AI Max Replaces DSA in September: What Contractors Need to Do Now

Google is shutting down Dynamic Search Ads in September 2026. If your account contains any DSA campaigns and you do not migrate them yourself before the deadline, Google migrates them automatically using its own defaults: no URL exclusion list, no branded search controls, and no guarantee that your historical conversion data ports cleanly. For contractors who built lead generation on DSA, that is a real operational risk on a hard deadline that is 10 weeks away as of this writing.

AI Max for Search Campaigns is the replacement. It exited beta on April 15, 2026. For home service contractors, AI Max covers the same use case DSA handled but with significantly more AI involvement in which searches trigger your ads and what those ads say. The migration takes under two hours. Doing it yourself, rather than waiting for Google to do it, keeps you in control of the settings that matter most for a local service business.

What DSA Was Doing for Your Account

Dynamic Search Ads worked by crawling your website and generating ads based on your page content. When a homeowner searched for something related to a service page on your site, Google matched the query to that page and pulled the headline from your page title. You set the budget. Google handled the keyword matching.

For multi-service contractors, this was useful. A plumbing company with service pages for drain cleaning, water heater repair, slab leak detection, and gas line work would need hundreds of manually keyworded ad groups to cover the same search surface. DSA covered it automatically, capturing long-tail queries like “why is my water heater leaking from the bottom” without keyword research. It functioned as a gap-filler alongside manual campaigns, finding searches your keyword lists had missed.

How AI Max Works Differently

AI Max combines three functions that previously required separate settings or campaign types:

• Search term matching: The AI finds relevant queries beyond your keyword list using live intent signals. A homeowner typing “AC keeps shutting off after 10 minutes” can trigger your emergency AC repair ad even if that exact phrase appears nowhere in your keyword plan.
• Text customization: Gemini dynamically generates contextually relevant headlines and descriptions for each search, pulling from your landing page content rather than using your page title verbatim.
• Final URL expansion: The campaign sends users to the most relevant page on your site regardless of which URL you specified at the ad level. A user searching for furnace repair routes to your furnace repair page even if the ad was set up pointing to your homepage.

DSA was backward-looking: here is what your site says, here is an ad. AI Max is forward-looking: here is what this specific searcher needs right now. Google reports a 7% lift in conversions at similar CPA for campaigns using AI Max versus standard search-term matching. For emergency service queries especially, the intent-matching improvement is meaningful because those searches vary widely in phrasing and rarely match a tightly managed keyword list.

What Auto-Migration Risks for Your Account

When Google auto-migrates a DSA campaign to AI Max, it applies defaults designed for generic advertisers. Three specific risks apply to home service contractors:

URL exclusion lists may not port. If your DSA campaign excluded your blog posts, careers page, contact page, and privacy policy, those exclusions may not carry over. AI Max then sends paid traffic to pages with no booking path and no phone number. You pay for clicks to your “join our team” page from homeowners searching for HVAC repair.

Conversion data portability is not guaranteed. Migrating yourself gives you a documented pathway for porting historical conversion data to the new campaign type. Auto-migration applies Google’s process on their schedule. Contractors have reported conversion data gaps in forced migrations, and your Smart Bidding algorithm depends on that conversion history to bid accurately. Starting AI Max without porting conversion data resets the learning period and degrades bid accuracy for weeks.

Gemini-generated copy may omit your service area. AI Max text customization pulls from your landing page content. If your service pages use generic language and do not specify your city and service area in the first paragraph, the generated headlines may describe the service accurately but omit any geographic qualifier. A plumber serving Phoenix metro sees headlines that say “Expert Plumbing Repair” instead of “Same-Day Plumbing Repair in Phoenix.” Local relevance drops and so does CTR.

Three Actions Before September

1. Confirm whether you are running DSA campaigns right now. In Google Ads, navigate to Campaigns and look at the Type column. Any campaign listed as “Dynamic Search Ads” is on the September deadline. If you use an agency, ask them directly and request a screenshot of the campaign type column. Some agencies run DSA campaigns as part of their standard contractor account setup without naming it explicitly. If you have no DSA campaigns, AI Max migration is not urgent for you, but reviewing AI Max as an addition to your existing search campaigns is still worth doing for the query expansion capability it adds.
2. Export your current DSA URL exclusion list before touching anything. In your DSA campaign settings, find the Dynamic ad targets section and the Excluded URLs section. Screenshot or export both before making any changes. This list is your baseline for rebuilding exclusions in AI Max. After migration, open AI Max campaign settings and rebuild the URL exclusion list immediately. Every URL on your site that does not have a booking path or a phone number above the fold belongs on that list: /blog, /about, /careers, /privacy-policy, /terms, and any service area pages for cities you no longer cover. Building the exclusion list takes 15 minutes and prevents the most common AI Max quality problem for contractors: budget spending on non-converting pages.
3. Run AI Max as a campaign experiment alongside your DSA campaign for 30 days before fully switching. Google’s campaign experiment tool splits traffic between your current DSA campaign and a new AI Max campaign running the same budget. After 30 days, compare cost per lead and total booked jobs between the two. If AI Max matches or beats DSA, complete the migration. If it underperforms, review your URL exclusion list and audit your service page copy before expanding further. Running the experiment eliminates the risk of switching completely and discovering a problem only after the DSA campaign is gone. With September as the hard deadline, starting the experiment in July gives you 60 days of data before the transition becomes mandatory. Before enabling text customization, confirm your service pages open with trade, city, and a specific service type in the first sentence. Gemini generates headlines from that content. Thin or generic page copy produces thin or generic AI Max headlines regardless of your bid level.

The September 2026 DSA shutdown is a hard deadline. Contractors who do not migrate will be migrated automatically with Google’s defaults applied. For most local service businesses, those defaults are not optimized for a single-market contractor with a defined service area and emergency service offerings. The migration itself is straightforward. The setup work, specifically the URL exclusion list and the service page copy audit, is what separates a well-performing AI Max campaign from one that spends budget on careers pages and generates headlines that do not mention the city you serve.