AI Max: the migration is running as of today
The most important change of the month was confirmed by Google on August 5 only by email to affected accounts, without a blog post. Accordingly, many missed it. The timeline:
- Since August 3: No new campaigns with campaign-level broad match or Automatically Created Assets (ACA), neither in the UI nor via Editor or API.
- September 1 to 30: Existing Search campaigns with campaign-level broad match or ACA are migrated to AI Max automatically, staggered across the month. Settings carry over one to one.
- September: In-account notices for DSA campaigns, where the upgrade is still voluntary.
- From January 2027: No new DSA ad groups; from February 1 to 28, 2027 Dynamic Search Ads are migrated automatically.
Background: originally DSA, ACA and broad match were all due to move in September. On June 11, after advertiser feedback and to protect Q4, Google postponed only the DSA migration to February 2027. Broad match and ACA kept the September date. AI Max itself left beta in April and is the default for new Search campaigns anyway.
What matters now are the control levers, and they are better set before the migration than after: search term controls and negative keywords, brand controls, location-of-interest controls, text guidelines, final URL expansion controls and the AI brief. If you do not want the switch, disable campaign-level broad match and ACA before Google touches the campaign. If you do want it, switch deliberately yourself, on your own schedule and with guardrails in place.
Bidding: targets taken literally
Since August 17, tCPA and tROAS campaigns deliver closer to the configured target. Google's own example: a target CPA of 10 euros with a real CPA of 5 euros now drifts toward 10 euros. This mostly hits budget-limited campaigns that ran more efficiently than their target, and on PMax and Demand Gen the channel mix can shift as well. The consequence: compare every target with real performance and adjust; the Bid Target Adjustment Tool is live for exactly that. The full analysis with a worked example and our five-step practice is in Smart Bidding: Google now takes your targets literally.
Two more things from the same June announcement that get mixed up: Smart Bidding Exploration has been globally available since mid-June for PMax without a feed (with feed still beta), and Promotion Mode for Search and PMax is a beta for peak events with a temporary ROAS tolerance plus extra budget. It is not the same as seasonality adjustments.
Book button in Search and PMax
Since late August, the book button via Reserve with Google has been rolling out to Search and Performance Max ads. Until now it only existed in Local Services Ads and Maps. The mechanics deserve attention:
- If your Business Profile already has an appointment action link through a Reserve with Google partner, you get the button automatically. No tagging needed, Google tracks the booking itself.
- The conversion goal "Appointments booked" appears without opt-in but only affects bidding once you add the conversion action to your campaign settings.
- The opt-out lives in Google Ads, not in the Business Profile. Healthcare is excluded.
The audit task for every account with locations: review the action links of each location. A link pointing to a generic homepage now sits behind a paid button. If you would rather not comb through your accounts yourself: we cover this as part of an account check, a short message is enough.
Performance Max: channel sliders in alpha
In late August a new "Channels" setting appeared in Performance Max, labeled alpha, so before beta. It brings sliders for Search, YouTube, Display, Discover, Gmail and Maps, each from "lower prioritization" through "auto" to "higher prioritization".
What matters is what the sliders are not: a budget split per channel. A positive adjustment means PMax accepts a looser CPA for that channel and weights it more; a negative one means a stricter CPA and the channel is scaled back. You influence the economics by which the system decides where to look for conversions, nothing more. Our take: be careful with quick conclusions from attribution. YouTube and Display work early in the funnel, Search converts later. If you turn Display down after a week of last-click reporting, you may be turning the wrong knob. Define an observation window first, then adjust. The feature rolls out slowly; if it is missing in your account, ask your Google rep.
New experiment and planning features
Fitting the migration, Google expanded the testing toolkit on August 20 and 21:
- From September: one A/B test across several Search campaigns at once, showing how budget and ROI target changes play out.
- Now: AI Max experiments run with brand and location parameters enabled, so the guardrails stay on during the test. Previously you had to give up exactly the controls you wanted to keep.
- The Performance Planner forecasts the effect of bid and budget changes and lets you apply the suggestions directly.
For the migration decision this means: there is no longer a reason to adopt AI Max untested or to reject it untested. A clean experiment with brand controls active answers the question per account.
Demand Gen: messaging, travel, AI video
The Demand Gen drop of August 27 brings four things:
- Messaging test: viewers can start a chat with the brand in messaging apps straight from Demand Gen ads on YouTube. Still a test; Google names neither markets nor apps nor eligibility.
