Google will begin automatically moving eligible Search campaigns onto AI Max on September 1, according to emails the company has sent advertisers. The migration covers campaigns already running Automatically Created Assets (ACA), which generates additional ad copy variations from page content, or campaigns using the broad match setting applied at the campaign level. Neither group has to request the change.
Campaigns built on Automatically Created Assets come out of the migration with two features switched on: search term matching, which lets ads qualify for queries outside the account’s keyword list, and text customization, which lets Google’s system rewrite or adjust ad copy without manual input. Campaigns that only use the broad match setting receive search term matching alone. Text customization does not activate for that second group.
Google says the rollout is built to preserve each campaign’s current behavior as closely as possible, mapping existing settings onto their nearest AI Max equivalent instead of resetting the account. That is a claim advertisers cannot verify from the notice alone. Search Engine Land’s report, which first surfaced after paid media professional Menachem Ani, founder of JXT Group, flagged the advertiser email on X, includes no before-and-after data on query volume, impression share, or cost per conversion for migrated campaigns.
The distinction advertisers should track is between preserved behavior and expanded reach. Automatically Created Assets and campaign-level broad match are themselves automation settings, but neither extends matching the way search term matching does once AI Max is active. A campaign built around a defined keyword list can become eligible for a wider set of queries the moment the upgrade lands, with no change to the keywords entered.
The two migration paths also diverge in exposure. Accounts running Automatically Created Assets take on both an expanded query set and ad copy Google’s system can alter, while accounts limited to campaign-level broad match take on only the query expansion. A team managing several Search campaigns should not assume every campaign converts the same way; the settings each individual campaign already has determine which AI Max features arrive by default, not a single account-wide toggle.
Search Engine Land’s own framing describes the move as a continuation of Google’s shift away from manual campaign controls, not a one-time adjustment limited to these two settings. The company is making AI Max the default path for more Search campaigns, not an optional upgrade advertisers can choose to ignore.
Search teams running paid campaigns should pull a Search terms report before September 1 and again roughly two weeks after the affected campaigns convert, then compare which queries triggered impressions under each configuration. That comparison, not Google’s notice, is what confirms whether the “as closely as possible” claim holds for a specific account.
Reported by Anu Adegbola for Search Engine Land, published August 6, 2026.
