Reading the Search terms and ad combinations view on a grant account

The campaign

AI Max runs as a setting on the Search campaign you already have

Google describes AI Max for Search campaigns as an optimization layer inside existing Search campaigns, covering search term matching, text customization and Final URL expansion. You'll find it in the settings of a campaign you already run, not as a separate line in your campaign list.

For how to tell whether one of your campaigns was opted in, see Google is upgrading Search campaigns to AI Max this month.

Final URL expansion is the piece of that layer that explains the pages further down this map. It's an opt-in campaign-level setting that sends traffic to relevant URLs on your domain when that's likely to improve performance, and Google says it's enabled by default once you opt in to AI Max.

So a campaign setting chose the landing pages nobody on your team picked. Opting in is a choice you make at campaign level, not a requirement Google publishes.

The campaign›The search terms report

The search terms report is where the AI Max traffic first becomes visible

Inside the campaign sits the report you already open, and two of its columns carry the change. Google's help says incremental search terms now carry AI Max as a match type, so the Match type column shows AI Max alongside the types you already recognize, on the rows the layer brought in.

The second column is Source: Google says it shows whether the match came from broad match expansion or from keywordless matching.

The term is named here. The headline that ran against it and the page the click landed on are not: they sit one level further in.

The campaign›The search terms report›The ai max view

The AI Max view puts the term, the headlines and the landing page on one line

The view that carries all three is now called Search terms and ad combinations. Google's reporting help records the former name, Search terms and landing pages from AI Max, so an older screenshot or a handover note using it points at the same surface.

One line holds the search term, headlines, landing pages, campaigns and ad groups in the customer journey, per that same reporting help. Read across it and you have what someone typed, what your ad said back and which page took the click.

Read it, do not total it. The ad-combination view and search_term_view are not mutually exclusive, Google's Ads API documentation says, so summing them can double count. The same documentation says some low-activity search terms are omitted for privacy: those clicks stay in campaign totals but drop out of search-term reports. Use the view for ad-combination testing and auditing. Google says specifically not to use it for financial reconciliation.

Take the totals for your next reporting cycle from campaign level, where the clicks Google omits from search-term reports still sit. Take the judgement from this view, one line at a time, and keep its numbers out of the figures you report.

The campaign›The search terms report›The ai max view›The row

One row is one match to judge, and the judgement is relevance

Inside the view sits the row, and the question you put to it is yes or no. Google's Ads API guide says the view is best for auditing the relevance of AI-driven matches and for identifying which ad recipes convert. Read a row as one decision about one match.

The guide's second job sits on the same line: the headlines shown against the term are the ad recipe, and the row tells you which recipes converted. Mark one action Primary and keep the rest Secondary covers which conversion action counts in a grant account.

When the answer on a term is no, add a negative keyword, and expect one bad row to cost you several entries. Google says negative keywords do not match close variants, so singulars, plurals and synonyms may need adding separately. Casing and misspellings do not.

The campaign›The search terms report›The ai max view›The row›The landing page

The landing page cell is where every rule in the map finally lands

The last cell in the row is the landing page. Final URL expansion picked it, not you: the setting sends the click to a relevant URL on your domain.

Judge that cell the way you judged the term. Google's Ad Grants mission-based policy speaks about ads and keywords: every ad and keyword must reflect the organization's primary mission, be relevant to its programs and services, and be specific enough to provide a good user experience. The policy prohibits most single-word keywords, overly generic keywords, and keywords with a Quality Score of 1 or 2.

Check whether the page represents a program or service your organization actually runs, and whether it's specific enough for the person who typed that term. A generic page reached through a generic match is the row to act on first.

The control here is a URL exclusion: it keeps a URL from serving in Final URL expansion, Google says AI Max must be enabled to use it, and the exclusions sit at campaign level. Reject the page in a row, then shut it off in the campaign settings, where this map started.

Walk one campaign down the whole chain

Take a single Search campaign and check it level by level: the AI Max setting and Final URL expansion on the campaign, the Match type and Source columns in the Search terms report, the ad-combination view, then one row and its landing page cell. Each level shows one thing and carries one control or one limit. Read in the report, then make the edits, negative keywords and URL exclusions, back in the campaign.

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