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The short answer
AI Max for Search campaigns lets Google match searches beyond your keywords, write ad text and send people to other pages of your site. It widens what a campaign buys. Oppy reads the setting on every live Search campaign and lists those with it on, with their spend and conversions.
Why it matters
AI Max can find searches nobody thought of, and on some accounts it works well. It also changes what the campaign is: keywords become hints, and match types chosen with care stop meaning what they used to.
That makes it a decision, even when Google makes it for you: since September 2026, campaigns that used automatically created assets or the campaign-level broad match setting are upgraded to AI Max. An advertiser who set careful match types and one who never looked can end up in the same place, and the first one may not know it.
How Oppy decides
The check reads every enabled Search campaign with the AI Max setting and its spend and conversions over the account's reporting window.
Each campaign with it on gets a task: keep it for a test with a verdict, or switch it off. On a brand campaign, or when it brought searches for things you do not sell, the task says switch it off. It is switched off only once you approve.
Checks that weigh money or clicks judge what they find on your own account's numbers, not on one figure applied to every account, so what counts as a problem on a small account is not the same on a large one. Checks on settings read how the account is set up.
When there is too little to go on, the check says so instead of guessing. A finding always comes with the rows behind it, so you can read the evidence before you decide.
| This check | |
|---|---|
| Step of the audit | Structure |
| What it reads | Campaigns, their settings and their results |
| Needs trustworthy conversions | No. It does not wait for the tracking step. |
| What happens next | Reported in the audit with the rows behind it. The decision stays with you. |
Check it yourself in Google Ads
- In Google Ads, open each Search campaign, then Settings.
- Look for AI Max for Search campaigns and whether it is on.
- Check the search terms report for those campaigns, to see what AI Max matched beyond your keywords.
- Compare their cost per conversion before and after it was switched on, if you know the date.
What to do about it
Decide on purpose. If the campaign's search terms and results improved, keep it and say so. If it brought searches you would never have chosen, switch it off or add negatives and URL exclusions to steer it.
If you want to test it, use a campaign experiment, so you can compare with and without it on the same traffic.
Terms on this page
Other checks in this area
The checks next to this one in Campaign structure, each with its own page.