If you run Google Search campaigns, Google is changing them for you this month. Between September 1 and September 30, 2026, Google is automatically upgrading any Search campaign that uses campaign-level broad match or standalone automatically created assets over to AI Max. You didn’t opt in, and there’s no button that reverses it. What you can still do is open the account, confirm which campaigns were moved, and review the two settings Google switched on during the upgrade.
That matters because both of those settings govern spend. One widens the range of searches that can trigger your ads. The other lets Google rewrite your ad text. If nobody checks, you’ll finish the month paying for searches you never approved, with headlines you didn’t write.
What Did Google Actually Change in Your Search Campaigns?
Google converted two older Search features into AI Max settings inside your existing campaigns. Campaign-level broad match and standalone automatically created assets no longer run as separate options. The campaign keeps its name, budget, and history, but the controls behind it now sit under AI Max.
Google described the schedule on its Ads Developer Blog on August 12, 2026, and split the work into two phases. Phase one is the September window covering broad match and automatically created assets. Phase two, covering dynamic search ads, was pushed back to February 2027. The company also stopped letting anyone create the old configurations on August 3, so there’s no route back to the previous setup even if you wanted one.
The rollout is progressive rather than instant. Campaigns are being converted at different points across the month, which is why two accounts you manage can look different on the same day. If yours hasn’t moved yet, it will before October.
Which Settings Did Google Turn On for You?
Two settings change during the upgrade, and search term matching is switched on by default in both cases. Text customization, which allows Google to generate its own headlines, is turned on only for campaigns that were using automatically created assets. Final URL expansion stays off for both. Your existing brand inclusion and exclusion lists carry across unchanged.
| Setting | Came from broad match | Came from automatically created assets | What it controls |
|---|---|---|---|
| Search term matching | On | On | How far beyond your keywords Google can match a query |
| Text customization | Off | On | Whether Google writes its own headlines for your ads |
| Final URL expansion | Off | Off | Whether Google can send clicks to other pages on your site |
| Brand lists | Preserved | Preserved | Which brand terms you include or exclude |
Search term matching is the one to look at first. It’s the setting that decides how loosely Google interprets what you sell. For a business with three services and a tight budget, loose interpretation is expensive fast, because every unrelated click is money that was supposed to go to a real prospect.
How Do You Check Whether Your Account Was Migrated?
Open Google Ads, go to your Search campaigns, and look at the campaign settings for any campaign that previously used broad match or automatically created assets. A migrated campaign shows AI Max settings where the old options used to be. Google doesn’t send most advertisers a separate confirmation, so the account itself is the only reliable record.
Then go to the search terms report and set the date range to September 1 through today. This is the check that actually tells you something. Compare the queries you paid for this month against the same stretch in August. You’re looking for new query themes that have nothing to do with what you sell, and for a rising share of spend landing on them.
- Sort the search terms report by cost, highest first.
- Flag any term that would not make sense coming from a real customer.
- Add the clear misses as negative keywords at the campaign or account level.
- Note the date you made the change so you can measure against it later.
If your account was migrated early in the month, you may already have two or three weeks of data to judge. If it moved last week, give it a little longer before you draw conclusions, but don’t wait past September to look.
While you are in the search terms report, check one thing that has nothing to do with AI Max. Look at how your conversions are counted. If a completed contact form, a thirty-second phone call, and a click on your email address all register as the same conversion, your cost per conversion will look stable no matter what the matching does. Plenty of accounts discover the migration was fine and the tracking was the actual problem. Sorting that out first makes every decision after it easier.
When we take over an existing Google Ads account, this is the first sequence we run: confirm what changed and when, read the search terms report for that period, then check whether conversion tracking separates a real inquiry from a wrong number. It’s dull work, and it’s the part that stops a bad month from turning into a bad quarter.
