What is AI Max for Search campaigns?

AI Max for Search campaigns is not a new campaign type. It is a set of three features that get activated inside a standard Google Ads Search campaign: search term matching expansion, text customization, and final URL expansion. All three run on generative AI and can be turned on or off separately, though text customization must be active for URL expansion to work.

Search term expansion combines broad match with what Google calls keywordless technology: the system learns from the existing keywords, ads, and URLs in the account to decide which searches trigger the ad, beyond the ones the advertiser typed manually. Text customization generates headlines and descriptions by combining text from existing ads, landing page content, and account assets. URL expansion sends the click to the page on the site that Google judges most relevant to that specific search, within the ad group.

It is worth distinguishing this from other AI products in Google Ads. Performance Max splits budget across several channels (Search, Display, YouTube, Shopping); AI Max is limited to Search campaigns. Demand Gen works on visual inventory in social feeds, not on searches. And Dynamic Search Ads (DSA), the format that generated headlines by crawling the site, is being folded into AI Max: Google confirms that DSA campaigns will be automatically upgraded starting in February 2027.

The advertiser activates AI Max inside the settings of an existing or new Search campaign, not as a separate campaign type. From there, the system operates on three layers.

At the matching layer, AI Max still follows the keywords and match types set at the ad group level, but adds further searches the model considers related, based on the keywords, ads, and URLs in the account. The search terms report flags which clicks came from a regular keyword and which from AI Max expansion, so the added traffic can be audited the same way any broad match traffic would be.

At the text layer, the system combines fragments from existing ads, landing page content, and account assets with language generation to produce headlines and descriptions matched to the intent of each search, instead of always showing the same fixed variant.

At the URL layer, if the advertiser turned on expansion, the click can land on a page other than the final URL stated in the ad, always within pages Google considers on-topic for the ad group.

The advertiser keeps precision controls: URL exclusions and inclusions, brand controls at the campaign or ad group level, location of interest targeting, and the usual negative keywords, which continue to work within this framework. URL exclusions block a specific page, URL inclusions manually add pages the expansion would not have detected, and brand controls either force or prevent association with a given brand.

The date matters because it is not optional. Starting in September 2026, campaigns already using automatically created assets or campaign-level broad match shift to AI Max without the advertiser requesting it. And Google confirms, on its Help page about Dynamic Search Ads, that the remaining DSA campaigns will be automatically upgraded starting in February 2027, a date Google pushed back from the original April 2026 announcement, which had cited September 2026 for all campaigns. Anyone managing accounts with active DSA has, as of August 2026, until February 2027 before the change becomes mandatory, and can migrate voluntarily beforehand using the tools Google has been rolling out since June 2026.

For B2B accounts with tight search budgets, the difference between migrating ahead of time and undergoing the automatic switch lies in control: before the change, the advertiser decides which pages stay excluded, which brands do not get mixed, and which negative keywords remain in place. After the automatic switch, those exclusions need to be checked one by one to confirm they still apply.

Google describes AI Max as an evolution of both Dynamic Search Ads and Performance Max's final URL expansion, which explains why folding DSA in is not an added feature but the natural endpoint of that path.

• Review the search terms report after activating expansion, the same way you would review a new broad match setup, and add negative keywords for terms that do not fit.
• Set URL exclusions and inclusions before turning on final URL expansion, not after, so the system does not send traffic to pages outside the advertiser's control.
• Set brand controls at the campaign level when product categories should not mix with a competitor mentioned in the same ad group.
• Migrate from DSA to AI Max voluntarily before February 2027, using Google's transfer tools, instead of waiting for the forced upgrade.
• Compare performance per ad group before and after activating each of the three features separately, not all three at once, to see which one drives the change.
• Keep negative keywords up to date: they still work inside AI Max and remain the most direct control over which searches should not trigger the ad.

• Turning on final URL expansion without first checking which pages of the site are actually fit to receive search traffic.
• Confusing AI Max with Performance Max: one works only with Search, the other splits budget across several channels.
• Assuming the automatic DSA upgrade date is still September 2026: Google pushed it back to February 2027 for most campaigns.
• Skipping the search terms report after activating match expansion, then discovering months later that the ad was showing on irrelevant searches.
• Leaving brand controls unconfigured in accounts where a company's own products and third-party mentions appear side by side.