Google AI Max Is Replacing Dynamic Search Ads: What to Do Before September
July 6, 2026 · The Valley Marketing Group
Google just gave every service business running Dynamic Search Ads a hard deadline: if you don't act before September 2026, parts of your campaigns flip to AI Max automatically — and if you haven't touched your DSA campaigns by February 2027, Google migrates them for you.
Google AI Max for Search hit general availability on April 15, 2026, according to Google's official announcement. It's the replacement for Dynamic Search Ads — a campaign feature that many HVAC companies, plumbers, electricians, and contractors have quietly been running for years, often without realizing it. If you use an agency to manage your Google Ads, there's a good chance DSA is somewhere in your account right now.
Here's what's changing and when — no jargon.
What Dynamic Search Ads Even Are (and Why Service Businesses Use Them)
Dynamic Search Ads let Google automatically generate ad headlines and landing pages by crawling your website. Instead of manually building ads for every keyword, you let Google scan your service pages and create ads that match search queries to your content.
For an HVAC company with pages for AC repair, furnace maintenance, and installation, DSA would automatically create ads targeting searches that match those pages — including long-tail queries your keyword lists might miss. It's low-maintenance and catches demand you'd otherwise overlook.
AI Max does the same thing, but adds layers of AI matching, creative generation, and URL expansion. Google's announcement positions AI Max as "DSA with richer signals and smarter matching" — more coverage with less manual work.
The Two Deadlines You Need to Know
There are actually two separate changes happening on different timelines, which is causing a lot of confusion:
September 2026 — Auto-flip for two specific features: Campaigns using Automatically Created Assets (ACA) and campaign-level broad match settings will be automatically upgraded to AI Max starting in September, according to Search Engine Roundtable's coverage of the announcement. You don't opt in — it happens unless you opt out.
February 2027 — Full DSA automigration: Google originally planned to auto-migrate all remaining DSA campaigns in September 2026. They extended it to February 2027, per the Google Ads Developer Blog announcement. DSA campaign creation was also reopened on June 15, 2026, giving advertisers more runway to manage the transition themselves.
The practical impact: you have time to migrate properly — but you should do it on your terms, not Google's automigration, because the automigration may not carry over your settings, exclusions, or bid targets the way you want.
What AI Max Actually Changes for Service Businesses
For a service business running DSA campaigns, moving to AI Max changes three things:
- Search term matching expands — AI Max uses broader signals than DSA to find relevant queries, including user context, location history, and browsing behavior. For a Phoenix HVAC company, this could mean catching queries from people in the research phase who aren't yet typing "AC repair near me."
- Text customization — AI Max can dynamically rewrite headlines based on the user's query, your landing page, and context signals. This replaces DSA's simpler automated headline generation.
- Final URL expansion — AI Max can send users to the most relevant page on your site for a given query, not just the page you specified as a target. This matters for service businesses with multiple service-specific landing pages.
Google's data shows AI Max generates an average of 7% more conversions or conversion value at a similar CPA/ROAS when using the full feature suite compared to using only search term matching, per the official announcement. That's a modest gain — but "modest gain at the same cost" is still a positive move if your account structure supports it.
What Could Go Wrong for Service Businesses Specifically
AI Max is designed for broad reach. Service businesses have a different problem: they need calls from people in their service area, not clicks from people across the state who are curious about HVAC costs.
The risks worth watching:
- URL expansion sending traffic to the wrong pages — If AI Max decides your blog post about "how air conditioners work" is relevant to someone searching for "AC installation Phoenix," you're paying for unqualified traffic. Review your landing page targeting after migration.
- Losing negative keyword control — DSA campaigns carry negative keyword lists. During migration, verify your negatives transfer correctly. Broad match AI targeting without negatives can get expensive fast for service businesses with narrow service areas.
- Reduced transparency on what's matching — DSA search term reports are already noisy. AI Max's richer signals mean even more query variation. You'll need to monitor the search terms report more closely in the first 30–60 days post-migration.
Our Google Ads management team is already migrating client DSA campaigns now — before the September auto-flip — specifically to control how the transition happens and ensure exclusion lists and bid targets carry over properly.
How to Migrate DSA to AI Max Without Losing Performance
The process, broken down:
- Export your current DSA settings — Document your current targets (page feeds or domain targets), negative keywords, bid targets, and ad schedules before touching anything
- Create a new AI Max campaign — Don't modify your existing DSA campaign in place. Build a new AI Max campaign alongside it so you can compare performance before cutting over
- Carry over your negatives — AI Max accepts campaign-level and account-level negative keyword lists. Copy your DSA negatives over and add any new ones based on what you know about unqualified traffic
- Set Final URL Expansion rules — AI Max lets you specify excluded URLs. Use this to prevent the AI from landing users on informational pages, career pages, or service pages outside your target area
- Run parallel for 3–4 weeks — Let both campaigns run simultaneously until AI Max has enough conversion data to stabilize, then pause the DSA version
What If You're Not Running DSA Right Now?
If your Google Ads account is all standard Search campaigns with manual keyword lists, these DSA deadlines don't directly apply. But AI Max is still worth understanding because Google is positioning it as the eventual replacement for several other campaign types beyond DSA.
For service businesses not currently running any automated targeting, AI Max is worth testing as a supplement to your core Search campaigns — particularly for catching long-tail demand you're missing with keyword lists alone.
The Bottom Line
If your Google Ads account includes Dynamic Search Ads, you have two options: migrate on your own terms before September (for the ACA/broad match flip) and February 2027 (for full DSA), or let Google do it automatically and clean up afterward. The first option is always better.
If you're not sure whether your account uses DSA, or you want help planning the migration without losing performance, that's exactly what our free 24-hour audit covers. Book yours here.
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