AI driven search campaigns in Google Ads are becoming more automated, more flexible, and more powerful. With AI Max for Search, Google expands how queries are matched, how ads are assembled, and how landing pages are selected. That can unlock new performance, but it also reduces direct keyword level control. Because of that, optimization shifts from keyword micromanagement to lever based control.
If you haven’t read my prior article explaining what AI Max is and if you should use it, I recommend you start there.
If you want to improve results with AI Max for Search, this is for you!
Let’s start at the top. AI Max has three main levers you can control. For the purposes of this article, we are going to focus on those.
Those levers are:
- Search terms and query controls
- Landing pages and URL expansion
- Ad copy and asset strength
These are the inputs that guide the system. When tuned properly, they shape how the AI explores, matches, and converts traffic. When ignored, performance often becomes noisy and unpredictable.
This guide walks through each lever in depth and shows exactly where and how to review and adjust each one inside the Google Ads interface.
Lever 1: Search Terms and Query Controls
Even in highly automated search campaigns, search term control is still your strongest performance lever. AI Max for Search expands matching logic beyond traditional keyword targeting, which means query monitoring and sculpting becomes more important, not less.
Why Search Terms Matter More in AI Max
AI Max campaigns use broader matching signals, intent modeling, and landing page understanding to enter auctions. That means you will often show for queries you did not explicitly target with keywords.
This is good when the system finds new converting demand. It is bad when it drifts into low intent or irrelevant territory.
Your job is to continuously shape the query space by:
- Adding negative keywords
- Identifying high converting queries and reinforcing them
- Blocking waste segments early
- Watching theme drift
Think of search terms as the steering wheel for AI driven search.
How to Access Search Terms in Google Ads
Step by step:
- Log into Google Ads
- Click Campaigns in the left navigation
- Click the specific AI Max for Search campaign
- In the left menu, click Search terms under Insights and reports (label may appear as Search terms or Search terms insights depending on UI version)
- Set your date range in the top right to at least the last 30 days, or longer if volume is low
- Add columns such as:
- Conversions
- Cost per conversion
- Conversion value
- Conversion value per cost
- Impressions
- Clicks
You now have your raw query dataset. At this point, you are looking at the closest thing you have to ground truth in an AI Max for Search campaign. This dataset shows exactly how real people phrased their searches when your ads were triggered, independent of your original keyword assumptions. It is your primary diagnostic tool for intent, relevance, and efficiency. Patterns in this report often explain performance faster than any top level campaign metric.
You can see where the system is matching well, where it is stretching too far, and where hidden pockets of high converting demand are emerging. Instead of treating it like a simple report, treat it like a research dataset. Scan for repeating modifiers, question based queries, competitor mentions, and problem focused language. Those clues should directly influence your negatives, your ad messaging, and even your landing page structure. The advertisers who get the most from AI driven search are the ones who spend time interpreting this query data, not just downloading it.
How to Optimize from Search Terms
Add Negative Keywords Aggressively
Look for:
- Research intent queries like “what is”, “how to”, “definition”
- Job seekers and careers queries
- DIY or free related searches
- Irrelevant product variants
- Mismatched audiences
How to add negatives:
- From the Search terms report, check the box next to unwanted queries
- Click Add as negative keyword
- Choose campaign level or account level negative list
- Use phrase or exact match depending on how tightly you want to block
Best practice is to maintain shared negative keyword lists:
How to access shared lists:
- Click Tools and settings in the top menu
- Under Shared library, click Negative keyword lists
- Create or update lists and apply to campaigns
Identify Winning Query Themes
Sort by conversions or conversion value. Look for:
- Repeated modifiers
- Specific product attributes
- Use case phrases
- Industry terms
Use these insights to:
- Add new keyword themes if keyword controls are enabled
- Mirror language in ad copy
- Build dedicated landing pages
- Create audience signals aligned to those themes
Watch for Query Drift
AI systems expand over time. What was tight traffic in week one can become broad in week five.
Set a recurring review cadence:
- High spend accounts: twice weekly
- Mid spend accounts: weekly
- Low spend accounts: biweekly
Consistent pruning is one of the highest ROI activities in AI driven search campaigns. Frequent pruning works because AI Max for Search relies on the quality of its inputs to make decisions. Every irrelevant or low intent query that slips through creates noise, wasting budget and diluting the system’s learning.
By regularly reviewing search terms and removing underperforming or off‑theme queries, you keep the AI focused on high-value traffic. This not only improves immediate conversion efficiency but also strengthens the predictive models the system uses to match future searches. Over time, campaigns that are actively pruned tend to show higher ROAS, more stable performance, and better alignment between what users are searching for and the ads they see. In other words, pruning is less about restriction and more about guiding the AI toward the queries that truly matter.
Lever 2: Landing Pages and URL Expansion
In AI Max for Search, landing page selection is not always fixed. Google can use final URL expansion and site understanding to send users to different pages than your default URL. That makes landing page quality and structure a direct optimization lever.
