Google Is Killing Dynamic Search Ads in September — Here's What to Do Right Now

This Is Not a Rumour

On 15 April 2026, Google confirmed it. The announcement was framed politely — "We're upgrading Dynamic Search Ads to AI Max" — but the practical translation is unambiguous.

Dynamic Search Ads are being retired. Not sunset slowly over years. Retired in September 2026. And if you are still running DSA when the auto-migration kicks in, Google will handle the transition for you, with default settings configured for the average advertiser, not for your specific account.

For businesses running DSA as part of a carefully structured Google Ads account — with tuned negative keyword lists, specific URL controls, custom label structures, or tight audience segmentation — "let Google figure it out" is not a plan. It is a way to start Q4 troubleshooting a migration incident instead of scaling revenue.

The voluntary upgrade window is open right now. You have roughly four months. Here is everything you need to know.

What Was Dynamic Search Ads, and Why Is It Going?

Dynamic Search Ads launched in 2011. For 15 years they served a clear purpose: crawl your website, automatically generate headlines based on page content, and match ads to relevant search queries — all without requiring you to build out exhaustive keyword lists.

DSA was genuinely useful for long-tail coverage. If you had a large product catalogue or a broad service offering, DSA could surface your ads on queries your manual keyword strategy missed. It was a discovery layer, a coverage tool, and in many accounts, a meaningful source of incremental conversions.

The problem is that search behaviour has changed fundamentally. Around 37% of users now begin their searches with AI tools rather than traditional Google Search. AI Overviews are present on 48% of queries. Searches are longer, more conversational, and more contextual than anything a page-content-matching system was designed to handle. DSA's rule-based, website-crawling logic cannot keep up with how people actually search in 2026.

Google's position is that AI Max does everything DSA did and significantly more — moving beyond landing page data to include broader, real-time intent signals. Whether you agree with that assessment or not is almost beside the point. The retirement is confirmed. The timeline is locked. The only decision left is whether to control the migration yourself or let Google do it.

Who Exactly Is Affected?

Three groups of advertisers will be automatically migrated in September if they don't act first:

1. Dynamic Search Ads users Any campaign containing dynamic ad groups. This is the primary affected group. Your dynamic ad groups will convert into standard ad groups during migration.

2. Automatically Created Assets (ACA) users Campaigns using Google's automatically generated ad assets. ACA users will have search term matching and text customization enabled by default on migration.

3. Campaign-level broad match setting users Campaigns using broad match at the campaign level rather than the keyword level. These will move to AI Max with search term matching enabled by default.

If your campaigns do not use any of these three features, you are not directly affected by the September automatic upgrade — though you can still adopt AI Max voluntarily.

One important note for agencies and developers: Google will stop allowing new DSA campaigns through Google Ads, Ads Editor, and the Google Ads API once automatic upgrades begin. If your team or your agency creates DSA campaigns programmatically through the Ads API, those workflows need to be updated before September.

What Is AI Max, Actually?

Google AI Max for Search launched in beta in May 2025 and officially exited beta on 15 April 2026 after adoption by hundreds of thousands of global advertisers. It is Google's AI-powered replacement for DSA — and it goes significantly further than its predecessor.

AI Max combines three core features:

Search term matching Uses real-time intent signals, session context and behavioural data — not just your website content or your keyword list — to match your ads to relevant queries. It can reach queries that neither your keywords nor your DSA page signals would have captured. This is the equivalent of broad match at a more sophisticated level.

Text customisation The AI generates and customises headlines and descriptions in real time for each individual query, using your existing ad assets and website content as inputs. Each user gets a version of your ad tailored to what they searched for.

Final URL expansion The most powerful and the most dangerous feature. AI Max can send users to any page on your website it determines to be relevant — not just the landing page you specified. For accounts with well-structured landing pages that match intent tightly, this can lift performance. For accounts with pages you do not want driving paid traffic (blog posts, career pages, press releases), it can create expensive problems fast.

All three features are enabled by default during automatic migration. Which is exactly why you want to migrate yourself.

What Happens If You Do Nothing?

If you do not migrate before September, Google will handle it for you. Here is what the automatic migration looks like by campaign type:

• DSA campaigns: Dynamic ad groups convert into standard ad groups. All three AI Max features (search term matching, text customization, final URL expansion) are enabled by default.
• ACA campaigns: Move to AI Max with search term matching and text customization on by default.
• Campaign-level broad match campaigns: Move with search term matching enabled by default.

Google states that legacy settings and URL controls are preserved where possible. But the critical phrase is "where possible." The auto-migration is built for the average advertiser. It will not understand your custom label structure, your B2B negative keyword lists, your specific URL exclusions, or your conversion tracking setup. It will set defaults, and you will need to audit and fix them after the fact.

There is also a timing problem.

The September Timing Problem

The auto-migration lands in September 2026. That is not a neutral month.

For most businesses, September is the beginning of Q4 preparation — uploading promotional assets, refreshing seasonal campaigns, scaling budgets ahead of end-of-financial-year, Black Friday, Cyber Monday and the Christmas period. Layering a forced campaign-type migration on top of that workload, with an AI system that needs four to six weeks to stabilise, is a serious risk.

