Optimize Google Ads with AI Max for Search campaigns

Set up AI Max for Search campaigns

Next: Frequently asked questions about AI Max for Search campaigns

This article will show you how to enable AI Max for Search campaigns in Google Ads and manage features for new and existing campaigns.

Note: AI Max isn’t a new campaign type but an optimization layer within existing Search campaigns.

[Video] AI Max for Search Campaigns

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On this page

How to enable AI Max for Search campaigns
Activate or edit AI Max in bulk for existing Search campaigns
Activate AI Max for an existing Search campaign
How to upgrade from Dynamic Search Ads (DSA) to AI Max
How to disable AI Max or modify settings

How to enable AI Max for Search campaigns

AI Max can be activated when creating a new Search campaign. Follow the instructions below to create a new Search campaign with AI Max.

Go to the Create button and select Campaign.
Create a new Search campaign.
When you reach the “AI Max” page, toggle to opt-in to AI Max settings.
Select the specific AI Max features (details below) you want to use in your campaign.
- Ad group level settings for AI Max can be applied under the Keywords and ads section.

Activate or edit AI Max in bulk for existing Search campaigns

When the AI Max setting is turned on, you’ll find the controls for search term matching and asset optimizations, as well as entry points to other controls available in AI Max.

Go to Settings within the Campaigns menu .
Select at least one campaign
Select Edit to bring up 2 AI Max options:
- Change AI Max settings: Allows you to activate or edit overall AI Max settings.
- Change asset optimization settings: Allows you to change asset settings.
Choose the changes you want to make, then select Apply.

Note: AI Max settings can be filtered or added as columns in the campaign list view.

Activate AI Max for an existing Search campaign

When the AI Max setting is turned on, you’ll find the controls for search term matching and asset optimizations, as well as entry points to other controls available in AI Max. Learn more about How AI Max for Search campaigns works.

Go to Settings within the Campaigns menu .
Select the Search campaign you’d like to update.
Select AI Max in the section menu.
Toggle to opt-in to AI Max settings.
Select the specific AI Max features (details below) you want to use in your campaign.
- Ad group level settings for AI Max can be applied to the campaign after AI Max is enabled.

Note: Features like search term matching, final URL expansion, and text customization require conversion-based Smart Bidding strategies in order to function effectively.

For search term matching

Search term matching must be turned on at the campaign level in order to be used at the ad group level.

For the ad group level, it can be turned on or off.

Navigate to Ad groups.
Select your Ad group in the Google Ads section menu and then select Search term matching.
In the menu for Search term matching, toggle on or off options.

For asset optimization

To generate customized assets based on content from your domain, landing pages, existing ads, keywords in your ad group and assets, enable the "Text customization" setting. These assets will be generated based on the ad's unique context.

When text customization is active, you can utilize text guidelines to control and refine your brand messaging by establishing specific term exclusions, such as restricted words or phrases, and messaging restrictions to dictate tone and guidelines for the AI-generated text. Learn more about how to Use text guidelines with Performance Max and search campaigns.

To send traffic to the most relevant URLs on your domain when it’s likely to result in better performance, enable “Final URL expansion”. Final URL expansion will only send traffic to URLs that are query relevant and themed to your ad group.

Go to Settings within the Campaigns menu .
Select the Search campaign you’d like to update.
Select AI Max in the section menu, then toggle to opt-in to AI Max settings.
Scroll down to the Asset optimization panel.
The “Text customization” setting will be enabled by default.
The “Final URL expansion” setting will be enabled by default.
1. Note: In order to use the Final URL expansion setting, Text customization must be selected. Deactivating text customization automatically disables Final URL expansion.
2. You can leverage the URL exclusions control to prevent traffic from going to specific pages you don't want customers directed to. Review the URL exclusions section below to learn more.

When Final URL expansion is turned on for your campaign, pinned Responsive search ad assets aren’t used if a more relevant URL is chosen, because they may not match the customer’s intent. To always use pinned assets, turn off Final URL expansion.

Text customization	Final URL expansion	Responsive Search Ad (RSA) pinned asset serving
		Pinned RSA assets will serve as expected
		Pinned RSA assets won't be respected

URL inclusions and Final URL expansion

To limit your ad delivery to only serve on the URLs you choose, you can leverage URL inclusions. If you enable both URL inclusions and Final URL expansion, the URLs you choose as well as the URLs that Google thinks will provide the best performance can be used.