Why Landing Pages Are a Control Lever
The system reads your site to understand:
- Product and service coverage
- Topical relevance
- Intent alignment
- Conversion likelihood
It uses this understanding to decide when to enter auctions and which page to show. If your site sends mixed signals, the AI expands into mixed quality traffic.
A strong landing page strategy works on two levels simultaneously. First, it sends clear signals to the AI about the intent and value of your offering, which helps the system match the right queries to the right pages. Second, it ensures that once a user clicks, they are immediately met with relevant, persuasive content that guides them toward conversion.
Pages that are tightly focused, easy to navigate, and aligned with the searcher’s intent reduce bounce rates, increase engagement, and naturally boost conversion rates. By designing landing pages around specific themes or query clusters, you not only improve the efficiency of your ad spend but also give the AI a clearer blueprint for where traffic should go, creating a feedback loop that benefits both targeting precision and overall campaign performance.
How to Check Landing Page Settings
Step by step:
- Go to Campaigns
- Click your AI Max for Search campaign
- Click Settings in the left menu
- Scroll to the section labeled Final URL expansion or AI based URL expansion
- Review whether expansion is enabled
Here, you have full control over how the AI uses your site for ad placement. You can enable or disable final URL expansion entirely, giving the system permission to select the most relevant pages or restricting it to only the URLs you specify.
Additionally, you can exclude specific pages or sections of your site that you don’t want the campaign to consider, such as blog posts, support articles, or career pages. This ensures that traffic is directed only to high-intent, conversion-focused pages, reducing wasted clicks and helping the AI learn from the right signals. By carefully managing these settings, you maintain oversight while still letting the system leverage automation where it makes sense.
How to Control URL Expansion
Add URL Exclusions
If you allow expansion, you should almost always exclude:
- Blog posts
- Help articles
- Support pages
- Careers pages
- Press releases
- Low intent educational content
- Out of stock product pages
How to exclude URLs:
- In campaign Settings
- Find Final URL expansion section
- Click URL exclusions
- Add URLs or URL rules such as:
- contains /blog/
- contains /careers/
- contains /help/
This simple step can have an outsized impact on campaign efficiency. By excluding informational or low-intent pages, you prevent the AI from sending paid traffic to sections of your site that are unlikely to convert. That means every click is more likely to reach a page designed to capture leads, complete a purchase, or drive another meaningful action.
Over time, this not only improves your conversion rate and return on ad spend but also strengthens the AI’s understanding of which pages are truly valuable, allowing it to make better targeting decisions for future auctions.
Align Landing Pages to Intent Clusters
Group your ad groups or asset groups by intent theme, then map to the closest matching landing page type.
Examples:
- High intent product queries are your product page
- Category queries are your category page
- Comparison queries are your comparison pages
- Solution queries are your solution pages
Sending mixed intent traffic to a generic homepage dilutes both relevance and conversion potential. A homepage often serves multiple purposes like branding, information, navigation, etc and rarely speaks directly to the specific problem or product a searcher is looking for. When users land there from a highly specific query, they may struggle to find what they need, increasing bounce rates and lowering conversions.
By directing traffic to pages that align closely with the searcher’s intent, you not only improve immediate engagement but also send stronger performance signals back to the AI. This helps the system learn which pages work best for which types of queries, creating a virtuous cycle of improved targeting and higher conversion rates.
How to Review Landing Page Performance
You can segment performance by landing page.
Step by step:
- Go to Campaigns
- Click your campaign
- Click Landing pages in the left menu (under Insights and reports or Assets depending on UI)
- Review metrics:
- Clicks
- Cost
- Conversions
- Conv. value
- Conversion rate
- Cost per conversion or ROAS
- Bounce rate if connected via GA4
Look for:
- High spend, low conversion pages
- Unexpected pages receiving traffic
- Strong performers you can feature more prominently
Landing Page Optimization Checklist for AI Max
- Clear headline that matches query intent
- Fast load speed
- Strong primary call to action
- Message match with ad copy
- Structured content with clear topic focus
- Conversion tracking verified
Better landing pages do more than convince users to take action. They also act as structured signals that help the AI understand what your business actually offers and which searches you should be matched with. AI Max for Search analyzes page content, headings, topics, and value propositions to determine relevance and intent alignment.
When your pages are tightly focused and clearly written around specific products or solutions, the system can more confidently enter the right auctions and avoid the wrong ones. In that way, landing page quality shapes both sides of performance: what happens after the click and which clicks you are eligible to receive in the first place.
Lever 3: Ad Copy and Asset Strength
AI Max for Search relies heavily on asset based ad assembly. Instead of writing one fixed ad, you provide multiple headlines and descriptions. Google mixes and matches them based on predicted performance. Remeber, your asset pool becomes a training dataset. Weak inputs produce weak combinations!
