Dynamic Search Ads Move to AI Max in February 2027: Prepare This Autumn

In September, notices started appearing in ad accounts inviting advertisers to upgrade Dynamic Search Ads to AI Max. It reads like an optional recommendation, which is exactly why most people will dismiss it. In reality it is a warning about what happens automatically in February 2027: every legacy DSA campaign gets migrated whether you act or not, and creating new ones becomes impossible. The difference between a voluntary and a forced move is who controls the outcome.

What AI Max is and how it differs from DSA

Dynamic Search Ads worked simply: Google crawled your site and generated queries and headlines from its content. You controlled which pages or categories were used, and that was where the control ended.

AI Max does the same thing more broadly. It is a set of features inside an ordinary search campaign combining automatic query matching, ad text generation and automatic landing page selection. Put plainly: where DSA worked from your website, AI Max also works from your existing keywords, expanding coverage beyond them.

Why the deadline moved

The automatic migration was originally set for September 2026. After advertiser feedback Google pushed it to February, and the reason was stated plainly: avoid major account changes during the busy fourth quarter.

That is a rare case of the platform responding to complaints, and it is also a useful signal. If Google considers the change significant enough to keep away from peak season, treating it as cosmetic is unwise.

What to do this autumn

1. Find every DSA campaign you have. In large accounts they often sit as separate ad groups inside ordinary search campaigns that nobody has looked at in months.
2. Check how much they deliver. If DSA produces under 5% of account conversions, switching it off now is simpler than migrating and troubleshooting later.
3. Refresh your negative keywords before the move. This is the key preparation step. Pull six months of search terms and add everything unrelated to your offer as a negative.
4. Review which site pages are crawlable. AI Max, like DSA, works from your site. Outdated pages or empty categories should be excluded in advance.
5. Upgrade voluntarily on one campaign. Not all of them at once. Take one mid-sized campaign and compare metrics over three or four weeks.
6. Record your baseline before the switch. Cost per conversion, conversion volume, share of irrelevant queries. Without those numbers you cannot tell whether things got worse.

How to test AI Max in three weeks

A test is only useful if you know in advance what you are comparing. Here is a structure that produces an answer without putting the account at risk.

One important detail: do not change bids, budgets or ad copy at the same time. If several variables move during a test, you will not know what produced the result and the conclusion will be accidental.

What is preserved and what changes

Google states that on automatic migration existing settings are preserved as closely as possible and URL controls carry over. That covers the technical side. What changes is behaviour.

• Reach expands. The campaign starts appearing for queries that existed neither in your keywords nor in your site structure.
• More text gets generated. If you have strict rules about wording, verify that on a test campaign rather than assuming.
• Reporting gets coarser. Some of the system's decisions do not break down into the familiar components that classic DSA offered.
• All three features switch on automatically. They can be disabled individually afterwards, but only if you know what to look for.

Who should move first

• Online stores with large catalogues. DSA usually drives the most traffic here, and the change in reach is felt most sharply.
• Categories with sensitive wording. Healthcare, finance, legal: automated text generation here needs verification, not hope.
• Accounts with stale negative keyword lists. If nobody has touched them in a year, the migration will expose that immediately.
• Anyone where DSA is the main conversion source. The risk is highest, so the testing should start earliest.

Frequently asked questions

Can I simply not migrate?

No. After the February wave, new DSA ad groups cannot be created and existing ones are moved automatically. The only choice is when and on what terms.

Can I roll back after migrating?

With a voluntary upgrade you have time to compare results and decide while the old format still exists. After February there is no route back to classic DSA.

Is AI Max more expensive than DSA?

Not inherently. What makes it more expensive is expanded reach against a stale negative list: the system enters new queries, some of which do not convert. In a prepared account, cost per conversion usually holds steady.

Is this the same as the September broad match migration?

No, they are separate processes. September 2026 covered campaign-level broad match and legacy automatically created assets. The DSA migration is its own track with its own deadline.

What if DSA outperforms our regular campaigns?

All the more reason to move early and calmly rather than in February. If the format is central to your account, a botched automatic migration will cost you more than anyone.

February is five months out, which is precisely why this will be forgotten until January. But September is the only window where the change can be tested on your own terms without seasonal pressure. If you want us to review your DSA campaigns and run the transition in a controlled way, talk to our team. If you would rather understand how a search campaign should be built in the first place, start here: how to launch Google Ads from scratch.