Google AI Max auto-upgrade season has run its course. Google told advertisers that from September 1, 2026, Search campaigns still using automatically created assets (ACA) or the campaign-level broad match setting would be moved to AI Max for Search, and it said it expected the upgrades for eligible campaigns to finish by the end of September. If your account had either setting switched on in August, it is very likely running AI Max now, whether or not anyone on your side clicked a button.
We care about this for a plain reason. One of the law firms we run Google Ads for, California Employer Attorney, logged 532 tracked leads between September 2025 and August 2026: 363 form submissions and 169 phone-call leads, every one recorded as its own conversion in the firm's Google Ads account. Cost per conversion fell 16% between the first and last quarter of that run. Those numbers exist because the conversion data is clean. AI Max learns from exactly that data, so an account with sloppy tracking hands the new matching system a bad map and lets it drive.
Below is what the upgrade switched on, what it left alone, and the checks we would run on any account this week.
Key Takeaways
- Campaigns on automatically created assets moved to AI Max with search term matching and text customization on by default. Campaigns on the campaign-level broad match setting got search term matching only.
- Campaigns with neither automatically created assets nor the campaign-level broad match setting, including those using ordinary ad-group broad match keywords, were not part of the September batch.
- Dynamic Search Ads have their own timeline: Google pushed the DSA sunset and auto-upgrade to February 2027.
- After an upgrade, broad keywords are no longer prioritized as if they were exact match, so check your exact-match coverage.
- Judge AI Max on cost per customer against a baseline you saved before it switched on, over four to six weeks of data.
What the September upgrade switched on
Two legacy settings decided whether a campaign was in the batch, and each one received a different default.
| Legacy setting in August | AI Max features on after the upgrade | What to check now |
|---|---|---|
| Automatically created assets | Search term matching and text customization | Search terms report, asset report, combination report |
| Campaign-level broad match setting | Search term matching only | Search terms report and exact-match keyword coverage |
| Dynamic Search Ads | Not in the September batch; auto-upgrade begins February 2027 | Plan the move to standard ad groups on your own schedule |
| Manual keywords with ACA and the broad match setting both off | Nothing changed | Decide whether you want AI Max at all |
Search Engine Land's write-up of the advertiser email matches Google's own announcement on the split between the two groups. Google framed the whole thing as carrying your existing behavior forward. For the broad match group that is close to true, since search term matching is a cousin of what broad match was already doing. For the ACA group it is a bigger change than it sounds: ACA only ever wrote ad text, and the upgrade added a system that decides which searches you are eligible for.
The broad match line trips people up, so it is worth repeating. The September change applied to the campaign-level toggle that forces every keyword in a campaign to broad. A normal broad match keyword sitting in an ad group was never the trigger.
What AI Max does with your budget
Google's help page on how AI Max for Search campaigns works describes the pieces, and each one touches a different part of your spend.
Search term matching
Google uses broad match, your assets and your landing pages to find queries it predicts are relevant, beyond the keyword list you wrote. Sometimes that finds demand you never thought to bid on. Sometimes it pays for near-miss searches you would never have chosen. On an employer-defense account, for example, the risk is obvious: most employment-law searches come from employees who want to sue, and a firm that only defends employers pays for every one of those clicks it lets through.
Text customization and final URL expansion
Text customization is the new name for automatically created assets. It writes extra headlines and descriptions from your existing ads, your landing page copy and your assets. Final URL expansion lets Google send a click to a different page on your site than the one you set. Both ship under your brand. If a landing page still mentions last year's offer, expect the model to repeat it in an ad.
The controls
Brand inclusions and exclusions at campaign and ad group level, locations of interest, URL controls, and new columns in the search terms report that show why an ad matched. None of them configure themselves. An upgraded campaign with empty brand lists and no URL rules is running on defaults.
Five checks for an account that has already been upgraded
Before September we told clients to move first and set the levers themselves. That window has closed for anyone whose campaigns were in the batch, so the job now is a review. We run it in this order.
1. List which campaigns actually changed
Open the change history and each Search campaign's settings. Note which campaigns now show AI Max, which features are on, and the date. If your agency cannot give you that list within a day, treat that as a finding.
2. Read the search terms report line by line
Pull the search terms for the weeks since the upgrade and compare them with the same weeks before it. New query themes that never convert go into negative lists at campaign or account level. Do this weekly for the first month. Twenty minutes a week is cheaper than one bad month of near-miss clicks.
