Google's Forced AI Max Migration Creates a Measurement Crisis for Search Advertisers
Google is auto-migrating search campaigns to AI Max throughout September with no opt-out, handing query expansion, ad copy, and URL selection to its models. Independent studies show a 42-percentage-point gap between Google's claimed conversion lift and advertiser-measured ROAS, while invalid traffic rates on AI Max campaigns have more than doubled — raising hard questions about who actually controls and measures search performance now.
By Sarah Chen·7 min read