AI Max for Search: The Ultimate Guide
▼ Summary
– AI Max is a new Google Search campaign feature that provides automated targeting and creative enhancements when enabled.
– It improves search term matching using broad match and keywordless technology to capture more relevant queries.
– The feature generates customized headlines/descriptions and expands final URLs to increase landing page relevance.
– AI Max includes enhanced reporting with new search terms, keywords, landing pages, and asset performance reports.
– Early testing shows advertisers typically see 14% more conversions at similar costs, with case studies reporting significant performance improvements.
For businesses aiming to enhance their Google Search campaigns, AI Max for Search represents a significant evolution in automated advertising technology. This new feature, currently in a global beta rollout, integrates directly into existing Search campaigns as an optional toggle. It promises to refine targeting and creative elements through advanced artificial intelligence, building upon previous innovations like Smart Bidding and Performance Max. Advertisers can expect improvements in how their ads match with user queries, how their ad copy is generated, and which landing pages their traffic is directed to.
Activating AI Max introduces three core automated enhancements to a campaign. First, its search term matching capability combines broad match keyword strategies with a keywordless approach. This means Google’s system uses contextual, behavioral, and semantic signals to serve your ads for relevant searches, even those you haven’t manually targeted. The AI learns from both keyword-based and keywordless interactions, using your creative assets and URLs to continually find more qualified search traffic.
The second enhancement involves text customization, which is essentially a rebranding of Google’s automatically created assets. The system generates headlines and descriptions by pulling information from your landing pages, existing ads, and keyword list. While marketers have historically been advised to review these auto-generated assets, Google claims the technology has been substantially refined. The improvements are said to produce clearer calls-to-action and more compelling selling points, especially when used in conjunction with the third feature.
That third component is final URL expansion. This functions similarly to Dynamic Search Ads, where Google’s AI directs clicks to the most relevant page on your website that it predicts will deliver the best performance. It’s important to note that this feature cannot be enabled independently; it must be used alongside text customization and is turned on by default when you activate AI Max.
Locating the AI Max feature within Google Ads is straightforward. The option appears during the standard process of setting up a new Search campaign. After selecting your campaign objective, conversion goals, and naming your campaign, you will configure your bidding and general settings. It is at this stage that the toggle to enable AI Max for Search becomes available.
Google has designed new reporting specifically for this feature, addressing a common request for more transparency seen with previous automated products. A new search terms report will display AI Max as a distinct match type, showing incremental search terms and specifying whether the match originated from broad match expansion or keywordless technology. This report also offers a combined view of search terms, headlines, and final URLs to illustrate the complete customer journey. Additional reports integrate AI Max data into keyword summaries, track the performance of AI Max-driven landing pages, and analyze the effectiveness of AI Max-generated creative assets.
Before enabling the feature, there are several important considerations. Currently, AI Max is not available via the Google Ads API or Editor. Activating or deactivating it through the standard interface may cause errors for any automated API requests that manage text customizations or brand settings, so it’s crucial to inform your technical team beforehand. Additionally, final URL expansion is enabled by default, so you must manually disable it if you do not wish to use it. For advertisers using pinned assets in their campaigns, caution is advised, as the final URL expansion can override these pins if the AI determines another URL is more relevant.
Early performance data from Google is promising. The company states that advertisers who activate AI Max typically see around 14% more conversions or conversion value while maintaining a similar cost-per-action or return on ad spend. Early case studies support this. Beauty giant L’Oréal reported doubling its conversion rate and achieving a 31% lower cost per conversion by using AI Max. The search term matching feature helped them capture valuable new queries like “what is the best cream for facial dark spots?” Similarly, MyConnect generated 16% more leads and reduced its cost per lead by 13%, with a 30% increase in conversions coming from new queries identified by the AI.
For marketers, the most prudent course of action is to run a controlled test. Google Experiments provides a simple method for this. By selecting the “campaign features and settings” experiment type and then choosing “AI Max for Search campaigns,” you can split traffic evenly between a version of your campaign with AI Max enabled and one without. This provides a direct, data-backed comparison of the feature’s impact on your specific account performance.
(Source: Search Engine Land)
