Your Google Ads account may be buying different clicks than it did in August. Nobody asked you first.
In September 2026 Google began switching Search campaigns over to a setting called AI Max. Google announced it in advance. It started on 1 September and finished at the end of the month. Accounts changed on different days, so yours may have changed three weeks ago.
Did this happen to you?
It happened if your Search campaign had either of these switched on:
- Campaign level broad match. A setting that let Google match your ads to searches close to your keywords, not only the exact words you typed in.
- Automatically created assets. A setting that let Google write extra headlines and descriptions for your ads.
If you had neither, your campaigns were left alone this time.
AI Max sits inside the Search campaigns you already have. There is nothing new to build. Any Search campaign you make today has it switched on already.
One exception. If you set your own bids by hand, search term matching does not run at all, and Google says the rest of AI Max does less too. Read the checks below anyway, because Google can still rewrite your ad text.
Check your account in 2 minutes
- Open the Campaigns menu, then Campaigns.
- Click the Settings tab at the top.
- Tick the box next to a campaign.
- Select AI Max.
If the AI Max switch is turned on, your campaign was changed.
What Google switched on for you
What Google switched on depended on what you had before.
| What you had before | What Google switched on |
|---|---|
| Campaign level broad match | Search term matching only |
| Automatically created assets | Search term matching and text customization |
Final URL expansion was left off in both cases. That is the setting that lets Google send a click to a different page of your website than the one you chose. Google published the exact defaults beforehand.
The three settings
Search term matching. Google can now show your ad on searches you never added as keywords. Google works them out from your keywords, your ads and the pages your ads send people to.
It also changes the keywords you chose yourself. With AI Max on, Google treats every keyword in that campaign as broad match. Keywords you set to show only on the exact words you typed stop working that way.
Text customization. Google writes new headlines and descriptions for your ads. Google builds them from your existing ads, your website page and your keywords. That includes your page title and your meta description, the summary line under your page in Google results.
So old text sitting on your website can end up inside a live ad. You can read every line Google wrote for you, and you can switch this setting off completely.
These extra lines do not count towards your 15 headlines and 4 descriptions. They are added on top.
Final URL expansion. Google sends the click to whichever page of your site it thinks fits the search better. Google left this one off for every campaign it changed in September. It only switches on by itself in February 2027, and only for campaigns running Dynamic Search Ads.
What you still control
AI Max did not remove the controls you already had.
- Your negative keywords still work. These are words you tell Google never to show your ad for. Google's help page says: "Yes. Negative keywords will be respected even with AI Max turned on."
- Brand exclusions still work. You can name brands you do not want to appear next to.
- Your brand lists were kept exactly as they were during the change.
- You can still block pages of your own site from being used as landing pages.
One trap with negative keywords. They do not block close spellings. Google says "Negative keywords won't match to close variants or other expansions." Block "flowers" and your ad can still show for "flower". Add both.
Four checks to run
On timing, Google says to wait at least 2 weeks after your account changed before you alter anything, including adding negative keywords. If your campaign changed in early September, those 2 weeks have already passed. If it changed in the last week, read the reports now and make the changes once your 2 weeks are up.
1. Look at what you actually bought
Open the Campaigns menu, then Insights and reports, then Search terms. This report lists what people really typed before they clicked. Set the dropdown to Search terms and ad combinations. You then see each search, the headline that person saw, and the page it sent them to.
Filter the Match type column for AI Max to see the searches Google found on its own. Google warns this filter leaves out anything listed as "Other search terms", so the real number is higher than what you see.
2. Block the searches you do not want
Look for searches that can never become a sale. A florist paying for "flower delivery jobs" is paying for someone who wants a job.
In that same report, tick a search you do not want and choose Add as negative keyword. You can add up to 1,000 of these for the whole account.
3. Read the ad lines Google wrote for you
Open the Campaigns menu, then Ads. Find the ad, then select View asset details. The Added by column marks Google's lines as Google AI.
Read every one. If a line is wrong, hover over it, select Remove, then confirm. Removal is permanent, and Google Ads has no bulk delete for this, so it is one by one. Do it anyway. These lines are running in your name.
4. Check your pinned headlines
If you pinned a headline so it always shows, that pin stops being followed when text customization and final URL expansion are both on.
Open your ad and check the pinned line is still there. If it has gone, and that line is a price, a licence number or anything else you are required to show, switch off text customization. That brings your pin back.
Should you switch it off?
You can. Go to Campaigns, the Settings tab, tick the campaign, select AI Max, then switch on the option to opt out of all AI Max settings. Google documents the steps here.
Before you do, three things worth knowing:
- Switching AI Max off switches off everything inside it, including your brand exclusions. Google says campaign performance may be affected. It does not publish how much, so read that as a reason to test rather than a number.
- The pages you blocked on your own site stop being blocked while AI Max is off.
- It is not permanent. Turn it back on and your old settings return exactly as they were.
If you only want to stop Google writing your ad text, leave AI Max on. Untick Text customization in the Asset optimization panel on the same screen. That also switches off final URL expansion, because it cannot run on its own.
Put one date in your calendar
Dynamic Search Ads, where Google picks the headline and the landing page from your website instead of you writing them, were meant to switch over in September too. Google pushed them back to February 2027.
- Google puts a reminder in your account on 15 January 2027
- The automatic change runs between 1 and 28 February 2027
- When it happens, all three settings go on, including final URL expansion
In September Google left final URL expansion off. In February it will be switched on, so a click can go to a page you did not choose.
Google recommends switching these campaigns over yourself before February, so you pick the settings and can watch what they do. To do it, open Campaigns, the Settings tab, tick the campaign, find the upgrade notice in the Dynamic Search Ads settings panel, select Upgrade, then confirm.
The old settings are gone
Since 3 August 2026 nobody can set up the old broad match setting or the old automatically created assets again, anywhere in Google Ads. Switch the old automatically created assets off and you cannot switch them back on.
None of this treats the UAE differently. Google ran the change worldwide, on the same dates everywhere.
Not sure what your account has been buying since September? Send us your account and we will read the search terms report with you. If your cost per enquiry has moved, our guide to finding where your ad budget leaks covers the rest. We also run performance marketing for UAE businesses who would rather not watch settings like these.
