DSA Is Gone: Your AI Max Checklist Before Black Friday 2026

Dynamic Search Ads are dead. Google killed them in September 2026, auto-upgrading every eligible DSA campaign to AI Max for Search. You can't create new DSA campaigns anymore.

If you ran DSA campaigns and haven't checked Google Ads since September, here's what happened: your dynamic ad groups became standard ad groups, your DSAs became responsive search ads, and three AI Max features — search term matching, text customization, and final URL expansion — were turned on by default. No approval required.

Black Friday's November 27. Cyber Monday's November 30. You've got two and a half weeks to verify AI Max won't burn through your entire BFCM budget on queries you'd never bid on manually.

Here's your pre-BFCM audit checklist.

What AI Max Actually Changed (And Why It Matters for BFCM)

AI Max isn't a campaign type. It's three features layered onto existing Search campaigns. Google calls them upgrades. What they are: ways for Google to expand keyword matching, generate ad copy that wasn't written, and serve landing pages that weren't specified.

1. Search term matching — Ads can now match queries beyond the keyword list. Google uses "broad match and keywordless technology" (official help doc) to find "relevant" searches. It's basically broad match on steroids.

2. Text customization — Google generates additional headlines and descriptions for responsive search ads, pulled from landing pages, existing ads, and keywords. These assets get mixed into ad rotation without approval. Google says text customization uses "extractive techniques and generative AI."

3. Final URL expansion — Google can serve any page from the domain as the landing page. Not just the URLs that were specified. This's the riskiest feature for brands with thin landing pages or tracking template conflicts.

All three were turned on by default when DSA upgraded.

The Pre-BFCM Audit (Do This Today)

You've got two and a half weeks. Here's what you need to check before your BFCM traffic hits.

1. Verify which campaigns've got AI Max enabled

Log into your Google Ads Manager. Go to Campaigns. For every Search campaign that was a DSA campaign, click into Settings and scroll to AI Max. You'll see three toggles. Write down which're on.

If your campaigns've got AI Max features enabled and you don't remember turning them on, they were auto-upgraded. That's worth knowing before your BFCM spikes.

2. Pull your search terms report for the last 30 days

Go to Insights and Reports → Search Terms. Filter for the campaigns you just audited. Export. Sort by spend.

Look for queries that're irrelevant, too broad, competitor brands you don't carry, or misspellings. These're your negative keyword candidates.

3. Add your negatives NOW, not during BFCM week

Google says to wait two weeks after enabling AI Max. Fine during learning. But if your DSA campaigns upgraded in September, that window's closed. Add your negatives now.

Campaign-level negatives: Add to specific AI Max campaigns where bad queries appeared.

Account-level negatives: Add if the query's universally bad (competitor names, NSFW terms, unrelated categories).

Need help auditing before BFCM? We do this as part of our paid media service and we've spotted AI Max issues on every account we've reviewed. Book a free strategy call.

4. Check your budget caps

AI Max expands reach. That's the promise. The risk: expanded reach means expanded spend. If your DSA campaign was spending $100/day and it's now spending $180/day with the same conversion rate, your AI Max's working — Google's finding more queries. But if your daily budget's set to "maximize conversions" with no cap and you wake up on Black Friday to find you've burned through your monthly budget by 2pm, that's a problem.

Set daily budget caps on every AI Max campaign. Make them realistic for your BFCM traffic. Don't leave them unlimited.

5. Audit your generated headlines

If text customization's enabled, Google's been generating ad copy since September. Go to Ads & Assets → Ads. Filter for responsive search ads in your AI Max campaigns.

Look for headlines that misrepresent your offer, use tone you wouldn't approve, reference products you don't have, or sound awkward.

Remove any you don't like. Click the asset, select Remove. Do this BEFORE your Black Friday.

Or turn off text customization and write your headlines manually.

6. Review your landing pages report

When final URL expansion's on, Google can send traffic to any page on your domain. Go to your campaign's Landing Pages report.

Sort by impressions. Look for pages you didn't intend: thin content pages, placeholder pages, broken tracking, poor conversion rates.

For any page that shouldn't serve, click Add as negative URL.

If your site isn't ad-ready, turn off final URL expansion. You can enable it after your BFCM.

AI Max vs Performance Max (And How They Interact)

Most accounts also've got Performance Max campaigns running. AI Max isn't the same thing. Here's the difference:

• AI Max: A setting on an existing Search campaign. Keeps keywords, keeps Search-only traffic, keeps negative keywords. Adds query expansion, text generation, and URL flexibility.
• Performance Max: A separate campaign type with no keywords at all. Serves across Search, Shopping, Display, YouTube, Gmail, Discover, and Maps. Limited negative keyword support (negatives apply only to Search and Shopping inventory, not the other channels).

