Since 1 September 2026, Google has been automatically switching every campaign built on campaign-level Broad Match or on Automatically Created Assets to AI Max for Search, with no way to opt out afterwards (PPC Land). The migration runs throughout the month and changes targeting, and sometimes ad copy, on accounts that never knowingly enabled the feature.
The facts
- The technical post on the Google Ads Developer Blog of 12 August 2026, signed by Bob Hancock, details the settings applied at the switch: Search Term Matching, which widens the targeted queries beyond the keywords, is enabled for both cohorts concerned; Text Customization, the rewriting of ads by generative AI, is enabled for accounts that used automatically created assets and disabled for Broad Match accounts; final URL expansion remains disabled for everyone.
- Google has revised its performance promise: the 14% additional conversions announced in May 2025 became 7% on average when the feature left beta in April 2026, based on internal data that excludes retail advertisers.
- The independent analysis by Smarter Ecommerce of more than 250 Search campaigns on e-commerce accounts, published in November 2025, measures AI Max conversions arriving at a ROAS around 35% lower than that of traditional match types (PPC Land). The expanded version of the analysis, updated in March 2026, qualifies the picture: 13% additional conversion value at the median, at the cost of a 16% higher cost per acquisition, and a median effect of zero on campaign ROAS, with variations ranging from +42% to -35% depending on the account (Smarter Ecommerce).
Why are accounts on automatically created assets the most exposed?
For campaigns on campaign-level Broad Match, the change remains contained: targeting widens, but the rewriting of ads by generative AI stays disabled until the advertiser turns it on. For accounts that used Automatically Created Assets, the switch goes beyond a change of label. Those accounts had only enabled the automatic generation of headlines and descriptions; they now also inherit the automatic widening of targeted queries, unless Search Term Matching is disabled ad group by ad group (Google documentation).
The gap between the official figures and the independent measurements justifies caution. Google reports 7% average gains from internal data, and the author of the independent analysis points out that Google does not publish the feature's impact on the retail sector. The external measurements, for their part, cover a separate sample and a period before the migration: the two series cover neither the same window nor the same accounts, which rules out a direct comparison and sends every advertiser back to its own data. Campaign budget, brand exclusions and disabling Search Term Matching at ad group level do remain in the advertiser's hands.
AIxH's view
This kind of switch, applied account by account without individual notice, is precisely what our audits detect before it weighs on performance. Our Google Ads agency in Luxembourg configures brand exclusions and manages AI Max on accounts active in Luxembourg and internationally, with the method already described before the 1 September switch: every setting checked by hand, every decision judged on conversions rather than impressions. If your account used Broad Match or Automatically Created Assets before 1 September, a quick audit is enough to establish what changed without your approval.