If you manage more than one account, check them separately rather than assuming they moved together. The rollout runs campaign by campaign, so one business can be fully migrated while another has not started. Recording each migration date individually is what lets you compare before and after honestly instead of guessing which week the change landed.
Should You Leave AI Max Running?
Sometimes yes. Broader matching helps accounts that have plenty of conversion data, a wide range of services, and room in the budget to absorb some waste while the system learns. It tends to hurt accounts with a narrow service list, a small daily budget, or weak conversion tracking, because those accounts cannot afford the learning period.
The honest test is your own numbers, not a general opinion about automation. Compare cost per qualified lead before and after your migration date. Not clicks, not impressions, and not conversions if your conversion tracking counts every form fill and phone tap as a win. If you aren’t sure your tracking separates a real inquiry from a wrong number, fix that before you judge AI Max at all, because you will be measuring noise.
We looked at the tradeoffs in more detail when the tool first appeared, including what AI Max does to a small ad budget. The difference now is that the decision is no longer whether to try it. It’s whether to constrain what has already been switched on.
If you decide the broader matching is not working for you, the practical lever isn’t a single off switch. It’s turning off the specific features that were migrated, tightening your negative keyword list, and separating your highest-intent services into their own campaigns so a loose match cannot drain the budget that was meant for them.
A workable rule of thumb: give it two full weeks of spend after your migration date before you judge anything, then look at whether your cost per qualified lead moved more than about twenty percent in either direction. Inside that range, the change is probably noise and you are better off improving negatives than flipping settings. Outside it, you have a real signal worth acting on. Two weeks is usually enough volume for a small account to say something meaningful, and it is short enough that a bad month does not finish before you notice.
What to Do Before September 30
The month-end date matters because it’s when the first phase finishes. After that, every affected Search campaign in your account is running on the new settings, and any drift that started earlier has had a full month to compound. A short review now costs less than a quarter spent explaining a bad number.
- Confirm which campaigns were migrated and write down the date each one moved.
- Check whether text customization is on, and read the headlines Google is now generating for you.
- Pull the search terms report for September and add negatives for anything off-target.
- Compare cost per qualified lead against August, not clicks or raw conversions.
- Decide per campaign whether to keep the broader matching, constrain it, or switch the migrated features off.
One more note on timing. Dynamic search ads were originally part of this September window and are now scheduled for February 2027, as Search Engine Land reported when the timeline was set. If you run those, you’ve got months rather than weeks, but the same review applies when your turn comes.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I opt out of the AI Max migration completely?
No. There’s no opt-out for the migration itself. What you can do is turn off the individual features that were moved, such as search term matching or text customization, on a campaign-by-campaign basis after the upgrade has run.
Will my cost per click go up after the migration?
Not necessarily, and cost per click is the wrong number to watch. Broader matching often brings in cheaper, less relevant clicks, which can pull the average down while your cost per qualified lead rises. Judge the change on lead quality and cost per lead instead.
Does this change affect Performance Max campaigns?
No. This migration applies to Search campaigns that used campaign-level broad match or standalone automatically created assets. Performance Max is a separate campaign type and is not part of the September window.
What happens to my dynamic search ads?
Nothing this month. Google moved dynamic search ads out of the September phase and rescheduled them for February 2027. You can upgrade them yourself before then if you want to control the timing rather than have it chosen for you.
Do I need to rewrite my ads because of text customization?
Only if you don’t like what Google is producing. Text customization generates headlines from your existing assets and landing pages. Read a sample first. If the generated copy misstates what you offer or your pricing, switch the setting off rather than trying to correct it line by line.
Get a Second Look at Your Migrated Campaigns
Most owners find out about a change like this after the spending has already shifted. If you would rather know now, the review is straightforward: which campaigns moved, what the search terms report says since they moved, and whether your cost per qualified lead held steady. That’s the same review we run when clients hand us an account, and it’s part of how we manage paid campaigns.
If you want a second set of eyes on what September did to your account, book a paid media review and we will go through the numbers with you.