The Google Ads API (formerly AdWords API) allows developers and advertisers to manage Google Ads campaigns programmatically. For organizations managing AI Max campaigns at scale — multiple accounts, high campaign counts, custom reporting — understanding API compatibility with AI Max campaign types is essential, especially given the July 2026 ToS changes.
What the Google Ads API Can Do With AI Max Campaigns
The Google Ads API supports AI Max campaign management with the following capabilities:
Campaign creation and configuration: Create AI Max for Search and AI Max for Shopping campaigns, set targeting, budgets, and bid strategies programmatically.
RSA asset management: Upload, modify, and delete RSA headlines and descriptions via API. Useful for large-scale asset testing or automated asset updates based on product catalog changes.
Audience management: Upload Customer Match lists, create and modify remarketing audiences, and add audiences to campaigns as signals — all via API.
Reporting: Pull AI Max performance data (impressions, clicks, conversions, conversion value, Quality Score components) into custom reporting pipelines.
Conversion import: Upload offline conversion data (GCLID + event + value) at scale via the API — the most important B2B/high-consideration use case for AI Max.
What the API Cannot Override in AI Max
The July 2026 ToS (https://yositeup.com/blog/google-ads-tos-july-2026-ai-automation-what-changed) defines the boundary between advertiser-controlled parameters and AI-controlled decisions. The API follows the same boundary:
Not API-accessible (AI-controlled):
- Individual auction bid decisions
- Query matching decisions within AI Max's expanded matching scope
- Asset combination decisions (which RSA headline + description the AI serves for a specific query)
- URL routing decisions when URL expansion is enabled
API-accessible (advertiser-controlled):
- Budget and bid targets
- Negative keyword lists
- Audience signals and exclusions
- Campaign-level settings (language targeting, geo targeting, ad scheduling)
- RSA asset content (but not the AI's combination/selection decisions)
Google Ads API for DSA to AI Max Migration at Scale
Organizations migrating many DSA campaigns to AI Max for Search (https://yositeup.com/blog/google-ads-dsa-ai-max-migration-february-2027) can automate the migration process via API:
- Read existing DSA campaign configurations via API (targeting, assets, conversion actions, budgets)
- Create parallel AI Max for Search campaigns with equivalent settings
- Gradually shift budget from DSA to AI Max campaigns via API budget updates
- Retire DSA campaigns via API once AI Max campaigns stabilize
This is especially useful for agency accounts managing dozens or hundreds of client DSA campaigns that all need to migrate before February 2027.
Data Reporting After the June 2026 Deletion
The June 2026 data deletion (https://yositeup.com/blog/google-ads-reporting-data-deleted-june-2026) affects data accessible via the Google Ads API for the deleted period. API queries for performance data covering the deletion period will return incomplete results or gaps:
- API reports requesting date ranges that include the deleted period will return data only for dates where data exists
- Automated reporting pipelines should handle null/zero values for the deletion period gracefully (not confuse them with genuine zero-performance days)
- Historical comparison reports comparing current data to pre-deletion periods via API should be flagged for the data gap
If you have API-based reporting pipelines: add a date-range filter check that identifies when a requested range overlaps the deletion period and flags the output accordingly.
AI Max for Shopping and Google Merchant Center API
For AI Max for Shopping (https://yositeup.com/blog/google-ai-max-shopping-replacing-performance-max-2026), product feed management via the Content API for Shopping (Merchant Center API) is the complement to Google Ads API campaign management:
- Update product data (titles, descriptions, prices, availability) via Content API — this updates what the AI has to work with in Shopping ads
- Merchant Promotions can be submitted and managed via the Content API
- Local inventory feeds can be updated via API for Local Inventory Ads in AI Max for Shopping
Combining Content API (feed management) with Google Ads API (campaign management) allows fully automated AI Max for Shopping operations at scale: new product launches automatically create product groups, promotions automatically activate and deactivate campaigns, and out-of-stock products automatically update availability.
API Rate Limits and Large-Scale AI Max Operations
Google Ads API has rate limits that affect large-scale AI Max operations. Key limits:
- Standard access: 15,000 operations per day per developer token
- Basic access: Higher limits for approved use cases
- Operations per request: Limit of 5,000 operations per mutate request
For organizations managing hundreds of AI Max campaigns: plan API operations carefully during migration periods. DSA-to-AI-Max migration for 200 campaigns may require multiple API batches over several days to stay within rate limits.
The July 2026 ToS and API Automation
Under the July 2026 ToS, automated actions performed via the API are treated identically to actions performed in the Google Ads UI. If the ToS restricts the advertiser from making a certain configuration change, the API won't allow it either. The ToS doesn't distinguish between UI actions and API actions.
This means API-based automation of bid targets, negative keywords, and audience signals is fully authorized under the July 2026 ToS — those operations fall within the advertiser-controlled scope the ToS preserves. API-based attempts to override AI bidding decisions or directly specify auction bids would fail, as those operations aren't available in the API for AI Max campaigns.
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