If you are running Google Ads and have not changed any of the settings for your campaigns, then you need to read this.
What’s actually happening
Google have been confirming details about the upgrade to AI Max for Search campaigns. They confirmed by email on 5 August 2026 that two legacy settings will be automatically upgraded to AI Max for Search on 1 September. The two settings are: Automatically Created Assets (ACA) – a campaign setting; broad match – a campaign-level setting. Therefore if you are using either of these legacy settings in a Search campaign, your campaign(s) will be automatically upgraded to AI Max for Search on 1 September, regardless.
Note that this change will not impact the majority of advertisers running Search campaigns. Those that are currently running standard keyword-based Search campaigns (without the use of Automatically Created Assets or the campaign-level broad match setting) will not have their campaigns automatically upgraded in September. Only those that are currently using the aforementioned legacy settings will be impacted by this change.
Why this matters, not just that it’s happening
The change in name is relatively insignificant. For those who were using Automatically Created Assets for their search campaigns (ACA) for Automatically Created Assets (all auto generated ad text for search campaigns), the change is mostly that of description of how your ad copy is created (previously through ACA and now through Auto-Generated Ad Creative within the AI Max campaign). However for those using the broad match setting for their campaigns (broad match search terms within their search campaigns) the change in name for their search campaigns will mean that in addition to the change in how your ad copy is created for search, your ads will also start to appear for a greater number and range of search terms than you are used to (previously your ads would have only appeared for searches that included all of the individual keywords that you had specified for your ads within your Search campaign). These additional search terms for which your ads will appear will be determined by Google’s intent based algorithm and not by the keywords that you have individually specified for your ads within your Search campaign.
What Google claims, and how to read it
Note, Google’s reported average performance for advertisers using the full AI Max feature suite for their campaigns is 7% more conversions or conversion value and equal or better cost per acquisition (CPA) compared to their performance using only search term matching. This data only pertains to non-retail advertisers.
What’s worth doing this week
We have provided a summary for those who manage their Google Ads accounts, or those who have someone else manage their Google Ads accounts.
- Check Automatically Created Assets and campaign-level broad match settings in the campaign settings in Google Ads.
- If you have any campaigns running with the two mentioned settings enabled (Automatically Created Assets & campaign-level broad match setting enabled) then decide whether to migrate to AI Max for Search voluntarily before 1 September or whether to let the auto-upgrade happen on 1 September with the current campaign settings automatically enabled in the new version of the tool, which will map over to the corresponding settings in the new version of the tool as best as possible.
- Strict brand language or regulated claims in your ads: do a quick scan of how your ads are set up, as AI Max allows for a lot more flexibility in terms of how your ads are set up and how users are sent to your landing page than the existing ‘broad match’ campaign settings.
- Ask the person that manages your Google Ads for now. If not they might know right away and you can make a decision within a few days.
There is no need for a major strategy change by next Monday. We need to determine if this change will affect an advertiser’s account and if so, will they be better off making this change than having it automatically updated for them.