Google & Microsoft Ads Migration Tracker

AI Max auto-migration

Google · September 1–30, 2026 · applies automatically

Two cohorts migrate: campaigns using the campaign-level broad match setting, and standalone automatically-created assets campaigns. AI Max is a setting on a Search campaign, not a new campaign type — structure, ad groups, keywords, budgets and bid strategies all persist.

What actually switches on. For the broad match cohort: search term matching, and nothing else. Text customization and final URL expansion are not enabled. For the ACA cohort: search term matching plus text customization. This is narrower than most coverage suggests, and worth verifying in-account rather than assuming.

• The real risk is the all-broad profile. A campaign that ran the legacy setting already had its keywords converted to broad match, and migration does not hand them back. You end up with an all-broad list plus keywordless expansion and no tighter keyword base anchoring it. Independent data treats this profile worst — accounts already saturated with broad match had the least headroom.
• Search term matching is a parallel retrieval path, not extra signal on your keywords. It matches queries with no keyword behind them, running alongside your list rather than enriching it.
• Manual CPC starves it. Google's own caveat. Either move to smart bidding or keep AI Max off — the middle position performs worst.
• Reporting gets noisy in a flattering direction. New aggregate rows credit AI Max for conversions that exact and phrase keywords already delivered, and some expanded terms have no associated keyword at all. A naive before/after read will overstate the gain. Use an AI Max experiment for the counterfactual and keep a pre-migration baseline export.
• Documented failure mode: competitor and adjacent-brand query expansion. One account reached 69% of Search impressions on competitor terms.

What to do: mine 90 days of search terms and add negatives — the highest-value step for this cohort. Set brand exclusions and URL exclusions before matching widens. Export a 30–60 day baseline of conversions, CPA, ROAS and impression share per campaign. Then decide per campaign: accept the defaults, disable the legacy setting to exit the cohort, or upgrade manually with controls you've chosen.

Local Services Ads: missed-call billing

Google · October 1, 2026 · applies automatically

Google begins charging for calls missed after 20 seconds during your declared business hours. For any service business where the phone is the conversion, this is a direct and immediate cost increase — paid for calls that never became conversations.

• Narrow your declared hours where overnight or weekend coverage is thin. Calls outside declared hours aren't billable at all, so hours that overstate your actual coverage now cost money.
• The phone-tree exception. If your IVR requires a keypress, the 20-second clock starts only after the press — and calls abandoned before it are free. An auto-routing IVR that connects without input forfeits this entirely.
• It compounds with the PMax migration below, which removes the manual cost-per-lead cap that would otherwise limit exposure.

LSA → Performance Max pay-per-lead

Google · late 2026 · 14 days' notice, then a 7-day reminder

The migration with the shortest runway and the most irreversible losses. Fourteen days' notice is the entire preparation window.

• LSA performance reports do not transition. Export your history now — it cannot be recovered afterward. Lead history carries over and the LSA inbox becomes Lead Manager, but the reporting does not.
• Vertical-level target CPA is eliminated. One campaign-level target replaces per-vertical targets, so differentiated bidding requires splitting into separate campaigns per vertical. Do this before the migration, not after.
• Manual max cost-per-lead bidding is deprecated, removing your ceiling on lead cost.
• Weekly budgets convert to daily, divided by seven. Check the arithmetic lands where you expect.
• Freeze Google Business Profile edits around the migration window. Name or address changes trigger a 24–48 hour verification review during which campaigns can pause.

Microsoft SOAP API deprecation

Microsoft · new features REST-only from October 1, 2026 · full deprecation January 31, 2027

A hard cutoff rather than a migration. Anything still calling the SOAP endpoint stops working on January 31 — bid management tools, custom reporting, feed automation, in-house scripts. The failure is silent until it isn't.

What to do: inventory every integration touching Microsoft Advertising, including tools you inherited and scripts whose author has left. Confirm each vendor's REST migration timeline in writing rather than assuming they're handling it.

DSA auto-migration to AI Max

Google · February 1–28, 2027 · reminder notices January 15

Dynamic Search Ads migrate to AI Max, and dynamic ad groups are retired afterward. Unlike September's migration, this cohort gets all three features active, including final URL expansion.

Final URL expansion is the one to watch. It lets Google choose landing pages beyond those you've specified — which on a site with many similar pages, or an operator running numerous near-identical local sites, produces cross-matching that's hard to detect and harder to attribute. If that describes your setup, build a URL exclusion layer before February rather than after.