Google AI Max Replaces Dynamic Search Ads

Google AI Max Replaces Dynamic Search Ads: Your Migration Action Plan

Update: On June 11, 2026, Google moved the Dynamic Search Ads sunset and auto-upgrade from September 2026 to February 2027. Only campaigns using automatically created assets (ACA) or the campaign-level broad match setting were scheduled for the September 2026 auto-upgrade. The timeline, checklist and FAQ below reflect the current schedule.

Google is retiring Dynamic Search Ads, just later than it first said. Unmigrated DSA campaigns now auto-upgrade to Google AI Max for Search campaigns in February 2027. AI Max is the AI-powered replacement Google moved out of beta on April 15, 2026, and until the upgrade lands, existing DSA campaigns keep serving as normal. This is the biggest change to Search campaigns in years, and most advertisers I talk to do not yet have a migration plan. Here is what is changing, why it matters, and the exact six-step checklist I am running for every Google Ads account I manage before February.

What Happened: Google Sunsets DSA

Google announced the retirement of Dynamic Search Ads on April 15, 2026, with automatic upgrades to AI Max originally set to start in September 2026. On June 11, 2026, Google updated that announcement. The DSA sunset and auto-upgrade now begin in February 2027, while campaigns using automatically created assets (ACA) or the campaign-level broad match setting stayed on the September 2026 schedule. I covered the delay in my post on the DSA migration delay and the September cohort in my AI Max preflight.

Google's Ads Developer Blog lays out what is left. Google scheduled in-account pre-migration banners for September 2026, with a one-click option to upgrade your DSAs to AI Max from the campaign's Dynamic Search Ads setting. A reminder notification goes to every affected account on January 15, 2027. From February 1 to 28, 2027, the ability to create new DSA ad groups is permanently removed, and unmigrated DSA campaigns upgrade automatically to standard Search ad groups with AI Max enabled. Until then, you can migrate voluntarily with Google's upgrade tools, which port history, settings and data into new standard ad groups. Google's official announcement carries the June 11 update at the top, alongside the parallel Google for Business post. Search Engine Land covered the original September plan.

Why Google AI Max for Search Campaigns Matters for Your Marketing

AI Max is not just a relabel of DSA. It is a different beast. DSA crawled your website and matched user queries to your page content. AI Max, powered by Gemini, expands beyond your site to broader real-time intent signals, generates ad copy on the fly, and routes traffic to landing pages it picks dynamically. The mechanics shift the role of the advertiser from "tell Google what to match on" to "give Google guardrails and audit what it does." That sounds great in a Google blog post. The independent data tells a more complicated story.

What DSA Users Lose (and Gain)

You lose the page-feed-driven targeting model where you controlled exactly which URLs Google could match queries against. You lose the separate dynamic ad group structure that made it easy to compare DSA against keyword campaigns side by side. What you gain is broader query coverage and AI-generated creative, which Google claims delivers an average 7% more conversions or conversion value at similar CPA/ROAS when the full feature suite (search term matching, text customization, final URL expansion) is enabled vs. search term matching alone. Note: that 7% figure is the official Google number for non-retail advertisers. Some early coverage cited 14%, which appears to be an outlier.

The Shift from Keyword Coverage to Intent Interpretation

This is the strategic pivot most articles gloss over. DSA was a keyword complement: you ran exact and phrase match keywords for the queries you knew about, and DSA caught the long-tail queries you missed. AI Max is something different. Google is asking you to trust its intent classifier to interpret what users actually want and route them through AI-generated headlines to AI-selected landing pages. That works beautifully when your site content is clean and your conversion data is dense. It works much less well when neither is true.

What Happens to Your Existing DSA Campaigns?

If you do nothing, Google will auto-upgrade your DSA campaigns to AI Max between February 1 and 28, 2027. Per Google, campaigns containing dynamic ad groups move to standard ad groups with settings and data ported into AI Max, all three AI Max features (search term matching, text customization and final URL expansion) switched on, and your legacy URL controls preserved. That default is what I'd check before accepting it: generated copy and final URL expansion switched on across a whole campaign at once. The upside of the voluntary window is total control over which features are turned on, which URLs are eligible for expansion, and what your text guidelines say.

