Should a B2B company use Google AI Max for Search?

What is AI Max and which campaigns were upgraded automatically?

AI Max is Google's set of AI features for Search campaigns, and from September 2026 Google switches it on for campaigns that used automatically created assets or the campaign-level broad match setting. Dynamic Search Ads follow in February 2027.

Google announced the dates in Brandon Ervin's post on the Google blog on April 15, 2026, updated June 11. Ervin is Director of Product Management for Google Ads.

The detail came later. PPC Land reported on August 6 that Google had emailed advertisers the day before: campaigns with automatically created assets get search term matching and text customization switched on, and campaigns with the campaign-level broad match setting get search term matching only. Accounts that never used either setting are unaffected.

Picture a B2B software account that ticked the campaign-level broad match box on its main lead campaign for a test last spring, then moved on. The box stayed ticked. In September that campaign got search term matching, and nobody had opened its settings since.

Which AI Max features can you switch off?

Search term matching, text customization, and final URL expansion can each be turned off, though final URL expansion needs text customization on. Brand exclusions are set at campaign level only.

That is how Google Ads Help describes the AI Max settings. It also says AI Max won't be effective if a campaign is limited by budget, so we would settle the budget first.

Exclusions do the rest of the steering. Platform81's guide to the AI Max upgrade, written by a paid search agency, notes that Text Guidelines allow up to 25 term exclusions and up to 40 messaging restrictions. We would write the negative keyword and brand exclusion lists before reading any result, since the first week's spend is gone before a list catches up.

What should a B2B account check in the first two weeks?

Check which settings came on, which search terms the campaign matched, and which landing pages Google picked. Do that before you look at cost or volume.

Platform81 points to reports that changed with the upgrade, and we would add Google's budget check.

1. Write down which AI Max features are on in each Search campaign today, so the test has a baseline.
2. In the search terms report, look for the new AI Max match type and read the Match source column next to each term.
3. In the Landing pages report, read the Selected by column to see which pages Google chose for you.
4. Check whether the campaign is limited by budget, since Google Ads Help says AI Max won't be effective when it is.

What conversion signal should AI Max be judged on?

Qualified leads or pipeline, sent back to Google from your CRM. If the only conversion Google sees is a form fill, more form fills is what it will chase.

Here Google's own number comes in. Ervin wrote that 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 search term matching alone. That is Google's internal 2026 data for non-Retail advertisers, about its own product, and it counts whatever each advertiser set up as a conversion.

GrowthSpree, a B2B SaaS ads agency, says that without CRM-linked offline conversion tracking AI Max "optimizes purely toward form-submission volume," and recommends a qualified-pipeline goal. It gives no data, so it is an agency's opinion, and we share it. Running ad budgets is a service our team at Corvan does by hand, through our paid ads service.

When is a plain keyword campaign the safer choice?

When the campaign covers your brand or your highest-intent terms, or when no qualified-lead signal reaches Google yet. In those cases keep search term matching off and test AI Max somewhere else first.

A brand campaign catches people who already typed your name, and wider matching adds little to that. Our post on bidding on your own brand name goes through when that campaign is worth running.

Go back to the account with the forgotten broad match box. Its upgrade came from a test nobody finished, so finish it: switch search term matching off on the main lead campaign, leave it on in one smaller campaign, and compare the two on cost per qualified lead for a month. The keywords were in both campaigns the whole time. What changed in September is how far past them Google may go, and on that account nobody chose it.