TLDR
Google released three new reporting views on 23 September 2026 that show, for the first time, exactly which search terms, ad copy and landing pages AI Max chooses and how many conversions each drives. With Dynamic Search Ads set for forced AI Max upgrade in February 2027, Australian teams have roughly 16 months to benchmark AI performance before the choice is removed.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
What Google released and where to find it
On 23 September 2026, Google pushed three new reporting views into Google Ads, each targeting a different part of the question advertisers have asked since AI Max for Search campaigns came out of beta in mid-September. AI Max is the suite of AI-driven targeting, copy generation and landing page selection tools built inside Search campaigns. The update gives conversion-level visibility into what the AI has been choosing on the advertiser's behalf.[1]
The first view sits inside the Search terms report. Google renamed it Search terms and ad combinations, and it now lists each search term alongside the headline, landing page, campaign and ad group the AI paired with it. Planners previously had search terms or they had assets, but never the two in the same row.[2]
The second change lands in the Keywords report. Two new aggregate rows appear at the bottom of the Keywords report: "Total: AI Max expanded matches" and "Total: AI Max landing page matches", separating the AI's contribution from broad match keywords and from landing page expansion into two distinct numbers.[2] Before this update, both contributions collapsed into a single undifferentiated total.
The third sits in the Asset report. Text assets written by Google AI now carry the label "Google AI" in the Asset report's "Added by" column, making it straightforward to separate machine-written copy from advertiser-written copy in the same report.[2]
What advertisers can now see that they could not
The reporting gap mattered because AI Max operates across three dimensions at once: it can expand which search queries trigger an ad, rewrite the headline and description copy, and swap the landing page for a more relevant URL elsewhere on the site. Until 23 September, advertisers could observe the end-state conversion total but could not isolate which of those three levers moved it.[1]
Google's own data, published in May 2026, puts a number on the performance case. Advertisers using AI Max with both text customisation and final URL expansion active see 7% more conversions or conversion value at a similar cost-per-acquisition or return-on-ad-spend.[3] That figure comes from Google's own measurement, so treat it as directional until independently replicated.
Philipp Schindler, Google's Senior Vice President and Chief Business Officer, framed the product rationale at the company's Q1 2026 earnings call. "People no longer search in fragments; they search conversationally and share more context. We launched AI Max to help advertisers adapt to this new way of searching, and, earlier this month, it moved out of beta, with improved performance quality across targeting and creative capabilities," Schindler said. Schindler added that "these advertisers are seeing more conversion for the same spend."[4]
Why the February 2027 deadline makes this week count
The reporting update landed in the same week Google confirmed a separate timeline: Dynamic Search Ads (DSA), a format that automatically generates headlines and chooses landing pages from a site crawl, will be automatically upgraded to AI Max beginning February 2027.[2] Any Australian team still running DSA campaigns will see the AI take over whether the account opts in or not.
Teams have roughly 16 months to pull baseline numbers before the change becomes compulsory. The new Search terms and ad combinations view is the right place to start: record which search term and headline combinations are converting today, what the landing pages are, and what the cost-per-acquisition looks like by combination. Those figures become the comparison point after February 2027, when AI Max inherits the campaign and begins making its own selections.
The two aggregate rows in the Keywords report are worth capturing separately. The "AI Max expanded matches" row shows how much volume the AI is sourcing from outside the existing keyword list; the "AI Max landing page matches" row shows how much the URL-swapping function contributes on its own. Recording both rows before the DSA deadline means any post-upgrade shift is measurable against something real.
The Asset report's "Google AI" flag completes the picture. Once DSA campaigns upgrade in February 2027, the AI will generate copy at scale. Knowing which headlines carried the account's conversions before that happens is worth recording now, while the advertiser still controls the asset list.[2]
SOURCES & CITATIONS
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Where do I find the new AI Max reporting views in Google Ads?
What happens to Dynamic Search Ads in February 2027?
Is the 7% conversion lift figure independently verified?
Xaviery Malinao writes for Prompt the Market on how brands and agencies are adapting to answer engines, drawing on Bushnote's work with clients across search, AI search and content.
