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DSA to AI Max migration: a step-by-step guide

Dynamic Search Ads auto-upgrade to AI Max for Search campaigns starting in February 2027. If your account still runs DSA, this guide walks through what changes during the upgrade, what stays the same, and the migration workflow that gives you control over how it happens. If you're new to AI Max and want the broader picture first, the broad vs phrase vs exact match guide covers how AI Max fits into the modern Search setup.

Google extended the original September 2026 DSA deadline after advertiser feedback. As of June 11, 2026, the new DSA sunset date is February 2027. Automatically Created Assets (ACA) and campaign-level broad match setting still auto-upgrade in September 2026, so if your account uses either of those, the migration there runs on a different clock.

What changes

Three things shift when DSA becomes AI Max.

Targeting moves from page feeds to signal-based matching. DSA uses page feeds, URL_Equals, URL_Contains, and Google-generated categories to decide which searches match which landing pages. AI Max replaces those inputs with search term matching, which combines broad match keywords with asset signals and landing-page signals to find relevant queries. The targeting source changes from "what's on my pages" to "what my ads and pages together say I offer".

Dynamic ad groups become standard ad groups. DSA campaigns use dynamic ad groups that auto-generate headlines from page content. AI Max runs in standard ad groups. You write the responsive search ad copy, and AI Max's text customisation feature adjusts headlines and descriptions per query. Headlines are no longer pulled automatically from your HTML page titles.

Landing page selection becomes Final URL Expansion. DSA picked a landing page dynamically from your site for each query. AI Max uses Final URL Expansion to send traffic to whichever URL on your domain is most likely to perform. The two features solve the same problem. The control panel is different.

URL inclusions and exclusions carry over. If you've been excluding certain pages from DSA, those exclusions stay active in AI Max as URL exclusions.

What stays the same

Most of what makes a Search campaign work stays put.

  • Bidding. Smart Bidding strategies (Target CPA, Target ROAS, Maximise Conversions) keep working. Manual CPC stays available. The bidding layer is independent of DSA versus AI Max.
  • Budgets. Daily and campaign budgets port across without changes.
  • Conversion tracking. Your existing conversion actions and tagging keep firing. The one caveat is below in the tracking-template note.
  • Account-level negative keywords. Already global. No migration action needed.
  • Brand exclusions. Still respected. You can still block AI Max from serving on competitor brand terms.
  • Search terms reports. Still generated. AI Max adds a "source" column that distinguishes broad match expansion from keywordless matching.

Pre-migration checklist

Before you start, capture the current state. You want a baseline so you can compare post-migration performance apples to apples.

  1. Audit active DSA campaigns. Pull the last 90 days of conversions, cost, CPA, and search terms for each DSA campaign. Tag which are performing and which are coasting. Coasting campaigns may not be worth migrating voluntarily.
  2. Snapshot URL exclusions. List every URL exclusion you've set in DSA. These need to be re-added in AI Max as URL exclusions since the auto-upgrade preserves them but doesn't always surface them in the new UI.
  3. Review your tracking templates. Per Google's docs, AI Max's Final URL Expansion can produce 404 errors if your tracking template uses a static URL or a non-standard {lpurl} tag. Use the recommended patterns: {lpurl}?, {lpurl}&, {lpurl}#, or just {lpurl}.
  4. Inventory your assets. AI Max's text customisation pulls from your existing ads, landing page copy, and assets. If you've been light on responsive search ads or sitelinks, build those out before migration. Better inputs mean better generated headlines.
  5. Confirm conversion goals. Make sure primary conversions are still firing correctly. AI Max optimises toward whatever conversion action you set, so this matters more than usual.
  6. Save your DSA search terms report. You'll want it as a reference for what DSA actually matched. After migration, the new search terms report will look different (source column, AI Max match type value).

Step by step migration

Google rolled out in-UI voluntary upgrade tools for DSA users starting the week of April 15, 2026. Using them gives you control over which AI Max features switch on. Waiting for the auto-upgrade means Google picks the defaults for you.

