In April 2026, as AI Max moved to general availability, Google announced that its AI feature for Google Ads generates on average 7% additional conversions, a downward revision of the 14% promise displayed during the May 2025 beta (PPC Land). Since 1 September 2026, that same technology has been automatically replacing the settings of many Search campaigns, with no action required from the advertiser.
The facts
- Official promise: +14% conversions in beta (May 2025), revised to +7% on average at general availability (April 2026), based on internal Google data excluding retail advertisers.
- Monks study (August 2025): 99% of the AI Max impressions analysed, across around 30,000 search terms, produced no conversion (PPC Land).
- Smarter Ecommerce analysis of more than 250 retail campaigns (November 2025): ROAS around 35% lower than with traditional match types; the Search Partner Network, for its part, shows a ROAS 37% below classic Google Search according to Intelligency Group.
How can such a gap between the AI Max promise and the field be explained?
Google has confirmed it itself: AI Max search term matching works from inferred intent rather than from the exact text of the query. The range of searches targeted extends beyond the keywords chosen by the advertiser. More queries covered means more impressions, and not necessarily more qualified buyers. And the budget does not always follow: Google specifies that AI Max is unsuited to campaigns with limited budgets, since search term matching widens the number of eligible queries without widening the budget that funds them. This is not a first: our data on the end of miracle CPAs already documented this gap between automated bidding and real cost per acquisition.
The safeguards arrived late. Text guidelines, which cap excluded words at twenty-five terms, were only announced in September 2025; natural-language instructions via AI Brief date from April 2026. Most of the studies cited above therefore cover a period without these controls. And since May 2026, appearing in the new generative ad formats requires having activated AI Max or Performance Max with text customisation. Adoption is therefore no longer only a question of performance: it is also a condition of access to future ad placements.
AIxH's view
This is the kind of setting our Google Ads agency in Luxembourg checks account by account at every switch to AI Max: a technology that widens its scope without widening the budget that funds it. 1 September changes nothing in our method, on Google Ads as on Meta: every parameter is still adjusted by hand. If your Search campaigns used automated assets or broad match, check what the switch has changed: the switch happens automatically, the check has to be done by someone.