Reading time: 12 min

Table of Content

Last updated: November 2, 2026.

Google AI Max for Search campaigns is a set of AI features you turn on inside an existing Search campaign. It isn’t a new campaign type. It widens which searches your ads can match beyond your keywords, writes ad text from your landing pages and assets, and can send people to the most relevant page on your site. Google’s internal data says advertisers who turn it on “typically see 14% more conversions or conversion value at a similar CPA/ROAS” (source: Google Ads and Commerce blog, May 6, 2025).

There’s no separate fee. You pay the same cost per click in the same auction. What changes is how much you spend in total: AI Max finds more queries, and it needs budget room to bid on them.

This guide walks through what AI Max includes, how to set it up, what it costs in practice, the results Google has published, and the deadlines that will move many accounts onto it whether or not they opt in.

Short Answer

What it is: A one-click suite inside Search campaigns with three main features. Search term matching uses broad match plus keywordless matching. Text customization generates ad copy. Final URL expansion picks the landing page. You also get brand, location and URL controls (source: Google Ads Help).
Status: Launched in beta in May 2025, opened to all advertisers globally in September 2025, and out of beta as of April 2026 (source: Google, April 15, 2026).
Setup: In the campaign’s Settings, open AI Max and switch it on. New Search campaigns have it on by default (source: Google Ads Help).
Cost: No extra charge. It runs on your existing CPC bidding, but search term matching requires a conversion-based Smart Bidding strategy.
Results: Google reports 14% more conversions or value at similar CPA/ROAS on average, and 27% for campaigns still mostly on exact and phrase match.
Deadline: Dynamic Search Ads auto-upgrade to AI Max starting February 2027. Automatically created assets and campaign-level broad match settings were scheduled to start auto-upgrading in September 2026.

What Is Google AI Max for Search Campaigns?

Google announced AI Max on May 6, 2025 as “a one-click feature suite” for Search campaigns, with a beta rolling out globally later that month (source: Google Ads and Commerce blog, May 6, 2025). On September 10, 2025, Google said it was available to all advertisers globally, in beta, across Google Ads, Google Ads Editor, Search Ads 360 and the API (source: Google Ads and Commerce blog, September 10, 2025).

Google’s help center describes it as an optimization layer, not a campaign type: your Search campaign keeps its keywords, ads, budget and bidding, and AI Max adds features on top (source: Google Ads Help, Set up AI Max).

By April 30, 2026, Google called AI Max “the fastest-growing AI-powered Search ads product,” based on its data from July to September 2025 (source: Google Ads and Commerce blog, April 30, 2026). Its April 15 post said hundreds of thousands of advertisers worldwide were using it (source: Google, April 15, 2026).

What Features Does AI Max Include?

Feature	What it does	Replaces or builds on
Search term matching	Uses your keywords, ads and landing pages to match relevant queries your keywords don't cover, including keywordless matching	Broad match and Dynamic Search Ads targeting
Text customization	Generates headlines and descriptions from your landing pages, ads and keywords	Automatically created assets (ACA)
Final URL expansion	Sends the click to the page on your site that best fits the query	Dynamic Search Ads landing pages
Brand controls	Brand inclusions or exclusions to keep traffic on or off specific brands	New
Locations of interest	Targets people searching for a place, set at the ad group level	New
URL inclusions and exclusions	Limits which pages final URL expansion can use	New
AI Brief	Gemini-powered messaging, matching and audience guidelines with previews	Text guidelines

Sources: Google Ads Help, How AI Max works; Google, May 6, 2025; Google, April 30, 2026.

A few details matter more than they look:

Text customization and final URL expansion are on by default once AI Max is on, and final URL expansion requires text customization (source: Google Ads Help).
Pinned assets can be skipped. With final URL expansion on, pinned responsive search ad assets aren’t used when a more relevant URL is chosen, according to the same help page. To always use pinned assets, you have to turn final URL expansion off. If legal or brand rules depend on pinned headlines, plan for that before you switch it on.
Negative keywords still apply to AI Max matches (source: Google Ads Help, AI Max FAQ).
AI Brief arrived in English first, with Performance Max and Shopping to follow. Existing text guidelines migrate into it (source: Google, April 30, 2026). Google says text disclaimers now work even with final URL expansion turned on.

Google also extended AI Max to Shopping campaigns and Search campaigns for Travel in the same April 30, 2026 update.

How Do You Set Up AI Max?

The switch takes a minute. The prep work before it is what decides whether the test is worth running. These steps follow Google’s help center and its AI Max training deck.

