Google AI Max Migration Is Live: What Every Advertiser Must Do Before September Ends
TL;DR: Google is auto-upgrading all Search campaigns that use Automatically Created Assets (ACA) or campaign-level broad match to AI Max throughout September 2026. The migration is irreversible once it runs. Dynamic Search Ads get a stay of execution until February 2027. If you have not audited your campaigns yet, September is running out.
On September 1, 2026, Google began automatically migrating eligible Search campaigns to AI Max — its next-generation campaign framework that replaces legacy keyword and creative settings with AI-driven signal interpretation. The rollout is gradual but irreversible: once a campaign migrates, there is no path back to the legacy configuration. Microsoft followed with its own AI Max for Search global rollout the same month, making September a watershed moment for paid search across both major platforms.
For advertisers who have been monitoring the announcement since Google first signaled it at Marketing Live, September is the deadline, not a preview. For teams that have not acted yet, this article breaks down exactly which campaigns are affected, what changes under the hood, and the specific steps you need to complete before your account is updated automatically.
What Google AI Max actually is
AI Max for Search is not a new campaign type — it is a new framework layered on top of existing Search campaigns. It replaces three legacy mechanics with AI-driven equivalents:
- Search Term Matching — keywords remain in the account, but AI expands coverage by matching ads to intent-aligned queries beyond exact keyword strings, using landing page content and existing assets as signals.
- Text Customization — formerly called Automatically Created Assets, this generates headline and description variations using generative AI. Assets are labeled “Google AI” in Ads reporting.
- Final URL Expansion — the system can override your designated landing page and send traffic to a different, AI-selected page on your domain when it judges that page more likely to convert for the specific query.
According to Google’s announcement, campaigns running all three features together see an average of 7% more conversions or conversion value at a similar CPA/ROAS compared to using search term matching alone. That performance number is Google’s own benchmark and should be treated accordingly, but it frames why the company is pushing AI Max as the default.
Which campaigns are being auto-migrated in September
Not every Search campaign is in scope for the September migration. Google is targeting two specific legacy configurations:
| Campaign type | Migration timing | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Campaigns using Automatically Created Assets (ACA) | September 1–30, 2026 | ACA is renamed Text Customization and placed under the AI Max framework; existing ACA settings carry over |
| Campaigns using campaign-level Broad Match | September 1–30, 2026 | Broad match is absorbed into AI Max’s Search Term Matching feature; brand exclusions transfer automatically |
| Dynamic Search Ads (DSA) | February 1–28, 2027 (delayed) | Google extended the DSA deadline after advertiser feedback; voluntary upgrades available now |
| Standard Search campaigns with manual match types only | Not in September scope | Not automatically migrated this month; monitor for future announcements |
The key practical point: you cannot create new campaign-level Broad Match configurations or legacy ACA campaigns after September 1. New campaigns built from September onward must use the AI Max framework for these features. Existing campaigns in scope will be migrated in place during the month, with equivalent settings applied where possible.
Three features that activate by default after migration
Search Term Matching
This is the most significant change to how your budget gets spent. Under AI Max, your keywords become intent signals rather than strict match controllers. The system reads your landing page copy, your existing ad assets, and historical conversion patterns to identify additional queries that share the same underlying user goal as your target keywords — even if those queries contain none of your keyword strings.
For advertisers with tightly controlled search term reports, this will expand the query surface. The new Search Term Insights report in Google Ads replaces the legacy search terms view and surfaces queries at the theme and intent level rather than the individual keyword level. Checking this report weekly after migration is essential for the first 30 days.
Text Customization
Google’s generative AI will create headline and description variations beyond what you have manually pinned. These AI-generated assets appear in your ad account and are labeled “Google AI” in the asset detail view. You retain the ability to pin specific headlines to specific positions, and pinned assets are not overridden by AI variants.
Advertisers who have invested in brand voice consistency should audit their pinning strategy before migration. If brand-critical messaging is not pinned, AI Text Customization may surface variants that diverge from your approved copy. This is not a theoretical concern — it is a documented pattern from Performance Max campaigns, where AI-generated assets have historically needed brand exclusion lists to stay on-message.
Final URL Expansion
This is the feature that most directly affects your website strategy. When Final URL Expansion is active, Google’s AI can ignore your designated landing page and route a click to any other page on your domain that it calculates as more likely to convert for that specific query. If a user searches for something closely related to a product category page rather than your campaign-specific landing page, the AI may send them to the category page instead.
The implication is that your entire website becomes a conversion surface, not just the pages you have built and optimized for paid campaigns. Pages that were previously outside the paid traffic flow — blog posts, category pages, feature pages — can now receive paid clicks if the AI considers them more relevant. This makes the quality, load speed, and conversion structure of your full site directly relevant to your paid search ROAS in a way it was not before.
Teams that have not yet invested in site-wide conversion rate optimization will feel this asymmetry acutely after migration: you are paying for AI-selected landing pages whose performance you have not controlled. If your site structure was built by an in-house team or assembled from templates rather than built to convert, now is the time to address it — companies working with a professional web development team typically use this moment to audit and harden every page that could receive paid traffic under URL expansion.
You can disable Final URL Expansion at the campaign level if you need to maintain strict control over landing pages. The setting is under Campaign settings → URL options. Disabling it will limit the AI’s flexibility but gives you certainty about where paid clicks land.
Your pre-migration checklist
If your campaigns fall in scope and have not yet migrated, complete the following before the end of September. If the migration has already run, use this list to audit the post-migration state:
- Identify which campaigns are in scope. In Google Ads, filter your campaign list for campaigns using ACA (Settings → Ads → Automatically Created Assets: On) and campaign-level Broad Match. These are your migration targets.
