Google Ads began automatically migrating every campaign still running campaign-level Broad Match or Automatically Created Assets over to AI Max on September 1. The rollout continues in stages through the end of the month. Advertisers who didn't manually turn off those settings before September 1 are being moved whether they logged in to approve it or not, and the opt-out window has already closed.
What Actually Happened
Google blocked the creation of any new campaign-level Broad Match or legacy Automatically Created Assets (ACA) setups back on August 3, across the Ads UI, Ads Editor, and the API. Anyone still running those settings on an existing campaign is now getting force-migrated to AI Max between September 1 and 30, rolling out in batches rather than all at once.
Migrated campaigns land on what Google calls "equivalent AI Max settings to minimize disruption." Search term matching gets switched on by default for everyone affected, and text customization gets turned on too for campaigns coming from ACA. Existing brand inclusion and exclusion lists carry over automatically, so a brand safety setup built months ago doesn't just disappear in the switch.
Google notified affected advertisers by email on August 5, then published the full technical rundown on its Ads Developer Blog on August 12, three weeks ahead of the actual migration start. The only way to skip it entirely was disabling Broad Match or ACA manually before September 1. That's not an option anymore for anyone who missed it.
This also isn't a one-time event. Google has already scheduled the next phase: Dynamic Search Ads campaigns get the same automatic treatment starting February 2027, with reminder notices going out in mid-January and the ability to create new DSA ad groups removed entirely once that migration completes.
What It Means For Your Account
AI Max hands more of the account over to Google's matching algorithm and less to manual control. Search terms get matched more loosely than standard exact or phrase match, and ad text gets rewritten on the fly based on what Google predicts will convert. For an account someone checks weekly, this can genuinely help, Google's intent-matching has improved enough that it often finds real buyers a tighter setup would miss.
For an account nobody's actively watching, it means Google now has default permission to spend against a wider, looser set of search terms without asking first. The settings didn't get worse. The oversight requirement just went up.
The practical move isn't waiting for a monthly report to flag a problem. Log into Google Ads this week, check which campaigns now show AI Max under the campaign type column, and read the actual search terms report on those campaigns, not just the performance summary. If the leads coming in still match what's actually being sold, nothing to do. If cost per lead creeps up or the traffic starts looking off-target, that's the tell that matching loosened more than expected on that specific account.
This is exactly the kind of platform-level shift small businesses lose money on simply because nobody's checking the account daily. Tools like KenjiAI (kenjiai.com) exist for this reason, watching for account-level changes like this migration and catching budget drift before it compounds over a full month.
What To Check This Week
Three concrete things worth doing before the month is out. First, pull the search terms report on any campaign that now shows AI Max and scan for terms with no real connection to the offer, that's the fastest sign matching went looser than intended. Second, compare cost per click and cost per lead for the first week of September against August on the same campaigns, a real jump is the earliest hard signal. Third, if competitor names or off-limits terms were excluded before, confirm those exclusions actually survived the migration instead of assuming Google's word for it is enough.
The DSA migration is five months out, but the lesson applies now. These mandatory upgrade windows close fast and quietly, usually with one email a month ahead. The thing that protects an account isn't reacting after a bad week of spend. It's checking the settings before the deadline hits.
Published by the Media Traffics | KenjiAI team. kenjiai.com
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