3. Restore exact-match priority where you relied on it
This one is easy to miss. Google's help page on the broad match campaign setting says that once a campaign leaves that setting or moves to AI Max, broad keywords are no longer prioritized as if they were exact match. If you want the old behavior, add exact-match copies of your important keywords. Converting existing broad keywords to exact instead wipes their historical keyword stats, so add copies rather than editing in place.
4. Audit the generated ads
Open the asset report and the combination report. Remove any generated headline that makes a claim you would not sign off on. Then fix the landing page that produced it, because the model will keep reading that page. For law firms this matters twice over: California's Rule 7.1 treats a guarantee of results as misleading, and an ad written by a model still counts as your communication.
5. Check the conversion data the model is learning from
If you only do one of these, do this one. Confirm enhanced conversions are firing, that calls and forms are separate conversion actions, and that nothing is counted twice. AI Max will optimize toward whatever it is fed, with full confidence, even when a third of your real leads are missing from the count. Automation does not repair a measurement gap. It makes it bigger.
What Google claims, and how we read it
"AI Max for Search campaigns see an average of 7% more conversions or conversion value at a similar CPA/ROAS when using the full feature suite."
That figure compares the full feature set with search term matching on its own, averaged across non-Retail advertisers in Google's internal 2026 data. It tells you nothing about your account, your margins or your city. Read it as Google's case for leaving every switch on, and test it the way you would test any other change: against your own baseline.
The same announcement holds the date most people forgot. Dynamic Search Ads were first due to move in September too, but Google extended that timeline and the DSA sunset and auto-upgrade now begin in February 2027. If you still run DSA, you have time to rebuild those campaigns as standard ad groups yourself, which beats inheriting whatever settings the auto-upgrade chooses.
How to judge AI Max after the switch
Set the rules before you look at results. Save today's numbers, with screenshots: search terms, conversion rate, cost per lead, and if you can get it from your CRM, cost per signed client. Review weekly. Give it four to six weeks of data before you decide anything. If the extra reach is not producing customers at a cost you can live with, turn search term matching off at the ad group level, which Google allows, and keep the parts that work.
We measure every channel on cost per customer for this reason. Cost per click flatters broad matching systems, because cheap irrelevant clicks lower the average while doing nothing for revenue. Our breakdown of Google Ads cost per lead covers why the spread inside one keyword is wider than most advertisers expect. If you want the same review done on your account, that is the core of our paid ads management work, and the California Employer Attorney case study shows what clean call and form tracking looks like in practice. If you run Performance Max next to Search, our PMax guide covers how the two share demand.
Frequently Asked Questions
What happened to Google Search campaigns on September 1, 2026?
Google began automatically upgrading Search campaigns that used automatically created assets or the campaign-level broad match setting to AI Max for Search. Google said it expected upgrades for all eligible campaigns to finish by the end of September, after sending notifications in each account before the transition began.
Which AI Max features were turned on by the auto-upgrade?
It depends on the legacy setting. Campaigns using automatically created assets got search term matching and text customization. Campaigns using the campaign-level broad match setting got search term matching only. Final URL expansion was not switched on for either group by default.
We only use manual keywords. Did the upgrade affect us?
Only if a campaign also had automatically created assets or the campaign-level broad match setting on. Campaigns with both off, including ordinary broad match keywords at the ad group level, were not in the September batch. You can still adopt AI Max yourself, and Google is clearly moving Search in that direction, so plan the decision rather than waiting for the next forced move.
Can I turn AI Max features off after the upgrade?
Yes. Search term matching can be turned off in ad group settings, and text customization and final URL expansion can be switched off individually in campaign settings. Turning a feature off is a reasonable test if your search terms report shows spend on queries that never convert.
When do Dynamic Search Ads move to AI Max?
February 2027. Google extended the original timeline, so the DSA sunset and automatic upgrade begin then rather than in September 2026. Use the gap to rebuild DSA campaigns as standard ad groups on your own terms.
How is AI Max different from broad match?
Broad match expands from the meaning of your keywords. AI Max search term matching also reads your landing pages and assets to decide which searches to enter, and it comes with location and URL controls that broad match does not have, plus brand controls at both campaign and ad group level. It reaches further, so it depends more on those controls being set.
Will AI Max lower our cost per lead?
Sometimes. It depends on your negatives, your controls and the quality of your conversion data. Google's own figure is an average of 7% more conversions or conversion value at a similar CPA/ROAS when all three features are on, compared with search term matching alone, across non-Retail advertisers. It is not a forecast for your account.
