Google is rewriting your search campaigns this month

Broad match and auto-created-asset campaigns are being auto-migrated to AI Max through September 30, and it's now the default for every new Search campaign. This isn't a feature you can evaluate at your leisure. It's a rewrite of your existing campaigns on a deadline, plus a new default for everything you build going forward. Google claims roughly 7% more conversions at similar CPA and ROAS. Read that claim the way an analyst would, not the way a press release wants you to.

What AI Max changes

AI Max expands query matching and rewrites your ad copy. Those are the two changes that matter, and they are both about control. Query matching decides which searches trigger your ads. Ad copy decides what searchers see. AI Max takes a bigger role in both: broader matching that reaches searches your keywords wouldn't have caught, and automated creative that assembles and rewrites your ads.

That is the trade, stated plainly: broader reach and automated creative in exchange for less direct control over which queries you show for and what your ads say. Every automation trade in paid search history has been some version of this. Reach goes up, control goes down, and the advertiser's job shifts from pulling levers to auditing outcomes.

Why "7% more conversions at similar CPA" deserves a second read

Start with what the claim actually says. Roughly 7% more conversions, at similar CPA and ROAS. It does not say cheaper conversions. It does not say better efficiency. Similar CPA means the cost per conversion stays about where it was, which means the extra conversions cost roughly the same as the ones you already had. This is growth, not efficiency: more conversions because more spend is finding more searches, at roughly the same price per conversion.

Whether that is good news depends on your business. If you have budget headroom and want volume at your current efficiency, 7% more conversions at a similar CPA is a genuine win. If your budget is fixed and your efficiency is already tight, the question is different: where is the new volume coming from, and is it as valuable as the volume you had? Similar CPA is an average. Averages hide the mix.

And remember who is making the claim. Google benefits when matching expands, because broader matching spends more of your budget. The 7% figure is a directional signal, not a guarantee for your account. Your number will be your number. The only way to know it is to measure it, which brings us to the oversight.

The oversight it demands

Automation without oversight is just spending faster. AI Max doesn't remove the need for management; it changes what management looks like. You stop managing keywords and start managing outcomes: which queries, which spend, which results.

Audit your search term reports weekly

The search term report is now the most important screen in your account. It shows what AI Max actually matched you to, which is the whole ballgame. Weekly is the cadence because drift compounds: a few irrelevant queries this week become a pattern next week, and patterns become permanent budget allocation if nobody looks. Build the habit before the migration finishes, because September 30 is the deadline for the change, not the deadline for the consequences.

Watch query relevance, not just volume

Volume is easy to celebrate and easy to be fooled by. More queries matched, more clicks, more impressions: all of it can rise while relevance falls. Relevance is the question that matters: are these the searches of people who buy what you sell? A smaller set of highly relevant queries beats a larger set of loosely related ones, every time, because relevance is what converts. Sort the search term report by spend and read the top of it like a hawk. The most expensive terms should be the most relevant terms. When they aren't, you have a problem the averages will hide.

Monitor spend shifts through the transition

Budgets will move as matching expands. That is not a malfunction; it is the mechanism. Broader matching finds new queries, new queries spend money, and spend shifts from the searches you chose to the searches the system chose. Watch where the money goes, campaign by campaign, through the transition. If spend migrates toward queries you'd never have bid on, that is information. Act on it with negatives, with structure, with whatever controls remain. The transition period is when the new patterns get set. Set them deliberately.

What to do this week

1. Inventory your account. Identify every campaign built on broad match or auto-created assets. Those are the ones migrating. Know the list before the deadline.
2. Baseline your numbers now. Record CPA and ROAS by campaign before the migration completes, so you can measure what actually changed instead of guessing later.
3. Put a weekly search term audit on the calendar. Same day, every week, no exceptions. Relevance review, top spenders first.
4. Build your negative keyword process. Expanded matching will find queries you don't want. Have a fast path for excluding them.
5. Watch the new-campaign default. Every new Search campaign now starts on AI Max. Build your launch checklist around that: tighter initial structure, closer early monitoring, clear efficiency targets from day one.

Honest caveats

AI Max may find queries you genuinely missed. That is the real upside, and it is worth saying plainly. Human keyword research has blind spots, especially for long-tail and emerging search behavior. Broader matching can surface converting searches you never thought to bid on. Don't kneecap the automation before it has a chance to show you something. Give it a learning period, then judge it on your numbers, not Google's.

The counterweight: a learning period is not a blank check. Learning means the system is testing, and testing means some of your budget goes to queries that don't convert. That is the price of the 7%, and it is fine, as long as you are watching the search term report and the spend shifts and cutting what doesn't earn its place. Automation with oversight is leverage. Automation without it is just spending faster.

Have you audited your search terms since the migration?

Data over opinions.