If you manage a Google Ads account, you've probably already seen the recommendation to turn on AI Max. Whether you’re unsure about what it will do or you’ve already enabled it and need help getting the most from it, we’re here to guide you through what it is, how it works, and how you can use it to create a bigger impact with your search campaigns.
Your intro to AI Max
AI Max is a suite of targeting and creative features that works with your current search campaign structure, using your existing content to help you increase incremental reach and tailor your search ads to user queries in real time. Essentially, it offers two key functions:
Search term matching
AI Max goes beyond your keyword list by using broad match and keywordless technology, learning from your keywords, creatives, and landing pages to find queries you'd otherwise miss.
Asset optimization
AI Max generates headlines and descriptions from your existing ad copy, landing pages, and the query itself to deliver a more tailored ad to searchers. It also offers final URL expansion, which chooses which domain to direct them to based on what’s predicted to convert best.
You might think that AI Max sounds like Performance Max moving into search. The real difference is transparency. You can see exactly which search terms triggered AI Max, what copy it served, and which landing page it chose.
Timing matters
Dynamic Search Ads (DSA) are on their way out. Google has been upgrading DSA campaigns to AI Max. While the switch timeline has been extended from September to early 2027, it’s still happening. We recommend making the move sooner so you have time to test it and stabilize performance before it’s mandatory. Keep in mind that AI Max will eventually become a part of other aspects of your workflows, too. Google is already rolling it out in Open Beta to Shopping campaigns.
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Preparing your content
Like any AI tool, AI Max is only as powerful as its inputs, so it’s important that your ad groups and published content are relevant and up to date.
AI Max can match a query to any page on your domain, including ones you haven't thought about or updated in years, and it can just as easily pull headlines and descriptions from an old ad group into what it generates. An about page or a contact page that hasn't changed since you pushed it live can be pulled into final URL expansion because the text matches a search term.
We recommend auditing your ad copy and web properties for anything outdated or that you wouldn’t want pulled into ad copy. It’s an exercise that will not only set you up for AI Max success, but also ensure your content is relevant for generative search.
Staying in control: brand and privacy safeguards
While AI Max pulls in your content to create ads autonomously, it does offer built-in guardrails you can use to ensure brand integrity, legal compliance, and conversion efficiency:
- Brand exclusions and inclusions at the campaign and ad group level, so you can specify what your ads should and shouldn't appear alongside.
- Messaging controls (like brand guidelines and asset exclusions) that allow you to share approved or restricted language for generated copy.
- URL exclusions to keep AI Max away from specific pages entirely (you can exclude by URL or whole sections of a site).
- URL inclusions if there's a page that AI Max’s final URL expansion isn't finding on its own that you want it to consider.
- Locations of interest let you reach audiences based on their geographical intent at the ad group level, even in keywordless matches.
Plus, it lets you turn off text customization or final URL expansion individually so that you can be more specific about its role in your campaigns.
Addressing common AI Max questions
While AI Max is designed to streamline and enhance a key part of the manual work involved in expanding incremental reach and optimizing search ads, some marketers are still hesitant to implement it and typically have three questions:
Will AI Max match negative keywords?
No. AI Max respects account- and campaign-level negative keywords, so you don’t have to worry about it displaying a tailored ad for an irrelevant term.
Will AI Max interfere with conversions from my exact match keywords?
No. AI Max prioritizes an exact-match keyword above keywordless or broad match expansion, so it only steps in when your existing keyword inventory doesn't match the query.
Will AI Max comply with my industry’s privacy regulations?
Yes. AI Max can work within your guardrail customizations, using anonymized audience data and pattern matching to expand your incremental reach.
With the guardrails in place to protect your brand and budget, and the countdown to DSA's exit already underway, there's real value in adopting and testing AI Max sooner rather than later.
Implementing AI Max: Your testing plan
Deciding to use AI Max doesn’t require that you roll it out to all your campaigns right away. We recommend our clients take a phased approach that starts with a subset of campaigns, not your whole account.
Pick a few mid-volume campaigns across different product or service categories to get varied insights without risking the accounts that carry the most weight. Be careful not to use more than 10% of your total search budget when testing AI Max. Campaigns that are not limited by budget will receive enough volume to learn something real without putting your top performers at risk.
Before you launch, make sure your target campaign is using Smart Bidding (e.g., Maximize Conversions, Target CPA, or Target ROAS). AI Max's search term matching relies on continuous, real-time conversion signals to expand your reach safely. So if your campaign uses manual bidding, AI Max won't have the conversion feedback loop it needs to bid effectively on keywordless matches.
You don't need to adjust anything else in your account while you're testing, as AI Max works with whatever else is already running. Its performance depends entirely on your vertical, regulations, and your inputs, so resist the instinct to treat it as a one-size-fits-all rollout.
Most importantly, give it time. Having patience at the outset means you don't have to run three or four separate testing cycles to get to the same place. A typical search test offers helpful information in four to six weeks. AI Max needs closer to 8–12 weeks, because it's working through a much larger set of signals and combinations before it settles into what actually performs.
Advertisers who've stuck with it through that longer window have reported meaningful conversion rate increases (~14%, according to Google) once AI Max locks in on the right landing page and copy combinations.
Seeing real results
Once AI Max is up and running, you can see exactly what it’s doing and how it’s performing by:
- Opening your Google Ads search terms report and filtering by match type to find queries tagged as "AI Max" so you can see incremental reach
- Checking your asset reports to see AI-Max-generated headline and description variations, their asset performance ratings, and which combinations drove the highest conversion rate
- Monitoring your landing pages report to confirm final URL expansion is directing traffic to high-converting pages rather than secondary utility pages
You’ll have the insights you need to decide how to use AI Max going forward, which creative you can use across other tactics, and where tightening your exclusions could improve performance.
AI Max perception versus reality
Because AI Max eliminates the need for you and your team to control every keyword and scheduling decision, using it may initially feel like you have less influence over your campaigns. But you’re still creating and managing keyword strategies, ad sets, landing page content, and budgets. AI Max takes them to the next level, making it much easier for you to reach new audiences and offer more relevant search experiences in real time. All with the transparency and provable performance you need.
If you have questions or need help getting started, reach out to our team, and we’ll help you create the right plan for your campaigns so you can turn on AI Max with confidence.
