Google AI Max: preview the AI-written ad copy before you switch it on, plus the DSA deadline

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By Saj Ali, founder and editor · Last updated 31 Oct 2026

You can now see sample AI Max ad copy before you switch it on: add a final URL in the Asset optimisation section of a Search campaign and Google shows up to 10 example headlines and descriptions, mostly in under 30 seconds, with no opt-in needed. That matters because Dynamic Search Ads are ending. Google says new DSAs can’t be created from January 2027, and remaining DSA campaigns start moving to AI Max automatically in February 2027.

This tutorial shows how to use the preview, how to lock the copy down with text guidelines, and how to move your DSA campaigns across on your own terms before Google does it for you. Every step and figure comes from Google’s help pages and blogs, linked inline and checked on 31 October 2026.

What is AI Max text customisation?

Text customisation is the AI Max setting that writes extra headlines and descriptions for your responsive search ads. It used to be called automatically created assets. According to Google’s help page, it builds them from your domain, landing page, existing ads and keywords, using “a combination of extractive techniques and generative AI”.

Three details from that page are worth knowing before you switch it on:

• Assets are “reviewed – and refreshed as needed – at least every 48 hours”. If your landing page changes, the copy changes within 48 hours.
• Google’s assets “will only serve if they are predicted to perform better” than the headlines and descriptions you wrote.
• Campaigns that used automatically created assets have been upgraded to AI Max automatically since September 2026.

AI Max itself has three parts: search term matching, text customisation and final URL expansion (AI Max overview). This guide is mostly about the second one, because it is the one that writes words under your brand name.

How do I preview AI Max ad copy before switching it on?

Barry Schwartz at Search Engine Roundtable reported the preview feature on 9 October 2026, via Hana Kobzová of PPC News Feed. Google’s help page now documents it. Here is how to use it.

1. Open the campaign. Start a new Search campaign, or edit an existing one.
2. Go to AI Max and find Asset optimisation. The preview sits in the “Asset optimisation” section for AI Max campaigns.
3. Check the final URL. If a final URL is filled in, Google generates “a representative sample of up to 10 example assets of headlines and descriptions” automatically. If the field is blank, add a URL and select Preview examples.
4. Wait a few seconds. Google says examples are “mostly generated in under 30 seconds”.
5. Read every line. Look for wrong prices, claims you can’t back up, competitor names, words your brand never uses and anything your legal team would reject.
6. Add text guidelines for the problems you find (next section). The preview panel filters the samples to match your guidelines. If your rules block every asset, Google asks you to loosen them.
7. Repeat with your most important landing pages. The copy is grounded in the page, so test the pages that carry the most spend.

You do not need to opt in to text customisation to see these examples. Previews work in all the languages text customisation supports, including English, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French, German, Japanese and Dutch, and for almost all business categories except adult content.

What should I look for in the preview?

The fixes in the right-hand column follow examples in Google’s text guidelines help page.

How do text guidelines control the AI copy?

Text guidelines are a campaign-level beta that steers what text customisation writes. Google opened them to all advertisers globally on 26 February 2026, across AI Max for Search and Performance Max (Google Ads & Commerce Blog). You need text customisation turned on to use them.

There are two kinds of rule, according to Google’s help page:

• Term exclusions: exact words or phrases to keep out. Up to 25 per campaign. They are not case sensitive, but they are language-specific, so blocking “cheap” in English will not block the Japanese equivalent. They also can’t stop prices, so “$” will not work; use a messaging restriction instead.
• Messaging restrictions: concepts, associations or styles to avoid, or a tone to follow. Up to 40 per campaign. Unlike term exclusions, they apply across languages.

Google warns that guidelines “also apply to existing Google-optimized text assets”, which “will stop serving and be marked as removed” if they break the rules. It also warns that “inefficient or counterintuitive guidelines may cause removal of a large number of good text customization assets, and lead to drop in campaign performance.”

How do I add text guidelines to a Search campaign?

1. Go to Settings in the Campaigns menu and select AI Max.
2. Make sure AI Max is on. In the Asset optimisation panel, text customisation is enabled by default.
3. Select Add text guidelines.
4. Enter your term exclusions and messaging restrictions, one rule per line.
5. To reuse rules, select Copy guidelines from existing campaign and choose whether to replace or add to the current set.

