The Maze: Google has made AI Max the starting setting for new Search campaigns in version 2.14 of Google Ads Editor, its desktop tool for building and editing ads in bulk. AI Max is a bundle of tools that can match ads to more searches, write ad copy and choose where a shopper lands after clicking. For retailers and agencies building campaigns in Editor, the change means Google can send a shopper to a different page on the retailer’s site unless the team changes the settings before the campaign goes live.
Source: Google Ads Help. Google’s example shows how different skincare searches can lead to different product pages on the same site.
Video: Google Ads. Google’s official explainer shows how AI Max can tailor Search ad copy.
The details
🖥️ The change starts in the desktop app. Google’s release notes say AI Max, automated ad text and automatic landing page selection all start on when a team creates a new Search campaign in Editor. Teams can prepare changes locally before posting them, giving them a chance to check the settings before launch. Google’s notes don’t say why it changed the default or whether the same starting settings apply to spreadsheet imports, campaigns created in a browser or campaigns created through software integrations.
🔀 Google can change both the copy and the page. Google’s AI Max guide says the tool can match an ad to relevant searches beyond a retailer’s chosen keywords. It can also generate headlines and descriptions from the site and existing ads. The page selection setting, which Google calls Final URL expansion, can send someone to a more relevant page on that same site. It needs the automated text setting to be on so Google can adapt the ad to the destination it picks.
🗓️ Google announced different settings for the September migration. In its notice about moving two groups of existing Search campaigns to AI Max, Google said it would leave automatic landing page selection off for both groups to keep their settings broadly equivalent. A new campaign in Editor 2.14 starts with page selection on. That distinction matters if a team expects a new campaign to behave like the older campaign it is using as a reference.
Our take
Make the landing page an explicit launch decision. A retailer promoting a broad range of products may want Google to find the best page for each search. A team sending buyers to one specific offer has a different job: make sure the ad still takes people where they can get that offer.
🏷️ Keep one page when the offer depends on it. If a discount appears only on a dedicated sale page, a more specific product page could match the search and still hide the deal. Google lets advertisers turn off automatic page selection or exclude specific pages. For a fixed offer, keep the campaign pointed at the sale page. For a broad campaign, exclude pages that would send shoppers away from the products or offers it is meant to promote.
📏 Test the click and the tracking together. A tracking template adds information to a click so the retailer can see where it came from. Google warns that an incompatible template can break an automatically selected destination. If you keep automatic page selection on, test that a click to an alternative page opens and records correctly. After launch, use the landing pages report to see which pages Google picked and check what those visits produced before expanding the test.
