If you are running Dynamic Search Ads right now, something is changing in September, whether you act on it or not.
Google has announced that it is officially retiring Dynamic Search Ads (DSA) and moving all legacy campaigns to AI Max for Search. The voluntary upgrade window is open now. The automatic migration happens in September. After that, you will no longer be able to create new DSA campaigns through Google Ads, Google Ads Editor or the Google Ads API.
This affects three groups of advertisers: those running Dynamic Search Ads, those using automatically created assets (ACA) and those using campaign-level broad match settings. If any of those describe your current setup, here is what you need to know.
What Is AI Max for Search?
AI Max is Google’s replacement for the legacy automation tools that advertisers have relied on for years. Dynamic Search Ads were introduced back in 2011 to help advertisers capture traffic beyond their keyword lists, automatically generating headlines and landing pages based on website content. At the time, it was a practical solution. The problem is that search behaviour has changed significantly and landing page data alone is no longer enough to match the complexity of how people search in 2026.
AI Max combines landing page signals with broader, real-time intent data to find queries that traditional DSA would miss. It also handles ad creative more dynamically, adjusting text based on what the user is actually searching for rather than pulling static assets. The controls have been expanded too, with brand guidelines, location targeting settings and text guardrails giving advertisers more say over how the automation behaves.
Google reports that advertisers using the full AI Max feature set, which includes search term matching, text customisation and final URL expansion, see an average of 7% more conversions or conversion value at a similar CPA or ROAS compared to using search term matching alone.
What Happens If You Do Nothing
If you leave your DSA campaigns untouched, Google will migrate them automatically in September. The settings will be configured to mirror your existing legacy setup as closely as possible. All three AI Max features will be enabled by default for DSA campaigns. ACA campaigns will get search term matching and text customisation by default. Campaigns using campaign-level broad match will have search term matching switched on.
The automatic migration is designed to preserve performance stability. That does not mean it will be seamless for every account. How your campaigns are structured, how much DSA contributes to your overall search mix and how your website content is set up will all affect how the transition lands.
The practical argument for migrating yourself rather than waiting for the automatic upgrade is control. If you move now, you configure the AI Max settings deliberately. You choose how much text customisation latitude to allow. You set your brand controls. You define your URL expansion preferences. If Google does it in September, the defaults apply and you review it afterwards.
What to Do Before September
Google has already started rolling out upgrade tools in the Google Ads interface to help DSA advertisers transfer historical settings and data into new standard ad groups. If you are running ACA or campaign-level broad match campaigns, you may already be seeing a prompt in your account to upgrade.
The steps worth taking now are straightforward. Review which of your current campaigns are using DSA, ACA or campaign-level broad match and work out what share of your paid search performance comes from them. Then use the upgrade tools in-platform to migrate on your own timeline and configure the AI Max settings to match your objectives. Run a controlled experiment if you want to compare performance against your existing baseline before committing fully.
The accounts most at risk from the automatic upgrade are those where DSA represents a large portion of the overall search campaign mix, particularly in lead generation and service-based businesses. If DSA is doing a lot of heavy lifting in your account, leaving the migration to Google increases the chance that the default settings do not reflect how you would set things up yourself.
The Bigger Picture
This announcement is not happening in isolation. Google confirmed last year that its long-term direction is toward a smaller number of campaign types, each with broader automation capabilities. AI Max for Search sits alongside Performance Max and Demand Gen as part of what Google is calling its Power Pack. The DSA deprecation is consistent with that direction: fewer formats, more AI-driven decision-making within each.
The shift also reflects what is happening in search more broadly. As AI Overviews reshape how users interact with Google results and more complex, conversational queries become the norm, the signal from a landing page URL alone is a thin basis for ad targeting. AI Max is designed to work in that environment in a way that Dynamic Search Ads were never built for.
Whether that plays out the way Google’s own data suggests is something advertisers will need to test in their own accounts. Independent analysis published in late 2025 raised questions about AI Max performance across certain retail campaign types and Google’s reported uplift figures have attracted scrutiny from paid media professionals. As with any platform-level change of this scale, the right response is controlled testing and close monitoring rather than assuming the average result will apply to your specific account.
What This Means for Your Business
If you are managing Google Ads in-house and DSA is part of your campaign structure, start the migration before September. Use the in-platform tools, review your settings carefully and monitor performance closely through the transition.
If you work with an agency, make sure this is on their radar and that they have a migration plan in place for your account.
At AIWIZ, we manage Google Ads campaigns for businesses across the UK and are already working through the AI Max transition with our clients. If you want a straightforward review of how this change affects your account specifically, get in touch with the AIWIZ team.