Google Ads has added a ValueTrack parameter that records, inside the click URL itself, whether a search term reached an ad through the advertiser's own keyword or through an AI Max expansion. The parameter, {search_term_matchtype}, was reported by PPC News Feed on November 11, 2026, which credited Hana Kobzová with spotting it on Google's help page "Set up tracking with ValueTrack parameters." The help page gives no date for the change, and the PPC News Feed report links to no Google announcement.

In Short

Google Ads now has a tracking code, {search_term_matchtype}, that tells advertisers in each click's URL whether the search matched their keyword directly or came through AI Max. That matters because the older {matchtype} code labels AI Max broad expansions with the keyword's own match type, so a click marked "exact" may in fact have been an AI Max expansion. With both codes in a tracking template, analytics tools, CRMs and reporting systems can separate the two kinds of traffic click by click.

What the parameter records

According to PPC News Feed, "Google Ads has introduced a new ValueTrack parameter called {search_term_matchtype}. This parameter captures the match type of the search term that triggered an ad. It records "e" for exact, "p" for phrase, "b" for broad, or "a" for AI Max broad expansions and keywordless matches."

ValueTrack parameters are placeholders. An advertiser writes them into a tracking template, a final URL or a custom parameter, and Google Ads replaces each one with a real value at the moment of the click - a campaign ID, a device code, the keyword that matched. Whatever system reads the landing page URL afterwards, whether a web analytics package, a CRM form handler or a call-tracking script, can then store those values against the visit or the lead. They are configured by hand and sit alongside auto-tagging, which appends Google's click identifier automatically.

The new parameter has a near-twin. {matchtype} has long reported the match type of the keyword. {search_term_matchtype} reports the match type of the search term. In a world of plain keyword matching the two would usually agree. Since AI Max arrived, they often do not.

Google's help page lists both in its main table of parameters for final URLs, tracking templates and custom parameters. The table below sets out the four values as Google describes them for each parameter.

Value {matchtype} - match type of the keyword {search_term_matchtype} - match type of the search term
e Exact Exact
p Phrase Phrase
b Broad Broad
a AI Max keywordless AI Max broad expansions and keywordless matches

Source: Google Ads Help, "Set up tracking with ValueTrack parameters," main parameter table; PPC News Feed, November 11, 2026.

The difference sits entirely in the last row. A keywordless AI Max click returns "a" for both parameters. An AI Max broad expansion, in which AI Max matches a search term to one of the advertiser's existing keywords, returns "a" only in the new one.

Why an "exact" click was not always exact

Google's guidance, in a section titled "Tracking AI Max matches" reproduced by PPC News Feed, spells out what each parameter returns for each kind of traffic. For an AI Max broad expansion, {matchtype} returns "e, p, or b based on the keyword match type," {targetid} returns "kwd-," and {keyword} returns the "." Those are exactly the values a standard keyword match produces.

Put plainly, a click triggered by an exact match keyword but served through an AI Max expansion arrived at the landing page carrying matchtype=e, the keyword's ID and the keyword's text. Nothing in those three values separated it from a genuine exact match. Only {search_term_matchtype}, returning "a," now marks the difference.

How big is that blind spot? An analysis by Mike Ryan of Smarter Ecommerce, covered by PPC Land in August, found that exact match lost about one in four impressions to AI Max. Across 383 million EMEA ecommerce Search impressions with AI Max activated, the share of exact match keyword impressions served through AI Max expansions climbed from about zero in January 2025 to nearly 29% by July 2026. In a tracking template using {matchtype}, any click from those expanded impressions would have reached the landing page labelled "e."

The attribution question is older still. In December 2025, Brad Geddes of Adalysis documented AI Max traffic being credited to exact and phrase keywords where no broad version of the keyword existed, with the same query appearing under an exact keyword and under AI Max. Google's Ginny Marvin responded that Google was increasingly determining relevance by inferred intent rather than the literal query, and said the company would update its documentation.

Four traffic classes

The "Tracking AI Max matches" section addresses advertisers who opt into AI Max and tells them to combine four parameters: {matchtype}, {targetid}, {keyword} and {search_term_matchtype}. Together, according to the section, the four parameters make it possible to "segment standard keyword traffic from AI Max keywordless matches." It then sorts traffic into four classes.

