Starting tomorrow, Google Ads will begin automatically converting Search campaigns that use Automatically Created Assets or the campaign-level broad match setting into AI Max for Search, with the rollout continuing through September 30. Advertisers were warned by email on August 5. There’s no rollback once a campaign flips.
The two affected cohorts get different defaults. ACA campaigns migrate with both search term matching and text customization switched on, meaning Google may rewrite ad copy using landing-page content. Campaign-level broad match campaigns receive search term matching only, which preserves pinned assets in responsive search ads because text customization stays off. Final URL expansion is off by default for both groups and only activates alongside text customization. Automated query expansion is added for ACA unless it’s disabled at the ad group level. Brand inclusions and exclusions carry over automatically, per Search Engine Land, but text guidelines, location controls, and final URL expansion behavior aren’t configured on the advertiser’s behalf.
Dynamic Search Ads were originally on the same September track. A June 11 update pushed that migration to February 2027, leaving ACA and broad match as the immediate cohort.
The numbers are where the story bends. Google, citing internal 2026 data that excludes retail, says AI Max delivers an average of 7% more conversions or conversion value at similar CPA or ROAS when the full feature suite is active. Independent work reads differently. An August 2025 test found that 99% of AI Max impressions produced zero conversions across roughly 30,000 search terms. A November 2025 analysis of more than 250 retail campaigns, cited by PPC Land and NateCue, found ROAS running about 35% below traditional match types. The gap between Google’s headline and the field data is 42 points.
Google’s own documentation, as summarized by PPC Land, concedes that AI Max “will not be effective if a campaign is limited by budget.” NateCue’s read is that the system performs worst precisely where small advertisers live: thin budgets, imprecise conversion tracking, learning phases long enough to burn a month of spend before the model self-corrects.
The only way to avoid the automatic upgrade is to switch off legacy features before the campaign’s migration date, or to manually enable AI Max first and configure it deliberately. Doing nothing is a decision. It just isn’t the advertiser’s.
Structurally, the placement layer keeps moving toward AI-mediated defaults, and the manual controls advertisers spent a decade learning are becoming the exception rather than the interface.
Sources
- https://blog.google/products/ads-commerce/dsa-upgrade-to-ai-max-2026/
- https://searchengineland.com/google-to-auto-upgrade-some-search-campaigns-to-ai-max-484428
- https://searchengineland.com/google-sets-ai-max-migration-timeline-for-search-campaigns-485006
- https://ppc.land/google-ads-broad-match-campaigns-face-ai-max-auto-upgrade-on-september-1/
- https://www.natecue.com/en/news/google-ads-ai-max-september-deadline/