What is AI Max? Exploring Google’s Next Wave of Ads

The world of paid search doesn’t stand still for long. Just as advertisers were beginning to wrap their heads around Performance Max, Google has unveiled its next big move: AI Max.

It’s being pitched as the evolution of paid search campaigns, blending Google’s latest AI capabilities with the familiar framework of Search. But what exactly is AI Max, how does it work, and, more importantly, how can advertisers use it to their advantage?

What is AI Max?

AI Max is Google’s new advertising product designed to bring the power of its most advanced AI directly into Paid Search campaigns. If Performance Max was about consolidating inventory across channels, AI Max is about re-imagining search campaigns themselves.

Think of it as Google’s AI-powered upgrade to standard Search. Instead of relying heavily on manual keyword lists, bid adjustments, and ad variations, AI Max takes a more holistic approach.

AI Max uses Google’s large-scale AI models to dynamically generate and optimise ads, targeting, and bidding in real time. It’s Google’s way of making search campaigns smarter, faster, and unsurprisingly, more automated.

What are the benefits of using AI Max?

We attended the latest Google Expert Series on AI Max, and Google revealed that advertisers using AI Max for Search campaigns often see a 14% increase in conversions or conversion value at comparable CPA/ROAS. For campaigns still running on exact and phrase match keywords, the uplift can be even bigger, up to 27% more conversions.

Real-world examples from Google themselves already show the impact:

• L’Oréal saw twice the conversion rate at a 31% lower cost-per-conversion, driven by new queries like “what is the best cream for facial dark spots?” that AI Max uncovered.
• MyConnect (an Australian utilities provider) reported 16% more leads, 13% lower cost-per-action, and a 30% lift in conversions from net-new queries after activating AI Max.

Why is Google pushing AI Max?

At first glance, the answer seems obvious, Google wants more advertisers to embrace automation. But there’s more to it.

• AI is the core of Google’s future. From Search Generative Experience to Gemini, the company is betting heavily on AI to power its products. Extending that to paid advertising is a natural step.
• It solves complexity. Managing granular search campaigns can be time-consuming and resource-intensive. AI Max reduces the manual workload, making campaigns accessible to advertisers who may not have large in-house teams.
• It scales revenue. For Google, AI-driven automation encourages broader spend by showing results faster, and by widening the net of who can effectively run campaigns.
• It builds trust in AI. By making AI a default part of Search, Google is normalising its use for marketers who may have been hesitant to experiment.
• There is a rollout path. AI Max launched globally in beta in May 2025, with full availability expected by early Q3 2025.

How does AI Max work?

What makes AI Max different is the way automation runs through every part of a campaign, from the ads people see to the bids you place and the audiences you reach. Instead of relying on manual tweaks and constant monitoring, AI Max is designed to optimise the entire process in real time. Here’s what that looks like in practice:

AI-driven ad creation

• Advertisers provide Google with base assets, headlines, descriptions, URLs, and creative signals.
• AI then generates ad combinations dynamically, tailoring them to each query, user, and context.
• Google emphasised in a recent Expert Series event that its asset optimisation modes are now much better at identifying strong CTAs and USPs from landing pages, giving advertisers relevance without losing control.

Real-time bidding and optimisation

• Instead of adjusting bids manually, Google’s AI predicts the likelihood of a click or conversion in the moment.
• It then automatically sets the optimal bid for each auction, learning and adapting as more data comes in.

Smarter audience signals

• AI Max doesn’t just look at keywords. It uses user intent, behavioural patterns, and contextual signals to match ads with the right people.
• This helps expand reach beyond the rigid keyword lists that have historically defined Search campaigns.

Final URL expansion

• A new feature within AI Max allows Google to choose the most relevant landing page on your site, not just the final URL you set, based on user intent.
• Advertisers can still control this with exclusions, but it means campaigns can respond more flexibly to new queries.

Continuous learning

• The more data it ingests, the sharper it becomes. AI Max campaigns evolve, finding new queries, new audiences, and new combinations of assets that drive performance.