Traffic class {matchtype} value {targetid} value {search_term_matchtype} value {keyword} value
Standard keyword match e, p, or b based on the keyword match type kwd- e, p, or b based on the search term match type
AI Max broad expansions e, p, or b based on the keyword match type kwd- a
AI Max keywordless expansions a kwl-3500001 or kwl- a Empty
AI Max keywordless URL rules a kwl- a Empty

Source: Google, "Tracking AI Max matches," as published by PPC News Feed on November 11, 2026. Values reproduced as written.

A note under the table adds: "A {matchtype} value of "a" confirms an AI Max keywordless match. Check the {targetid} to determine the specific source." Keywordless matches output "kwl-". The "Default automated expansion" carries the ID kwl-3500001, while for "Advertiser URL rules" the ID reflects the advertiser's own URL rule criterion.

The main parameter table on the help page is consistent with that. It describes {targetid} as returning a "kwd" value for keywords, "kwl" for AI Max keywordless, "dsa" for Dynamic Search Ads targets, "aud" for audiences, "pla" for product partitions and "hpi" for hotel groups. It also says {keyword} returns a blank value when an ad matches without keywords, naming AI Max for Search campaigns, Dynamic Search Ads and Performance Max as examples.

How the method works

According to Google's guidance and PPC News Feed, separating AI Max traffic from keyword traffic involves four steps.

  1. Tracking template. The parameters go into the tracking template. PPC News Feed says the help page now includes this example: {lpurl}?keyword={keyword}&matchtype={matchtype}&search_term_matchtype={search_term_matchtype}. The {lpurl} placeholder, which stands for the landing page, sits at the start of the string.
  2. Keywordless check. A {matchtype} value of "a" identifies an AI Max keywordless match. In that case {keyword} is empty.
  3. Source of a keywordless match. {targetid} then separates the two keywordless sources: kwl-3500001 for Google's default automated expansion, or an ID tied to the advertiser's own URL rule criterion.
  4. Expansion versus standard match. For clicks where {matchtype} is e, p or b, the guidance gives two filters to use in "reporting tools." Isolating AI Max expansion traffic means filtering "for clicks where {matchtype} equals e, p, or b, but {search_term_matchtype} equals a." Isolating standard keyword traffic means filtering "for clicks where {matchtype} equals e, p, or b and {search_term_matchtype} doesn't equal a (!= a)."

A separate section of the same help page, on tracking parameters and AI Max, deals with final URL expansion. Google warns there that the dynamic landing pages final URL expansion creates can return 404 errors when combined with tracking templates that are not compatible with them, and it recommends placing {lpurl} at the start of the tracking template. The example template above follows that pattern.

Where the documentation does not line up

The pieces do not fit together perfectly. PPC News Feed summarises the rule for standard traffic as clicks where {search_term_matchtype} "does not equal a." Google's filter uses two conditions: {matchtype} must be e, p or b, and {search_term_matchtype} must not be "a." Given Google's own table, where every keywordless click returns "a" for both parameters, the two rules should select the same clicks, but only Google's version is written that way.

Google's table also overlaps with itself. The row for keywordless expansions lists "kwl-3500001 or kwl-," while the next row assigns URL rules their own class with "kwl-." The note beneath it treats kwl-3500001 as the default expansion and URL rule IDs as a separate source.

Then there is the help page itself. The English-language version PPC Land reviewed on November 15 listed {search_term_matchtype} and its four values in the main table, but did not display the "Tracking AI Max matches" section or the longer tracking template example. Its only match type template example remained {lpurl}?matchtype={matchtype}. Whether the section was moved, rolled back or is shown only in some versions of the page is not clear.

Several things remain unsaid. Google gives no date for the parameter, does not say whether close variants of exact and phrase match are reported as "e" and "p," and does not list {search_term_matchtype} in the help page's Performance Max compatibility table, which also omits {matchtype}. Neither source says whether Google Ads Editor or the Google Ads API expose an equivalent field.

AI Max reporting, one layer at a time

The parameter is the latest in a series of additions to AI Max reporting. AI Max for Search campaigns arrived in May 2025, when Google released an implementation guide describing its three parts: search term matching, text customization and final URL expansion.

