Google begins automatically converting eligible Search campaigns to AI Max today, and the migration will run through September 30 without requiring advertiser opt-in. Campaigns still using campaign-level broad match or automatically created assets are in scope; Dynamic Search Ads sit this wave out, having been pushed to a February 1–28, 2027 window after what Google’s April 15 product blog (updated June 11) described as advertiser feedback that more time was needed.
The defaults are asymmetric, and this is the part small advertisers will feel first. Per the August 12 developer blog and the August 5 advertiser email reproduced by Search Engine Roundtable, ACA campaigns are upgraded with search term matching and text customization enabled, final URL expansion off. Broad match campaigns receive search term matching only. PPC Land’s read is that ACA-only campaigns will now also inherit automated query expansion unless it’s disabled at ad-group level, which is a real scope expansion even if the packaging suggests continuity.
The performance record is where the story gets interesting. Google’s headline claim, drawn from internal 2026 data explicitly excluding retail advertisers, is 7% more conversions or conversion value at similar CPA or ROAS versus search term matching alone. Smarter Ecommerce, working across more than 250 retail Search campaigns, reports a median 13% increase in conversion value and a median 0% ROAS difference. A November 2025 analysis of more than 250 retail campaigns, cited by PPC Land, found conversions arriving at roughly 35% lower ROAS than traditional match types. Lunio’s measurement, cited in Choice OMG’s dossier, tracked AI Max invalid-traffic rates rising from 2.46% to 5.28% over nine months.
That’s not a contradiction so much as a category problem: Google’s number excludes the segment where the independent numbers are worst.
The lockout preceded the migration by a month. On August 3, new campaign-level broad match and legacy ACA configurations were blocked across the Google Ads UI, Editor and API, per Search Engine Land. The pattern is familiar from every prior Google Ads sunset. First the new configuration is unavailable, then the old configuration is upgraded, then the upgraded state becomes the only state that exists.
Advertisers do retain levers. Google’s help documentation, cited by Choice OMG, notes that owners can disable the legacy feature before conversion, or manually enable AI Max and pick sub-settings. After conversion, the AI Max umbrella and each sub-setting can still be toggled at campaign or ad-group level, and brand inclusions and exclusions carry over. For readers who want the operational checklist, our earlier walkthrough of the AI Max auto-upgrade and what changes in your Search campaigns today covers the settings audit.
What ships today isn’t a feature launch. It’s the closing of an option set.
Sources
- https://blog.google/products/ads-commerce/dsa-upgrade-to-ai-max-2026/
- https://searchengineland.com/google-sets-ai-max-migration-timeline-for-search-campaigns-485006
- https://www.seroundtable.com/google-ads-migrate-ai-max-sep1-41829.html
- https://ppc.land/google-ads-ai-max-auto-upgrade-lands-september-1-will-ads-all-look-alike/
- https://choice.marketing/research/google-ai-max-auto-upgrade/