 2026 migration.⁶

That makes the usual description of AI Max as an opt-in upgrade incomplete. You can still change or disable its individual features, but Google has made the product part of the standard Search setup.¹

AI Max sits inside an existing Search campaign. It is not a separate campaign type. The suite combines search term matching, text customization and final URL expansion, which together let Google reach searches beyond your keyword list, adapt your ad copy, and choose a landing page it believes fits the query.² The appeal is easy to understand: you may reach demand a tightly built keyword list missed. The risk is just as clear, since Google gets more say over the query, the message and the page that receives the click.

This guide covers what AI Max changes, which accounts Google migrated, what the performance data says, and how to test it without handing over the whole account.

What AI Max changes in a Search campaign

A traditional Search campaign starts with keywords you selected. Match types and negatives set the boundaries, the ad points to a page you chose, and the copy comes from assets you wrote. AI Max stretches each of those boundaries.

Search term matching uses broad match and keywordless technology to find queries outside your keyword list. Text customization can generate or adjust headlines and descriptions to suit a search. Final URL expansion can send the click to another relevant page on the same domain.²

Google keeps the campaign inside Search, so budgets, conversion goals and structure stay familiar. The system just has more freedom inside that structure, which means poor tracking or loose controls can spread farther than they did in a narrow keyword campaign. Google says the three features need conversion-based Smart Bidding to work well.² A campaign can only optimize toward the signals it receives, so if a thank-you page fires twice, a phone call counts as a sale, or low-quality form fills carry the same value as qualified leads, AI Max learns from those mistakes.

What is included in AI Max

Turning on the main AI Max setting enables search term matching and the asset optimization panel. Text customization and final URL expansion are adjusted at the campaign level, while some search-term and brand controls also sit at the ad-group level. Final URL expansion requires text customization, because the ad copy needs to match the page Google selects.¹ A label that says AI Max is on does not tell you which parts are active, so check the individual settings before you judge performance.

What changed in September 2026

Google began an automatic migration on September 1, 2026, covering two groups of existing Search campaigns:

• Campaigns using the legacy campaign-level broad match setting.
• Campaigns using standalone automatically created assets.

For campaign-level broad match migrations, search term matching switched on while text customization and final URL expansion stayed off. For automatically created assets migrations, search term matching and text customization switched on while final URL expansion stayed off. Existing brand lists carried over.⁶ Google did not turn on the full suite for every Search campaign; it migrated specific legacy setups, and the defaults depend on which setup the campaign used.

New Search campaigns follow a different path: AI Max is selected by default during creation, and you can review the features before launch and change them later.¹ Dynamic Search Ads follow another schedule again. Google delayed their automatic migration to February 2027 and restored the ability to create new DSA campaigns for now,⁵ while still describing the longer-term move from DSA to AI Max.³

If you manage an older account, check the change history and the current AI Max settings. Do not rely on the campaign name or on how the account was configured a few months ago.

Want AI Max tested properly?

Our Google Ads management sets the controls, runs a measured pilot, and reports cost per lead, not just clicks. Your account stays in your name.

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Does AI Max improve performance?

Google’s headline figure needs its full sentence. Google says AI Max campaigns already using search term matching see an average of 7% more conversions or conversion value at a similar CPA or ROAS after enabling text customization and final URL expansion, and that figure comes from Google’s internal global data for non-retail advertisers.² During the 2025 beta, Google reported a broader 14% increase, rising to 27% for campaigns that drew most of their conversions from exact and phrase match keywords.⁴

Those numbers do not tell a retailer what will happen in a mature ecommerce account. The 7% figure excludes retail, and it compares adding two features with running search term matching on its own. It is not a promise that every campaign gains 7% after someone flips one switch.

Independent data gives a messier answer. Smarter Ecommerce studied more than 250 retail Search campaigns using AI Max and found a median 13% increase in conversion value and a median 16% increase in CPA. Median ROAS was unchanged, but individual campaigns ranged from 42% above baseline to 35% below it.⁸ An earlier comparison from the same group found AI Max producing a ROAS of 2.6 against 4.0 for broad match in a sample of retail campaigns, which drove the first wave of concern; the expanded analysis then showed more variation and a median ROAS difference of zero.⁸

The samples and comparisons differ. Google reports non-retail results and compares parts of its own feature suite, while Smarter Ecommerce examined retail campaigns in live accounts. Neither set can predict the outcome for one advertiser. The useful conclusion is narrower: AI Max can add conversion value, and the extra volume may cost more. Some accounts improve, others lose efficiency, and you need a controlled test against your own economics.

The controls you still have

AI Max gives Google more room to act, but it does not remove every control. Most problems start when someone turns it on and leaves the settings untouched.

Search terms and negative keywords

Review the search terms report for queries introduced through AI Max, and add negatives for irrelevant intent, jobs, research traffic or competitors. Google also reports whether an AI Max match came from broad match expansion or keywordless matching. Our negative keywords guide explains how to build exclusions without blocking useful demand.

