AI Max: the check after migration

In September 2026 Google began moving Search campaigns that use automatically created assets or campaign-level broad match to AI Max. AI Max can match your ads to searches you never chose and send people to landing pages it selects. This playbook reviews what changed and turns the problems into proposals.

Steps

1. Pull the new AI Max search terms

   Terms whose match source is AI Max, separated from terms that matched your own keywords.

2. Classify them

   Relevant, irrelevant, competitor, job seeker, do-it-yourself or informational. A term with a click cost far above the account's usual level is flagged right away.

3. Review URL expansion

   Which landing pages Google chose on its own, and whether they convert. A careers page or a blog post may not belong in ads.

4. Check overlap

   AI Max terms that duplicate keywords you already have elsewhere.

5. Add negatives

   For the irrelevant terms, with Hebrew prefix forms and a preview of what each would have blocked.

6. Watch for 14 days

   Compare cost per conversion and conversion volume against the period before migration.

Who does what