Google AI Max: Worth Testing, or Just More Budget Spent?

If you have spent any meaningful amount of time running paid search campaigns, whether in-house or working with a PPC agency, and you cast a critical eye over the paid digital advertising landscape, you may have developed a healthy scepticism towards new Google campaign types. In times gone by, paid search optimisers often resisted new campaign features and rollouts through a healthy scepticism around who exactly they are designed to serve.

The story unfolds something like this: a new format launches with impressive promises, gets pushed enthusiastically by account managers, and turns out, at least initially, to be a mechanism for Google to access budget that would otherwise have been more carefully controlled. Smart Shopping. Discovery. The early iterations of Performance Max.

The scepticism is earned, and we would not suggest abandoning it entirely when it comes to Google AI Max. However, we do think this particular moment is different, and that the case for testing AI Max is more compelling than it has been for any previous campaign type launch. Here is why.

Why healthy scepticism is still warranted

Google's commercial incentives do not disappear just because a product is genuinely innovative. AI Max, like every campaign type before it, gives Google more latitude to decide where your ads appear and how your budget is deployed. The "just switch it on and we'll make it happen" framing that tends to accompany these launches is worth treating with caution. In many cases, simply switching it on without the right foundations in place means handing the keys over to an algorithm that does not have enough quality data to make good decisions on your behalf.

Advertiser reports from the early adoption period are mixed, as they tend to be at launch. Some campaigns are showing strong incremental performance. Others have seen spend consumed by placements that look impressive in a report but do not translate to business outcomes. That variability is partly a function of how well-prepared the underlying account is, and partly just the reality that any new product takes time to mature. Making that call correctly is exactly the kind of judgement a good PPC agency brings to a new campaign type.

Why the case for testing is stronger than it has ever been

The reason AI Max is different from previous campaign type launches is not primarily about the product itself. It is about the direction of travel for the entire paid search ecosystem.

AI overviews and AI mode have fundamentally changed where ads can appear on Google. The new placements, including within AI-generated answers and across the various areas that Performance Max can access, are not optional additions to a stable inventory. They are increasingly where the attention is going. Additionally, as more of Google's search experience moves into AI mode, the proportion of ad inventory that sits within AI-driven placements will only grow.

Choosing not to test AI Max is effectively a decision to sit out the channel that is growing fastest, with the formats that are most aligned to where search is heading. That is a position that gets harder to defend with every passing quarter.

There is also the competitive dimension. The advertisers who develop a working understanding of how AI Max performs in their specific category, on their specific audience, with their specific creative assets, now while the field is still relatively open, will have a material advantage over those who wait until AI Max has become the standard approach and the learnings are already baked into their competitors' accounts.

What you need before switching on Google AI Max

The important caveat to all of this is that AI Max is only as effective as the foundations it is built on, and the foundations matter more with AI-driven campaigns than with any previous campaign type, because the algorithm is making more autonomous decisions and the guardrails are, by design, wider.

Conversion tracking

Conversion tracking needs to be reliable and comprehensive before you activate AI Max features. The algorithm optimises towards the signals you give it, and if those signals are incomplete, it will optimise towards the wrong things. If your tracking does not accurately capture the conversions that actually matter to your business, you are not in a position to run AI Max effectively.

Negative keywords

Negative keywords are equally non-negotiable. In a more open, AI-governed system, negatives are one of the primary mechanisms you have to steer the algorithm away from irrelevant placements and queries. Treating them as optional is expensive.

Channel-level controls

Performance Max, the campaign type through which much of this AI Max functionality is accessed, now offers more granular controls over which channels and placements it operates across: search, display, YouTube, discovery. Those controls exist for a reason. Use them. Look at the channel-level data and understand where your spend is actually working, rather than accepting a blended performance figure that may be masking significant variation.

Beyond Google: ChatGPT Ads and the wider picture

One other development worth watching alongside AI Max is ChatGPT's launch of self-serve advertising earlier this year via their newly launched ads platform, ChatGPT Ads. The format is different from paid search in that you are targeting topics rather than keywords, but early CPCs are broadly comparable to what we see in Google Ads.

The scale is small relative to the overall search advertising market. Chatbot advertising currently represents a tiny fraction of the broader paid search ecosystem. Given it still represents a very small part of the search market, the message is not to redirect your budget dramatically. It is to test, to understand what these new environments deliver, and to build the knowledge base that will matter more as these platforms grow.

The principle that has served digital marketers well through twenty years of platform change remains relevant here: test the new, trust the proven. For now, Google's core paid search products, including AI Max approached with appropriate rigour, are still where most advertisers will find the majority of their returns. But the landscape is moving, and the time to start building knowledge is before you need it.

If you would like to discuss how AI Max might fit into your current paid search strategy, or get a view on whether your account is properly set up to make the most of it, our paid search agency team would be very happy to take a look, free of charge. Get in touch to arrange a conversation.