Why Ad Copy Is a System Lever
Your ad assets help the AI learn:
- Value propositions
- Feature priorities
- User pain points
- Offer framing
- Intent matching language
The more structured and diverse your assets are, the more flexibility the system has to match message to intent at auction time. AI Max for Search does not show the same ad to every user. It assembles combinations based on the specific query, context, and predicted likelihood of engagement. When your asset pool includes clearly different angles such as benefits, outcomes, offers, trust signals, and use cases, the system can choose the combination that best fits each search.
If your assets all say roughly the same thing, just worded slightly differently, the AI has very little room to adapt. Diversity gives it creative range, and structure ensures each asset expresses a distinct, useful idea rather than repeating low performing messaging.
How to Access and Edit Ad Assets
Step by step:
- Go to Campaigns
- Click your campaign
- Click Ads in the left navigation
- Select the responsive search ad or DSA
- Click the pencil icon to edit
You will see:
- Headlines
- Descriptions
- Paths
- Final URL
How to Evaluate Asset Performance
Google provides asset level ratings.
To view asset performance:
- Open the ad
- Click View asset details
- Review performance labels such as:
- Low
- Good
- Best
Replace low rated assets regularly because underperforming headlines and descriptions quietly limit the effectiveness of every ad combination the system can build. In AI Max for Search, your assets function like a creative ingredient list. If several ingredients are weak, the final mix will rarely be strong no matter how smart the assembly logic is.
Low rated assets signal that the message is not resonating compared to your other options, whether due to vague wording, weak value propositions, or poor intent match. By routinely removing and rewriting these assets, you keep your creative pool competitive and give the system fresher, higher quality material to test. Over time, this steady rotation improves click through rate, relevance, and conversion performance without requiring major campaign restructuring.
Ad Copy Optimization Framework
Cover Distinct Message Angles
Do not write 15 similar headlines. Write across angles:
- Primary benefit
- Secondary benefit
- Pain point
- Outcome
- Offer
- Trust signal
- Speed or convenience
- Price or value
- Social proof
- Guarantee
Mirror High Performing Queries
Your search terms report shows you the exact words real users type when they are ready to click and convert, which makes it one of the most reliable sources of high performing ad language. When you lift top converting phrases directly from that report and weave them into your headlines and descriptions, you close the gap between user intent and ad messaging.
That alignment increases perceived relevance in the auction and makes your ads feel like a precise answer rather than a generic pitch. The result is often a higher expected click through rate and stronger quality signals overall. Instead of guessing which wording will resonate, you are letting proven query behavior guide your creative.
Include Clear Conversion Triggers
Strong assets often include:
- Specific outcomes
- Numbers and timeframes
- Risk reduction
- Free tools or reports
- Limited time offers
- Certifications or credentials
Use Pinning Carefully
You can pin assets to force specific headlines or descriptions into certain positions, which is useful when something must appear in every ad, but pinning should be used sparingly. AI Max for Search performs best when it has the freedom to test and recombine assets based on predicted performance for each query.
When you heavily pin multiple assets, you reduce the number of possible combinations and limit the system’s ability to learn which messages work best in different contexts. Reserve pinning for cases where it is truly necessary, such as required compliance language, regulated disclaimers, or mandatory brand positioning. Outside of those situations, giving the system creative flexibility usually leads to stronger engagement and better overall results.
Asset Refresh Cadence
Rotate assets when:
- Asset rating shows Low
- CTR drops over time
- Conversion rate declines
- Offer changes
- Seasonality shifts intent
A good rule is to refresh at least 25 percent of assets every 4 to 6 weeks in active campaigns.
How These Three Levers Work Together
The biggest gains come from coordinated optimization across all three levers.
- Search terms tell you what users actually want.
- Landing pages determine whether that intent converts.
- Ad copy determines whether they click in the first place.
A practical workflow looks like this:
- Pull last 30 to 60 days of search terms
- Identify top converting themes and bad themes
- Add negatives for waste
- Build or refine landing pages for winning themes
- Update ad assets to mirror winning language
- Exclude weak URL sections from expansion
- Monitor asset ratings and replace low performers
- Repeat on a fixed schedule
Will You Try It?
AI Max for Search is not a set and forget campaign type. It is a shift in where control lives. Instead of bidding and keyword micromanagement, performance comes from input quality and guardrails.
If you consistently optimize:
- Search terms and negatives
- Landing page targets and exclusions
- Ad copy asset depth and diversity
When you actively manage these levers, you are not fighting the automation, you are shaping it. AI Max for Search is designed to explore and expand, but without clear structure it can just as easily expand into low intent territory as high value opportunity.
Tight search term controls, focused landing pages, and well built asset sets act like guardrails that channel the system’s exploration toward profitable outcomes. That structure lets the AI scale what works instead of wandering into waste. For advanced advertisers and consultants, this is the new craft of search optimization: not manual micromanagement, but deliberate input design and ongoing signal refinement that guides automation toward consistent, scalable performance.
