Google Ads AI Max: What Indian Advertisers Must Do Before September

If you run Google Search campaigns, a setting you never chose is about to be switched on in your account. From September 2026, every Search campaign still using Dynamic Search Ads, automatically created assets or the campaign-level broad match setting will be upgraded to AI Max automatically. There is no account-level opt-out. Your only real choice is whether you make the move deliberately, with the controls configured, or let Google make it for you while you are looking the other way.

What exactly changes in Google Ads in September 2026?

Google confirmed on 15 April 2026 that AI Max for Search is out of beta. From September, campaigns using Dynamic Search Ads (DSA), automatically created assets (ACA) or the campaign-level broad match setting upgrade to AI Max automatically, and new DSA campaigns can no longer be created.

That block applies across the Google Ads interface, Google Ads Editor and the API. Google expects all eligible campaigns to finish upgrading by the end of September, and says settings will be ported to mirror your legacy setup so performance stays stable. Nothing will look dramatic on day one, which is exactly why it is easy to miss. Here is how the mapping works:

• Dynamic Search Ads: dynamic ad groups become standard ad groups, with all three AI Max features — search term matching, text customisation and final URL expansion — switched on, and your legacy URL controls preserved.

• Automatically created assets: campaigns upgrade with search term matching and text customisation enabled by default.

• Campaign-level broad match: campaigns upgrade with search term matching enabled by default.

Is AI Max actually better than Dynamic Search Ads?

Google’s published figure is modest. Campaigns using the full AI Max suite see an average of 7% more conversions or conversion value at a similar CPA or ROAS compared with using search term matching alone — Google internal data for 2026, non-Retail advertisers.

Read that comparison carefully. It measures AI Max with everything switched on against AI Max with one feature switched on. It does not tell you what happens when a well-managed DSA campaign becomes an AI Max campaign, and nobody outside Google has published that number yet. Treat September as a change to be measured, not an upgrade to be welcomed. Plan for single-digit gains, and reserve the time to catch single-digit losses.

What did the new Google Ads terms change on 1 July 2026?

The revised Google Ads Terms of Service took effect on 1 July 2026 with no acceptance step and no opt-in. The key line states that the customer authorises Google to serve ads “including through the use of automated program features to format, select, or generate targets, ads, or destinations on Customer’s behalf”.

As Search Engine Land reported on 2 June 2026, the previous terms framed automation as a set of tools you could opt into or out of. The new wording makes automated generation the default authorisation — the first substantive rewrite of these terms in roughly eight years. What has not changed is where liability sits. You are still required to review, approve, edit or remove campaigns and assets generated automatically by Google’s tools, and to hold the rights to every input, URL and page you allow Google to crawl.

For Indian advertisers that now overlaps with data protection duties. If Google’s systems are crawling your site to build ads and pick landing destinations, every page they can reach — lead forms included — remains your compliance problem under the DPDP Act.

Why does this matter more for Indian advertisers?

Paid search accounted for ₹16,581 crore of India’s ₹71,621 crore digital ad spend in 2025 — 23% of the total — according to Dentsu India’s Digital Advertising Report 2026. Most of that money sits in accounts with no dedicated PPC team to audit an automated change.

• India’s digital ad spend grew 19% in 2025 to ₹71,621 crore, and Dentsu projects paid search to keep growing at 16.54%.

• India’s total advertising market closed 2025 at ₹1,21,339 crore, with digital heading towards a 70% share of adex by 2027.

• Indian accounts typically run fewer, broader campaigns covering several cities, languages and price points at once — precisely the setup where automated query expansion drifts furthest from the brief.

• Search behaviour here mixes English, transliterated Hindi and regional spellings, so a query the system judges “related” can be a long way from what you actually sell.

What goes wrong when AI Max runs on default settings?

The consistent complaint from practitioners is query drift. AI Max effectively treats your keywords as broad match regardless of the match type you set, so brand terms begin matching non-brand queries and generic terms begin matching competitors.

• Brand and non-brand bleed: reviews of AI Max search terms have repeatedly found brand keywords matching unrelated queries, and generic keywords matching competitor names (Search Engine Land, Adalysis).

• Reporting gaps: Google has had to clarify attribution discrepancies after advertisers found anomalies in AI Max search term reporting (PPC Land).

• Off-brand copy: text customisation rewrites headlines from your landing page content — a genuine risk for premium, regulated or price-sensitive categories.

• Wrong destinations: final URL expansion can send paid traffic to blog posts, careers pages, thank-you pages or out-of-stock products unless you set URL rules.

What should you do before the September upgrade?

You have roughly five weeks. Work through these in order — the first three carry most of the risk reduction.

1. Export a 90-day baseline now. Impressions, clicks, CPC, conversions, CPA, conversion value and your top 200 search terms per campaign. Without this you cannot prove what September changed.

2. Upgrade voluntarily using Google’s upgrade tool rather than waiting for the automatic switch. Moving on your own schedule ports your settings while you are watching the account.

3. Turn on brand controls. Specify which brands your ads may and may not appear against. This is the single most effective guardrail AI Max offers.

4. Set locations of interest, not just location targeting, so a Pune-only service business stops paying for pan-India curiosity clicks.

5. Write text guidelines and pin critical headlines so text customisation cannot rewrite your offer, price claim or legally required wording.

6. Add final URL exclusion rules to block /blog, /careers, /thank-you, /cart and any expired or out-of-stock pages.

7. Rebuild your negative keyword lists at campaign and account level, including competitor names, job-seeker terms, “free”, “salary” and DIY variants.

8. Run a one-click experiment at a 50/50 split for at least three weeks instead of switching blind.

9. Fix conversion tracking first. Handing more decisions to an automated bidder while conversion actions are duplicated or mis-counted is how budgets quietly disappear.

10. Diarise a weekly search term review for the six weeks after the upgrade — negatives and URL rules are your main remaining levers.

If you only do one thing this week, do the first: pull the baseline. Everything else can be fixed later, but a baseline cannot be recreated after the upgrade has landed.

Get your Google Ads account ready with AdiAnsh Media

AdiAnsh Media is a Pune-based digital marketing agency working with Indian and international brands on Google and Meta Ads, SEO and AI search visibility, AI Reels and UGC content, social media management, Wix Studio web design, Shopify development and branding. We audit Google Ads accounts before automated changes hit them — setting brand controls, URL rules and negative lists, then running a measured experiment rather than a blind switch — so September becomes a scheduled change instead of an unpleasant surprise in October’s numbers. If you would like your account reviewed before the AI Max upgrade, get in touch with us.