Google is porting its Dynamic Search Ads (DSA) system, which automatically generates Search ads based on the content of an advertiser’s webpage rather than preset keywords, into AI Max, its AI-powered hub for Search ads. As part of the transition, AI Max is now out of beta and available to users globally.
Voluntary migration to AI Max will begin this week, but in September, the company plans to upgrade all campaigns using DSA, as well as legacy tools like automatically created assets and campaign-level broad match, to their equivalents on the new platform.
Debuted last spring, AI Max helps advertisers anticipate user intent rather than rely on outdated keyword strategies—even for complex queries. It includes a range of AI-powered capabilities for identifying right-fit search terms, text tweaking, and determining which of a brand’s webpages to route users to. The system is what Google views as “the future platform for Search campaigns,” in the words of Brandon Ervin, director of product management at Google Ads.
The decision to move AI Max out of beta now is informed, at least in part, by the sea change happening in online search generally. Users are increasingly opting for AI search engines like Anthropic’s Claude, Google’s Gemini, and OpenAI’s ChatGPT rather than traditional search engines. Today, some 37% of consumers begin their searches with AI tools rather than search engines, according to a recent study from marketing firm Eight Oh Two. With that shift—and the advent of Google’s AI Overviews atop search results—users are clicking through to website links at lower rates, decimating publishers’ traffic while upending traditional search engine optimization (SEO) strategies. Plus, as queries grow longer, more nuanced, and more conversational, the challenges of nailing keyword variations and mastering user intent only deepen.
In this environment, DSA doesn’t offer the same value it once did, Ervin suggested. “For years, DSA has been this really great catchall campaign for advertisers to help capture the long tail of traffic that they might not have been getting with manual keyword campaigns,” he said. “But search continues to become a lot more dynamic, a lot more complex and unpredictable, and so it’s hard to continue to keep up with that.”
Getting advertisers onto AI Max, Google hopes, will help them participate and compete more effectively on Search.
“We want to continue to help advertisers move towards campaigns and setups that help them optimize AI and move away from some of these manual, high-intensity tasks like keyword management, DSA management, things like that, and focus more on some of the strategic efforts going forward,” Ervin said. And so far, he believes, “AI Max has done a great job handling the creative and targeting automation while keeping advertisers firmly in control.”
Data collected this year by Google on non-retail advertisers indicates that adoption of AI Max is translating to better performance. Compared to using search term matching alone, AI Max campaigns that take advantage of all the suite’s features—incuding search term matching, text customization and final URL expansion—result in an average of 7% more conversions or conversion value at a comparable cost-per-acquisition or return on ad spend benchmark.
To facilitate a painless switch to AI Max, Google introduced simple tools within the Google Ads interface this week that seamlessly upgrade advertisers’ DSA or created assets setups to their AI Max equivalents.
A more formal DSA cutoff is planned for September, on the assumption that advertiser feedback supports the transition, Ervin said. “If it’s going well, we’ll likely proceed with the automatic upgrade. And if we get a bunch of [negative] feedback, we’ll have to be realistic and listen to that.”
Asked whether Google’s push toward more wholly automated Search campaigns signals a belief that the future of search advertising will not rely on keywords, Ervin said Google “wants to make sure we meet advertisers where they are, while still helping set them and us up for where we expect the ecosystem to go. Even in AI Max, the keyword is actually a core feature, even if it is a broad keyword. It’s incredibly powerful to understand in the advertisers’ words what they are trying to accomplish with the given campaign.”
He added that the company has no plans to sunset exact match in Google Ads, which gives advertisers the most control when it comes to ensuring their Search ads appear for explicitly set keywords. Plus, he said, “If you don’t want to use AI Max, you don’t have to use it. We, of course, think that’s the best way to get the best of Google, especially as consumer behavior continues to change.”
