Google has cut off the ability to build two legacy Search campaign structures and locked a hard migration date for a third, according to an August 14, 2026 Search Engine Land report by Anu Adegbola. Campaign-level Broad Match and standalone Automatically Created Assets, or ACA, cannot be newly configured anywhere in Google Ads (the standard interface, Ads Editor, and the API) as of August 3. Dynamic Search Ads, or DSAs, get a longer clock: automatic conversion to AI Max, Google’s AI-driven Search campaign format, runs from February 1 through February 28, 2027.
This is the fourth chapter of a story we have tracked since early August. On August 7, we reported Google’s plan to auto-upgrade eligible Search campaigns to AI Max starting September 1 with no opt-in. On August 10, a Smec study we covered found nearly 29 percent of exact-match impressions were already being broadened algorithmically ahead of that date. On August 13, a Lunio study we reported found AI Max retail campaigns carrying higher invalid-traffic rates than their predecessors. What is new is sharper than a date: the path to keep building on the old settings is already closed, not merely scheduled to close.
Two structures move on the same clock. Broad Match campaigns set at the campaign level, along with ACA campaigns, both convert automatically between September 1 and September 30, according to Google, with the company describing the process as a like-for-like settings swap meant to limit disruption. Brand inclusion and exclusion lists set on the old campaigns carry through the conversion, per the source report.
Dynamic Search Ads follow a slower, better-telegraphed path. Google intends to surface in-account prompts starting in September that encourage advertisers to move DSAs voluntarily, then send a reminder notice on January 15, 2027, roughly six weeks before the automatic conversion window opens. Once that February window closes, advertisers can no longer add new DSA ad groups outside AI Max.
Developers work against a separate calendar. Any Google Ads API version released after September 1 no longer recognizes Broad Match or ACA structures built under the old rules. Versions already in use keep working until their scheduled retirement, expected near September 2027, leaving integration teams roughly thirteen months to rebuild scripts and tools around AI Max.
The compounding detail is what distinguishes this timeline from the September 1 date already on record. An advertiser hoping to preserve an old Broad Match or ACA structure past that date had no such option after August 3: the creation path closed weeks before the first automatic conversions run. That sequencing matters for the traffic-quality questions this publication has already raised. The Smec finding on algorithmic broadening and the Lunio finding on invalid traffic both describe campaigns now scheduled for compulsory conversion, not campaigns advertisers can simply decline to touch.
Search teams still running Dynamic Search Ads have a genuine decision window that Broad Match and ACA users have already lost. Audit DSA account structure and traffic quality before the January 15 reminder lands, and benchmark performance against AI Max defaults now, rather than after the February conversion removes the comparison.
Search Engine Land published this migration timeline in an August 14, 2026 report by Anu Adegbola.
