Google Is Auto-Upgrading Your DSAs to AI Max in September — The Agency Prep Checklist

In September 2026, Google stops accepting new Dynamic Search Ads (DSA) campaigns and auto-converts all active DSAs to AI Max for Search. This isn't optional. The conversion is mandatory for any campaign using DSA, automatically created assets (ACA), or campaign-level broad match. You control whether your team orchestrates the migration in May and June, or Google does it in September using default settings engineered for maximum reach — not maximum ROI.

I watched an agency get caught flat-footed when Smart Shopping became Performance Max in 2022. They treated the deadline as a suggestion. By the time they realized Google had auto-migrated 47 client accounts with zero brand controls, zero text guidelines, and zero negative keyword strategy, Q2 results had already cratered. The casualty list included three retained clients who fired them the next quarter. The lesson: platform migrations reward owner-operators who move first, and they punish agencies that wait.

Here's what you need in the engine room this summer.

The Timeline: 5.5 Months, Three Phases

April 15–August 31, 2026 (Voluntary Phase). Google rolls out upgrade tools inside the Ads UI. Your agency can manually migrate DSA campaigns to AI Max, choose which features activate, and configure brand controls before the conversion sticks. This is your discretion period. Start here.

September 2026 (Forced Phase). Any DSA campaign not yet migrated gets auto-converted. Google applies three features across the board: search term matching, text customization, and final URL expansion. New DSA creation shuts off everywhere. UI, Editor, API. From this point forward, DSA is gone.

October 2026 (Watchstanding Period). Post-migration analysis window. Your internal casualty drill on whether the migration held performance or degraded it.

The runway is tight. This migration offers roughly 5.5 months. 40% less time than the Smart Shopping sunset in 2022. If you're managing lead-gen, B2B, or service businesses, DSA has probably been your workhorse. Treat September as a procedural deadline, not a direction-of-travel.

The AI Max Feature Set: What's Actually Happening

AI Max operates as three bundled capabilities:

Search Term Matching. AI signals move beyond landing page data to predict which new queries match your offer. Instead of DSA's static landing-page indexing, AI Max learns real-time intent signals. Google reports that AI Max achieves 7% more conversions at similar CPA when full features are enabled versus matching-only mode. But here's the doctrine: that 7% is a comparison within the AI Max family. Not versus your current DSA baseline. Independent tests show results ranging from +40% to essentially zero, depending on vertical and conversion signal depth.

Text Customization. Gemini generates ad headlines and descriptions dynamically, context-aware to each query. This replaces the old automatically created assets. Your human-written responsive search ad headlines act as the seed and inspiration; the AI uses them as a constraint boundary. The tighter and more specific your inputs, the tighter the AI output stays. Vague seed copy produces vague ad generation.

Final URL Expansion. AI Max can direct users to different landing pages based on query intent. Not just the default landing page from your ad group. This is powerful when your content and SEO hygiene are solid. This is a bottleneck when your site is fragmented, thin, or full of broken links.

Each feature can be toggled on or off during voluntary migration. During forced migration in September, Google enables all three by default.

The Checklist: May Through August

May: Baseline Export and Audit (Week 1–2)

Export 90 days of historical DSA performance data for every campaign and ad group. Specifically:

  • CPA, ROAS, conversion count, and click volume per campaign
  • Search term reports (the queries DSA was actually winning)
  • Landing page distribution and bounce rates
  • Conversion type breakdowns (lead, purchase, view, etc.)

Store this in a version-controlled sheet or repository. When October comes and a client questions whether AI Max improved performance, this baseline is your sovereignty. You own the data and the procedure.

Brief every client on the 7% lift claim. Make clear that Google's headline number compares full-feature AI Max against matching-only AI Max, not against their current DSA system. Set realistic expectations. Independent agencies have published results ranging from significant uplift to no change. This matters for managing Q3 expectations.

June: Parallel Testing (Week 3–5)

Do not upgrade your highest-spend DSA campaign directly. Instead, run a campaign experiment or duplicate one mid-volume DSA campaign, convert the copy to AI Max, and run it alongside the original DSA for 4–6 weeks.

Actively monitor search term insights every 3–5 days. AI Max will surface queries that DSA never matched. Build your negative keyword list early. Check CPA, conversion rate, and ROAS weekly. Most migrations see a 1–2 week learning period where performance flattens or dips; expect this.

At the end of week 4 or 5, pull the results. Did CPA stay flat? Did conversions increase? Did search terms expand into irrelevant territory? Your answer here determines your configuration strategy for the rest of the portfolio.

