Google Is Moving Your Search Campaigns Into AI Max Before September 30. Audit the Defaults Before Q4 Does It for You.

If you run Google Search campaigns and any of them used the campaign-level broad match setting or automatically created assets, assume they are now AI Max campaigns, or will be by September 30. Open the Keywords tab on each one this week, find out what share of conversions AI Max is driving, and decide at the ad group level whether search term matching stays on for Q4.

Do not flip AI Max off wholesale. That switch takes your brand exclusions with it. Tune the individual features instead.

That is the recommendation. Here is why it matters now and not in January.

What changed

Google stopped allowing new campaign-level broad match settings and legacy automatically created assets (ACA) across the Google Ads interface, Editor, and API on August 3, 2026. On September 1 it started automatically upgrading existing campaigns that use either one to AI Max. The migration rolls out progressively through September 30. There is no opt-out from the upgrade itself.

Google says campaigns are migrated in place to “equivalent” AI Max settings. Per the Google Ads Developer Blog, the defaults are:

Legacy setup	Search term matching	Text customization	Final URL expansion
Campaign-level broad match	On	Off	Off
Standalone automatically created assets	On	On	Off

Existing brand inclusions and exclusions carry over.

Read the ACA row closely. If you only ever used automatically created assets to fill out ad copy, you were not running broad query expansion before. You are now. That is not an equivalent setup. It is a new one.

Dynamic Search Ads are next. Google has rescheduled that automatic upgrade to February 2027, with in-account notices starting this month and reminders in January.

The second change landing the same week

Also starting in late September, Google is removing the campaign-level language targeting setting from Search and AI Max for Search campaigns. On Performance Max, the setting stops applying to Google Search inventory but still guides YouTube, Display, Discover, and Gmail.

From now on, Google matches on the language of your ads and landing pages plus its own read of which languages each user understands. Google told advertisers at a roundtable, reported by Search Engine Journal, that an AI Max campaign can serve a French ad to someone searching in English if its systems decide that user understands French.

For most U.S. brands this is a non-event. It matters if you run Spanish-language campaigns, if you are an international brand whose U.S. landing pages still carry home-market language, or if text customization is writing assets for you. The fix is boring. Make sure every ad and every landing page is clearly in the language you intend.

Why this matters more for retail brands than Google’s pitch suggests

Google’s help documentation says advertisers who turn on AI Max “typically see 14% more conversions or conversion value at a similar CPA/ROAS.” The footnote cites Google internal data from 2025 for non-Retail advertisers. If you sell physical products, the headline number was not measured on businesses like yours.

That does not mean AI Max loses money for ecommerce. It means you have no benchmark except your own account, and your own account just changed underneath you three to eight weeks before Black Friday.

The math on unmonitored expansion

Illustrative, but built the way you should build it on your own numbers.

A Search campaign spends $20,000 a month at a $30 CPA. AOV is $110 and contribution margin before ad spend is 45%.

Before migration: 667 orders, $73,333 revenue, $33,000 gross profit, less $20,000 spend = $13,000 contribution.

After migration, search term matching pulls 25% of spend into expanded queries converting at $60 CPA:

• $15,000 on your original queries at $30 = 500 orders
• $5,000 on expanded queries at $60 = 83 orders
• 583 orders, $64,167 revenue, $28,875 gross profit, less $20,000 = $8,875 contribution

Same budget. Contribution down $4,125 a month, or 32%. Nothing on your ROAS dashboard turns red, because blended CPA only moved from $30 to $34.

Now run it the other way. If those expanded queries convert at $30, you gained volume for free and you should leave search term matching on. The point is not that AI Max is bad. It is that the difference between those two outcomes is about $4,000 a month on a mid-sized campaign, and right now most brands do not know which one they are in.

How to see what AI Max is actually doing

Google already gives you the data. You just have to look for it.

1. Keywords tab, bottom summary rows. Look for “Total: AI Max expanded matches” and “Total: AI Max landing page matches.” Add them together and divide by total campaign conversions. That is your AI Max share. A practitioner method published by Search Engine Land on September 23 showed a five-campaign example ranging from roughly 8% to 29%. That is one agency’s example, not a benchmark. Find your own number.
2. Search terms report. Filter match type to “AI Max” and use the Source column to see whether a term came from broad match expansion or keywordless matching. Google warns this filter can undercount because it excludes “Other search terms,” so treat it as a floor.
3. Search terms and ad combinations. This view shows search term, headline, and landing page together. It is where you catch text customization writing a claim you would never approve.
4. Asset report. Generated assets show “Google AI” in the Added by column. You cannot edit them. You can remove them.

Compare CPA and ROAS on the AI Max slice against the rest of the campaign. That single comparison tells you what to do next.

The controls, and where they live

• Search term matching: ad group level. On by default. Can be switched off per ad group. It does not work with Manual CPC.
• Text customization: campaign level. Can be turned off on its own.
• Final URL expansion: campaign level, off by default for migrated campaigns. If you turn it on, pinned RSA assets are no longer respected. Keep it off unless you have a reason.
• URL exclusions: campaign level, under the URL Exclusions tab in Keywords, or directly from the Landing pages report. Exclude your wholesale page, careers page, blog, and anything with a price that does not match your ad.
• Brand exclusions: campaign level, built in Tools > Shared library > Brand lists. Use them to keep non-brand campaigns off your own brand terms and off competitor terms you do not want to pay for.
• Negative keywords: still respected with AI Max on.

One trap. Turning AI Max off at the campaign level disables every AI Max feature, including the brand exclusions Google migrated in for you. If you want the old behavior back, turn off the individual features, not the master switch.

Google’s own reporting guidance suggests waiting at least two weeks after enabling AI Max before adding negatives. That is reasonable in March. In late September, with peak CPCs about six weeks out, add negatives for obvious junk the day you see it.

What to do this week

1. List every Search campaign that used campaign-level broad match or automatically created assets before August. Those are your migrated or migrating campaigns.
2. On each, calculate AI Max share of conversions from the Keywords tab summary rows.
3. Compare CPA or ROAS on the AI Max slice against the rest of the campaign.
4. Where the AI Max slice is within about 20% of your core efficiency and above your breakeven, leave search term matching on and let it find volume before peak.
5. Where it is materially worse, switch search term matching off at the ad group level. Do not use the campaign master switch.
6. On former ACA campaigns, read the search term and ad combinations view for generated copy. Remove anything off-brand, off-price, or non-compliant.
7. Add URL exclusions and brand exclusions now, not after the first bad week.
8. If you run Spanish or other non-English campaigns, confirm every ad and landing page is clean in its intended language before the language setting disappears.
9. Put a note on your reporting timeline for September 2026. Next year’s year-over-year comparison needs to know the campaign structure changed.
10. Flag your Dynamic Search Ads campaigns. The same exercise comes around again in February 2027.

Make these calls in September. Every change you make in the second week of November is a learning period you pay for at peak CPCs.

None of this is financial advice, and the margin figures above are illustrative. Run the decision on your own numbers.

The bottom line

Google did not ask whether you wanted broader query matching on your Search campaigns heading into Q4. It turned it on. For some brands that will be found money. For others it will be a quiet leak in contribution hidden inside a blended CPA that barely moved. The only way to know which is to pull one number per campaign this week.

If you want a second set of eyes on your Google account before Black Friday, or want the AI Max slice modeled against your real contribution margin, book a call.