Google Is Auto-Upgrading Dynamic Search Ads to AI Max: What Advertisers Must Do Before September

Google just put a deadline on one of the most common “set-it-and-forget-it” Search growth levers: Dynamic Search Ads (DSAs). In a new announcement, Google says it will automatically upgrade campaigns using DSAs (plus Automatically Created Assets and campaign-level broad match) into AI Max for Search starting in September 2026—and it will also stop allowing new DSA creation across the Google Ads UI, Editor, and API. The message is clear: the next era of Search is AI-first, and advertisers who wait will get migrated on Google’s timeline, not theirs.

For business owners and agency leaders, this isn’t just a UI change. It’s a structural shift in how Google expands query coverage, generates creative, selects landing pages, and applies intent signals. If you’ve relied on DSAs as your “coverage net” for long-tail queries or messy product catalogs, you need a controlled transition plan now—before Q4 budgets and peak season ramp.

What Google announced (and what’s changing)

Google says AI Max is “moving out of beta,” and reports that AI Max campaigns see an average 7% more conversions or conversion value at similar CPA/ROAS when using the full feature suite compared to using search term matching alone. Google’s announcement

The operational headline: starting in September, Google will automatically upgrade eligible campaigns that use:

• Dynamic Search Ads (DSA)
• Automatically Created Assets (ACA)
• Campaign-level broad match settings

At the same time, Google says you won’t be able to create new DSA campaigns via Google Ads, Google Ads Editor, or the Google Ads API once the automatic upgrades begin. Google’s announcement

Google is already encouraging voluntary upgrades and is rolling out tooling to help DSA users port historical settings and data into standard ad groups as part of the transition. Google’s announcement

Why this matters: DSA was “URL-driven.” AI Max is “signal-driven.”

DSA historically worked as a catch-all: point Google at your site (or a subset of URLs) and let it match queries, generate headlines, and choose landing pages based on your website content. That approach helped advertisers:

• Capture long-tail demand without building exhaustive keyword lists
• Cover catalog changes without constant keyword maintenance
• Find new query themes that could be promoted into keyword campaigns

AI Max keeps the “expand coverage” promise, but Google explicitly frames it as a response to searches becoming “more complex and unpredictable,” using “broader, real-time intent signals” beyond landing-page data. Google’s announcement

In practice, that means your governance model needs to evolve. Instead of thinking “Which URLs can Google match?” you need to think “What signals will Google use, and how do we constrain outcomes to protect brand, margin, and lead quality?”

The new control surfaces you need to configure before auto-upgrade

Google highlights that AI Max includes additional steering controls such as brand controls, location controls, and text guidelines. Google’s announcement

Those controls are your safety rails. If you don’t set them intentionally, you risk a familiar failure mode of AI-led search expansion: more volume, but poorer intent alignment.

Before September, build a migration checklist around four guardrails:

• Brand exclusions and inclusions: Ensure you can prevent showing on competitor-sensitive queries or brand-unsafe variations, while still protecting your own brand terms.
• Geo and service-area precision: If you’re a regional or multi-location business, align location controls to your real fulfillment footprint—not just where you “want leads.”
• Text guidelines: Treat these like compliance rules. Define what must be present (proof points, disclaimers) and what must never appear (regulated claims, pricing promises you can’t honor).
• Landing-page governance: Audit which URLs you’d be comfortable sending paid traffic to at scale, and tighten URL controls before migration to reduce low-conversion pages entering the mix.

How to transition without sacrificing performance (a practical playbook)

Google itself recommends not waiting for automatic upgrades and suggests using experiments to test impact. Google’s announcement

Here’s a pragmatic approach we recommend for teams that run DSAs today:

• Step 1: Snapshot today’s DSA baseline. Export the last 60–90 days of search terms, landing pages, conversions, conversion value, and assisted conversions (if available). This becomes your “pre-migration control.”
• Step 2: Separate brand vs. non-brand expansion. Create clear campaign boundaries so AI Max expansion doesn’t muddy brand efficiency metrics.
• Step 3: Migrate in controlled segments. Start with one product line, one geo, or one service category. Don’t flip everything at once.
• Step 4: Tighten measurement first. AI-driven expansion amplifies whatever your conversion tracking “rewards.” Make sure your primary conversions reflect real business outcomes (qualified leads, booked appointments, purchases), not vanity events.
• Step 5: Use experiments and holdouts. Run a structured test where AI Max is enabled for a subset of traffic and compare against your baseline on CPA/ROAS, lead quality, and downstream revenue.

Also note Google’s expected timeline: it expects eligible campaign upgrades to conclude by the end of September. Google’s announcement

Actionable takeaways for business owners and agency leaders

• Plan for a forced migration: Even if you do nothing, DSAs/ACA/broad match will transition—so treat this as a Q2/Q3 project, not a September fire drill.
• Governance is the new competitive edge: The winners won’t be the brands with the biggest budgets; they’ll be the teams with the cleanest tracking, best guardrails, and fastest experimentation cycles.
• DSA “coverage net” becomes AI Max “expansion engine”: Expect broader reach. Your job is to ensure broader reach doesn’t mean broader waste.
• Use the transition to modernize your stack: Align offline conversion imports (where possible), strengthen CRM attribution, and tighten landing-page quality so AI Max has better signals to optimize toward.

If you want help migrating DSAs to AI Max without losing performance—or if you want a governance framework for AI-driven Search expansion—Real Internet Sales can help. Call 803-708-5514 or visit realinternetsales.com to talk with a strategist.