Google Ads AI Max and Performance Max: your controls

Google’s AI now chooses more of what your ads say, which searches they show on and where clicks land. You can’t turn the clock back, but you still hold more switches than most owners realise.

This page explains the two big automated campaign types, AI Max for Search and Performance Max, the dates ahead and the controls you keep. We keep it up to date as Google changes things. It’s based on Google’s own help pages as they stood on 15 November 2026.

AI Max: three switches, not one

AI Max for Search is a set of three features you add to an ordinary Search campaign. Google’s AI Max help page describes them:

Search term matching. Google uses broad match, your ads and your landing pages to find searches you never listed as keywords. It’s set per ad group.
Text customisation. Google writes extra headlines and descriptions from your site and ads. This used to be called automatically created assets. It’s set per campaign.
Final URL expansion. Google can send a click to a different page on your site if it thinks that page fits the search better. It’s set per campaign and only works with text customisation on.

You can switch each one off separately. Turning AI Max off altogether turns off all of its features, including brand exclusions, Google’s AI Max FAQ says. Turn it back on and those settings return as they were.

Two catches. Search term matching doesn’t work with manual cost-per-click bidding. And for a Search campaign, you need AI Max on to add a new brand list. Brand settings you already have keep working, Google’s brand settings page says.

The dates still to come

Most of the move to AI Max has already happened. You couldn’t create new campaign-level broad match or standalone automatically created assets after 3 August 2026. Google planned to upgrade eligible Search campaigns gradually through September. We covered that in Google is moving Search campaigns to AI Max: what to check.

Dynamic Search Ads are next. Google’s developer timeline sets a reminder notice for 15 January 2027. Automatic migration then begins between 1 and 28 February 2027. Remaining Dynamic Search Ads become standard Search ad groups with AI Max on. You also lose the ability to create new Dynamic Search Ads ad groups.

Google says the automatic upgrade switches on all three AI Max features, with your old URL controls kept. You can upgrade earlier yourself, from the banner in your account or in Campaign settings under Dynamic Search Ads.

What you still control in AI Max

Your negative keywords still apply. Google’s FAQ says they “will be respected even with AI Max turned on”.

Beyond that, the AI Max help page lists these controls:

Brand inclusions, to show only on searches that mention particular brands (campaign or ad group).
Brand exclusions, to keep off searches for brands you don’t want, such as a competitor’s (campaign).
URL inclusions and exclusions, to keep Google away from pages such as careers, blog or terms pages (exclusions at campaign level).
Locations of interest, set per ad group.

One more thing changes if your campaign moved from campaign-level broad match. Its broad keywords aren’t treated as exact match when Google decides which keyword to use. So if a particular search really matters, Google suggests adding an exact match copy of it. Google also warns that AI Max “won’t be effective if campaigns are limited by budget”.

Performance Max: everything at once

Performance Max is a single campaign that runs across YouTube, Display, Search, Discover, Gmail and Maps. You give it a goal such as sales or leads, your conversion goals and your assets. Google decides where and when to show your ads.

You now get more say than at launch. A campaign can take up to 10,000 negative keywords, according to Google’s Performance Max questions page. An account can add up to 1,000 more that apply to every campaign. Neither catches close variants, so add the spellings you care about.

Brand exclusions do catch “clear misspellings or writing in foreign scripts”, which negative keywords don’t. In Performance Max they cover Search, Shopping and YouTube search, Google’s brand settings page says.

Google also adds material to your ads by default. Final URL expansion is on unless you untick it, and you can exclude particular URLs. Sourced videos are on by default for new campaigns, as we reported in Google Ads may be adding your social videos to Performance Max. Both can be switched off under Asset optimisation. From 4 December 2026, image extraction is on by default for new Performance Max campaigns too.

Check what it’s doing

You can now see much more of what the AI chose. Google’s AI Max reporting page explains the clues:

The search terms report shows an AI Max match type.
The keywords report has rows for “AI Max expanded matches” and “AI Max landing page matches”.
Headlines Google wrote show “Google AI” in the Added by column of the asset report.

For Performance Max, choose “Search terms and landing pages for Performance Max” from the search terms report drop-down. Add poor searches you find there as negative keywords.

These ads can also appear in Google’s AI Mode, and as we reported, there’s no opt-out. See Google is bringing ads into AI Mode answers in Australia.

Feed it the right goal

Automation chases whatever you tell it counts. Only primary conversion actions are used for bidding, and only in campaigns using the goal that contains them, Google’s conversion actions page says. Secondary actions are kept out of the Conversions column.

So if newsletter sign-ups are primary and phone calls are secondary, Google will chase sign-ups.

Budgets flex too. A campaign can spend up to twice its average daily budget on a busy day, Google’s budget page says. Across a month, it won’t spend more than 30.4 times your average daily budget.

Checklist

Check your primary conversions. In Goals, make sure only the actions you want more of, such as calls, bookings or sales, are set to primary.
Add brand exclusions. Exclude competitors’ brands you don’t want to appear on, in AI Max or Performance Max campaign settings.
Exclude pages that shouldn’t get ad clicks. Add URL exclusions for careers, blog, terms and other pages that don’t sell.
Add exact match copies of searches that matter. If your campaign moved from campaign-level broad match to AI Max, its broad keywords no longer count as exact match.
Review Asset optimisation in Performance Max. Decide whether to keep final URL expansion and sourced videos on.
Read the search terms report monthly. Add poor searches as negative keywords.
Diarise 1 February 2027 if you run Dynamic Search Ads. Upgrade earlier from Campaign settings if you’d rather control the timing.