Google Ads: AI Max, the end of language targeting, the DSA upgrade, what changes in your Search campaigns by February 2027

Google is rebuilding Search campaigns around AI Max, and the timeline spans several months. Some switches are already done, others arrive this winter. Here is what each change actually does, what happens if you do nothing, and what to check in an account.

Which Search campaigns move to AI Max, and with which settings?

Two legacy setups are targeted: broad match turned on at campaign level, and standalone automatically created assets. Google first blocked creating these setups in the UI, Google Ads Editor and the API on August 3, 2026↗, then started the automatic upgrade on September 1, 2026↗, rolling out progressively throughout the month↗.

What matters is the settings applied on arrival, because they differ depending on where the campaign comes from:

• a campaign using campaign-level broad match arrives with search term matching on, but text customization and final URL expansion off;
• a campaign that used automatically created assets arrives with search term matching and text customization on by default, while final URL expansion stays off.

In other words, the second group can start serving headlines and descriptions written by Google that nobody has reviewed. For a regulated industry, or a brand that cares about its tone, this is the first check to make. On the API side, Google exposes each campaign's migration date in the aca_migration_date_time and broad_match_migration_date_time fields↗, which lets you list affected campaigns without opening them one by one.

What happens to language targeting in Search campaigns?

It goes away. In late September 2026↗, the campaign-level language setting is removed for Search and AI Max for Search campaigns. Google does not publish an exact day, so I work at month level and assume the switch can happen any time before the end of the month. According to Google, ads will be matched on their own language, taking the user's language preferences into account↗.

Performance Max is affected too, but only on Google Search: the language setting is no longer used there from September 2026↗, while it still applies on YouTube, Display, Discover and Gmail.

The risk is real for multilingual accounts that split languages by campaign. Without a language setting, nothing in principle stops an English ad from serving to an English-language user in France (that is my own reasoning, not a case documented by Google). Google adds that when several eligible campaigns coexist in an account, AI-based ad group prioritization picks the most relevant ad language. The levers left are the actual language of the copy and landing pages, and location targeting. I covered this case in the news piece on the end of language targeting.

When do Dynamic Search Ads move to AI Max?

Dynamic Search Ads (DSA) follow the same path, on a longer timeline. Google pushed back the switch, which starts on February 1, 2027↗. The announced steps:

• in September 2026↗, in-account banners invite advertisers to upgrade voluntarily;
• on January 15, 2027↗, an official reminder notification is sent to all affected accounts;
• from February 1, 2027↗, the automatic upgrade applies to campaigns that have not been upgraded, and the announced window runs until February 28, 2027: that is what the Google Ads developer blog gives (PPC Land also relays it)↗. Creating new DSA ad groups is permanently removed during this window.

On upgrade, dynamic ad groups become standard ad groups, and Google says settings and data are carried over into AI Max. Unlike broad match, all three AI Max features (search term matching, text customization, final URL expansion) are turned on, with existing URL controls preserved↗. Upgrading yourself before February seems preferable to me: you choose the timing, keep control of URL exclusions and can compare before and after during a quiet period. Details are in the news piece on the DSA upgrade.

What happens to call-only ads?

They stop. In February 2027↗, all existing call-only ads stop receiving impressions. Creating new ads of this type is already impossible. Google points advertisers to call assets attached to responsive search ads.

For an advertiser that lives on phone calls (repairs, health, home services), this is not a detail: ad groups need to be rebuilt with responsive search ads and a call asset, call tracking checked as a conversion, and bidding given time to relearn before the old ads switch off.

Which Google Ads API versions are being sunset?

If your reports, scripts or third-party tools go through the Google Ads API, the version schedule matters as much as the feature schedule. Google announces the sunset of v22 in October 2026↗ (date still tentative), then v23, v23.1 and v23.2 in February 2027↗. Next come v24 and v24.1 in May 2027↗, v24.2 in June 2027↗, and v25 and v25.1 in August 2027↗.

Google states that requests sent to a sunset version fail on or after the sunset date, and that "tentative" means the sunset can happen any time in that month↗. v25.2 (released September 23, 2026) is listed with the same sunset as v25 and v25.1, August 2027. Separately, API versions released after September 1, 2026 remove the legacy campaign-level broad match and automatically created assets entities; older versions keep handling them until their own sunset↗. A tool calling a sunset version therefore stops pulling data. I would ask each connector vendor which version it calls and when it plans to migrate; in the Google Cloud Console, the "APIs & Services" page lists the versions your project has recently called. The deadline calendar lists all these dates.

Where to start in an account?

With an inventory. I would first list the campaigns already upgraded to AI Max this month, then those still running DSA or call-only ads. Then come the settings: what is on by default is not necessarily what you would have chosen. AI Max broadens matching and lets Google write part of the ads. That can bring new queries, but only if the guardrails (brand exclusions, URL exclusions, negative keywords) are in place first.