Picture a retailer's paid search manager with a Dynamic Search Ads campaign she's tuned for four years. It runs off a carefully maintained page feed, with custom labels separating high-margin categories from clearance lines, and a long list of excluded pages that once wasted money: the careers section, the returns policy, the blog. In September a notice appeared in her account suggesting she upgrade to AI Max. She dismissed it; the holiday season was coming. It's now November, and she's just realised that from February, whether she's ready or not, Google will make the change for her, and switch on three new features while it does.
Dynamic Search Ads have been a quiet workhorse for many advertisers, especially those with large sites. They're now reaching the end. Google originally planned to include them in the September 2026 move to AI Max, then gave them a reprieve to February 2027 after advertisers asked for more time. That reprieve is shorter than it looks, because most of the time between now and then is peak trading season, when nobody should be restructuring accounts. Migrate on your timeline, not Google's. This guide explains what changes, what carries over, and a practical plan for the weeks you actually have.
This post covers the Dynamic Search Ads migration. The September 2026 move of broad match and automatically created assets campaigns is covered in AI Max is now the default. Google's dates and mechanics can change, so check the notices in your own account.
The timeline
Google announced in April 2026, when AI Max left beta, that Dynamic Search Ads, automatically created assets and campaign-level broad match would all move to AI Max. In June, it split the timetable: broad match and automatically created assets still moved in September, but the Dynamic Search Ads sunset and automatic upgrade were pushed to begin in February 2027. Google says you'll be notified in your account before it begins, and pairs the automatic upgrade with an end to new DSA creation, but hasn't published an exact window or cutoff date, so this guide treats 1 February as the planning deadline.
Before then, advertisers can upgrade voluntarily using Google's upgrade tools, which Google says port historical settings and data into new standard ad groups. That voluntary route is the key to keeping control.
What actually changes
According to Google, campaigns containing dynamic ad groups will transition to standard ad groups, with settings and performance data carried into AI Max. All three AI Max features will be switched on: search term matching, which uses your website and assets to find relevant searches; text customization, which generates headlines and descriptions from your site and ads; and final URL expansion, which can send clicks to whichever page on your site it judges most relevant. Google says legacy URL controls, the page targets and exclusions you've built, are preserved, but not everything transfers unchanged: unsupported legacy targets, flagged in the upgrade dialog, and legacy rule types such as "page title contains" become read-only, so you can remove them but not edit or add them. Review the dialog and document important URL rules before upgrading.
The ads change too. Google's upgrade documentation says existing Dynamic Search Ads become Responsive Search Ads, using the minimum required assets generated by text customization. The old DSAs keep serving until the new ads pass policy review and go live, then are paused and made view-only. Check the generated assets and their policy status after upgrading, since they're now your ad copy.
That combination is more generous than the September migration, where broad match campaigns received only search term matching. In practice, it means migrated campaigns will write more of their own ad text and may send traffic to a wider range of pages than your dynamic targets did, within the limits of whatever URL controls carry over. Google says AI Max campaigns using all three features see an average of 7% more conversions or conversion value at a similar cost per acquisition or return on ad spend than those using search term matching alone, based on its internal data for non-Retail advertisers. That's Google's reported comparison, not a guaranteed outcome, so treat it as a claim to test.
Birch
AI-powered platform for automating and optimizing multi-platform advertising campaigns.
Best for: Performance Marketing Automation
| DSA element | At migration | What to do before |
|---|---|---|
| Dynamic ad groups | Become standard ad groups in AI Max | Export a performance baseline |
| Dynamic Search Ads | Become Responsive Search Ads; old DSAs paused once the new ads are active | Check generated assets and policy status |
| Page feeds and custom labels | URL controls preserved where supported; labels usable as URL exclusions | Clean out dead and irrelevant pages |
| Dynamic ad target rules | Unsupported targets flagged and made read-only | Review the upgrade dialog; document key rules |
| Page exclusions | Preserved; some legacy rule types become read-only | Review and add missing ones |
| Auto-generated headlines | Text customization switched on | Check brand and compliance rules |
| Landing pages | Final URL expansion switched on | Decide whether to keep it on |
The real window is shorter than it looks
On paper, there are nearly three months until the automatic migration. In practice, most of that time is peak season, when changing core campaigns is risky: performance can fluctuate, comparisons are distorted by holiday demand, and teams are stretched.
From 9 November 2026 to 1 February 2027: 84 days, or 12 weeks.
Take out an illustrative change freeze over peak trading, from around 20 November to 4 January: about 45 days, or 6.4 weeks.
→ Before the freeze: 11 days to audit and clean up
→ After the freeze: 28 days in January to test and migrate
→ Total practical working time: about 5.6 weeks
That's less than half the headline window. Audit and prepare now, test in the first half of January, and finish your own migration before 1 February, so the automatic process has nothing left to decide for you.