Copy-paste starter guidelines

Here is a starter set based on the patterns Google calls effective. Edit the brand names and terms for your account before you paste them in.

Term exclusions (one per line)

cheapest
guaranteed
free trial
best in the UK
number one

Messaging restrictions (one per line)

Do not mention specific prices, e.g. £45 per month or $4,567.
Do not imply our products are discounted.
My brand name should be spelled as "BrandName".
Do not mention our competitor, e.g. "CompetitorName".
If promoting a discount, always include "T&C apply".
Our brand tone is clear and straightforward.

Google gives one result for text guidelines: BYD “increased leads by 24% at a 26% lower cost” with these controls in AI Max (Google). That is Google’s own case study.

How do I turn text customisation on or off?

Google’s help page gives the path: open the campaign’s Settings, then AI Max, then Asset optimisation, and tick or untick Text customization. Two side effects to know:

• Turning off text customisation also turns off final URL expansion, and assets it generated stop serving. Google’s text customisation page explains that final URL expansion “requires text customization to be turned on, since a newly selected URL may make advertiser-provided assets irrelevant”.
• To remove a single bad asset without turning the feature off, go to Ads, open View assets details, and remove the asset.

Google’s AI Max setup page also says new Search campaigns have AI Max on by default, and that search term matching, final URL expansion and text customisation “require conversion-based Smart Bidding strategies in order to function effectively”. If you pin headlines, note that with final URL expansion on, pinned assets aren’t used when Google picks a more relevant URL. To always use pinned assets, turn off final URL expansion and URL inclusions.

When is the DSA deadline?

The dates moved once, so check old articles carefully. Google first said DSAs would upgrade automatically from September 2026. On 11 June 2026 it updated its announcement, and the Ads Developer Blog set out the new timeline:

One wording difference to note: the Developer Blog says remaining DSA campaigns “will be automatically upgraded to Performance Max or AI-powered Search campaigns”, while the same post describes the move as going to “AI Max (or Search campaigns with broad match and Smart Bidding)”. PPC Land also covered the delay.

What changes when a DSA campaign is upgraded?

According to Google’s announcement:

• DSA campaigns: dynamic ad groups become standard ad groups, settings and data are carried over, and all three AI Max features are switched on, with legacy URL controls kept.
• Automatically created assets campaigns: search term matching and text customisation on.
• Campaign-level broad match campaigns: search term matching on.

Google’s AI Max setup page adds that the upgrade turns existing Dynamic Search Ads into responsive search ads, with Google generating “the minimum amount of static assets required using text customization”. The old DSAs keep running while the new responsive search ads are reviewed for policy, and are paused and set to view-only once the new ads are active. Legacy URL rules such as “page title contains” or “page content contains” become read-only: you can remove them, but you can’t add or edit them.

How do I migrate DSA to AI Max myself, step by step?

1. Audit. List every active DSA campaign and dynamic ad group. If you use the Google Ads API, the Developer Blog gives this query:

Google Ads Query Language (GAQL) audit query

SELECT
  campaign.id,
  campaign.name,
  campaign.status,
  campaign.dynamic_search_ads_setting.domain_name
FROM
  campaign
WHERE
  campaign.status = 'ENABLED'
  AND campaign.dynamic_search_ads_setting.domain_name IS NOT NULL

2. Record a baseline. Note conversions, CPA or ROAS and the top search terms for each DSA campaign over the last 30 to 90 days.
3. Preview the copy. Use asset previews (above) on the landing pages your DSAs send traffic to.
4. Write text guidelines first. Add term exclusions and messaging restrictions before any AI copy goes live.
5. Test side by side. Google recommends Campaign Experiments to test AI Max (with broad match and Smart Bidding) against your existing DSA campaign.
6. Run the upgrade. Go to Campaigns, open the Settings tab, tick the campaign, and in the Dynamic Search Ads settings panel select Upgrade, then confirm in the dialog box (Google’s AI Max setup page). If your test is a custom experiment, Google’s DSA help page says to select ‘Upgrade campaign’ in the draft’s DSA settings instead.
7. Check URL controls and tracking. Google’s AI Max overview warns that some tracking templates break expanded landing pages with 404 errors. Use the recommended {lpurl} patterns, such as {lpurl}? or {lpurl}&, test a dynamic landing page first, and set URL inclusions and exclusions.
8. Add brand and location controls. AI Max supports brand inclusions and exclusions and locations of interest.
9. Watch the new reports. In the search terms report, look for the “AI Max” match type and the source column. Check the “Selected by” column in the landing pages report and the “Added by” column for generated assets (Google). SEM Insider also reports four new AI Max columns: brand inclusions, locations of interest, commission and optimised targeting.
10. Fund it properly. Google says AI Max will not be effective if the campaign is limited by budget.

