In 2026, artificial intelligence no longer assists your Google Ads campaigns: it pilots them. AI Max for Search left beta on 15 April 2026, and Google has announced the automatic migration, from September 2026, of campaigns using the old dynamic ads (DSA), automatically created assets or broad targeting at campaign level. The message is clear: the era of manual keyword-by-keyword steering is closing.

For advertisers, the figures put forward by Google are attractive: +14% conversions on average for accounts that activate AI Max, and up to +27% for those who worked mainly in exact keywords. But delegating to AI without a framework also means risking your budget going to off-target queries, approximate generated ads or poorly chosen landing pages.

For a Belgian SME investing a few hundred to a few thousand euros per month, the 2026 question is therefore no longer “should I use AI?”, which is imposed, but “how do I frame it so it serves my objectives, not Google's?”

AI Max: the new Search standard

Three mechanisms to understand

AI Max rests on three pillars. The search term matching intelligently broadens your queries beyond your keywords, relying on meaning rather than exact match. The ad personalisation generates titles and descriptions adapted to each query in real time. The final URL expansion automatically chooses the page of your site judged most relevant for each search, including a page you had not planned.

Each of these mechanisms can create value… or waste. It all depends on the framing.

What the first figures say

Beyond the +14% conversions announced on average, the gain is clearest for historically restrictive accounts: advertisers who worked mostly in exact match observe up to +27% conversions after activation. Logical: that's where AI discovers the most unexplored queries. The flip side: that's also where control of search terms becomes most indispensable.

September 2026: don't endure the migration

From September 2026, Google will automatically migrate eligible campaigns to AI Max. Waiting for the forced migration means letting Google choose the configuration. Anticipating means migrating cleanly: structuring your exclusions, cleaning your assets, defining your brand rules before AI takes the controls.

Performance Max: transparency at last

Performance Max, the multi-channel format that broadcasts simultaneously on the Search Network, Display, YouTube, Discover, Gmail and Maps, has established itself as the dominant format. The novelty of 2026 is not the format itself, but the transparency: channel-level reports and asset segmentation finally make it possible to see where the budget goes and what produces the results.

For SMEs, that's a major change: it becomes possible to arbitrate, reallocate what is dormant in Display toward what converts in Search, identify the visuals that drive performance, and demand precise per-channel accountability from your agency rather than a global ROAS.

The concrete risks for an SME (and the safeguards)

Off-target queries

Semantic broadening brings volume… including searches with no purchase intent or out of area. The safeguards:

• Negative keyword lists fed each week from the search terms report

• Strict geographic exclusions: an SME in Wavre has nothing to gain from clicks in Marseille

• Brand exclusions of third parties to avoid paying for competitors' traffic with no strategy

Generated ads that go off track

AI writes fast, but it knows neither your commercial commitments nor your tone. Define your brand rules (forbidden mentions, promises never to generate), validate the automatically created assets and regularly review the combinations served.

Imposed landing pages

With final URL expansion, Google can send traffic to any page of your site, including a blog page with no conversion goal. Use URL exclusions and make sure every “commercial” page of your site truly deserves paid traffic.

Tracking, the crux of the matter

This is the point that decides everything else: a bidding AI is only as good as your conversion data. Without reliable tracking, correctly defined conversions, Consent Mode v2 compliant with the GDPR, enhanced conversions activated, values differentiated by conversion type, smart bidding optimises blind. The majority of the “AI failures” we audit are in reality tracking failures.

The framing checklist before delegating to AI

• Conversion goals clean and ranked (a quote request is not worth the same as a WhatsApp click)

• Consent Mode v2 compliant and enhanced conversions activated

• Lists of negative keywords at account level

• Exclusions: geographic areas, URLs, sensitive content

• Brand rules and validation of generated assets

• Capped budgets per campaign and spend alerts

• Review of search terms, weekly the first month, then twice-monthly

• 3 to 4 weeks of learning without major changes before any judgement

Frequently asked questions

Should I accept the automatic migration of September 2026?

Don't endure it: migrate beforehand, cleanly. An early migration lets you choose the structure, set the exclusions and preserve the performance history under good conditions, rather than discovering the default-chosen configuration.

Does AI Max remove keywords?

No. Keywords remain the foundation of your Search campaigns; AI Max complements them by exploring related queries. Exact match keeps its role for your strategic queries, it's the combination of the two that performs.

Performance Max or a classic Search campaign to start?

For a first account with little data, a well-structured Search campaign remains the clearest starting point. Performance Max comes into its own when your conversions are reliable and sufficient in volume to feed the algorithm.

What minimum budget for an SME in Belgium?

There's no magic number: it all depends on your sector and the local cost per click. The real rule is elsewhere: your budget must generate enough conversions per month for the algorithm to learn. Better to concentrate the budget on one area and one offer than to scatter it.

Priority action plan

1. Audit your tracking: conversions, Consent Mode v2, values, before anything else

2. Prepare the AI Max migration before September 2026: exclusions, brand rules, clean assets

3. Exploit the per-channel reports of Performance Max to reallocate the budget toward what converts

4. Set up the control routine: search terms every week, capped budgets, alerts

5. Test AI Max on a pilot campaign before generalising to the whole account

The advertising AI of 2026 rewards structured advertisers and punishes accounts left on autopilot. The difference between the two is not decided by the size of the budget, but by the quality of the framing, exactly the terrain where a well-supported SME competes with large accounts.

If you want to approach the AI Max migration with solid framing, our Google Ads and digital advertising support can help you keep control of your budgets.