Google switches AI Max on for new Search campaigns. On lead-gen, I still switch it off.
In June 2026 I wrote a first version of this article. I didn’t publish it. Google was changing its AI features fast, and I expected things to look different by August.
They do. So here is the new version.
What changed since June 2026
AI Max is a setting inside a normal Google Search campaign. It lets Google show your ads on searches beyond your keywords. It can also write new ad text, and send people to another page on your site than the one you picked.
In July 2026, Google’s help page still said you switch AI Max on yourself. By September 2026, the same page said that when you create a new Search campaign, AI Max starts switched on.
On 3 August 2026, Google stopped people from creating two older settings. One put a whole campaign on broad match. The other let Google write extra ad text automatically.
Google planned to move the campaigns that still used them into AI Max during September 2026. In both cases, the part that finds searches beyond your keywords comes out switched on.
Dynamic search ads are next. That’s the older type where Google picks the landing page from your website. Google first planned to move them in September 2026, then pushed it to February 2027. They will move with AI Max switched on.
Why I keep it off on lead-gen
On a web shop I understand the appeal. A sale is a sale, so Google learns from something real.
On lead-gen, a conversion is usually a form fill. Some of those people become customers. Some never pick up the phone.
Google’s help page says switching AI Max on typically brings 14% more conversions at a similar cost per conversion. That’s Google’s own 2025 data, on advertisers outside retail. On lead-gen, more conversions can just mean more form fills.
Google also says these AI Max features need automatic bidding for conversions to work well. So the bidding chases whatever I count as a conversion. If that’s every form fill, it gets good at finding cheap form fills.
I’d rather give a client 40 good leads than 100 mixed ones. Wider matching that learns from every form fill pushes me toward the 100.
Hard to check, hard to undo
Google does give AI Max its own reporting. The search terms report has an AI Max filter. The landing pages report shows which pages Google picked.
But Google says that filter “may show lower numbers”. It leaves out a group called “Other search terms”.
Google also advises waiting at least two weeks after you switch AI Max on before you make changes. Adding negative keywords (the searches I block) is one of those changes. On a small lead-gen budget, two weeks is a long time to wait.
I also pin headlines on purpose, so the message that matters most always shows. When Google sends someone to a different page, it ignores those pins.
Going back isn’t clean either. You can switch AI Max off per campaign. Broad match on single keywords still exists. But nobody can set up the campaign-wide broad match switch anymore, so you can’t go back to that.
Dynamic search ads go the same way. When you upgrade them, Google pauses the old ads and makes them view-only.
When I’d switch it on
There’s a fair case for it. Some accounts send back which leads became customers. Then the bidding can learn from real sales instead of raw form fills. On an account like that, I’d test it.
Google has an AI Max experiment that splits the traffic inside one campaign. One part runs with AI Max off, the other with it on. That’s how I’d test it, and I’d write down the reason before I keep it on.
My audit checklist already had a line for this: AI Max stays off unless the reason is written down. Now that new campaigns start with it on, that line matters more.
On lead-gen, I fix what Google learns from first. Only then do I let it search wider.