Google's AI Max Migration — What DSA Advertisers Need to Do Before September

Google Is Sunsetting Dynamic Search Ads. Your Window to Act Is Closing.

If you run Dynamic Search Ads (DSA) campaigns in Google Ads, here's the timeline you need to know:

• September 2026 — Google begins auto-migrating remaining DSA campaigns to AI Max for Search
• Late 2026 — Full deprecation of legacy DSA campaign creation

This isn't a suggestion. It's a migration. And if you don't plan it, Google will do it for you — on their terms, not yours.

What AI Max for Search Actually Is

AI Max for Search is Google's consolidation of automated search features into a single framework. Think of it as the evolution of DSA, but with significantly more AI involvement:

What's changing:

• Dynamic ad targets are replaced by AI-driven URL expansion. Instead of setting up specific dynamic ad targets based on your website categories or pages, AI Max uses your entire site — and potentially beyond — as targeting surface
• Search term matching becomes broader. AI Max uses Google's large language models to match user queries to your business, even when the query doesn't contain your keywords
• Ad copy generation is partially automated. Google will generate headlines and descriptions dynamically, pulling from your site content and combining with any assets you provide
• Brand controls are built in. Unlike early broad match, AI Max includes brand inclusion/exclusion lists, URL filters, and negative keyword support

What stays the same:

• You still set budgets and bid strategies
• Negative keywords still work
• You still control landing page destinations (though URL expansion can override this if not configured correctly)
• Conversion tracking remains the foundation of optimization

Why This Matters More Than You Think

For Lead Generation Businesses

If you're in services — law, financial services, home services, healthcare — DSA has historically been a reliable way to capture long-tail search traffic. You set up category targets, let Google match queries to your service pages, and built campaigns around the traffic that converted.

AI Max changes the math:

• Query matching is broader. You'll likely see more impressions and clicks, but query relevance may decrease initially
• Landing page control requires attention. AI Max can send users to pages you didn't intend. URL filters and final URL expansion settings must be configured deliberately
• Lead quality may shift. Broader matching means more top-of-funnel queries mixed in with high-intent searches. Your negative keyword strategy needs to be tighter than ever
  

For E-Commerce Brands

This is where it gets operationally complex:

• Every account with active DSA campaigns needs an audit and migration plan
• Brand controls, negative keyword lists, and URL filters need to be configured per account
• Performance benchmarks from DSA campaigns won't transfer 1:1 — you need a measurement framework for the transition period
• Client communication is required. This isn't a back-end tweak — it's a strategic shift
  

The Migration Playbook: What to Do Now

Step 1: Audit Your Current DSA Campaigns (Do This Week)

Before you migrate anything, document what you have:

• Campaign inventory: How many DSA campaigns are active? What's the spend level? Which ones drive actual conversions?
• Dynamic ad targets: What categories, URLs, or page feeds are currently targeted? These become your URL filter strategy in AI Max
• Search term analysis: Pull 90 days of search term data. Identify the high-converting queries, the waste, and the patterns. This becomes your negative keyword and brand control foundation
• Performance benchmarks: Document current CPA, ROAS, conversion rate, and impression share. You'll need this to evaluate AI Max performance during the transition

Step 2: Build Your Control Framework

AI Max gives you more automation but also more controls than early DSA. Use them:

Brand controls:

• Add all your brand terms and variations to the brand inclusion list
• Add competitor brand terms to either inclusion (if you're bidding on them intentionally) or exclusion lists
• This prevents AI Max from spending budget on brand terms you already capture through exact match campaigns

URL filters:

• Specify which pages AI Max can use as landing pages
• Exclude blog posts, careers pages, privacy policies, and any other non-conversion pages
• If you have specific service or product pages that convert well, prioritize those

Final URL expansion:

• This is the setting that allows Google to send traffic to URLs beyond your specified landing pages
• For most advertisers: turn this off initially. Let AI Max prove itself with your designated pages before opening it up
• For e-commerce with large product catalogs: test with expansion on, but monitor landing page performance closely

Negative keywords:

• Migrate all existing DSA negative keyword lists
• Add negatives for common irrelevant queries you've identified in your search term analysis
• Set a weekly review cadence for the first 60 days post-migration

Step 3: Run in Parallel (2–4 Weeks)

Don't hard-switch. Run AI Max campaigns alongside your existing DSA campaigns:

• Create the AI Max campaign with equivalent budget, bidding, and targeting settings
• Reduce DSA budget by 50% and allocate to AI Max
• Compare performance across the same metrics: CPA, ROAS, conversion volume, search term quality
• After 2-4 weeks of data, evaluate which performs better and adjust allocation
  

Step 4: Migrate and Optimize

Once you have performance data from the parallel test:

• If AI Max matches or exceeds DSA performance: complete the migration. Pause DSA campaigns (don't delete — keep for historical data)
• If AI Max underperforms: check your controls. Common issues are too-broad URL expansion, missing negative keywords, or insufficient conversion data for the algorithm to optimize
• Set up ongoing monitoring: weekly search term reviews, monthly performance comparisons to pre-migration benchmarks
  

Step 5: Integrate With Your Broader Search Strategy

AI Max doesn't exist in isolation. It interacts with your exact match campaigns, broad match campaigns, and Performance Max:

• Keyword coverage overlap: AI Max will pick up queries your keyword campaigns might miss. But it also might cannibalize traffic from your existing campaigns. Monitor for overlap
• Budget cannibalization: If AI Max and PMax are both targeting similar traffic, they'll compete against each other. Set clear budget boundaries and priority rules
• Attribution clarity: Use Google's auction insights and campaign-level reports to understand where AI Max is adding incremental volume vs. redistributing existing volume
  

What Google Isn't Telling You

The Incentive Problem

Google benefits when your targeting is broader. Broader targeting means more auction participation, which means more ad spend. AI Max is designed to expand your reach — but expanded reach isn't always expanded value.

Watch for:

• Increasing CPCs without proportional conversion growth
• Search terms that are semantically related but commercially irrelevant
• Impression share increases that don't translate to revenue
  

The Data Dependency

AI Max works best with strong conversion data. If your account has:

• Fewer than 30 conversions per month
• Long conversion windows (30+ days)
• Offline conversion events that aren't imported into Google Ads

Then AI Max will have less signal to optimize against. The algorithm isn't magic — it's a machine that learns from your data. If your data is thin or delayed, the learning will be too.

The Measurement Gap

Google's self-reported conversion metrics include view-through conversions and modeled conversions. When AI Max expands your reach significantly, these modeled numbers can inflate. Cross-reference with your own analytics (GA4, CRM, or third-party attribution) to measure real impact.

Timeline: What Happens If You Do Nothing

If you let Google auto-migrate your campaigns, you'll get default settings — which usually means broader targeting, URL expansion enabled, and minimal negative keyword coverage. In other words, you'll spend more with less control.

The Bottom Line

AI Max for Search isn't optional. It's the future of automated search targeting in Google Ads. The question isn't whether you'll migrate — it's whether you'll migrate on your terms or Google's.

The brands and agencies that audit now, build controls, test in parallel, and optimize deliberately will maintain performance through the transition. The ones that wait will get auto-migrated into a system they don't understand, with settings they didn't choose.

You have until September. Use the time.

The VAM Group manages Google Ads for brands in competitive and regulated verticals. If you need help navigating the AI Max migration — or want a full audit of your search strategy before the transition — let's talk.