  1. Open the upgrade prompt. Look in your Google Ads account for the DSA upgrade banner, or go to a specific DSA campaign and find the upgrade option in the menu.
  2. Port historical settings. The upgrade tool migrates your bidding, budgets, exclusions, and historical performance data into a new standard ad group. Review the preview before confirming.
  3. Set up a one-click experiment. Run AI Max alongside your existing DSA campaign for at least four weeks. Google's experiment tools split traffic and measure conversion volume, CPA, and search terms separately for each.
  4. Compare. After four weeks, look at conversion volume per campaign, CPA, and the new AI Max search terms report. The campaigns where AI Max matches or beats DSA are your migration candidates. For the full search terms review workflow, see our search terms report guide.
  5. Migrate winners. Pause the DSA campaign, keep the new AI Max ad group running. Document the settings that drove the win as a template for other campaigns.
  6. Don't migrate the rest yet. Leave underperforming campaigns on DSA for now. They auto-upgrade in February 2027 anyway. Volunteering them early doesn't help if the results are worse.

If you have positive keyword candidates extracted from your DSA search terms report, run them through our Keyword Wrapper to format them for the new AI Max ad group.

Negative keyword migration

DSA's negative keywords port into AI Max automatically, but the placement matters.

  • Account-level negatives don't need any action. They're already global.
  • Campaign-level negatives on the DSA campaign become campaign-level negatives on the AI Max campaign after upgrade. Verify they're still there post-migration.
  • Ad-group-level negatives on a dynamic ad group transfer to the corresponding standard ad group.

After migration, audit your negative keyword list with our Negative Keyword Wrapper to make sure nothing got dropped. The most common migration mistake is forgetting a campaign-level negative that was filtering DSA spend, then watching the new AI Max campaign serve on queries you explicitly excluded.

Pull a fresh search terms report two weeks after migration. AI Max will surface new queries that DSA never matched. Add anything irrelevant to your account-level negative list.

Common mistakes

  • Waiting for the auto-upgrade instead of volunteering. The auto-upgrade applies Google defaults, not your settings. Volunteering lets you keep the configuration that worked for your account.
  • Skipping the tracking template review. If your template uses a static URL or a non-standard {lpurl} tag, Final URL Expansion will produce 404 errors. Test before you switch.
  • Dropping URL exclusions. DSA exclusions transfer but the UI surfaces them differently in AI Max. Audit after migration.
  • Forgetting to add fresh negatives post-migration. AI Max matches broader than DSA. The search terms report two weeks in will surface queries your old DSA campaign never touched.
  • Migrating underperformers. If a DSA campaign was coasting before, it won't magically do better on AI Max. Leave it on DSA until February 2027 and let the auto-upgrade handle it.
  • Judging results in under four weeks. AI Max needs conversion data to learn. One week of results is noise. Four weeks is the minimum for a meaningful comparison.

FAQ

When exactly does DSA auto-upgrade to AI Max?

February 2027, per Google's June 11, 2026 update. Originally September 2026, extended after advertiser feedback. Voluntary upgrades are available now via in-UI tools.

Do ACA and campaign-level broad match setting auto-upgrade on the same date?

No. ACA and campaign-level broad match setting auto-upgrade in September 2026 on the original timeline. Only the DSA sunset was extended to February 2027.

Will my DSA performance history carry over?

Yes. Per Google's documentation, the voluntary upgrade tool ports historical data into the new standard ad group. Conversion history and Quality Score history transfer.

Do I need to rewrite my ad copy?

You'll need at least one responsive search ad per AI Max ad group. AI Max's text customisation feature generates additional headline and description combinations based on your existing ads, landing pages, and assets. Strong inputs give better outputs.

  • Negative Keyword Wrapper. The tool described in section 5. Format your ported negative list with the right match type prefixes.
  • Keyword Wrapper. Wrap any positive keyword candidates extracted from your DSA search terms report before pasting into the new AI Max ad group.
  • Broad vs Phrase vs Exact match guide. Background on AI Max and how it fits into the modern Search setup.