Here is an example of how AI Max looks when you’re on your account

Controls, brand safety, and reporting

One of the biggest concerns for advertisers is around AI is brand safety: what happens if automation produces irrelevant or off-brand ads? In the Google Expert Series, this was tackled head-on. Google stressed that AI Max comes with an extensive suite of controls and safeguards, including:

• Negative keyword lists to block irrelevant queries.
• Advertiser-provided high-quality assets to anchor RSAs in brand-approved copy.
• Asset removals if automatically created assets don’t align with guidelines.
• URL exclusions to stop traffic going to the wrong landing pages.
• Upcoming asset exclusions (still rolling out) to prevent unwanted phrases from appearing in headlines and descriptions.

Transparency is another pillar. Google highlighted new reporting features to ensure advertisers can track exactly how AI Max is performing. The updated Search Terms report shows which queries were triggered by keywordless targeting, the Asset report surfaces which auto-generated assets ran, and the Landing Page report reveals which URLs were chosen by AI Max. This gives advertisers the ability to intervene quickly if performance or relevance goes off track.

How to use AI Max in your paid campaigns

So, what can you actually do with AI Max today? If you’re considering testing it, here are some practical steps to approach it strategically:

1. Start with clear goals

• AI thrives on defined objectives. Decide whether you want to prioritise leads, sales, or brand visibility, and ensure your conversion tracking is watertight.

2. Feed it the right inputs

• Provide high-quality creative assets, strong copy variations, and accurate audience signals. The better the inputs, the better the AI can generate winning combinations.

3. Don’t ditch human oversight

• AI Max can optimise in ways you might not anticipate, but human judgment is still essential. Regularly review search term reports, creative performance, and budget allocation.

4. Test alongside traditional campaigns

• Instead of shifting everything into AI Max immediately, run side-by-side tests against your existing Search campaigns. This helps benchmark performance and identify where AI delivers incremental gains.
• At Google’s Expert Series, they recommended running experiments with AI Max for at least six weeks, two weeks of learning and four weeks of live testing before drawing conclusions, before rolling it out throughout the account.

5. Experiment with new features

• Advertisers can toggle AI Max on or off at the campaign level and disable Search Term Matching or Asset Optimisation independently at the ad group level.
• Google also introduced AI Max experiments, which allow advertisers to split test within an existing campaign, diverting traffic and budget securely for quicker insights.

6. Keep your data clean

• With AI leaning heavily on signals, poor tracking or messy conversion data can throw it off. A robust analytics setup (think GA4 with custom events aligned to business goals) is non-negotiable.

The future of paid search with AI Max

The rise of AI Max points toward a new reality: search advertising is becoming less about managing keywords and more about managing AI.

Here’s what that could mean for the future:

• Marketers will shift roles. Instead of spending time on manual bid strategies and match types, the focus will move to strategy, creative, and data quality.
• Transparency will remain a sticking point. Much like with Performance Max, advertisers will want more insight into what queries triggered ads and how decisions are being made. Expect ongoing debates about the “black box.”
• Automation will dominate entry-level campaigns. Smaller advertisers may default to AI Max because of its ease of use, while larger brands will experiment with hybrid approaches.
• Expect even deeper AI integration. As generative AI expands, we could see AI-written ad copy, AI-produced video assets, and campaign strategies increasingly shaped by machine learning.

Final thoughts

AI Max represents more than just another campaign type; it’s a signal of where paid search is heading. Automation is no longer optional; it’s becoming the default.

Here are our key takeaways:

• AI Max is Google’s AI-powered evolution of search campaigns, designed to automate creative, targeting, and bidding.
• It works by using large-scale AI models to generate ad combinations, optimise bids, and expand reach in real time.
• The Google Expert Series confirmed early uplifts: +14% conversions at similar CPA/ROAS, rising to +27% for exact/phrase campaigns.
• Google is pushing AI Max as part of its broader AI-first strategy, making paid campaigns more accessible and scalable.
• Marketers should test AI Max with clear goals, strong creative inputs, and human oversight, rather than handing over the keys entirely.
• The future of search ads will be increasingly AI-driven, shifting marketer roles toward strategy, creativity, and data stewardship.

The advertisers who will do well in this new landscape are those who embrace AI without abandoning strategy, balancing automation with human insight to keep campaigns aligned, and keeping a human perspective on what matters most: business results.

At Verkeer, we help brands navigate exactly these kinds of shifts. If you’re ready to test AI Max, benchmark it against your existing campaigns, and ensure you’re set up for sustainable growth, our paid search team can guide you through the process.