- Document your current performance benchmarks. Export CPA, ROAS, conversion volume, search term mix, and impression share for each affected campaign. You need a pre-migration baseline to evaluate AI Max performance after the transition.
- Audit your brand exclusions. Brand exclusions transfer automatically, but verify the list is complete and current before migration runs. Post-migration, it is harder to retroactively catch brand cannibalization in your search term data.
- Set URL exclusions for pages you do not want to receive paid traffic. Under Final URL Expansion settings, add URL exclusions for pages that should not appear as paid landing pages — login pages, account dashboards, careers pages, low-converting blog posts.
- Review your pinned assets. Any headline or description you need locked to a specific position should be pinned before migration. AI Text Customization will supplement but should not override pinned assets.
- Enable the new Search Term Insights report. Bookmark it and plan to review it at least weekly for the first 30 days after migration. This is your primary signal for whether AI-expanded queries are on-target or drifting.
- Decide whether to keep Final URL Expansion active. For e-commerce with large product catalogs and robust site structure, it may improve performance. For service businesses with a single conversion-optimized landing page per campaign, disabling it is safer until you have data.
What is happening with Dynamic Search Ads
Google originally planned to begin auto-migrating Dynamic Search Ads to AI Max in September alongside ACA and campaign-level broad match. Following substantial advertiser feedback, that deadline was pushed to February 1–28, 2027.
DSA advertisers are not off the hook — Google is now displaying in-account notices encouraging voluntary upgrades, and February 2027 is a real deadline. Voluntary migration gives you control over the transition timing, the ability to run the old and new configurations in parallel for comparison, and access to the full AI Max feature set including text customization and advanced brand controls that DSA never had.
The practical advice from agencies that have been running AI Max since its beta: voluntary migration in September or October — before the Q4 holiday season — gives you time to learn the system before your highest-spend period. Migrating in January under deadline pressure is a worse outcome than migrating now with runway to optimize. For context, the same urgency applied to Google’s DMA EU search overhaul, where advertisers who acted early had cleaner data and better-configured campaigns by the time the mandatory changes hit.
How to read AI Max performance after the transition
The metrics exist under a different reporting layer after migration, which confuses advertisers who are used to the legacy search terms view. Here is what changed:
| What you used before | What replaces it in AI Max | What you lose |
|---|---|---|
| Search Terms Report (individual queries) | Search Term Insights (theme-level clusters) | Individual query-level visibility; negative keyword precision |
| Asset performance labels (Good/Best/Low) | Asset detail with “Google AI” labels on generated assets | Direct comparison of human vs AI assets at the impression level |
| Final URL per ad group | Final URL + AI-selected alternates visible in URL report | Certainty about which URL each click landed on (unless expansion is disabled) |
| Match type breakdown | Intent-level signal report | Exact/phrase/broad conversion data segmented by match type |
The loss of individual query-level data is the adjustment that trips up most experienced PPC managers. Negative keyword additions now operate at the theme level rather than the exact-query level. If you manage campaigns with historical lists of hundreds of negative keywords refined over years, expect the first 30 days post-migration to surface some query drift that requires adding new negatives at the theme level.
The broader context: AI is now the default infrastructure for paid search
September 2026 is the month when Google formally ended the era of keyword-controlled paid search as a default setting. For teams that have resisted automation — preferring manual control over match types, creative, and landing pages — AI Max is not an option to evaluate. It is the new baseline.
The skill shift this demands is real. Managing AI Max well requires understanding how to set constraints — brand exclusions, URL exclusions, asset pinning, negative themes — rather than how to manage individual keywords and ad texts. Advertisers who invest time in learning those constraint controls in September will be better positioned than those who wait for their campaigns to migrate automatically and then react to performance changes after the fact.
The underlying economics are also shifting. When Google’s AI selects which page on your domain receives each click, the quality of your total web presence — not just your dedicated landing pages — determines paid search efficiency. This is the functional argument for treating your website as a performance asset, not just a credibility asset.
FAQ
Will my Google Ads campaigns stop running if I do not act before September ends?
No. Campaigns will not stop running. They will be automatically migrated to equivalent AI Max settings, with brand exclusions and URL settings carried over. The risk is not downtime — it is an unmonitored transition to settings you have not reviewed or benchmarked, making it harder to evaluate performance changes after the fact.
Can I opt out of Google AI Max?
Not for ACA and campaign-level broad match — those migrations are mandatory for campaigns that use those features. You can disable individual AI Max features (Final URL Expansion, Text Customization) at the campaign level after migration, but the overall AI Max framework will be applied. Dynamic Search Ads have until February 2027.
What happens to my existing negative keyword lists after migration?
Existing campaign-level and account-level negative keywords carry over. However, AI Max operates on intent signals rather than exact keyword strings, so some queries that were previously excluded via exact or phrase negative keywords may re-enter if they do not match the new theme-level negative logic. Expect to add new negative themes in the Search Term Insights report during the first month.
How does Final URL Expansion decide which page to send traffic to?
Google’s AI evaluates the specific search query against all pages on your domain that it has crawled, then selects the page it predicts will yield the highest conversion probability for that query. The selection is influenced by page content, site structure, historical conversion data for that page, and query-to-page relevance signals. You can exclude specific URLs from consideration in campaign settings.
Does AI Max affect my Quality Score?
Quality Score as a visible metric still exists in Google Ads, but AI Max campaigns are optimized against a broader signal set than the traditional keyword/ad/landing page triangle. Expected click-through rate, ad relevance, and landing page experience — the three Quality Score components — continue to influence auction efficiency, but AI Max uses real-time intent signals and predicted conversion probability as additional factors that Quality Score does not capture.
