Google Ads AI Max: What to Check in Your Search Campaigns This September

If your Search campaigns use automatically created assets or the campaign-level broad match setting, make time for a settings review this month. The useful question is specific: after the AI Max transition, what can Google change about your targeting, ad copy and landing pages?

Google’s June 11 update says automatic upgrades for those two legacy settings begin in September 2026. Dynamic Search Ads have a different timeline: their sunset and automatic upgrade begin in February 2027. Read the dated update in Google’s announcement; the original article still contains older September language about DSA.

Here is the review we recommend for a standard Search campaign. Check the account’s own notifications and saved settings before assuming a change has reached it.

Record the setup before changing it

Open the campaign’s settings and record whether AI Max is enabled, then note search term matching, text customization and Final URL expansion separately. Save the date and a screenshot alongside the current budget, bidding approach and conversion goals. That gives the next person reviewing performance a usable change record.

Google’s published mapping says legacy automatically created assets campaigns move with search term matching and text customization enabled; the campaign-level broad match setting maps to search term matching. An AI Max label alone does not tell you which combination is active.

Avoid combining this review with a budget increase, a new offer and a conversion-goal change. If results move, you will need a reasonable way to explain what changed.

Check the two asset controls separately

For an existing campaign, go to Campaigns, open Settings, select the campaign and open AI Max. Under Asset optimization, inspect Text customization and Final URL expansion. Save any intended change, then reopen the settings to confirm it persisted.

Text customization governs generated copy. Final URL expansion affects destination selection. Google documents an important dependency: turning off text customization also turns off Final URL expansion. Use Google’s text customization instructions when making that change.

Our recommendation is to decide what the business is comfortable automating before accepting a configuration. A campaign with carefully approved wording and a dedicated offer page has different requirements from one designed to explore a wider service catalog.

Make the landing-page decision explicit

If Final URL expansion is on, review which parts of the site make sense for paid traffic. For a hypothetical software demo campaign, a careers page, customer login and expired event page would be poor destinations even if they contain relevant product language.

In the campaign’s AI Max settings, use Add URL exclusions under Final URL expansion. Add individual URLs or appropriate rules, apply them, and save. Review the actual patterns carefully: an overly broad rule can exclude a useful service page along with the pages you meant to remove.

Do not assume pinned responsive search ad text solves this. Google says pinned assets are not used when expansion chooses a more relevant URL, and URL inclusions also affect pinning. Its guidance says to turn off both Final URL expansion and URL inclusions to always use pinned assets. Review the Search URL controls documentation against your requirements.

Verify the customer journey after saving

Open the intended landing pages on a phone. Check the offer, form, confirmation step and tracking through your normal quality-assurance process. A campaign configuration cannot compensate for a broken inquiry path.

Then review actual search terms, generated assets and landing-page activity as data becomes available. Look for a mismatch between what the person searched, what the ad promised and where the click landed. Record corrective actions with dates. Keep operational fixes separate from claims that the migration improved or reduced performance; those conclusions require enough outcome data and consideration of other changes.

The immediate deliverable should be simple: a saved settings record, a reviewed destination policy and a working conversion path. If you need help reviewing that setup, MetaVari Media connects paid search planning and execution with measurement. Tell us what your campaigns need to achieve.

Platform sources reviewed September 21, 2026. The review process above is MetaVari Media’s recommendation; account availability and interface details can vary. This article covers standard Search implementation, not travel-specific formats.