On July 2, 2025, Google rolled out AI Max match type reporting, letting advertisers segment the Keywords tab by "Search terms match type." That gave the interface a label that the click URL lacked until now. In September 2025, Google added two metrics, "AI Max expanded matches" and "AI Max expanded landing pages," at the bottom of the Keywords tab.

The documentation kept moving. On June 23, 2026, Google rewrote its AI Max reporting help page, listing four search terms report views and adding a caveat that filtering the report for the AI Max match type may show lower figures for AI Max. In October 2026, the "Search terms and ad combinations" view gained four source columns - search term match source, landing page source, headline source and description source - which Google had not documented at the time.

Each of those changes lives inside Google Ads. The new parameter is different in kind: it pushes the AI Max label out of the interface and into the URL, where it reaches systems Google does not control.

Why it matters

The scale of AI Max is the context. Google moved large groups of Search campaigns onto AI Max in 2026. According to Google's notice to advertisers in August, campaigns using automatically created assets and campaigns using the campaign-level broad match setting began upgrading to AI Max for Search from September 1, 2026. Campaigns running Dynamic Search Ads follow: Google moved their automatic upgrade to February 2027, with creation of new campaigns of that type ending in January 2027.

As AI Max absorbs more traffic, the share of clicks whose {matchtype} label no longer describes how the search actually matched grows with it. For agencies and in-house teams that judge match type performance in analytics or CRM data rather than in Google Ads, the old parameter could not say how much "exact" traffic came from an AI system's interpretation of intent. The interface reports could, in aggregate, but they do not follow a lead into a CRM, a call log or a revenue system. A per-click label does.

The parameter does not change how AI Max matches queries, how Google bids or what advertisers pay. It changes only what can be measured downstream - and that is the layer where advertisers decide whether expanded traffic is worth keeping.

Key facts

  • Parameter: {search_term_matchtype} (ValueTrack)
  • Values: "e" exact, "p" phrase, "b" broad, "a" AI Max broad expansions and keywordless matches
  • Related parameters: {matchtype} ("a" = AI Max keywordless), {targetid} ("kwd-" keyword, "kwl-" AI Max keywordless), {keyword} (empty for keywordless matches)
  • Default automated expansion ID: kwl-3500001
  • Example tracking template (per PPC News Feed): {lpurl}?keyword={keyword}&matchtype={matchtype}&search_term_matchtype={search_term_matchtype}
  • Source document: Google Ads Help, "Set up tracking with ValueTrack parameters," https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/6305348 (undated; section "Tracking AI Max matches")
  • First report: PPC News Feed, "New {search_term_matchtype} ValueTrack Parameter Isolates AI Max Traffic," November 11, 2026, https://ppcnewsfeed.com/ppc-news/2026-11/new-value-track-parameter-isolates-ai-max-traffic/
  • Spotted by: Hana Kobzová
  • Campaign scope: AI Max for Search campaigns; neither {search_term_matchtype} nor {matchtype} appears in the help page's Performance Max compatibility table

Timeline

Summary

Who: Google Ads, through its help page on ValueTrack parameters; PPC News Feed, which reported the change, and Hana Kobzová, who spotted it. The change affects advertisers running AI Max for Search campaigns and the agencies and analytics teams that measure their traffic outside Google Ads.

What: A new ValueTrack parameter, {search_term_matchtype}, returns "e," "p" or "b" for exact, phrase and broad search term matches and "a" for AI Max broad expansions and keywordless matches. Combined with {matchtype}, {targetid} and {keyword}, it lets click-level data separate standard keyword traffic, AI Max broad expansions, AI Max keywordless expansions and AI Max keywordless URL rules.

When: PPC News Feed reported the parameter on November 11, 2026. Google's help page carries no date for the change, and on November 15 its English-language version listed the parameter without the accompanying "Tracking AI Max matches" section.

Where: In Google Ads tracking templates, final URLs and custom parameters, and from there in any analytics, CRM or reporting system that reads landing page URLs.

Why: AI Max broad expansions inherit the keyword's own match type in {matchtype}, so expanded clicks on exact and phrase keywords were indistinguishable from standard matches in URL data. With AI Max now covering upgraded broad match and automatically created assets campaigns, and Dynamic Search Ads due to follow in February 2027, more traffic now runs through AI Max, where the old label and the way a search actually matched can differ.