AI Max for Search is a set of Google Ads features for Search campaigns that uses Google’s AI to expand which searches your ads match, adapt your ad text, and choose landing pages. For performance, it is a way to reach more queries with less manual work. For the brand, it changes something fundamental: part of the ad copy customers see is no longer written by your team or agency. It is generated by Google from your existing ads, landing pages and assets.
This guide explains what AI Max does, which controls exist to protect the brand, what those controls cannot do, and how to keep generated copy on strategy. Feature details below come from Google Ads Help, checked in October 2026. Google updates these features often, so check the current documentation before making changes.
What AI Max for Search includes
According to Google, AI Max bundles three main features:
| Feature | What it does | Brand relevance |
|---|---|---|
| Search term matching | Expands matching using broad match, asset-based and landing page-based technology, including searches without matching keywords | Ads may appear on queries you didn’t choose |
| Text customization | Generates ad text from your existing ads, landing pages and assets. Google describes it as formerly known as automatically created assets | Headlines and descriptions written by AI, not by you |
| Final URL expansion | Sends traffic to other pages on your site when they’re likely to perform better; requires text customization | Ad text is generated to match pages you didn’t choose |
Additional controls include locations of interest, brand settings, URL inclusions and exclusions, and expanded reporting.
The brand controls available
Brand inclusions and exclusions
Brand settings control which brand-related searches your ads can appear on. Inclusions can be set at campaign and ad group level; exclusions at campaign level. These control where ads appear, not what they say.
URL inclusions and exclusions
URL exclusions stop specific pages from being used as landing pages; URL inclusions add pages that final URL expansion wouldn’t pick. Useful for keeping traffic away from clearance pages or outdated content, which also keeps generated text from drawing on them.
Text guidelines (beta)
Text guidelines are the main control over what generated text says. They apply to assets created by text customization in Performance Max campaigns and in Search campaigns with AI Max, and require text customization to be turned on. Google lists two types:
- Term exclusions: words or phrases that must not appear in generated text. Up to 25 per campaign.
- Messaging restrictions: concepts, associations, styles or tones to avoid or to use, written in natural language. Up to 40 per campaign.
Google describes text guidelines as an experimental beta.
Opting out
Search term matching can be switched off at ad group level. Text customization and final URL expansion can be switched off individually in campaign settings.
What the controls cannot do
The limits matter as much as the controls. From Google’s own documentation:
- Text guidelines are hard rules only. Conditional instructions such as “if possible, mention our warranty” aren’t supported.
- Term exclusions can’t block prices. Google recommends a messaging restriction instead.
- No audience-specific messaging. Guidelines tied to audiences or keywords aren’t supported.
- Existing assets may be removed. Generated assets that don’t comply with new guidelines may stop serving.
- Badly framed guidelines can hurt performance by removing many useful assets.
There’s a deeper limit. Text guidelines tell the generator what to avoid; they don’t check whether the generated copy expresses your positioning. A headline can avoid every excluded term and still be generic, carry the wrong message, or describe a premium product in the language of a discounter. The generator is also the only thing checking its own output.
Where the brand risk sits
Generic copy at scale. Text customization draws on your landing pages and existing assets. If those include promotional banners, clearance sections or category boilerplate, generated headlines may lean the same way. In our benchmark of premium retailers’ Google Ads, 37% of headlines were already generic templates and 42% led with a discount before any generation was involved.
The brand of someone else. Multi-brand retailers advertise brands they don’t own. Generated text about a vendor’s products must still respect that vendor’s guidelines, including any co-op advertising requirements.
Copy you never reviewed. With text customization on, some variants that serve were never seen by anyone on your team before customers saw them.
How to keep AI Max copy on strategy
- Write your strategy down as rules first. Positioning, messages, words the brand never uses, framings it avoids. The positioning statement and brand messaging framework are the source; text guidelines are a partial translation of them.
- Use text guidelines for the hard prohibitions. Discount and urgency vocabulary for premium lines, competitor names, claims you can’t make. Use messaging restrictions for prices and for tone.
- Clean up the sources. Landing pages and existing assets feed the generator. Copy you wouldn’t want in an ad shouldn’t sit on pages AI Max can draw from; use URL exclusions where needed.
- Review what actually serves. Check the generated assets in reporting regularly, not just at launch.
- Check the copy independently of the generator. The tool that writes the copy can’t neutrally judge whether it is on strategy. An independent check against the brand’s declared strategy, applied to generated and human-written ads alike, closes the gap. We explain the principle in brand compliance tool vs AI copy generator.
Should premium brands use AI Max?
It depends on what the account is optimizing for and how much control the brand needs. Many advertisers use it for reach and efficiency. For premium and luxury brands, and for retailers selling them, the deciding question is whether you can see and check what the generated copy says. If you can, AI Max can be one more source of copy among many. If you can’t, the brand’s presentation in search is partly delegated to a system that judges its own work.
FAQ
What is AI Max for Search?
AI Max for Search is a suite of Google Ads features for Search campaigns that uses AI to expand search term matching, generate and adapt ad text (text customization), and select landing pages (final URL expansion).
Does AI Max write ad copy?
Yes. Its text customization feature generates headlines and descriptions from your existing ads, landing pages and assets. Google describes it as formerly known as automatically created assets.
How can I control what AI Max says about my brand?
Through text guidelines (beta), which allow up to 25 term exclusions and 40 messaging restrictions per campaign, plus URL exclusions to keep certain pages from being used. You can also turn text customization off.
Can text guidelines stop AI Max from mentioning prices?
According to Google, term exclusions can’t prevent prices from being generated; Google recommends using a messaging restriction for that instead.
Is AI Max safe for premium brands?
It can be used, but generated copy should be reviewed. Text guidelines prevent specific words and themes; they don’t confirm that the copy expresses the brand’s positioning. An independent check of what actually serves is the safer approach.
Vashor checks Google Ads copy against the brand’s declared strategy before publication, whoever wrote it. Its in-flight review keeps checking ads that are already running, including generated variants. It never writes the copy. See how Vashor checks your content →