Here’s the full rundown on everything Google Ads has dropped lately, plus some bits from Google Marketing Live in 20 May. Quite a lot is landing between now and September. Let’s get into it.
First: What Came Out of Google Marketing Live
PMax is getting a lot of attention, and for good reason. Here’s the headline stuff:
Asset Experiments
Proper A/B testing in PMax. Finally.
AI Max for Shopping
Shopping + conversational query expansion. Overlap with AI Max TBD – Google hasn’t drawn a clean line yet.
AI Brief
Natural-language instructions. Tell the AI things like “never mention prices” or “prioritise health-conscious audiences.”
One-Click Demand Gen
Spin up Demand Gen campaigns from existing PMax setups.
Uplift Experiments
In-platform incrementality testing. Useful for the “does Demand Gen add value on top of PMax?” question.
Asset Studio
Video asset generation via Gemini Omni. Rolling out globally in English this summer.
AI Max for Shopping and PMax are now theoretically doing the same job in some areas. Google hasn’t drawn a clear line between them yet, and clients will ask… So watch out for updates.
The Big One: AI Max is Out of Beta, DSA is Being Retired
This is the September change that matters most. Three things are auto-upgrading to AI Max whether you like it or not:
| Dynamic Search Ads Campaigns | Automatically Created Assets (ACA) | Campaign-Level Broad Match Setting |
That said – AI Max is essentially a better version of DSA. Text customisation, Final URL expansion, and search term matching are all still there, just smarter (signals included). All three can be turned off individually post-migration if needed.
One thing to know about the controls: search term matching is ad-group level. The other two are campaign-level. If you disable text customisation, it also kills Final URL expansion and deletes any AI-generated assets. So be deliberate with that one.
Broad Match Keywords are NOT Going Away
It’s only the campaign-level broad match setting that’s being deprecated. Keyword-level broad match – where you set individual keywords as broad – still works exactly as it always has. Match type strategy doesn’t fundamentally change.
This is probably the thing most likely to cause client confusion. Worth being ready with a clear explanation.
On Voluntary Migration: Don’t Wait
Most accounts already have AI Max. But if any don’t, test it now rather than letting Google auto-migrate in September with no baseline set.
Performance-wise: Google’s headline figure is +7% conversions at similar CPA vs. search term matching only. Independent data is more mixed – some studies show +13% revenue but +16% CPA, with a meaningful chunk of “new” traffic actually cannibalising existing keywords. I’ve seen it work brilliantly for some of my clients, some, not so much. Set baselines before any migration so you can actually defend the results.
(Google claiming their AI delivers +7% is a bit like a restaurant saying their food is “good.” Technically possible. Needs verification.)
There’s no opt-out. From September you also can’t create new DSA campaigns. That’s it, they’re done.
Update (12 June 2026): DSA deadline pushed to February 2027
So Google pushed the DSA-to-AI-Max deadline back from September to February 2027. Apparently enough of us complained that they actually listened. They’ve also reopened DSA creation from 15 June, so if you fancied building a new one in the meantime, go for it.
Before anyone gets too comfortable though – this isn’t a “crisis averted, carry on as you were” situation. ACA and the campaign-level broad match setting are still migrating in September, exactly as originally planned. So now we’ve got two separate clocks ticking: ACA and broad match still hit September, DSA itself gets until February.
Worth checking which one actually applies to your accounts rather than assuming the whole thing got pushed, because it didn’t.
And despite the extra breathing room, Google’s advice is still the same as before: migrate on your own terms now rather than waiting for the auto-switch to do it for you with default settings you didn’t choose. Extra time is nice. Extra time spent doing nothing is not the move!
Watch Out: Pinning Breaks with Final URL Expansion On
RSAs with pinned assets stop being respected when Final URL expansion or URL inclusions are enabled. Big deal for compliance-sensitive clients – finance, health, legal. Recommendation: turn text customisation off for those clients, full stop.
Travel Updates
Search Campaigns for Travel (Announced 30 April):
Google is consolidating hotel, flight, car rental, and things-to-do formats into standard Search campaigns with AI Max.
Travel Feeds in Search Ads are Already Live
If a hotel client has Hotel Center linked to Google Ads, their standard Search campaigns are likely already getting auto-enriched with hotel prices and images. Worth checking this is showing correctly rather than discovering it mid-client-call.
AI Overviews are taking traffic that used to land on standard SERP results. For clients already losing organic visibility – which is most of them, in some verticals – the AI Max conversation is now also an AI-surface visibility conversation.
To help your brand stay one step ahead of the curve in the changing face of Paid search, reach out to the team at Iff Digital for a chat about the new search landscape.