This freeze is a suggestion, not a Google requirement. Adjust it to your own trading season and business calendar.
The freeze isn't caution for its own sake. Performance may fluctuate during the transition, and during peak weeks that would happen on unusual traffic, with higher prices, different buyers and deal-driven behaviour. Monitor results after migrating, and remember that a before-and-after comparison from those weeks reflects the season and any other changes more than the migration. Holiday budgets and bids also deserve full attention on their own, as covered in peak-season paid media, without a structural change running underneath them.
The principle Migrate on your timeline, not Google's. The automatic window switches everything on at once in February; a voluntary upgrade lets you choose the moment, review the mapping and decide which features to keep.
Before the freeze: audit and clean up
The most valuable work happens now, and none of it touches live campaign structure. First, record a baseline. Export at least the last 90 days of Dynamic Search Ads performance by campaign, ad group, search term and landing page: spend, clicks, conversions, conversion value and cost per conversion. You'll need it to judge the migration fairly, and holiday data won't be a clean comparison.
Second, clean your page feeds. Remove discontinued products, out-of-season pages, thin or duplicate pages, and anything that has never converted. Check custom labels still reflect how you want to group pages, for example by margin or category. Supported URL controls carry over, mess included, but unsupported targets and some legacy rules become read-only. Review them before upgrading.
Third, review exclusions. Make sure pages that should never receive paid traffic are excluded: careers, support, legal and policy pages, login areas, internal search results and blog posts that don't convert. This matters more once final URL expansion is on.
Fourth, check your negatives. Dynamic Search Ads campaigns often built up large negative keyword lists to block irrelevant searches. Confirm they're organised and still relevant, following the complete guide to negative keywords, and plan to verify they're in place after migration.
Fifth, look at your landing pages. In AI Max, your website does more of the targeting and copywriting than ever: search term matching reads it to find searches, text customization reads it to write ads, and final URL expansion chooses among its pages. Vague, thin or outdated pages produce weak signals. Clear, specific pages with accurate information produce better ones. Technical basics matter too, as covered in technical SEO fundamentals.
Decide your approach to each feature
Before you migrate, decide what you want each AI Max feature to do in each campaign, rather than accepting everything by default.
Search term matching is the core of how migrated campaigns find searches, much as dynamic targeting was. It can be switched off at ad-group level, but it's AI Max's core targeting capability, so plan to manage it through negatives, URL controls, brand settings and conversion data. That last point is critical: AI Max decides which searches to pursue based on the conversions you feed it, so inaccurate or low-value conversion tracking steers it the wrong way, as covered in setting up conversion tracking you can trust.
Text customization can be switched off at campaign level, but that also switches off final URL expansion, which depends on it. Keep it on where generated copy has performed acceptably and your category allows flexibility; switch it off, or review generated assets closely, in regulated categories or where brand language is tightly controlled.
Final URL expansion can be switched off on its own at campaign level; it needs text customization on, and URL exclusions apply only when both are on. For large, well-structured sites where the best page varies by search, such as retailers, it can help. For advertisers who need every click to land on a specific, controlled page, for compliance, lead quality or conversion reasons, it may be safer to switch it off or limit it tightly with URL controls. The same thinking about landing pages applies as in post-click optimisation.
After the freeze: test, then migrate
In early January, once holiday demand has settled, run the voluntary upgrade on a subset of campaigns first. Choose campaigns that are representative but not your most business-critical, keep settings stable once they're live, and give them at least a couple of weeks before judging. Compare against your baseline and against campaigns not yet migrated, looking at conversions, conversion value, cost per conversion, search term relevance and landing pages used.
Judge the result on the extra conversions and what they cost, not just the blended average. The same marginal-cost logic applies as in the September migration: an unchanged average can hide expensive extra conversions. If the test looks sound, migrate the remaining campaigns in the second half of January, leaving a buffer before 1 February. If it doesn't, you've learned what to fix while you still have time to fix it.
Structure matters too. Many advertisers are keeping tightly controlled campaigns for their most important, highest-intent searches and letting AI Max explore around them, an approach set out in structuring a Google Ads account for scale and control. Retailers should also consider how migrated search campaigns sit alongside Performance Max, to avoid the two competing for the same searches without a clear plan.
Reporting will look different
Expect reports to change after migration. Search terms will appear under AI Max match types, and reporting has noted that filtering only for the AI Max match type can show lower numbers than expected because some searches are grouped under other categories. Landing page reports matter more once final URL expansion is on, since the page a person landed on may differ from the one stored on the ad. Annotate dashboards with your migration dates so future comparisons make sense, and don't read too much into the first week or two while the system settles. Keep budgets steady during testing, following the principles in setting and scaling ad budgets.