What does Google claim AI Max delivers, and how should I read it?

Google’s headline figure is that AI Max campaigns “see an average of 7% more conversions or conversion value at a similar CPA/ROAS when using the full feature suite” compared with search term matching alone (Google). It is an average from Google’s own data, it compares AI Max with a lighter version of AI Max rather than with DSA, and it does not tell you about your account. Run an experiment and judge it on your numbers.

Two risks are worth checking. Broader matching brings more search terms, so watch for low-quality and invalid clicks; our Fraud Blocker review covers one way to monitor that. And AI copy can drift off-brand, which is why the preview and text guidelines come first.

AI Max checklist before February 2027

1. List every DSA campaign and dynamic ad group.
2. Save a 90-day baseline for each.
3. Preview AI copy on your top landing pages.
4. Write term exclusions and messaging restrictions, and copy them to every campaign.
5. Check landing pages are accurate, since the AI writes from them.
6. Run a Campaign Experiment against your DSA.
7. Upgrade manually before January 2027, when new DSA creation ends.
8. Check tracking templates, URL rules, brand controls and locations of interest.
9. Remove weak assets one by one rather than turning the feature off.
10. Review search terms and the “Added by” asset report every week for the first month.

For the rest of your account, work through our Google Ads checklist and the 9 key Search campaign settings. To compare AI tools that help with paid search, see the best AI paid ads tools, AI paid ads agents and our Adside review. For writing your own RSA headlines, see our lists of AI copywriting tools and ChatGPT prompts for marketers. If you want to learn the platform properly, browse our Google Ads courses and the guide to Google Ads remarketing. And if you are also testing ads in AI chat, read our guide to ChatGPT ads and our explainer on answer engine optimisation.

Sources

• Google Ads Help: About text customisation, Text guidelines, Turn text customisation on or off, Set up AI Max, About AI Max, About Dynamic Search Ads
• Google: We’re upgrading Dynamic Search Ads to AI Max, 15 April 2026, updated 11 June 2026; Text guidelines beta expansion, 26 February 2026
• Google Ads Developer Blog, 11 June 2026
• Search Engine Roundtable, SEM Insider, PPC Land

This tutorial is based on Google’s public help pages and blogs and the reports linked above, as of 31 October 2026. We have not tested these features in a live account, and menu names can vary by account and language. Digital Marketing Supermarket is an independent directory, and this guide hasn’t been sponsored or paid for by Google or any tool mentioned.

Frequently asked questions

Can I preview AI Max ad copy before turning on text customisation? Yes. Google’s help page says that when you add a final URL in the Asset optimisation section, Google generates up to 10 sample headlines and descriptions, mostly in under 30 seconds, and you do not need to opt in to text customisation to see them.

When do Dynamic Search Ads stop? Google’s Ads Developer Blog says you can no longer create new DSAs from January 2027, and automatic migration of remaining DSA campaigns begins in February 2027. Until then, June 2026 to January 2027 is the voluntary upgrade period.

What happens to my DSA campaign when it upgrades to AI Max? Google says dynamic ad groups become standard ad groups, settings and data are carried over, and search term matching, text customisation and final URL expansion are all switched on, with your legacy URL controls kept.

How many words can I block with text guidelines? Up to 25 term exclusions and up to 40 messaging restrictions per campaign, according to Google’s text guidelines help page. Term exclusions are not case sensitive but are language-specific.

Do text guidelines apply to AI copy that is already running? Yes. Google says new guidelines also apply to existing Google-optimised text assets, and any that break the rules stop serving and are marked as removed.

Can I turn off text customisation but keep AI Max? Yes. You can untick text customisation in the AI Max asset optimisation settings. Google notes that turning it off also turns off final URL expansion, because final URL expansion needs text customisation.

Is the 7% more conversions figure for AI Max reliable? It is Google’s own average, comparing AI Max with all three features against search term matching alone at similar CPA or ROAS. It is not an independent result, so test it with a campaign experiment on your account.