Google's AI Max migration hits your ads September 1

September 1, 2026 is when Google starts moving Search campaigns into AI Max automatically, not as an offer but as a default. If your account uses Automatically Created Assets or a campaign-level Broad Match setting, the migration happens whether you have reviewed it or not.

AI Max is Google's automated layer for Search. It expands which queries your ads can match beyond the keywords you set, writes and swaps ad text, and can route clicks to a different landing page than the one you built the ad around. Google has offered it as an option through most of 2026. What changes this week is that it stops being optional for two specific setups.

What the AI Max migration changes for your account

Accounts running Automatically Created Assets keep the AI-written headlines and descriptions they already had, and gain search-term expansion on top of that: ads can now show for queries well outside the terms you actually set. Accounts using campaign-level Broad Match get a quieter but more consequential change. Existing keywords get treated internally as a blend of broad and exact match, which shifts which keyword wins a given auction and can move spend around without any visible edit on your end. Dynamic Search Ads are not part of this round. That migration was pushed back to February 2027.

The performance numbers worth checking yourself

Google's own figures put the upside at roughly 7% more conversions or conversion value at a similar cost per acquisition, averaged across advertisers who adopted AI Max features. Independent reviews of live accounts have been more mixed. One analysis of 30,000 search terms found that the large majority of AI Max impressions produced no conversions at all. A separate look at retail accounts found return on ad spend running well below classic match types after the switch. Neither result means AI Max is bad for every account. It means the aggregate number Google publishes is not a guarantee for your account, and the only way to know is to check your own data before and after.

What to check before the deadline hits

1. 1

   Audit your accounts

   Pull every Search campaign using Automatically Created Assets or campaign-level Broad Match. Those are the only two settings that trigger the automatic move.

2. 2

   Decide per campaign, on purpose

   For each one, opt in early and configure AI Max on your terms, or turn off the legacy setting before September 1 so nothing moves without your say.

3. 3

   Fix your conversion tracking first

   AI Max bids and expands off your conversion signal. If you are relying on browser-only tracking, connect server-side conversions before the migration, not after.

4. 4

   Set a deliberate budget ceiling

   Search-term expansion can pull in more auction volume than your current budget assumes. Raise the cap on purpose or you will find out the hard way.

5. 5

   Recheck brand controls

   Confirm your brand inclusion and exclusion lists carry over correctly. This is the moment to catch a gap before it starts serving on the wrong search terms.

None of this requires a rebuild. It requires twenty minutes in the account before the deadline: find the campaigns on Automatically Created Assets or Broad Match, decide on purpose instead of by default, and make sure your conversion tracking is feeding it real data. If you want a second pair of eyes on your account settings before they change, bring me your Google Ads workflow and we can walk through it together.