Both can serve on the same query. Google's prioritization logic says whichever campaign's got higher Ad Rank wins. In practice, Performance Max often wins on prospecting queries (because it's got more inventory to optimize across), and Search campaigns (including AI Max) win on high-intent queries where strong keyword history exists.

The risk: if both AI Max and Performance Max're running and brand exclusions haven't been added to the PMax campaign, they'll compete for brand terms. PMax'll show up in reporting as "brand traffic" and it'll look like it's driving incremental revenue, when really it's just cannibalizing clicks the Search campaign would've captured.

Fix: Add brand terms as negative keywords in the Performance Max campaign. This forces PMax to focus on prospecting and leaves branded Search to AI Max or standard Search campaigns.

What Google Recommends vs What Actually Works

Google's help docs say to wait two weeks after enabling AI Max and avoid "overusing negative keywords" because it "limits intent-based targeting."

That's Google's perspective. Their business model's clicks. The advertiser's business model's profitable clicks. The two don't always align.

Here's what we do:

Week 1-2 after upgrade: Let it learn. Don't touch it. Google's right here.

Week 3+: We audit search terms every week. We add negatives when a term shows up multiple times with zero conversions. We don't wait for it to "eventually convert" — if it hasn't converted after 20 clicks, it won't convert after 200.

During BFCM: We lock negative lists and budget caps. We don't let AI Max experiment with budget during the most expensive week of the year. Learning's fine in October. It's not fine when CPCs're 3x normal and every ecommerce brand's competing for the same queries.

If the Google Ads account hasn't been reviewed in 60 days, it's running blind. Book a free strategy call and we'll audit AI Max settings, PMax setup, and negative coverage before BFCM.

The Conservative Approach (For Brands That Can't Afford Surprises)

For risk-averse brands, here's the safest pre-BFCM AI Max configuration:

1. Leave search term matching on. It's the least risky. Broad match was probably already running.
2. Turn off text customization. Write headlines manually. This'll control the messaging.
3. Turn off final URL expansion. Specify landing pages manually.
4. Lock negative lists. Add negatives now. Don't touch them during BFCM unless something catastrophic shows up.
5. Cap daily budgets. Set them to 1.5x-2x normal daily spend for BFCM. Don't leave them unlimited.

This gives query expansion without the creative and landing page risks.

Settings can be loosened after BFCM when there's time to audit properly.

What We've Seen Since September (What to Watch For)

We manage Google Ads for 40+ ecommerce brands. Here's what typically happens when AI Max runs without oversight after auto-upgrades:

Scenario 1: Price mismatch — AI Max generates "Premium leather bags starting at $29" by pulling from a blog post about a sale item, when the actual product line starts at $89. Clicks come from bargain hunters who bounce at the real price. The fix: turn off text customization or audit every headline before it runs.

Scenario 2: Wrong landing page — Final URL expansion sends traffic to a landing page built for a product launch that's ended. No buy button. Conversion rate: 0.1%. By the time it's noticed, hundreds of dollars're burned. The fix: audit the landing pages report weekly and add negative URLs.

Scenario 3: Competitor queries — Search term matching expands into queries for competitor brands that aren't carried. If the negative list hasn't been updated in two years, budget'll burn on impossible conversions. The fix: pull the search terms report now and add negatives for every competitor brand.

These aren't edge cases. They're what happens when AI Max runs without oversight.

Your Move

BFCM's in two and a half weeks. If Google Ads hasn't been audited since September, the account's running blind into the most expensive week of the year.

Today: Log into Google Ads. Check which campaigns've got AI Max enabled. Pull the search terms report.

This week: Add negatives. Cap budgets. Audit generated headlines and landing pages.

Next week: Monitor daily. If AI Max's burning budget on junk traffic, turn off text customization and final URL expansion. Keep search term matching if it's performing.

BFCM week: Lock settings. Don't experiment. Let campaigns run with the configuration that's been tested.

We manage paid media for 40+ ecommerce brands and we've audited every account since the AI Max rollout. Book a free strategy call and we'll walk through the setup before BFCM.

Related Reads

• Google Performance Max: The Complete Guide for Shopify Brands
• eCommerce Google Ads Strategy Guide
• Black Friday Prep: The 90-Day Countdown for eCommerce Brands

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Mark Cijo runs GOSH Digital, a paid media and email marketing agency for ecommerce brands. We've managed over $23M in ad spend and we audit Google Ads accounts before every major shopping event to catch budget leaks before they cost you money. If your DSA campaigns were auto-upgraded to AI Max and you haven't reviewed them yet, book a call and we'll do it with you.