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Google's AI Max auto-migration begins September 1 — what small-team advertisers lose control of

Campaigns using automatically created assets or campaign-level broad match will upgrade in place through September 30, with search term matching and text customization on by default.

By Dario Vasquez·Deployments & incidents·

On September 1, Google Ads began automatically upgrading Search campaigns that use automatically created assets or campaign-level broad match to AI Max, with rollout continuing through September 30. The switch flips three defaults inside accounts whose owners never opened the settings panel.

Per Google’s email to advertisers, quoted by Search Engine Roundtable’s Barry Schwartz on August 7, campaigns with ACA will be upgraded with “search term matching and text customization enabled by default,” and campaigns with the campaign-level broad match setting will move to AI Max with “search term matching enabled by default.” Brand inclusions, exclusions, and legacy URL controls port over, according to Brandon Ervin, Director of Product Management for Google Ads. New ACA and campaign-level broad match entities were blocked from creation on August 3 across the UI, Ads Editor, and API. There’s no rollback.

Google’s pitch: 7% more conversions or conversion value at similar CPA/ROAS when advertisers run the full AI Max suite (search term matching, text customization, final URL expansion) versus search term matching alone. The product is out of beta with “hundreds of thousands of global advertisers” already on it. Ervin’s post recommends Google’s own one-click experiments before committing.

Dynamic Search Ads were originally in this cohort. After advertiser feedback, Google’s June 11 update pushed that sunset to February 2027, with in-account notices this month, reminders on January 15, automatic migration across February 1–28, and permanent removal of new DSA ad groups at the end of that window.

Microsoft made its own AI Max generally available three days ago and switched it on by default for new Search campaigns, claiming at least 8% more conversions from 44 advertiser A/B tests run June–August. Both platforms now default to AI rewriting ad copy and matching queries beyond declared keywords.

Seafoam Media’s September brief locates the actual risk cleanly: the migration isn’t the danger, losing the ability to explain performance changes afterward is. The prudent move before September 30 is a negative-keyword and brand-exclusion audit and a clean baseline of conversion and CPA. It’s the same structural shift visible in ads inside ChatGPT answers, where the surface decides what the buyer sees and the advertiser inherits the outcome.

Sources