The migration window opens today. From 1 September to 30 September 2026, Google Ads automatically upgrades Search campaigns that still use two legacy settings — campaign-level broad match and automatically created assets — to AI Max for Search campaigns.
Google notified affected advertisers by email on 5 August, in one flat sentence: “Starting September 1, 2026, campaigns using automatically created assets (ACA) and/or campaign-level broad match setting will automatically be upgraded to AI Max for Search campaigns.” The technical detail followed on the Google Ads Developer Blog on 12 August, and the full migration calendar was reported by Search Engine Land on 14 August.
This is not a rebrand. For a large share of the accounts affected, it is a targeting change that arrives without anyone in the account approving it.
What AI Max actually is
AI Max is Google’s packaging of three previously separate Search features into one campaign-level switch, described in Google Ads Help as a continuous optimisation layer:
- Search term matching — uses broad match plus what Google calls “keywordless” technology to find queries beyond your keyword list, learning from your existing keywords, creatives and URLs.
- Text customization — the feature formerly named automatically created assets: generated headlines and descriptions built from your landing page, ads and keywords.
- Final URL expansion — sends a user to whichever page on your site Google judges most relevant to their intent, rather than the URL you set.
Google’s own performance claim for the bundle, published on The Keyword, is modest and specific: campaigns using the full feature suite see “an average of 7% more conversions or conversion value at a similar CPA/ROAS” compared with using search term matching alone. That is a comparison between two AI Max configurations — not a promise of a lift against your current setup.
What flips on, by campaign type
The defaults differ depending on which legacy feature your campaign uses, and the difference matters more than it looks:
- Campaigns with automatically created assets are upgraded with search term matching on and text customization on. Final URL expansion stays off.
- Campaigns with campaign-level broad match are upgraded with search term matching on. Text customization and final URL expansion stay off.
The asymmetry is where the risk sits. A broad match campaign already had loose query matching; it keeps roughly the behaviour it had. An ACA campaign did not — automatically created assets only ever generated creative. As PPC Land put it, those campaigns now inherit “a targeting change that the legacy feature never carried.” If your account leaned on ACA for creative volume while keeping tight exact and phrase keyword control, that control is what changes on 1 September.
Google also closed the door behind this move on 3 August, when it stopped allowing the creation of new campaign-level broad match settings and legacy automatically created assets across the Google Ads interface, Ads Editor and the API.
What you keep
The upgrade is not a surrender of every lever. Advertisers retain brand controls (a three-option toggle governing branded search), asset removals for generated text, URL controls, location settings, and tracking templates using supported lpurl tag patterns. Pinned assets in responsive search ads continue to be respected in the broad match upgrade path.
You can also avoid the automatic path entirely — in either direction. Turning the legacy feature off before the migration reaches your account keeps the campaign out of scope. Turning AI Max on yourself means you choose the configuration instead of accepting the default. Google’s guidance is explicit on which it prefers: “We recommend transitioning to AI Max now to maintain full control over your campaign setup.”
Dynamic Search Ads got a reprieve — this did not
It is worth separating the two timelines, because they were once the same one. Dynamic Search Ads were originally scheduled for automatic migration in September 2026 as well. In June, Google pushed that to February 2027, with reminder notices on 15 January 2027 and the automatic window running 1–28 February 2027, at which point creating new DSA ad groups is permanently disabled. Google Ads Liaison Ginny Marvin said the extension “will give advertisers more time to prepare and avoid major account changes during the busy Q4 season.”
That reasoning did not extend to ACA and campaign-level broad match. Those still move this month — squarely into the run-up to Q4. Older Google Ads API versions that still support the legacy features are scheduled to sunset around September 2027.
What it means for your business
Find out today whether you are in scope. Filter your Search campaigns for campaign-level broad match and for automatically created assets. If neither appears, nothing happens to you this month. If either does, you have a campaign whose matching behaviour is about to change inside the migration window.
Take a performance baseline before the flip reaches the account. Export cost, conversions, CPA or ROAS, and impression share for the affected campaigns for the four weeks to 31 August. Once search term matching is on, you will need a clean before-picture to judge whether query expansion helped or diluted. Waiting until October to look means comparing against a period that is already contaminated.
Watch search terms weekly, not monthly, through September. Query expansion is the whole mechanism here. The search terms report is where the upgrade shows its work — and where you will see whether it is buying intent or buying volume. Add negative keywords as the data arrives rather than in a single post-mortem.
Decide deliberately rather than by default. Migrating manually costs an hour and lets you set search term matching, text customization and final URL expansion to what your account actually needs. Letting the automatic upgrade run costs nothing today and hands the configuration choice to Google’s defaults. For accounts with narrow margins, regulated claims or strict brand language, the hour is cheaper. This is the review we run for clients before any forced platform migration in paid advertising: baseline first, configure deliberately, then measure.
Do not treat the 7% as your forecast. Google’s figure compares full AI Max against partial AI Max, in aggregate, across advertisers we cannot see. It is a reasonable argument for using the whole feature set once you are on AI Max. It is not a projection for your account, and we would not put it in a budget case.
Our reading is that the direction of travel is settled: Google is consolidating Search targeting and creative into a single AI-managed layer, and the manual levers are being retired on a published schedule through to 2027. The question for the next four weeks is not whether to move, but whether you move on your terms or on the calendar’s.
