Google made a set of changes to its About reporting in AI Max for Search campaigns help document, published on June 23, 2026, that carry meaningful operational weight for paid search practitioners - particularly those still running Dynamic Search Ads, advertising in the travel vertical, or working out how to read AI Max search term data.

The update to the official Google Ads help document is not a product launch. It is a documentation revision. But the changes embedded in it contain new information on timelines, new interface instructions, and a new reporting section for travel advertisers that had not appeared in any prior version of the page. An archived version of the page from September 2025, cited by Search Engine Roundtable on June 23, 2026, confirms the scope of what has changed.

The DSA automigration deadline is now February 2027

The most consequential addition is a notice that did not exist in the September 2025 version of the page. According to the updated help document, "to help more advertisers access the benefits of AI Max, starting in February 2027, campaigns using Dynamic Search Ads (DSA) will automatically be upgraded to AI Max."

That date matters. Google originally announced that DSA campaigns would be automatically upgraded to AI Max in September 2026 - a deadline Google announced on April 15, 2026, when it also formally declared AI Max out of beta. The September deadline put significant pressure on advertisers to migrate during the months leading into Q4 - historically the highest-stakes advertising period of the calendar year. On June 11, 2026, Google extended the deadline to February 2027, citing advertiser feedback. Google Ads Liaison Ginny Marvin confirmed the extension on X on June 12, writing that advertiser feedback had been heard and more runway was needed.

The reporting help document now reflects this updated deadline. The addition is notable because the reporting page is the document most practitioners consult when setting up or reviewing AI Max campaigns. Embedding the February 2027 deadline there - rather than only in a separate migration announcement - places it directly in the workflow of any advertiser who checks this page.

It is also worth noting what has not changed. According to Google, DSA campaigns are still being retired. January 2027 remains the point at which the ability to create new DSA campaigns is removed. February 2027 is when the automigration begins for any remaining active campaigns. Advertiser frustration over AI Max's routing of granular product searches to generic landing pages - a problem that DSA did not have - has been a recurring theme throughout 2026 and may partly explain the extended runway.

Four new views in the search terms report

Beyond the deadline update, the document also introduces new navigational instructions for the search terms report that had not previously been documented in this location.

According to the updated page, "by default, it'll display the landing page view of the report. In the top right corner, you can toggle between different views of the search terms report." The four available views are now explicitly listed:

  • Search terms - the standard view of queries that triggered ads
  • Search terms and landing pages from AI Max - a combined view showing headlines, landing pages, campaigns, and ad groups alongside the triggering search term
  • Search terms from Dynamic Search Ads - queries matched through legacy DSA logic
  • Search terms and landing pages from Dynamic Search Ads - the combined DSA equivalent

The addition of this toggle documentation matters for practitioners who have been trying to separate AI Max traffic from DSA traffic within accounts that run both. The "Search terms and landing pages from AI Max" view - which shows the full customer ad journey including headlines and landing pages alongside queries - was already available, but its navigation was not clearly described in the help page until now.

A note added to this section instructs advertisers that they can add exclusions directly from this view: "If any landing pages or search terms are under-performing and you'd like to stop serving ads for them, you can add an exclusion. Check the box next to the search term or landing page you wish to exclude, then select Add as negative keyword or Add as negative URL."

The search terms report has been a persistent source of friction. An analysis published in December 2025 found that AI Max treats all keywords as broad match regardless of their specified match type, and that when advertisers use only exact and phrase match keywords without corresponding broad match versions, Google assigns AI Max traffic data to those more restrictive match types in reporting - creating measurement problems that the new toggle views may help to partially address.

A filter caveat also appears in the updated document: "When filtering for match type = 'AI Max' the search terms report may show lower numbers for AI Max. This filter doesn't consider 'Other search terms'." This is a practical flag for anyone using the match type filter as a primary diagnostic tool. The filtered numbers do not represent the total AI Max footprint.

The search terms report also gained a small but useful addition to its description: "It shows you where customers are directed when they click on your ad." This framing - connecting search terms to landing page destinations - reflects a shift in how Google is positioning the report, away from purely query-level analysis and toward understanding the full routing path from query to page.