Brand controls

Brand inclusions can limit matching to selected brands, and brand exclusions can stop the campaign serving against brands you do not want to target. Google offers these at campaign and ad-group level in different combinations, so check where each list applies.⁷

Text guidelines and term exclusions

Text guidelines apply to assets produced through text customization. You can add up to 25 exact term exclusions per campaign and up to 40 messaging restrictions: term exclusions block specific words or phrases, while messaging restrictions tell the model which claims, concepts or tone to avoid.⁹ These only apply when text customization is on.

URL controls

URL exclusions keep final URL expansion away from pages such as careers, policies, checkout steps or outdated content, and URL inclusions can narrow the pages used for dynamic targeting at the ad-group level. Check tracking templates first, because some configurations can send a dynamic landing page to a 404, and pinned responsive search ad assets may stop serving when Google selects another URL.¹

Location of interest

Location of interest works at the ad-group level and helps you reach people searching about a place even when they are outside it, such as “moving services in Vancouver” or “daycare in North Vancouver”. It still needs careful geographic review.

Who should test AI Max

AI Max has a fair chance in an account with accurate conversion tracking, enough recent conversion data, and a clear value on the action you want, plus someone with time to review search terms, generated assets and landing pages during the test.

Small businesses can use it, but a small budget makes bad signals more expensive: ten weak form fills can distort a campaign when those ten actions are most of the month’s data. Push lead quality back into Google Ads through offline conversion imports where you can. Hold off when tracking is incomplete, brand traffic is unprotected, or the site contains pages you would never choose as ad destinations. Fix those first, because AI Max amplifies the account it receives, including the parts you meant to clean up later.

How to test AI Max without losing control

Check conversion tracking first

Confirm each primary conversion fires once and represents a useful business action, and separate qualified leads or revenue from softer actions such as page views and button clicks. Review attribution and conversion values before giving the bidding system more reach.

Record every starting setting

Snapshot search term matching, text customization, final URL expansion, brand lists, negatives, URL controls and bidding targets. That record keeps the comparison honest if the account changes during the migration or the learning period.

Use an experiment when you can

An AI Max experiment gives a closer control than switching one unrelated campaign on and comparing it with the rest of the account. Keep budgets, goals and the test window aligned, and avoid launching during a sale, a redesign or a tracking change. If an experiment is not practical, define the baseline before launch using the same campaign, comparable dates, and a window long enough to cover the normal conversion delay.

Set controls before adding reach

Add brand rules, negatives, term exclusions and URL exclusions before the test begins, and review final URL expansion against the full website, including pages that rarely receive paid traffic.

Review what Google matched, wrote and selected

AI Max reporting can show the search term, headline and landing page together. Use it to find combinations that spend money while sending the wrong message or choosing the wrong page. Review at least weekly, and record changes one at a time so you know which edit moved the result.

Judge business results

Clicks and raw form fills can make expansion look better than it is. Compare qualified leads, revenue, CPA and ROAS with the agreed baseline, and retailers should also watch average order value and new-customer performance. Our marketing ROI guide covers the reporting side.

How AI Max fits the wider search picture

Google is automating paid Search while AI Overviews and AI Mode change the organic results around it. The two shifts affect different parts of the page but create the same problem: businesses need clean data and clear source material before Google’s systems can make good decisions about them. AI Max handles ad matching, copy and landing-page selection, while organic AI visibility depends on content, entities and third-party mentions that answer engines can verify. Angarum covers that through AI search optimization, while Google Ads management and PPC management cover the paid side. If you want a cost baseline first, read our guide to how much Google Ads cost.

A practical next step

Open the AI Max settings in each active Search campaign and record what is on, paying special attention to campaigns that used campaign-level broad match or automatically created assets before September 2026. Then review conversion tracking, search terms, brand rules and URL controls before you expand the test. Our Google Ads management service sets up the controls, runs a measured test, and reports on qualified leads or revenue instead of stopping at clicks. The ad account stays in your name.

Sources

1. Google Ads Help: Set up AI Max for Search campaigns
2. Google Ads Help: How AI Max for Search campaigns works
3. Google: Dynamic Search Ads are upgrading to AI Max
4. Search Engine Land: AI Max for Search, everything you need to know
5. Search Engine Land: Google delays Dynamic Search Ads migration to AI Max
6. Google Ads Developer Blog: Migrate Campaign-level Broad Match and Automatically Created Assets to AI Max
7. PPC Land: Google Ads gets branded search controls inside AI Max
8. Smarter Ecommerce: The Ultimate Guide to AI Max for Google Search
9. Google Ads Help: Use text guidelines with Performance Max and Search campaigns

Reviewed September 10, 2026. Google keeps changing AI Max timelines and controls, so confirm the current settings in your account before you act.