Yes — if your Search campaigns used campaign-level broad match or automatically created assets, Google migrated them to AI Max at some point between September 1 and 30, 2026. Your settings carried over, but your ads can now rewrite themselves and send traffic to URLs you never chose. Check three reports this week.
What is AI Max, and what did Google actually change?
AI Max is Google’s replacement for keyword-driven Search campaigns, and since September 2026 it is no longer optional for the migrated campaign types. There was no email and no drop in spend to make you look — the only way to know is to open the settings.
Search Engine Land reported the timeline on August 14, 2026. From August 3, 2026 you could no longer create new campaign-level broad match campaigns or legacy automatically created assets, and through September 1–30, 2026 existing ones were migrated to AI Max automatically, settings and brand exclusions carried across. Legacy Dynamic Search Ads follow: reminders in January 2027, migration February 1–28, 2027.
Google’s documentation describes AI Max as three things bolted together. Search term matching goes beyond your keywords, using broad match plus your assets and landing page content. Text customization uses generative AI to rewrite your ad copy. Final URL expansion sends the click to whichever page Google thinks will convert better — not necessarily the one in your ad. That third one is where small accounts get hurt, and nobody checks it.
Is AI Max better or worse for a small ad budget?
It depends on how clean your website is, and independent data is less flattering than Google’s.
Google states that advertisers who activate AI Max typically see 14% more conversions or conversion value at a similar CPA or ROAS, rising to 27% for campaigns still relying on exact and phrase match keywords (Google Ads blog, May 6, 2025). Its published examples are enterprise advertisers, not small accounts.
The independent read is harsher. Mike Ryan of Smarter Ecommerce analysed more than 250 campaigns and found a median revenue increase of 13% but a median CPA increase of 16%, with ROAS ranging from +42% to −35% (Search Engine Land, March 5, 2026). That is largely US and European e-commerce data, not Canadian lead-gen data.
Read those together and the story is clear: AI Max buys volume, and you often pay more per conversion for it. For a plumber at $1,500 a month with a cost per lead he can afford, that is not a win. For an e-commerce brand with margin to spare, it can be.
| Setting | Legacy Search campaign | AI Max after migration |
|---|---|---|
| What triggers your ad | Your keywords and match types | Keywords plus keywordless matching |
| Who writes the ad copy | You do | Generative AI, from your ads and landing page |
| Where the click lands | The final URL you set | Any page Google judges more relevant |
| Brand safety | Negative keywords | Negatives plus brand inclusions and exclusions |
| Search term visibility | Search terms report | Search terms labelled broad match versus keywordless |
Why did my language targeting setting disappear?
Because Google removed campaign-level language targeting from Search and Performance Max in September 2026 — the same month as the AI Max migration.
According to PPC Land on August 14, 2026, the setting is gone and Google now infers language from your creative, your landing page, the query and the user’s own settings — its position is that "campaign language settings are no longer required." A new rule also applies: when a query has a clear language, Google favours the ad matching it, even for a bilingual user.
For most Canadian businesses running one English campaign, nothing visible changes. It matters if you run English and French versions of the same campaign, or sell into Montreal, Ottawa or Moncton — your French creative may now serve people your English campaign used to catch. Compare September’s spend split against August’s first.
How do I keep control without turning AI Max off?
Use the URL and brand controls — they are the difference between AI Max helping and AI Max quietly spending your budget on the wrong page.
URL exclusions stop Google sending paid traffic to pages that will never convert — careers, blog archive, privacy policy, a discontinued product. URL inclusions add pages the expansion missed. Brand controls name the brands you want to appear alongside and exclude the ones you do not.
The reporting is better than it was. The search terms report now shows whether a term came from broad match or keywordless matching, and the landing pages report shows exactly which URLs Google chose — the fastest way to find out whether final URL expansion is helping or wasting money.
None of this is exotic. It is the discipline that produces steady results in lead-gen accounts: tight destination control, honest negative lists, someone reading the search terms every week. In our own account data for August 2026, a GTA mortgage brokerage we manage ran at 1,113 leads for the month at $7.69 each — not because of a clever setting, but because the traffic was pointed at pages built to convert it. That is what our Google Ads management work consists of.
What to do this week
- Confirm whether you were migrated. Open each Search campaign’s settings and look for AI Max. If it is on and you did not switch it on, September did.
- Open the landing pages report for the last 30 days. Add a URL exclusion for every page on it that cannot produce a lead or sale.
- Compare September to August on cost per conversion, not volume. Volume usually rises after migration; the question is what each conversion now costs.
- If you run French and English campaigns, check the September spend split against August and confirm the right creative still reaches the right people.
Frequently asked questions
Can I turn AI Max off after Google migrated my campaign?
AI Max features can be switched off at campaign level, but understand what you are switching back to: campaign-level broad match and legacy automatically created assets can no longer be created, so turning everything off leaves you narrower than before. For most small accounts the better move is to keep AI Max on and restrict it — exclude the URLs it should never use, tighten negatives, and read the search terms report weekly.
Will AI Max increase my cost per lead?
It might. The largest independent study to date — 250-plus campaigns analysed by Mike Ryan of Smarter Ecommerce, reported by Search Engine Land on March 5, 2026 — found a median CPA increase of 16% alongside a median revenue increase of 13%, with ROAS swinging between +42% and −35%. Google’s own figure is 14% more conversions at a similar CPA. Your outcome depends on your site: the more low-value pages Google can send clicks to, the worse it tends to go.
Do I need to rewrite my ads now that AI can change them?
Not rewrite — tighten. Text customization draws on your existing ads, assets and landing page copy, so vague page copy produces vague generated headlines. Make sure your service pages state plainly what you do, where you do it, and what it costs. You can also remove generated assets you do not want serving.
Not sure what September did to your account? Book a free 48-hour Google Ads audit and we will check your migration status, landing pages report and search terms, then send the list of what to fix.
Sources: Search Engine Land, AI Max migration timeline, Aug 14 2026; Search Engine Land, AI Max revenue and CPA study, Mar 5 2026; Google Ads blog, AI Max for Search campaigns, May 6 2025; Google Ads Help, How AI Max works; PPC Land, Google Ads drops language targeting, Aug 14 2026.