Google just set the date for your campaigns to change
If you run Google Ads for a clinic, a dental practice, or a trades business, this affects you directly. Google announced a timeline for automatically moving older Search campaign features into AI Max, its AI-driven campaign format. Search Engine Land, a trade publication covering search marketing, reported the full timeline.
The migration starts September 1 and rolls out gradually through the month. Campaigns using Campaign-level Broad Match, a setting that lets Google match your ads to loosely related searches, will be upgraded automatically. The same goes for standalone Automatically Created Assets, where Google writes ad copy on your behalf.
Google says campaigns will be migrated in place using equivalent AI Max settings, and existing brand inclusions and exclusions will carry over. You should still verify that yourself once the switch happens.
The door on the old setup is already closed
Google stopped allowing new Campaign-level Broad Match configurations and legacy Automatically Created Assets on August 3. That block covers the Google Ads interface, Ads Editor, which is Google's bulk editing tool, and the API, the connection developers use to manage campaigns with software.
Dynamic Search Ads, where Google builds ads from your website content instead of your keywords, get more time. Those migrate automatically in February 2027. Google will start showing in-account warnings in September and send reminders on January 15, 2027.
If someone built your account years ago, there is a decent chance one of these features is running in it right now.
My take: this is a guardrails problem, and it will cost the careless
When Google pushes traditional campaigns into new AI campaigns, the most important thing you can do is set the guardrails: the parameters, exclusions, and settings that turn off the places where you do not want your ads to appear.
If you skip that step, Google will leak your money. AI campaign types are built to expand where and how your ads show, and the default settings serve Google's reach. In my experience from managing multiple millions in ad spend over the past decade, defaults in Google Ads rarely serve the advertiser.
The smart advertisers who turn off the sub-optimal placements do not waste money there. The less smart advertisers who leave everything on foot the bill for all the others. My bet is this migration widens that gap, because the owners who ignore the September notices will fund the auctions everyone else avoids.
Why this hits service businesses harder
Your leads come from a specific area and a specific list of services. A plumber in one city gains nothing from clicks two cities over, and a dental practice gains nothing from searches it can never convert into a patient. Broader AI matching without tight exclusions pulls budget toward exactly those clicks.
The way I see it, the real risk is a migrated campaign running for months with nobody checking what the new settings turned on. Google promises an in-place migration with equivalent settings, and I expect it to work mechanically. Whether the result matches what you would have chosen on purpose is a different question, and it is your job to answer it.
How the AI Max migration hits your budget
How to prepare your business
1. Check this week whether your Search campaigns use Campaign-level Broad Match, Automatically Created Assets, or Dynamic Search Ads.
2. Document your current brand inclusions and exclusions so you can verify they carried over after the September migration.
3. After migration, open the new AI Max settings and turn off every expansion you did not choose deliberately.
4. If you run Dynamic Search Ads, plan the move on your own terms before February 2027 rather than waiting for the automatic switch.
If you would rather have a Google and Meta Partner of more than 10 years check your account before September, book a call with us.