Action Plan: The 6-Step DSA to AI Max Migration Checklist

Here is the exact playbook I am using for client accounts. Run these in order, and finish them before Google's February 2027 window opens. Do not skip steps four and five.

1. Audit current DSA campaigns (last 90 days). Export query data, impression share, CPA, ROAS, CPL, and conversion volume for every DSA campaign and ad group. This is your before-migration baseline. You will need it to evaluate AI Max performance honestly.
2. Clean your site for AI Max. Add noindex to pages you do not want AI Max to send traffic to (privacy policy, terms, thin category pages). Optimize H1s and meta titles on the pages you do want, because AI Max generates ad copy from page content. Audit page feeds for current catalog alignment.
3. Configure final URL expansion deliberately. Choose between full URL expansion and a curated URL list. The automatic upgrade turns final URL expansion on and carries your legacy URL controls over, which is not the same as a list you reviewed. Voluntary migration lets you set the curated list explicitly and verify it before campaigns go live.
4. Pre-write your text guidelines and brand controls. AI Max will generate headlines and descriptions from your site and existing ads. Set the brand voice, location controls, and the text guidelines telling Google what NOT to say (for example, prohibited claims, competitor names, regulated language) before you migrate, not after.
5. Set performance baselines and run parallel for 2-4 weeks. Document your DSA CPA, conversion rate, and impression share. Use Google's experiment tooling to A/B test AI Max against DSA on 1-2 mid-volume campaigns for at least 14 days before flipping the switch on the full account. Pause DSA, do not delete, until AI Max performance has stabilized.
6. Monitor query matching weekly for 30 days post-migration. Pull the Search Terms Report every Monday. Tag irrelevant queries as negatives immediately. Independent analysis from Smarter Ecommerce on 250-plus campaigns found a median 13% revenue lift but a 16% CPA rise, with only 22% of campaigns hitting ROAS targets. The campaigns that performed well were the ones with active query monitoring and aggressive negative-keyword expansion in the first month.

How MKDM Can Help

I am already running this six-step playbook on Google Ads accounts I manage. If you are an in-house marketer or a business owner running your own Google Ads, the February 2027 deadline is a real one, and the cost of a bad auto-upgrade is higher than the cost of a planned voluntary one. My take is that anyone with significant DSA spend should migrate voluntarily well before February, so the 2 to 4 week learning period is done before Google's window opens. On retail accounts I would keep that learning period out of the November and December peak. And I would not take the default in February. If you want a second set of eyes on your account, I offer Google Ads management and one-off audits. Schedule a Google Ads audit and I will walk through your DSA campaigns and your AI Max readiness in 30 minutes.

Frequently Asked Questions

When does Google stop allowing new Dynamic Search Ads?

February 2027. Google's Ads Developer Blog says the ability to create new DSA ad groups is permanently removed during the February 1 to 28, 2027 auto-migration. The September 2026 date in Google's original announcement now applies only to automatically created assets and the campaign-level broad match setting, and creating new versions of either was blocked on August 3, 2026.

What is Google AI Max for Search campaigns?

AI Max is Google's AI-powered evolution of Search campaigns, built on Gemini. It uses three primary features: search term matching (broader query coverage based on intent signals), text customization (AI-generated headlines and descriptions), and final URL expansion (dynamic landing page selection). It replaces Dynamic Search Ads and consolidates with standard Search ad groups instead of running in separate dynamic ad groups.

Will my existing Dynamic Search Ads stop working?

No. Google says active DSA campaigns were excluded from the September 2026 auto-migrations and keep serving as normal. Any DSA campaign you have not migrated voluntarily upgrades automatically to standard Search ad groups with AI Max enabled between February 1 and 28, 2027.

Is AI Max better than Dynamic Search Ads?

It depends on your account, and the data is mixed. Google claims an average 7% lift in conversions or conversion value at similar CPA/ROAS when AI Max's full feature suite is enabled. Independent analysis from Digiday's coverage of marketer reactions and from Smarter Ecommerce shows real revenue gains for some accounts but a 16% CPA rise on average, with the majority of campaigns missing ROAS targets in the first weeks. AI Max appears to perform best on accounts with clean site content, dense conversion data, and active negative-keyword management. For accounts that depended on DSA to fill long-tail keyword gaps without much oversight, expect a learning period of 2-4 weeks and some CPA volatility.