AI Max for Search Is On by Default: 6 Controls to Set Now

Your Search campaigns may be matching queries you never bought, writing headlines you never approved and sending clicks to pages you never chose. That is AI Max for Search, and since September 2026 Google has been moving many campaigns into it by default. The fix takes about 45 minutes: six controls, set in the right order, before the wedding season and the January sale calendar eat your budget.

We don’t think you should switch AI Max off everywhere. We think you should fence it, then make it earn more room.

Did AI Max already switch on in your account?

Probably, at least partly. Google’s help pages say new Search campaigns have AI Max on by default, campaigns using text customization (the old automatically created assets) move to AI Max from September 2026, and Dynamic Search Ads follow from February 2027. The campaign-level broad match setting now lives inside AI Max too.

Check it campaign by campaign. Go to Campaigns > Settings, open a Search campaign and look for the AI Max section. To see every campaign at once, tick them all in Settings, click Edit and choose Change AI Max settings.

Two conditions matter before you do anything else. Search term matching, text customization and final URL expansion all need a conversion-based Smart Bidding strategy. And Google itself says AI Max won’t be effective if a campaign is limited by budget. If your Diwali campaigns ran out of money by 2 pm, AI Max had nothing to explore with.

Which AI Max for Search settings should you change first?

Start with what can damage your brand, then what wastes money, then what limits reach. In practice that means brand exclusions, URL exclusions, text guidelines and locations, in that order, before you touch search term matching. This sequence protects you on day one and leaves AI Max room to find new queries.

1. Build brand lists once. Go to Tools > Shared library > Brand lists. Create one list of your own brand and sub-brands, and one of competitors or marketplaces you don’t want to pay for. Google says brand exclusions win over brand inclusions when the two clash.
2. Apply them per campaign. Open Campaign settings > AI Max > Brands. Use exclusions on non-brand campaigns so they stop buying your own brand searches. Use inclusions only on a brand campaign, because inclusions restrict serving to the brands you pick.
3. Fence the landing pages. In Settings > campaign > AI Max > Final URL expansion > Add URL exclusions, block careers, blog, policy, login and out-of-stock collection pages. You can add exact URLs, page feed labels or “URL Contains” rules.
4. Add text guidelines. Under AI Max > Asset optimization > Add text guidelines, set term exclusions and messaging restrictions (details in the next section).
5. Set locations of interest where it matters. At ad group level, AI Max can target people by the place they search for, even on keywordless matches. Useful when you serve one city, say Pune, and people search for “dermatologist in Pune” from Mumbai.
6. Only then decide on search term matching. It can be switched off per ad group under Ad groups > Search term matching. Keep it off in ad groups built on exact keywords that already convert well.

How do you stop AI Max writing ad copy you can’t approve?

Use text guidelines, a beta feature that sits inside text customization. You get up to 25 term exclusions and up to 40 messaging restrictions per campaign, and assets that break a new guideline stop serving. It’s the only control that stops AI Max from inventing claims, so set it before festive offers go live.

For Indian advertisers, three details matter more than the limits:

• Prices need a restriction, not an exclusion. Term exclusions can’t block prices. Add the restriction “Don’t generate assets with prices” if your MRP changes weekly or GST-inclusive pricing varies by state.
• Exclusions are language-specific, restrictions aren’t. If you run English and Hindi ads, add excluded terms in both. A Hinglish banned word like “sasta” needs its own entry.
• Write restrictions an ASCI reviewer would sign off. “Don’t claim guaranteed results”, “Don’t mention cure or treatment”, “Don’t promise free delivery” are the kind of lines that keep BFSI, health and D2C brands out of trouble.

Google also warns that badly written guidelines can remove a large number of good assets. Keep each one short and specific. “Don’t use the word cheap” works. “Sound premium” doesn’t.

AI Max will write your ad. Text guidelines decide whether you’d sign it.

Our maths: what a weak AI Max slice costs a ₹3 lakh account

We built a worked example for a typical Indian D2C skincare brand. Assumptions: ₹3,00,000 a month on Search, a ₹600 cost per purchase on phrase match, so 500 purchases a month as the baseline. AI Max ends up taking 20% of spend, or ₹60,000.

The gap between the best and worst rows is 126 purchases a month on the same budget. The third row uses the ratio from Xavier Mantica’s four-month test, shared in November 2025, where AI Max cost $100.37 per conversion against $43.97 for phrase match. We applied the ratio, not the dollar figures, because Indian CPCs differ.