URL inclusions	Final URL expansion	Search term matching (ad group level)	Serving
		or	Google Ads uses only your specified URLs as dynamic landing pages for that ad group. This includes advertiser-provided landing pages in Responsive Search Ads.
			URL rules or any other relevant URL will be used for both dynamic landing page and targeting expansion.

When Final URL expansion is turned on for your campaign, pinned Responsive search ad assets aren’t used if a more relevant URL is chosen, because they may not match the customer’s intent. Similarly, when URL inclusions are enabled, pinned assets aren’t used. To always use pinned assets, turn off Final URL expansion and URL inclusions.

URL inclusions	Final URL expansion	Responsive Search Ad (RSA) pinned asset serving
		Pinned RSA assets will serve as expected
	or	Pinned RSA assets won't be respected

To use URL exclusions

Note: URL exclusions are a campaign level control.

URL exclusions allow you to exclude URLs from serving in Final URL expansion. URL exclusions require Text customization and Final URL to be turned on.

Go to Settings within the Campaigns menu .
Select the Search campaign you’d like to update.
Scroll down to the AI Max section and select it to expand the section.
Ensure the AI Max toggle is on.
- Note: AI Max must be enabled to use URL exclusion.
Under "Final URL expansion", select Add URL exclusions.
In the “Add URL exclusions” slider panel, list the URLs that you want to exclude in the URLs tab, then select Add.
- Note: To use rules to exclude URLs, select the Rules tab to add your custom rules. Then select Add.
Select Apply to close the slider panel, then Save in the “AI Max” section.

To use URL inclusions

Note: URL inclusions are an ad group level control.

Select the relevant campaign and navigate to Ad groups.
Scroll down to AI Max and select Add URL inclusions.
Select Save after adding the relevant URL inclusions.

To use brand exclusions or brand inclusions

Note: Brand exclusions is a campaign level control, while brand inclusions is a campaign or ad group level control

Select Campaign settings.
Select AI Max in the section menu.
Scroll down to the Brands section
Add brand lists to either the inclusions or exclusions entry

Brand inclusions may also be applied at the ad group level.

Navigate to Ad groups.
Scroll down to AI Max and select Brand inclusions.
Select Save after adding brand lists.

Note: The ad group-level brand inclusions will override campaign-level brand inclusions. If there are brand inclusions already added at the campaign level, brand inclusions added at the ad group-level will override for only that ad group. Campaign-level brand inclusions will apply to any other ad group that doesn't have ad group level brand inclusions. Learn more About your account organization.

Learn more About brand settings for Search and Performance Max.

How to upgrade from Dynamic Search Ads (DSA) to AI Max

You can upgrade your existing DSA campaigns to AI Max to take advantage of enhanced features.

Go to Campaigns within the Campaigns menu .
Under the "Settings" tab, select the checkbox next to the campaigns that you want to edit.
In the "Dynamic Search Ads" settings panel, you’ll find a callout to upgrade to AI Max. Select Upgrade.
- Note: The callout appears for campaigns that use DSA, whether AI Max is currently turned on or not.
Review the following changes explained in the confirmation dialog box:
- Ad group conversion: Your Dynamic ad group will convert to standard ad groups.
- Ad transformation: Existing Dynamic Search Ads will become Responsive Search Ads. Google will generate the minimum amount of static assets required using text customization.
- Targeting: You can turn on Final URL expansion to maximize performance.
- Unsupported targets: If your campaign uses legacy DSA targets that aren’t supported in AI Max, you’ll find a specific warning in the dialog box noting that these targets will become read-only.
Select Upgrade in the dialog box to confirm.

Note: If you’re in a specific Dynamic Ad Group, you’ll find a callout to upgrade to AI Max. Select the link in the callout. You’ll be redirected to the Campaign Settings to complete the process.

After the upgrade, Google Ads manages a transitional period to ensure no loss in traffic.

Parallel running: Your legacy Dynamic Search Ads will continue to run temporarily while the new Responsive Search Ads are generated and reviewed for policy compliance.
Policy checks: If the newly created RSAs don’t pass policy checks immediately, the DSAs will continue to serve.
Completion: When the new RSAs are eligible and active, the updated DSAs will automatically be paused and placed in a “view-only” state.