1. Check your bidding strategy

Search term matching, text customization and final URL expansion need a conversion-based Smart Bidding strategy: Maximize conversions, Maximize conversion value, target CPA or target ROAS (source: Google Ads Help). With Manual CPC, search term matching is turned off (source: Google Ads Help, AI Max FAQ). Google’s deck adds that with Maximize clicks you can use only text customization and final URL expansion, not search term matching (source: Google AI Max training deck, August 2025).

2. Make sure the campaign isn't limited by budget

Google says AI Max “won’t be effective” if the campaign is limited by budget (source: Google Ads Help, How AI Max works). Its training deck recommends a minimum of $50 per day and spare budget headroom to capture the new queries (source: Google AI Max training deck).

3. Clean up conversion tracking and structure

Use data-driven attribution, remove duplicate keywords across match types, and consolidate thin ad groups. Google’s deck suggests consolidating ad groups with fewer than 30 conversions in 30 days. It also asks you to check landing pages, because text customization pulls copy from them. Outdated claims on your site can end up in your ads.

4. Turn on AI Max

Go to Campaigns, open the Search campaign, click Settings, find AI Max, and switch it on. You can also bulk-edit several campaigns at once (source: Google Ads Help, Set up AI Max). New Search campaigns start with AI Max on by default.

5. Set your controls before you launch

Decide on brand inclusions or exclusions, add URL exclusions at the campaign level (careers pages, blog posts, support docs), or use URL inclusions at the ad group level. If you run a tracking template, Google recommends using {lpurl} so expanded URLs still track correctly (source: Google Ads Help, How AI Max works).

6. Run it as an experiment

Google offers a one-click AI Max experiment that splits traffic 50/50 between the original campaign and the AI Max version (source: Google Ads Help, AI Max FAQ). Its training deck says to expect a ramp-up of about two weeks and to run the test for at least four weeks after learning. Avoid big changes to budgets, bidding or targets during that time. Leave the ramp-up period and your conversion lag out of the comparison.

7. Wait two weeks, then refine

Google’s reporting guide says to wait at least two weeks after enabling AI Max before making changes such as adding negative keywords (source: Google Ads Help, AI Max reporting). After that, review search terms and landing pages and tighten URL rules where traffic is off target.

Not sure if AI Max fits your account?

We audit your Search campaigns, conversion tracking and budgets, then set up a clean AI Max experiment with the controls your brand needs.

How Much Does AI Max Cost?

AI Max doesn’t have its own fee or pricing tier. It’s a setting inside a Search campaign, and clicks are bought in the normal Google Ads auction with your existing bid strategy. Google’s help article on ads in AI Overviews and AI Mode confirms that advertisers “aren’t charged extra” for those placements, which AI Max campaigns are eligible for. It also says they use the same auction and cost-per-click model (source: Google Ads Help, ads in AI Overviews and AI Mode).

Your total spend can still change, for three reasons:

More queries. Search term matching opens the campaign to searches your keywords didn’t reach. That’s the source of the extra conversions, and also of extra clicks.
Budget headroom. Google recommends that campaigns not be budget-limited and suggests at least $50 per day. A campaign capped at its current daily budget will spread the same money across more queries rather than grow.
Efficiency targets. Google’s deck warns that during testing “ROAS may decrease but will remain within your target to unlock more volume.” Your target CPA or ROAS keeps that in check, so set it to the number you can actually afford.

The practical cost question isn’t “what does AI Max cost?” It’s “what’s my cost per incremental conversion?” Compare the experiment arm’s added conversions with its added spend. Don’t stop at blended CPA.

What Results Has Google Published?

Everything below is published by Google. Results in your account will vary, and these averages come from Google’s own measurement.

Result	Context	Source
14% more conversions or conversion value at similar CPA/ROAS	Typical result for advertisers activating AI Max, Google internal data, 2025	Google, May 6, 2025
27% uplift	Campaigns still mostly using exact and phrase keywords	Google, May 6, 2025
7% more conversions or value at similar CPA/ROAS	Full AI Max suite vs. search term matching alone, Google internal data, 2026, non-Retail	Google, April 15, 2026
2X higher conversion rate, 31% lower cost per conversion	L'Oréal, as reported by Google	Google, May 6, 2025
67% higher CTR vs. other match types	L'Oréal Chile, across broad, phrase and exact	Google AI Max training deck
16% more leads at 13% lower CPA; 30% more conversions from net-new queries	MyConnect, as reported by Google	Google, May 6, 2025

Two notes on reading these. The 27% figure applies to campaigns that get most of their conversions from exact and phrase match, so it says as much about the starting point as about AI Max. If your account already leans on broad match with Smart Bidding, expect something closer to the lower end. Second, case studies published by a platform are chosen by the platform. Use them to decide whether to test, not to forecast.

