Google auto-upgrades Dynamic Search Ads to AI Max in September
A mandatory migration will fold every DSA campaign into Google's AI powered Search format, with no opt out available.
Mariano De Vitto · August 2026
Google is closing the door on manual control over Dynamic Search Ads. Starting in September, the company will automatically upgrade every DSA campaign, along with any account using automatically created assets or campaign level broad match, into AI Max for Search. There is no opt out, making this one of the most aggressive forced migrations toward AI powered campaign types that Google Ads has rolled out to date.
A Mandatory Transition
According to the announcement on the Google Ads blog, the change applies broadly: any advertiser currently running DSA, using automatically created assets, or applying broad match at the campaign level will be migrated into AI Max for Search without the ability to opt out. Dynamic Search Ads has long been a staple format for advertisers who wanted Google to crawl their website and automatically generate headlines and landing pages, reducing the need for exhaustive keyword lists and helping surface long tail search queries that manual campaigns often miss. Folding that functionality into AI Max effectively retires DSA as a standalone product.
Google frames the move as a natural evolution of Search campaigns, since AI Max already combines broad match, automatically created assets, and machine learning driven targeting under one umbrella. For teams that built careful DSA structures around specific page feeds or URL exclusions, this means those controls will continue to exist, but they will operate inside a more automated and less transparent system. Google has not detailed a manual rollback path, which puts the burden squarely on advertisers to audit their campaigns before September rather than scrambling after the switch takes effect.
Part of a Larger Pattern
This is not an isolated move. It follows a broader pattern at Google Ads, where Performance Max and AI Max have steadily absorbed campaign types that once offered granular, hands on control, including standard shopping campaigns and now DSA. Each of these transitions has shifted more decision making power to Google's machine learning systems, and each has reduced the amount of query level data advertisers can see. Agencies and in house teams that relied on DSA for long tail keyword capture or content gap discovery will need to reassess their reporting dashboards, since AI Max consolidates performance signals differently than legacy DSA did, potentially blending data that used to be cleanly separated by campaign type.
For marketers, the practical implications go beyond a simple rebrand. Losing granular visibility into which search queries triggered which ads makes it harder to identify negative keywords, spot brand safety issues, or diagnose why performance shifts after the migration. Teams that depended on DSA's query level reporting to inform broader keyword strategy, content creation, or SEO gap analysis will need alternative methods to recover that intelligence, whether through search term insights reports, landing page experience signals, or closer coordination with organic search teams.
What to Do Before September
Why it matters: teams running DSA, automatically created assets, or broad match should audit those campaigns now, document current performance baselines, and prepare stakeholders for reduced visibility into query level data once AI Max takes over in September. Because this migration cannot be blocked or delayed, the only real lever advertisers have is preparation. That means exporting historical performance data, flagging any page feed or URL exclusion logic that might not translate cleanly into AI Max, and setting expectations with clients or leadership that reporting granularity will change. Advertisers who treat this as a scheduled infrastructure event, rather than a routine feature update, will be far better positioned to explain performance swings and defend budgets once the forced upgrade lands.
The Signal Brief · Mariano De Vitto — Head of Marketing, Barcelona