A new section for Search Campaigns for Travel

The most substantial addition to the help document is a new section titled "How to navigate and interpret your Search Campaigns for Travel performance reports." This section did not exist in the September 2025 version of the page.

Search Campaigns for Travel was announced on April 30, 2026, as part of a cluster of AI Max-related updates that also included AI Brief and AI Max for Shopping campaigns. The format consolidates hotel, flight, and travel ad types into standard Search campaigns, giving travel advertisers access to AI Max infrastructure for the first time.

According to the updated reporting document, "Search Campaigns for Travel's reporting unifies fragmented data in a single performance report. You can review cohesive performance details, like search term reporting, across multiple levels of your account." The framing is significant. Travel advertising has historically been split across distinct campaign types - hotel campaigns, flight campaigns, and standard search campaigns running in parallel - each with its own reporting interface. Fragmented data across those surfaces made cross-format budget allocation and performance comparison difficult.

The document explains that performance measurement in this context works differently from standard campaigns: "Because Search Campaigns for Travel merges AI Max with your data feed, success is measured by how effectively your specific inventory converts." The emphasis on inventory conversion, rather than keyword relevance or broad click volume, shifts the success metric toward outcomes that are directly tied to available bookable products.

Three formats, one campaign

The new section documents three ad formats that run within a single Search Campaigns for Travel campaign, accessible through the "Ad format" column in reports:

  • Travel Promotion Ads (TPA) - Image-rich ads featuring specific travel inventory
  • Booking Links (BL) - Direct links to a partner's landing page to book inventory
  • Text Ads (incl. TFSA) - Standard search text ads enhanced with travel feed data

According to the document, to review traffic specifically from travel feed in search ads versus standard text ads, advertisers should "segment by 'Click type' and evaluate the performance of the 'Travel asset'." This level of segmentation was not previously accessible within a unified campaign structure, because travel formats operated in separate silos.

Travel-specific best practices

The best practices section in the updated document was revised specifically around the travel context. Three directives now appear where the prior version had more generic guidance.

The first - "Focus on Intent" - instructs advertisers to "prioritize driving conversion goals over strict keyword relevance. Search behavior in travel is varied and high-volume." This is a direct restatement of AI Max's core design philosophy applied to a vertical where query variability is particularly pronounced. A user researching a beach holiday in August might type "cheap flights to Malaga," "Malaga in summer," "best hotel near Malaga airport," and "Malaga things to do" in the same session - all distinct queries that converge on the same conversion goal.

The second directive - "Regular Reviews" - sets a specific cadence: "Evaluate search terms and item group performance every 1-2 weeks." This matches the guidance in the "Before you begin" section of the document, which advises waiting at least two weeks after enabling AI Max before making changes - a ramp-up period that allows the system to learn and optimize before interventions are applied.

The third directive addresses negative keywords: "Use negative keywords sparingly. Only add them when a term consistently underperforms against your goals across all campaigns. Overusing them can limit the benefits of intent-based targeting." This is a consistent position across all AI Max documentation. Independent testing published in November 2025, covering more than 250 retail campaigns, found that AI Max delivered conversions at approximately 35% lower return on ad spend compared to traditional match types - a finding that makes the negative keyword guidance contentious for practitioners who see aggressive broad matching as the primary driver of poor performance.

What the four reports actually measure

For practitioners unfamiliar with the full reporting suite, the document provides a consolidated view of what each report type measures and where to find it.

The search terms report shows how ads performed when triggered by actual searches within the Search Network. According to the document, it is used to understand AI Max automation traffic and its value, assess headline and landing page relevance to search terms, and simplify account structure with automation insights. To view the AI Max-specific view, advertisers select the "Search terms and landing pages from AI Max" option from the dropdown at the top of the report table.