AI Max needs time to learn your account's performance patterns. Migrating now gives you several months of stable data before the deadline. Migrating in September means running a learning period through your most revenue-critical weeks of the year.

Does AI Max Actually Perform Better?

Honestly — it depends, and the headline numbers need context.

Google's official figure is that advertisers using the full AI Max feature suite see an average 7% lift in conversions or conversion value at similar CPA/ROAS. Some campaigns have shown 14% lift; the pre-launch pitch was 27%. Real-world independent testing from agencies like JumpFly tells a different story: CPCs tend to drop, but conversions come in "flat to incrementally better" — which is considerably less exciting than Google's marketing copy.

Case studies do exist. BYD achieved 24% more leads at 26% lower cost per lead. An Australian utility saw 16% more leads at 13% lower CPA. Those results are real, but they reflect well-configured migrations by experienced advertisers — not automatic upgrades with default settings.

The honest position is this: AI Max has genuine upside, especially for advertisers with strong conversion data, well-structured accounts, and the willingness to manage the AI rather than just switch it on. For accounts with thin conversion data, weak negative keyword hygiene, or landing pages that are not tightly aligned to intent, the risks are real and the default settings will create problems.

The migration is happening regardless. The question is whether you control it.

The Five Biggest Risks to Manage Before You Migrate

1. Final URL Expansion Start with this turned off, or restrict it to a specific feed of approved URLs. Letting AI Max route traffic to any page on your site without audit is the fastest way to burn budget on irrelevant pages.

2. Negative keyword lists DSA matched based on website content. AI Max matches based on intent signals — which is broader. Your existing negative keyword lists may not cover the new query surface. Audit and expand them before migration.

3. Thin conversion data AI Max optimises based on conversion signals. If your account has fewer than 50 conversions per month per campaign, the AI has insufficient data to optimise responsibly. You may need to consolidate campaigns or adjust your conversion actions before migrating.

4. Learning period disruption AI Max will enter a learning period after migration. Do not migrate during a promotional campaign, a product launch, or peak season. Migrate now, during a stable period, so the learning phase completes cleanly.

5. Text customisation outputs AI Max generates headlines and descriptions dynamically. Review what it produces regularly, especially in the first four to six weeks. Use pinning and text guidelines to constrain what the AI can and cannot say about your brand.

DSA vs AI Max: What Actually Changed

Your Migration Checklist (Do This Before September)

Step 1 — Audit your current DSA campaigns Export your DSA campaign structure, negative keyword lists, URL exclusions, and performance data now, before you touch anything. This is your baseline if something goes wrong.

Step 2 — Check your conversion tracking Make sure your conversion tracking is correctly configured and recording sufficient volume. AI Max is only as good as the signals you feed it. If conversion tracking is broken or thin, fix it first.

Step 3 — Review and expand your negative keyword lists AI Max casts a wider net than DSA. Think about query categories you never needed to exclude before because DSA's page-matching was narrower. Add exclusions proactively.

Step 4 — Audit your website pages Final URL Expansion can send traffic to any page on your site. Go through your site and note pages you do not want appearing as ad destinations — career pages, blog posts, internal documentation, login pages. Set up URL exclusions in advance.

Step 5 — Start with Final URL Expansion off or restricted When you migrate, turn Final URL Expansion off initially. Run for two to three weeks, review performance, then gradually enable it for specific page types you're confident about. Google's default is on — change it.

Step 6 — Use the voluntary migration tools Google has rolled out in-platform upgrade tools for DSA users that port campaign history, settings and data into standard ad groups. Use these rather than rebuilding from scratch. ACA and broad match users will see an "Upgrade campaign" banner in the Google Ads UI.

Step 7 — Set text guidelines Before AI Max starts generating copy, set text customisation guidelines that tell it what it can and cannot say. Constrain messaging around pricing, guarantees, brand claims and anything legally sensitive.

Step 8 — Allow 4–6 weeks of learning before reading results The learning period is real. Do not make structural changes to the campaign in the first two weeks. Do not judge performance against DSA benchmarks in the first month. Let the system stabilise, then evaluate.

The Bottom Line

Dynamic Search Ads served advertisers well for 15 years. But the search environment they were designed for — keyword matching, page-content signals, static query patterns — no longer reflects how people actually search. AI Max is the platform's answer to conversational, intent-driven, AI-influenced search behaviour.

The migration is not optional. The timing is. And the difference between a well-managed migration and a forced one is the difference between entering Q4 with a stable, learning-complete AI Max account versus entering it mid-experiment.

The voluntary tools are live today. Four months is enough time to migrate cleanly, run a full learning period, compare performance against your DSA baseline, and make adjustments before September arrives. It is not enough time if you wait until August.

If you need help auditing your current Google Ads account structure, planning the migration, or managing the transition without disrupting performance, we work with Australian businesses on exactly this kind of paid media account work.

Get in touch here →