--- title: "The Google AI Max Migration: A Developer's Deprecation Checklist Before September 1 - AstroDev" description: "The Google AI Max migration auto-upgrades Broad Match and ACA campaigns on September 1. A dated map of removed API entities and new controls." url: "https://astrodev.carlosarias.com/blog/news/google-ads-api-deprecations-ai-max" --- [News](/categories/news) # The Google AI Max Migration: A Developer's Deprecation Checklist Before September 1 The Google AI Max migration auto-upgrades Broad Match and ACA campaigns on September 1. A dated map of removed API entities and new controls. [Carlos Arias](/authors/carlos-arias) · August 21, 2026 · 4 min read ![Google Ads campaign settings during the AI Max auto-upgrade window.](/_astro/cover.DpQhZanZ_Z1SmGFA.webp) *Google Ads campaign settings during the AI Max auto-upgrade window. AI-generated illustration by Carlos Arias .* On-brand editorial cover for an article titled "The Google Ads Automation Shift Developers Must Handle: AI Max, Deprecated API Entities, and Attribution Controls". Sophisticated, minimal conceptual illustration on a very dark ink background (#111318) with a single restrained warm accent glow. High-end business-publication aesthetic, subtle depth, cinematic soft light. No text, no words, no letters, no logos, no UI labels. Prompt sent to Higgsfield · nano_banana_pro · 3:2 The Google AI Max migration is not optional, and it begins on September 1, 2026. Through the end of that month, Google auto-upgrades Search campaigns running campaign-level Broad Match or standalone Automatically Created Assets to AI Max (Search Engine Land, August 2026). If your code still writes those entities, it will fail. This is a dated checklist for the people who maintain the integrations. The rollout is gradual across September, not a single flip. Campaigns migrate in place, and existing brand inclusions and exclusions carry over (Search Engine Land, August 2026). Dynamic Search Ads are the exception. They do not move to AI Max until February 2027. ## What the Google AI Max migration changes by default The upgrade is not a rename. It flips settings on. Campaigns with Automatically Created Assets migrate to AI Max with search term matching and text customization switched on. Campaigns using campaign-level Broad Match migrate with search term matching enabled (Search Engine Land, August 2026). Both defaults widen where your ads can show. If a client’s account was deliberately narrow, that assumption no longer holds, and you should audit the new match surface before spend scales. Google already closed the front door. On August 3, 2026, it blocked creation of new campaign-level Broad Match settings and legacy ACA campaigns across the interface, Ads Editor and the API (ppc.land, August 2026). You cannot create these structures today. You can only wait for the ones you have to be migrated. ## The API entities that disappear after September 1 Here is the part that breaks scripts. Any Google Ads API version released after September 1, 2026 removes the legacy entities used to create or manage campaign-level Broad Match and ACA. Currently active versions keep working for now, with the older ones scheduled to sunset around September 2027 (Relevant Audience, 2026 to 2027 timeline). The August 12 Developer Blog post is explicit about the fix: audit any script, tool or client library that creates or edits those legacy configurations, then rewrite it to build standard Search campaigns with AI Max settings. Do not wait for the version bump to force the issue. A pinned API version buys months, not safety. The moment you upgrade the client library past the September cutoff, calls that reference the removed entities will throw. Treat the pin as a deadline you set, not a reprieve. ## Language targeting leaves Search in late September A second removal lands in the same window, and it is easy to miss. Campaign-level language targeting is being removed from Search and AI Max for Search in late September 2026, announced in the Developer Blog on August 13 (Search Engine Land, August 2026). After that, Google infers language from the creative and the landing page, weighed against its own read of what the user already knows. Its recommendation to developers is direct: stop sending language criteria in new and updated Search campaign requests, and drop it from existing ones for hygiene. Single-language structures still work. Separate English and Spanish campaigns keep running as before. The change is that the criterion you send is ignored, so any logic that branches on it becomes dead weight. ## The one new control worth wiring in Not everything this month is a removal. Google Analytics added custom conversion attribution windows, and they are genuinely useful. Click-through conversions can now use any window from 1 to 90 days, replacing the old fixed presets. Engaged-view conversions move from a locked 3-day window to anything between 1 and 30 days (Search Engine Land, August 2026). The settings sit under Advertising, then Conversion management, then Settings, and in the linked Google Ads interface. For long sales cycles this lets attribution match reality instead of a default. We argued for measuring the whole journey in measuring demand generation in the AI search era, and this is the lever that makes it configurable. ## Your pre-September checklist The work splits cleanly into what breaks and what improves. - Grep every integration for campaign-level Broad Match and ACA writes, and route them to standard Search campaigns with AI Max settings before you upgrade past the September API version. - Remove language criteria from Search campaign requests, both new and updated. - Re-check match-surface assumptions on migrated accounts, since search term matching is on by default. - Set conversion windows to your actual sales cycle rather than the inherited preset. The pattern underneath all four is the one we traced in Google’s agentic Ads and Analytics updates: control is moving from explicit settings you send to signals Google infers. If you own these integrations, the safe move is to read the developer blog on a schedule and treat every “recommended” as a dated instruction. We hold the same map for our own client builds, and the rest of our engineering write-ups show how. Tags [#google-ads](/tags/google-ads)[#api-deprecations](/tags/api-deprecations)[#ai-max](/tags/ai-max)[#attribution](/tags/attribution)[#developer-checklist](/tags/developer-checklist) Share Written by [Carlos Arias](/authors/carlos-arias) Builder of AstroAgent, an AI-run website platform. On this page - What the Google AI Max migration changes by default - The API entities that disappear after September 1 - Language targeting leaves Search in late September - The one new control worth wiring in - Your pre-September checklist ## Continue reading [News](/categories/news) · September 14, 2026 [### Google Ads Automation Is Removing Manual Controls (2026)](/blog/news/ads-platforms-removing-manual-controls) Google Ads automation is removing the manual levers advertisers rely on. Three dated 2026 changes from Google and Microsoft, and the tradeoff they preview. Carlos Arias · 4 min [News](/categories/news) · September 27, 2026 [### Is Top-of-Funnel Content Worth It in 2027? The Traffic Data](/blog/news/is-top-of-funnel-content-worth-it-2027) Is top-of-funnel content worth it in 2027? A Semrush pull across 30 publishers shows a widening YMYL vs B2B tech traffic divide. 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