The keywords report displays keyword performance, match type, and campaign or ad group association. Two aggregate rows at the bottom of this report are specific to AI Max: "Total: AI Max expanded matches," which shows total traffic from broad match keywords created by AI Max based on advertiser-provided keywords, and "Total: AI Max landing page matches," which shows total traffic from search queries that matched because of landing pages or assets outside the keyword list. These two metrics were introduced in September 2025 as a direct response to advertiser requests for visibility into how much of their campaign traffic AI was generating beyond the keywords they had set.

The asset report operates at two levels. At the campaign level, the "Expanded final URL assets" tab shows asset and URL combinations served with expanded final URLs through the Final URL expansion feature. Both advertiser-uploaded assets and those created by text customization appear here. Assets created by text customization - where the system generates its own headlines and descriptions based on landing pages and keywords - are marked "Google AI" in the "Added by" column. At the ad level, the same "Google AI" label identifies AI-generated text within individual ads. Removing those assets requires clicking the status icon and selecting "Remove." Bulk removal of Google-customized text assets is not possible within the Google Ads interface but is available through the Google Ads API and Google Ads Editor.

The landing pages report shows aggregated statistics at the landing-page level, covering both advertiser-provided URLs and Final URL Expansion URLs. The "Selected by" column indicates whether a URL was selected by AI Max or by the advertiser. URL inclusions and exclusions can be managed directly from this report, or from the keywords page under the URL Inclusions and URL Exclusions tabs.

Brand settings are managed separately, under Tools > Shared library > Brand lists. The settings to apply those lists - as inclusions or exclusions - appear within the AI Max settings panel at the campaign or ad group level. A branded search control was added to AI Max earlier in 2026, giving advertisers a native toggle to confine the system to non-branded queries and avoid cannibalizing parallel branded campaigns.

Context: a help page that has evolved with the product

The reporting help document for AI Max has been updated multiple times since AI Max launched in May 2025. The September 2025 version documented the first set of AI Max-specific reporting metrics, including the expanded matches and expanded landing pages rows in the keywords report. The current update reflects the product's expansion into travel formats and the updated DSA migration timeline.

Early testing published in August 2025 found that 99% of impressions across approximately 30,000 search terms generated zero conversions - a result that made reporting transparency one of the most debated topics in paid search. The documentation updates since then have progressively added more entry points into the system's behaviour: more views, more filters, more aggregate rows. The June 23 revision continues that pattern.

For marketers managing accounts that include DSA campaigns, the updated reporting page provides two things at once: navigation instructions for a reporting interface that now explicitly tracks both AI Max and DSA traffic separately, and a written reminder that the DSA format is ending in February 2027. Those two pieces of information are not coincidental. The reporting infrastructure being documented here is the infrastructure advertisers will rely on after the migration is complete.

Timeline

Summary

Who: Google, through an update to the official Google Ads Help Center documentation. The primary audience is advertisers running AI Max for Search campaigns, those still operating Dynamic Search Ads, and travel advertisers preparing for Search Campaigns for Travel.

What: Google revised the "About reporting in AI Max for Search campaigns" help document on June 23, 2026, adding three categories of new content: a notice that DSA campaigns will automatically upgrade to AI Max starting in February 2027, new documentation of four toggle views in the search terms report, and a new section titled "How to navigate and interpret your Search Campaigns for Travel performance reports," including a format table covering Travel Promotion Ads, Booking Links, and Text Ads with travel feed data.

When: The updated help document was published on June 23, 2026. The DSA automigration deadline it references is February 2027. The minimum review cadence for search terms and item group performance recommended in the document is every one to two weeks.

Where: The changes appear in the Google Ads Help Center at the "About reporting in AI Max for Search campaigns" page. The reporting interfaces they describe are accessed from the Campaigns menu within Google Ads accounts.

Why: The documentation update reflects three parallel developments: the extension of the DSA migration deadline from September 2026 to February 2027, the April 30, 2026 launch of Search Campaigns for Travel which required new reporting guidance, and ongoing practitioner feedback about the difficulty of reading and interpreting AI Max search term data. The help page update places operational information - deadlines, view navigation, travel-specific reporting logic - in the document that advertisers most commonly consult when managing AI Max campaigns.