Google is upgrading Search campaigns to AI Max this month

Apr 2019: Conversion-based Smart Bidding was already required in your account

Your Ad Grants account has carried a bidding requirement since 2019, whether or not anyone in the office chose it. Google's Ad Grants account management policy requires accounts created on or after 22 April 2019 to use conversion-based Smart Bidding unless they run Smart campaigns, and campaigns outside that rule face automatic bid-strategy changes. Maximize conversions, Maximize conversion value, Target CPA and Target ROAS qualify.

The setting Google is now upgrading requires exactly that bidding. In the campaign settings it appears as “Broad match keywords”, with two documented choices: “On: Use broad match keywords for your entire campaign” and “Off: Use keyword match types”. Switching it on converts your phrase and exact keywords to broad match, according to Google's documentation. If your account was built after April 2019, it already meets the prerequisite the upgrade depends on.

By the end you'll know which upgrade window applies to your campaigns, what switches on the day it reaches them, and which four screens show whether it has already happened.

Apr 2026: Google announced an upgrade that runs inside campaigns you already have

AI Max, in Google's words, is a “comprehensive suite of targeting and creative features” and a “continuous optimization layer” for Search campaigns, and explicitly not a new campaign type. That last point decides whether any of this reaches you: there is nothing to opt into, because AI Max runs inside the Search campaigns already in your account.

On 15 April 2026 Google announced that three things would upgrade to AI Max automatically starting in September 2026: Dynamic Search Ads, automatically created assets, and campaign-level broad match settings.

A campaign you haven't opened since the day it was built is in scope on the same terms as one somebody works on every week: scope follows settings, not activity. If “Broad match keywords” was on when your campaign was set up, it is on today, and your campaign sits inside the group Google named.

Jun 2026: The announcement changed, and only one of the three features moved

On 11 June 2026 the April post changed. Dynamic Search Ads are now delayed until February 2027, the update says, while automatically created assets, now called text customization, and campaign-level broad match still auto-upgrade starting September 2026.

An edit, not an announcement. The June change sits inside a post dated 15 April 2026, added by Google two months after publication. If you read that post in April and came away with one September date covering all three features, the correction never arrived as an announcement of its own: Dynamic Search Ads moved by five months.

Two settings decide which of the three reaches your account. Open a Search campaign's settings, check whether “Broad match keywords” is on, then check whether the campaign runs automatically created assets, the feature Google now calls text customization.

Aug 2026: The rollout got exact dates

You can date the rollout from Google's Ads Developer Blog post of 12 August 2026. On 1 September 2026, Google Ads began automatically upgrading Search campaigns using campaign-level broad match or standalone automatically created assets to AI Max, and that migration rolls out progressively through 30 September 2026.

Progressively is what shapes your check. A campaign that looked untouched on 1 September can still be upgraded on the 12th or the 27th, so one check at the start of the month settles the question for that day only.

The same Google source puts the Dynamic Search Ads phase at 1 to 28 February 2027, with a reminder notification planned for impacted accounts on 15 January 2027. That reminder belongs to the February phase: if your campaigns run Dynamic Search Ads, put 15 January in the calendar. The window running right now is the other one.

Sep 2026: What switches on the day your campaign is upgraded

A campaign migrating from campaign-level broad match upgrades in place, on the defaults Google publishes: search term matching on, text customization off, Final URL expansion off, existing brand lists preserved. A campaign upgraded because it runs standalone automatically created assets comes back with text customization on and Final URL expansion off.

Search term matching decides what your ads can appear on. Turning on AI Max turns it on for the campaign, Google says, and it expands beyond your existing keywords using broad match and keywordless technology, learning from your current keywords, creatives and URLs to decide which relevant searches your ads can show against. The control sits at ad-group level, on by default when AI Max is on for the campaign, one level below where the upgrade landed.

Text customization is the creative half. It generates additional headlines and descriptions from the ad's context, including the domain, landing page, existing ads and ad-group keywords. Google reviews and refreshes those assets at least every 48 hours, and Google customized text serves only where it is predicted to perform better than the headlines and descriptions you uploaded.

The stake for an Ad Grants account is arithmetic. Matching widens while the requirement holds: accounts that are not exclusively using Smart campaigns must maintain at least 5% click-through rate at account level each month, and missing it for two consecutive months leads to temporary deactivation. Searches your ads have no business winning still count in the denominator.

Now: Check whether it has already happened in your account

The rule that binds you today: if one of your Search campaigns uses the campaign-level broad match setting or standalone automatically created assets, it sits inside Google's 1 to 30 September 2026 migration window, and on the broad match path it comes back with search term matching on and Final URL expansion off. Treat the upgrade as done until the account shows you otherwise.

1. Search terms report Filter the Match type column for “AI Max”. Read the result as a floor rather than a total: Google warns the filter may undercount, because it excludes “Other search terms”.
2. Asset report Read the “Added by” column: Google customized text assets are marked “Google AI”. The landing pages report carries a “Selected by” column in Google's reporting documentation, showing whether AI Max selected a URL.
3. Notifications Open the bell or exclamation icon near the top of the account, where lower-priority items sit. Notifications cover setup problems, feature and system updates, and performance opportunities, and system updates carry a blue info icon.
4. The client account, not the manager view If your account sits under a manager account, open the client account itself. Manager Notifications may not display every client-account alert, and Google's manager-account documentation says to drill into the client account to check alerts there.

Either the Match type filter shows AI Max traffic or it does not. A filter that returns nothing at all points at delivery rather than at the upgrade, which is a separate check.

Read the search terms before the month ends

The September window closes on 30 September 2026. Filter the Match type column for AI Max, check the Added by column in the asset report, and open the client account rather than the manager view. Campaigns set up once and left alone are the ones whose settings changed underneath them.

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