July: Proactive Brand Controls Setup (Week 6–7)

Before upgrading a single live campaign, pre-configure all brand controls:

  • Text guidelines (up to 25 term exclusions and 40 messaging restrictions). Coordinate with legal on what AI-generated copy is allowed. If you've got compliance constraints, lock them in now.
  • Brand exclusion lists (competitor names, other brand properties, phrases you don't want Gemini using).
  • Landing page exclusions (block careers pages, privacy policy pages, and internal resources from serving as landing pages).
  • URL exclusions at the campaign or ad group level for any pages with thin content or broken SEO signals.

Walk through conversion tracking with engineering. AI Max optimizes against what it can see. If your conversion tracking is shallow. Just form fills, no downstream CRM data. AI Max will optimize for that metric and nothing more. B2B agencies should import offline conversion data (SQLs, actual sales) back into Google Ads before migration. This tells AI Max to optimize for true quality, not just form volume.

August: Live Migration of Remaining Campaigns (Week 8–9)

Migrate your highest-spend DSA campaigns in week 1 of August (week 8 overall). Migrate mid-spend campaigns in week 2. Migrate low-spend or experimental campaigns in week 3. This gives you time to catch issues and adjust before September lockdown.

For each migration, enable only the features you've tested and validated. If final URL expansion caused irrelevant landing pages in your June test, turn it off. Apply text guidelines and exclusions before go-live. Set a 2-week monitoring window post-migration. Track CPA, conversion count, and search term distribution daily. If something breaks (CPA jumps 30%, conversions tank), you still have time to pause the campaign and revert logic before the forced September deadline.

Do not wait until September. Campaigns migrated in early September hit their learning period during the highest-spend B2B window of Q3. You'll publish quarter-end results against suppressed performance. That's a strategic failure.

What You're Optimizing For: The ATLAS Model

Your migration isn't just a technical project. It's a three-phase outcome map:

Audit. You've already captured the baseline performance. What were your actual query winners in DSA? What was your conversion cost by campaign? That's your north star for October.

Target. Declare upfront what you want AI Max to optimize toward: lead cost, purchase value, demo bookings, or a blended metric. Don't let Google's defaults decide. Align this with the client's actual business goal, not marketing metrics.

use. Once AI Max is live, feed it richer signals. CRM conversions, customer lifetime value, form quality scores. The more downstream signal you send back, the smarter AI Max's optimization becomes. This is where the 7% lift actually shows up.

Align. Your internal team, the client, and Google's system need to move in the same direction. That means weekly check-ins for the first four weeks post-migration, documented in Slack or email. It means a clear responsibility matrix: who owns conversion tracking? Who owns negative keyword maintenance? Who's watching search terms daily?

Scale. Once you've validated the procedure on one campaign and proven it repeatable, apply it to the next tier. Build the playbook, then replicate it. Doctrine beats ad-hoc heroics every time.

FAQ

Q: What happens to my historical DSA search term reports after migration?

A: Historical search term data is preserved in the campaign history, but it becomes harder to access as a running list once DSA is gone. Google Ads typically archives this data. Export your historical search term reports in May and June before migration. You'll need them for baseline comparison and negative keyword strategy. Don't rely on Google to keep them easily accessible.

Q: Can I opt out of the upgrade, or run DSA and AI Max in parallel permanently?

A: No. There is no formal opt-out. Starting in September, Google blocks new DSA creation entirely. Existing DSA campaigns auto-convert. You can run parallel campaigns (DSA and AI Max side-by-side) until September, but September 1st, all DSA is gone. Voluntary migration is the only real control lever. It lets you decide the timing and which features activate.

Q: What if our site has thin content or broken links? Does that break AI Max?

A: Yes. AI Max depends even more heavily on site content than DSA does. Broken links, thin pages, and poor SEO hygiene will be exposed when AI Max sends paid traffic to those areas. Coordinate with your SEO and web teams in June and July to audit landing pages, fix 404s, write substantive content on high-traffic pages, and apply noindex tags to pages that shouldn't serve as landing pages. This is a prerequisite for full URL expansion to work without degrading performance.

*Jeff Barnes is the founder of Digital Evolution Marketing Group (DEMG). demg.ai has no commercial relationship with any vendor, platform, or tool mentioned in this article. This content is for educational purposes only and does not constitute business, legal, or financial advice. Results described are illustrative and may not reflect your specific situation.*