- Travel: local activities, events and real-time offers are served in Demand Gen ads.
- Hotel personalization: hotel ads show properties matched to the audience. This builds on the travel feeds from early 2026, the Hotel Center feed for dynamic video ads with price, rating and availability.
- Multimodal video creation in Asset Studio is now available to all advertisers: from storyboard to horizontal and vertical assets in one workflow.
Google claims the Demand Gen improvements from H2 2025 deliver on average 30 percent more conversions or conversion value. That is a self-reported number without published methodology; we would read it as a direction, not a benchmark. Practically relevant: no setting changed, nothing was deprecated. Check which features are visible in the account, and for hotel clients connect the Hotel Center feed with Demand Gen.
AI Mode books hotels in the chat
The flashiest news comes from the US: since August 27, users can describe their trip in AI Mode, get a visual hotel list with ratings and comparison criteria, and book via "Continue on Google". Room selection, cancellation terms and payment via Google Pay run entirely inside Google's interface. Google is not the seller; the merchant of record remains the hotel or the booking platform, including customer service. Added to that: prices shown in points or miles, and flight price tracking in AI Mode.
The rollout starts US-only in English, with Booking.com, Expedia, Hotels.com, Priceline and Trip.com plus the Marriott, Hilton, IHG, Choice and Wyndham chains. Google announces expansion "in the coming weeks", faster outside the EEA than inside. There is no date for DACH.
For hotel clients, visibility in this interface is not decided in the campaign but in the data layer: Hotel Center feed, current prices and availability, a complete Google Business Profile, structured data. It is the same logic we described for AI answers in general in GEO, AEO, LLMO: if you are not clean in the data, you do not exist in the chat interface. And one risk deserves naming: starting with OTAs and chains can further increase the OTA dependency of independent hotels. All the more reason to keep your own data directly bookable.
More news in brief
- Ads in AI Mode: the Shopping ads carousel now appears inline in the AI Mode answer, plus a single ad unit at the end of the answer. In parallel, Google is testing sponsored results loading with a Gemini animation.
- Customer Match: a test called "Enhanced Matching" for better match rates.
- Assets: Google Ads suggests sitelinks automatically; a review layout with a large rating star is being tested.
- Merchant Center: product images need at least 500 by 500 pixels. New: a beta report for AI-generated product titles and an enhanced popular products report. The Content API for Shopping was switched off after August 18; the Merchant API applies.
- Local Services Ads: pre-badge ads and new verticals, many more booking partners, and missed and follow-up calls are now billed.
- API: Google Ads API v25.1 is available.
- EU AI Act: the AI labeling obligation applies since August 2, relevant for generated creatives.
Our prioritized to-do list
- Now: Check all Search campaigns for campaign-level broad match and automatically created assets. The AI Max migration is running as of today; set the control levers or disable the features.
- Now: Compare tCPA and tROAS targets with real performance; the bidding change has been live since August 17.
- This week: Review Reserve with Google action links per location; the book button now sits in paid ads.
- Hotel clients: Get the Hotel Center feed, Business Profile and structured data in order, for AI Mode booking and Demand Gen personalization.
- PMax: Ask your Google rep about channel prioritization if the alpha is not visible, and define an observation window before touching the sliders.
- E-commerce: Check product images against the 500 by 500 pixel minimum and complete the Merchant API migration.
We have been managing Google Ads accounts since 2006 and are walking through exactly this list with every client right now. If you want to know which items affect your account: details on the Google Ads agency page, or directly via contact. The intro call is free, 30 minutes.
FAQ
Do I need to act before the AI Max migration?
Check yes, click not necessarily. Only campaigns with campaign-level broad match or ACA are affected. Either disable beforehand or switch deliberately yourself and set the control levers.
What happens to Dynamic Search Ads?
Nothing in September. DSAs migrate February 1 to 28, 2027; new DSA ad groups stop from January 2027.
Can I set budgets per channel in PMax now?
No. The sliders shift the CPA tolerance per channel, not budget. And the whole thing is an alpha rolling out slowly.
Is the book button active automatically?
Yes, as soon as an appointment action link exists in the Business Profile. Opt-out in Google Ads, not in the Business Profile. Healthcare is excluded.