AI Max for Search: what it does to a small account, what the September 2026 auto-upgrade changed, and what to switch off
AI Max widens matching, rewrites headlines and swaps landing URLs. Which campaigns were upgraded from September 2026, what each part does, the switches.
By Daniel Stoychev, Webso Digital · 6 October 2026 · 7 min read
AI Max for Search is a campaign setting that bundles three automations: search term matching that serves your ads on searches beyond your keywords' match types, text customisation that writes headlines and descriptions from your page and your account, and final URL expansion that sends the click to whichever page on your site Google judges the best match. From September 2026, campaigns that were already using Dynamic Search Ads, automatically created assets or campaign-level broad match were upgraded to it automatically. For a small account the right position is to keep the matching only with a weekly negatives routine, turn off the URL expansion, and review every generated asset before it serves. Here is what each part does and where the switches are, as the account stood in October 2026.
The three parts, in plain words
| Part | What it does | What it is good for | What it costs a small account |
|---|---|---|---|
| Search term matching | Serves on searches related to your keywords and page, beyond the match type | Finding the phrases a keyword list missed | The search terms report fills with phrases you never chose; the negatives routine becomes weekly rather than monthly |
| Text customisation | Generates headlines and descriptions from the page and the account | Accounts with thin ads and no copywriter | Claims you did not write, in your name, and a tone you did not choose; every asset needs a review before it serves |
| Final URL expansion | Sends the click to the page Google picks, not the one you set | Large sites with a page per intent | A click meant for the emergency page lands on the about page; the match between ad and page, which the campaign was built on, is gone |
Who was upgraded, and how to tell
The September 2026 upgrade applied to campaigns already leaning on automation: Dynamic Search Ads, automatically created assets switched on, or broad match applied at campaign level. If your account had any of those, the campaign now carries the AI Max setting whether anyone chose it or not, and the change date sits in the change history. Open it and search for the setting; the day it appeared is the day the search terms report changed shape. A campaign built on phrase and exact match with hand-written ads and no auto-created assets was not upgraded, and should not be switched on by hand without the routine below.
The upgrade is also a reason to read September's numbers with care. A rise in impressions and a fall in conversion rate across the same week as the upgrade is the upgrade, not the market, and the anomaly belongs to the setting rather than to the keywords.
The controls, and what we set
- Brand inclusions and exclusions. Tell the matching which brands it may serve on, including your own, and which competitor brands it may not. Set both; a small account bidding on a competitor's name by accident is the commonest surprise after an upgrade.
- Location of interest. The expanded matching can pick up searches about places you do not serve. The ad-group-level control for location of interest keeps a local campaign local, and the negatives list carries the places by name as a second lock.
- URL exclusions, or final URL expansion off. For a campaign with one page built for the ad, switch the expansion off. For a campaign across several service pages, keep it on and exclude the pages a paid click should never land on: about, blog, careers, privacy.
- Text customisation off until reviewed. Generated assets appear in the asset report; read each, remove the ones that make claims the business cannot keep, and only then leave the setting on. An ad that promises same-day service in the owner's name is the owner's problem, not Google's.
- The search terms report weekly, not monthly. The matching is the part worth keeping, and it is only safe with a negatives routine that runs often enough to catch what it finds.
The question for a small account is not whether AI Max works. It is whether anyone will read what it did each week. If nobody will, leave it off and run phrase and exact match with a good negatives list; that account is slower to grow and much harder to break.
What we switch on, by kind of account
| Account | Matching | Text customisation | URL expansion |
|---|---|---|---|
| One service, one page, local | Off, or on with a weekly routine and location lock | Off | Off |
| Several services, a page each | On with the routine | On after review of every asset | On with exclusions for every non-service page |
| Shop with many products | On with the routine and brand controls | On after review | On with the checkout, account and blog excluded |
| Recruitment, two campaigns | On in the client campaign only, candidate words as negatives | Off | Off; the two pages are the point |
Reading the search terms report after the upgrade
The weekly routine does not change; the volume does. Sort the report by cost, compare each row with the keyword list, and the rows that match no keyword came from the expansion. Give the expansion two full weeks before judging it, because the first days are the system trying phrases it will drop on its own. Then compare the two groups on one line: cost per conversion for the searches your keywords matched against cost per conversion for the searches the expansion found. If the expanded group costs more than half again per conversion after a month, the matching is finding people the business does not want, and the setting goes off until the negatives list has caught up. If it costs the same or less, it has earned its place, and the list of what it found becomes next month's keyword additions, in phrase match, where the account controls them.
What the report should say about it
The monthly report should carry one line on the setting: on or off, which parts, and what the search terms report showed from the expanded matching, in pounds. A report that cannot say how much the automation spent and what it bought is a report that is not reading the account. The match types guide beside this one explains what broad, phrase and exact do now, which is the ground this setting is built on, and the management page describes the weekly routine that makes the matching safe to run.
Questions on this topic
What is AI Max for Search?
A Google Ads campaign setting that widens search matching beyond your match types, generates ad text from your page, and can send clicks to pages you did not choose. Each part has a control.
Was my campaign upgraded automatically?
If it used Dynamic Search Ads, automatically created assets or campaign-level broad match, it was upgraded from September 2026. The change history shows the date.
Should a small local business use AI Max?
Only the matching part, with a weekly negatives routine, brand controls and a location lock. Text customisation and URL expansion are usually better off.
Can I turn off final URL expansion?
Yes, in the campaign settings, or keep it on and exclude the pages a paid click should never land on.
Does AI Max replace keywords?
No. Your keywords and your landing page are the signals it expands from. A weak keyword list expanded is a weak list with more spend.