It also pays to prepare stakeholders before the change rather than after. A short note to leadership or clients explaining what's changing, when, and what the first few weeks of reporting may look like prevents a normal settling-in period from being mistaken for a problem. Give them one or two numbers to watch, such as conversions and cost per conversion against the baseline, and a date when you'll report back with a clear recommendation. Keep that view simple and consistent, following the principles in building a dashboard leadership will actually read.
If you do nothing
Doing nothing isn't a disaster, but it is a choice. From February, your campaigns will be migrated with all three features switched on, your URL controls carried over where supported, and your team reacting afterwards instead of planning beforehand. For small accounts with simple sites, that may be acceptable. For large or regulated accounts, or those that relied heavily on detailed page feeds, it's a poor way to handle a significant change. The broader lesson of this autumn, across Google's search migration and Meta's removal of ad-set placement exclusions covered in Meta removes placement exclusions, is that platforms are steadily automating, and advertisers who plan transitions keep more control than those who wait. Teams that want the migration audited and managed carefully often work with a specialist performance marketing team.
The short version
Google will begin automatically moving remaining Dynamic Search Ads to AI Max in February 2027, after delaying them from September 2026. Dynamic ad groups become standard ad groups and DSAs become Responsive Search Ads, with settings and data carried into AI Max, all three features switched on, and legacy URL controls preserved, though some legacy rules become read-only. Google's internal data for non-Retail advertisers shows about 7% more conversions or value with the full feature set, but test that for yourself. The practical window is short: between now and February, an illustrative peak-season change freeze leaves only about five to six weeks of working time. Migrate on your timeline, not Google's. Before the freeze, export a baseline, clean page feeds and custom labels, review exclusions and negatives, and improve landing pages. Decide feature by feature whether to keep text customization and final URL expansion on; final URL expansion needs text customization. In early January, test the voluntary upgrade on a subset, judge it on the cost of extra conversions, then migrate the rest before 1 February, annotating reports along the way.
Need your Dynamic Search Ads migration handled carefully?
We audit, test and migrate DSA campaigns to AI Max without losing control.
Explore Performance Marketing →Frequently asked questions
When are Dynamic Search Ads being retired?
Google plans to begin automatically moving remaining Dynamic Search Ads to AI Max for Search in February 2027, without an exact published date or cutoff for creating new ones. Google originally planned to include Dynamic Search Ads in the September 2026 migration, but in June 2026 it moved them to February 2027, citing advertiser feedback that more time was needed to complete the transition. Google says advertisers will receive notifications in their accounts before the transition begins. Before the automatic migration, advertisers can upgrade voluntarily using Google's tools, which Google says port historical settings and data into new standard ad groups. Dates and details can change, so check Google Ads for the notices on your own account.
What happens to Dynamic Search Ads when they move to AI Max?
According to Google, campaigns containing dynamic ad groups transition to standard ad groups, with settings and performance data carried into AI Max to keep results as consistent as possible, and existing Dynamic Search Ads become Responsive Search Ads. All three AI Max features are enabled: search term matching, which finds relevant searches using your website and assets; text customization, which generates headlines and descriptions from your site and ads; and final URL expansion, which can send clicks to the page on your site it judges most relevant. Google says legacy URL controls, such as the pages and URL rules you used to target or exclude, are preserved, although unsupported targets and some legacy rule types become read-only. In practice, this means your website content and URL controls become the main way you shape where and how ads appear, and it is worth checking reporting, generated text and landing pages closely after the change, since the mechanics differ from classic Dynamic Search Ads.
Should you migrate Dynamic Search Ads before February 2027?
For many advertisers, migrating voluntarily before the automatic window is the more controlled option, but timing matters. Upgrading yourself lets you choose the moment, review the mapped settings, decide which AI Max features to keep on, and set up comparisons, instead of having all three features switched on for you during February. Most advertisers will want to avoid making large changes during the busiest holiday trading weeks, so a common approach is to audit and clean up URL controls and landing pages now, then test the upgrade on a subset of campaigns in early January, before migrating the rest ahead of 1 February. Businesses whose peak season falls at a different time should plan around their own calendar. Whatever you choose, record a clear performance baseline first so you can judge the effect of the change.
Can you turn off final URL expansion after migrating Dynamic Search Ads?
Yes. Google's documentation says text customization and final URL expansion are campaign-level settings that can be switched off individually, but final URL expansion requires text customization to stay on. Search term matching can be switched off at ad-group level, but it is AI Max's core targeting capability. Whether you should switch final URL expansion off depends on your site. For businesses with a large, well-structured site where the most relevant page varies by search, such as retailers or publishers, it can be helpful, especially when combined with URL exclusions that keep traffic away from pages such as careers, support or legal pages. For businesses that need every click to land on specific, controlled pages, for compliance, lead quality or conversion reasons, switching it off or tightly limiting it with URL controls may be safer. Test on a subset first and watch landing page reports.