Learn more about the benefits of upgrading DSA to AI Max.

Considerations around URL rules

When working with URL rules, be aware that:

Legacy rule types for URL inclusion and exclusions such as “page title contains” or “page content contains” will become “read-only”.
You’ll be able to remove legacy rules. However, you can’t add new ones or edit existing ones after the upgrade.

How to disable AI Max or modify settings

Go to the Campaigns menu .
Select the "Settings" tab, then select the checkbox next to the campaigns that you want to edit.
Select AI Max
To disable AI Max, toggle to opt out of all AI Max settings.
- Note that re-enabling AI Max will enable the same features as they were previously set
To modify the search term matching setting, navigate to the “Search term matching” panel and adjust settings.
- Search term matching settings can also be adjusted at the ad group level
- AI Max must be enabled for a campaign before ad group settings will be applied
To modify asset optimization settings, navigate to the “Asset optimization” panel and adjust settings.
- When you disable Text customization, assets will be reported as “Removed” and no longer serve.
- To modify URL exclusion rules, the asset optimization settings must be enabled.
- To modify URL inclusion rules, search term matching and asset optimization settings (Text customization and Final URL) should be enabled.
- Note: Existing URL exclusions or inclusions will be ignored if the AI Max settings are turned off.
To modify brand settings, URL inclusions, or other AI Max features, adjust settings at the campaign or ad group level.
Select Save.

Tip: To get the full benefits of AI Max, turn on both search term matching and asset optimization. When both are turned on, AI Max receives all the signals needed to understand the full context of your business, find the most relevant customers, and drive the best performance.

How to create a new Search Campaign for Travel with AI Max

You can also create Search Campaigns for Travel within AI Max.

Prerequisite: In order to use Search Campaigns for Travel, you must have a feed connected to your Google Ads Account. Follow the steps below to connect your feed.

Go to Data manager within the Tools menu .
Under “Connected products”, select the +Connect product button.
Select Google Hotel Center or Actions Center depending on your vertical.
Select Manage & link.
Go to Google Hotel Center or Action Center to accept linking invitation from Google Ads

After the feed is connected, follow the steps below to create a Search Campaign for Travel

Start a new Campaign by selecting the blue + button.
Select New Campaign.
Select your objective as Sales.
Select Search as Campaign type.
During the campaign construction phase, look for the "AI Max" toggle or setting.
Ensure the AI Max toggle is on.
Select a Data Feed: Pick a feed to use in the campaign
1. Note: In the “Data Feeds” section of the campaign settings, advertisers can choose to either use the default Account-Level Feed or select Override Account-Level Feed to manually link a specific data feed for that campaign. If the account-level data feed option is chosen, the campaign will inherit the account-level feed by default. Alternatively, an advertiser can select a different product feed at the campaign level, which will override the account-level data feed setting for that specific campaign
Ad group Controls: At the ad group level, you will have access to Travel-specific enhancements like format controls and item groups (review details below).

Managing inventory with Item Groups

When your Search Campaigns for Travel campaign is live, Item Groups allow you to segment your inventory so you can tailor your messaging and bidding to specific subsets of your feed.

Within your Search Campaigns for Travel, go to the Ad Groups tab and select the ad group you wish to edit.
Look for the "Item Groups" section. Select Add Item Group.
Use attributes such as city and country from your feed to select the items you’d like to advertise in this ad group.

Vertical-Specific targeting and reporting

Search Campaigns for Travel adapts its targeting options based on the type of travel business you run. Depending on your vertical, you'll find specific item categories available for filtering and reporting:

Hotels: Filter by Item ID, Location (City, Region, Country), or Hotel Class.
Things to do: Filter by Item ID, Location (City, Region, Country), or Activity Rating.
Events: Filter by Item ID, Location (City, Region, Country), Participant, or Venue
Car Rentals: Location (City, Region, Country) and Item ID

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Optimize Google Ads with AI Max for Search campaigns

Set up AI Max for Search campaigns

How to enable AI Max for Search campaigns

Activate or edit AI Max in bulk for existing Search campaigns