From this we use a simple rule we call the 1.3x gate. After two weeks, if AI Max-sourced conversions cost more than 1.3 times your phrase CPA, narrow it. Under 1.3x, and mostly on queries your keywords never covered, give it more room. Pick your own multiple if your margins are thin. Just pick one before the test starts.

How do you read AI Max search terms without fooling yourself?

Open the search terms report, filter Match type to “AI Max” and add the “Source” column, which shows whether a query came from broad match expansion or keywordless matching. Google says to wait at least two weeks after switching on before judging, and warns the filtered view can show lower numbers.

Then check three places most teams skip. The Search terms and ad combinations view shows which generated headline and which landing page served each query. The Keywords page has Total: AI Max expanded matches and Total: AI Max landing page matches rows. The landing pages report has a “Selected by” column.

Sort AI Max terms by cost, not clicks. Long, rambling queries are normal now. Ezra Sackett, Director of Paid Search at Monks, found 31% of AI Max search terms in his review ran past 25 characters. Length alone isn’t a reason to block. Zero conversions after real spend is. For the blocking itself, our guide to negative keywords still applies.

Who says AI Max works, and who says it doesn’t?

Google’s evidence is strongest for accounts built mostly on exact and phrase keywords. Independent tests are strongest against retail. Brian Burdick, Senior Director of Product Management at Google Ads, put the typical uplift at 27% for those exact and phrase heavy campaigns, citing L’Oréal and Australian utility service MyConnect as early results.

The other side is blunt. Mantica wrote “I’m done with AI Max” after his test. Smarter Ecommerce’s analysis said AI Max merits experiments, not a rush. Sackett called his results “meh” but expected the product to improve in 2026.

Here’s where our fence-first approach could be wrong. Google’s 27% figure comes precisely from the tightly built accounts most likely to lock AI Max down. If you exclude too much, you may cap the one source of new queries in a market where Hinglish and voice searches keep changing shape. That’s why the playbook ends with a test, not a ban.

Run the experiment as a proper split. Use Google Ads experiments with a 50/50 split for four weeks, judged against the 1.3x gate. Cross-check purchases in GA4 so you’re not trusting one platform’s view of its own feature; our GA4 setup guide covers the events. Track every new default as it lands in our Google Ads updates log, and pair this with the customer lifecycle goal multipliers if new buyers are worth more to you.

What to do now

• Open Campaigns > Settings, bulk-select Search campaigns and check each AI Max status.
• Create two brand lists in Tools > Shared library > Brand lists and apply exclusions to non-brand campaigns.
• Add URL exclusions for careers, blog and out-of-stock pages, remembering “URL Contains” matches whole tokens.
• Write text guidelines with a “no prices” restriction, plus Hindi exclusions if you advertise in Hindi.
• Set your gate multiple, launch a 50/50 experiment and diary a review date two weeks out.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• About AI Max for Search campaigns, Google Ads Help
• Set up AI Max for Search campaigns, Google Ads Help
• How AI Max for Search campaigns works, Google Ads Help
• Use text guidelines with Performance Max and Search campaigns, Google Ads Help
• About URL exclusions in AI Max for Search campaigns, Google Ads Help
• About reporting in AI Max for Search campaigns, Google Ads Help
• About brand settings for Search and Performance Max, Google Ads Help
• About text customization in Search campaigns, Google Ads Help
• AI Max for Search campaigns launch post, Google blog (May 2025)
• Independent tests show AI Max underperforms traditional match types, PPC Land
• Google’s AI Max for Search campaigns deliver meh results, PPC Land
• Google clarifies AI Max attribution discrepancies, PPC Land

Kousik BhattacharyaEditor, PingTalks

Digital Evangelist and Entrepreneur at Clickseek Digital. A results-oriented marketing leader with an 18+ year track record driving transformative growth for diverse global businesses. Expert in performance marketing, demand generation, customer acquisition, strategic partnerships, and market expansion within B2B SaaS, Consumer-Tech, Fintech, Travel/Hospitality, and CRM/ITES Solutions sectors. IIM alumnus with a strong analytical background and a string of accolades, including "Top 50 Most Influential E-Commerce Professional of India" and "Top 100 Digital Marketer of India."

All stories by Kousik LinkedIn