How Do You Read AI Max Reports?

Google added AI Max-specific views so you can see what the AI did (source: Google Ads Help, How AI Max works; Google Ads Help, AI Max reporting):

Search terms report: A match type of “AI Max” marks queries matched by search term matching. You can also see which headline and landing page served.
Search terms and ad combinations: A view that shows the query, the generated headlines and the URL together.
Summary rows: “Total: AI Max expanded matches” and “Total: AI Max landing page matches” show how much volume came from expansion.
Landing pages: A “Selected by” column shows whether you or AI Max chose the URL.
Assets: Generated assets are labeled as added by Google AI.

Review these weekly during the experiment. The main things to catch are off-brand generated headlines, traffic sent to pages you’d never pick (old promotions, job listings), and queries that need a negative keyword.

How Does AI Max Compare to Performance Max, DSA and Broad Match?

	AI Max for Search	Performance Max	Dynamic Search Ads	Broad match alone
Campaign type	Setting inside Search	Its own campaign type	Search campaign subtype	Keyword match type
Inventory	Search, including ads in AI Overviews and AI Mode	All Google channels	Search	Search
Keyword control	Keywords plus keywordless matching	No keywords (search themes)	No keywords	Keywords
Ad copy	Your RSAs plus generated text	Generated from asset groups	Generated headlines	Your RSAs
Landing pages	Your URLs plus final URL expansion	Your URLs plus expansion	Chosen from your site	Your URLs
Future	Google's default for Search	Continues	Auto-upgrades to AI Max from February 2027	Campaign-level setting auto-upgrades from September 2026

If AI Max and Performance Max are both eligible for the same search, Google serves the one with the higher Ad Rank (source: Google Ads Help, AI Max FAQ).

For ads in AI Overviews and AI Mode, AI Max, broad match, Shopping and Performance Max campaigns are eligible both for direct commercial queries and for broader contextual matching. Exact and phrase keywords only qualify for direct commercial queries (source: Google Ads Help). If showing up in AI search results is a goal, that’s a real argument for testing AI Max. We cover the format in our guide to Google AI Mode, and ads in other assistants in AI assistant ads and ChatGPT ads.

What Changes Are Coming for DSA and Broad Match?

Google is moving older features onto AI Max. According to its April 15, 2026 announcement, updated June 11, 2026 (source: Google Ads and Commerce blog):

Dynamic Search Ads will auto-upgrade to AI Max starting February 2027, after a delay from the original date. Upgraded DSA campaigns get all three features. Once the auto-upgrade begins, you can’t create new DSA campaigns.
Automatically created assets auto-upgrade to search term matching plus text customization, starting September 2026.
The campaign-level broad match setting auto-upgrades to search term matching, starting September 2026.

If you run DSA today, you have a few months to choose your own timing. Upgrading manually lets you set URL rules, brand controls and an experiment first. Google’s help center includes a DSA upgrade flow in the setup article (source: Google Ads Help).

When Should You Turn AI Max Off?

Google lets you switch it off in the same Settings panel. Consider leaving it off, or limiting it with controls, when:

Your campaign is capped by budget and you can’t raise it.
You don’t have reliable conversion tracking, since Smart Bidding needs it.
Compliance rules require fixed, pinned ad copy on every impression. In that case, at least turn off final URL expansion.
Your experiment shows added spend without added conversions after the ramp-up and a full four-week test.

Exact match still counts. If you’re moving off the campaign-level broad match setting, Google notes that broad keywords are no longer treated as exact match keywords in prioritization. It suggests adding exact match copies of those keywords to keep that priority (source: Google Ads Help). Keep your best exact match terms.

At 95 Projects, we manage Google Ads for ecommerce and B2B brands where each conversion is worth real money. That includes testing AI Max with clean experiments, tight URL and brand controls, and reporting on incremental revenue rather than blended averages. If you want a second opinion before the DSA and broad match deadlines, see our PPC management services or book a call.

About the Author

Austin Coker

Austin Coker is the CEO and founder of 95 Projects. He has worked in SEO since 2020, when he built and sold an ecommerce brand that grew mainly through search. He founded 95 Projects in 2022 to help SaaS, ecommerce, and B2B service companies show up wherever their buyers search, from Google to ChatGPT and AI Overviews.

Meet the team

Google AI Max for Search Campaigns: Setup, Costs and Results