On June 1, 2026, Google began rolling out a native branded search control inside AI Max for Search campaigns — a small toggle with outsized consequences for anyone managing a Google PPC budget. For months, AI Max had quietly expanded prospecting campaigns into branded queries, inflating CPCs and corrupting attribution data. The new setting finally gives advertisers a switch to stop it. If you run Google Ads, this is the update to understand before September, when Dynamic Search Ads disappear and AI Max becomes mandatory infrastructure.
What is AI Max for Search campaigns?
AI Max for Search is Google’s automation layer that bolts onto standard Search campaigns. Instead of matching ads to literal keywords, it uses three core levers — search term matching, text customization, and final URL expansion — to infer intent and expand reach. Google first announced it at Think Week on May 6, 2025, projecting “14% more conversions” at a similar CPA or ROAS. That headline figure has since been revised down: Google now cites an average of 7% more conversions or conversion value when the full feature suite runs together, compared with search term matching alone.
Google declared AI Max out of beta on April 15, 2026, and the format has been expanding aggressively ever since. AI Max for Shopping launched on April 30, 2026, pulling text customization from Merchant Center feed attributes. The same week, Google introduced AI Brief, which lets advertisers steer campaigns with plain-language instructions. By the time Google Ads API v24.1 shipped on May 13, 2026, AI Max had even become a formal experiment type for A/B testing.
What does the new branded search control do?
The branded searches setting asks a simple question: “Choose how you want your ads to show on searches that contain brand names.” It offers three options:
- Show ads on all relevant searches — the default behavior AI Max has run on since launch, where the system can match branded queries freely.
- Control branded searches with brand inclusions and exclusions — a surgical option that lets you allow your own brand while blocking competitors, or the reverse.
- Show ads only on unbranded searches — the most absolute setting, confining AI Max to generic queries and avoiding “all brand names known to Google.”
That phrase — “known to Google” — matters. The unbranded-only option draws on Google’s own entity index rather than a list you maintain by hand. It will suppress your ads on queries containing your brand, competitor brands, or any other recognized brand entity. Google flags the setting as “highly restrictive” and notes that if you only want to block your own name, a simple brand exclusion is the better tool. The feature was first spotted by paid search specialist Thomas Eccel, who shared a screenshot on LinkedIn on May 29, 2026, before Google’s broader June 1 rollout.
Why does AI Max cannibalize branded campaigns?
Most disciplined PPC accounts run two parallel structures: a branded campaign with a tight ROAS target and isolated conversion data, and a non-branded prospecting campaign measured in a completely different frame. Blending those data streams creates noise in any attribution model.
AI Max breaks that separation. Because it expands on inferred intent rather than exact text, it has been documented pulling branded queries — both your own and competitors’ — into prospecting campaigns at higher CPCs than a dedicated branded campaign would pay. The result is double distortion: the prospecting campaign looks stronger than it is because branded queries convert at premium rates, while the branded campaign looks weaker because it is quietly losing impressions. As Eccel put it, if you run a separate branded campaign “you 100% don’t want AI Max cannibalizing those clicks at a higher CPC and breaking your attribution.” The unbranded-only toggle eliminates that confound at the source.
How did advertisers control branded queries before?
Until June 1, the only defense was a manually maintained brand exclusion list. The problem, documented by independent analysts in December 2025, was that those lists routinely missed misspellings and word variations. Negative keywords target literal strings, but AI Max’s intent inference simply routes around them by matching on signals rather than text. The new toggle sidesteps that by operating at a higher level of abstraction, delegating brand recognition to Google’s knowledge index. Whether that index is comprehensive enough to catch every edge case remains to be tested at scale — practitioners have already flagged ambiguity around product searches like “Honda Civic,” where “Honda” alone might trip a brand exclusion.
Why does this matter before September 2026?
This control is not a niche feature you can ignore. Starting in September 2026, campaigns still using Dynamic Search Ads (DSA), automatically created assets, and the campaign-level broad match setting will be automatically upgraded to AI Max, with Google expecting all eligible upgrades to conclude by the end of that month. DSA, a format paid search managers have relied on for years, is being retired.
The pressure runs deeper than a forced migration. At Google Marketing Live 2026 on May 20, Vidhya Srinivasan, VP and GM of Google Ads and Commerce, confirmed that appearing in new AI Search ad surfaces — including Conversational Discovery ads and Highlighted Answers inside AI Mode and AI Overviews — requires AI Max for Search or Performance Max with text customization. In other words, you cannot opt around AI Max if you want inventory on Google’s fastest-growing surfaces. That makes every control inside it, including the branded search toggle, strategically important: the granularity of what you can constrain now determines how much of your campaign strategy survives the transition.
What should advertisers do now?
First, check whether the branded search setting has reached your accounts — the rollout is still partial, and many advertisers have not seen it yet. If you run separate branded and non-branded campaigns, the practical consensus is to switch prospecting campaigns to unbranded-only, keeping AI Max in pure prospecting mode and protecting your attribution. Watch performance carefully, though: independent testing across more than 250 retail campaigns in November 2025 found AI Max delivering conversions at roughly 35% lower ROAS than traditional match types, so the full suite is not automatically a win for every account.
Second, audit your campaigns ahead of the September DSA retirement rather than letting Google migrate them on autopilot. The accounts that come through this transition cleanly will be the ones that understand AI Max’s controls before they become mandatory. If you want help auditing your Google Ads structure or building an AI Max strategy that protects your branded traffic, the team at Rosh Media works with Google PPC and AI search every day. You can also explore our Pay Per Click services to see how we approach campaigns in this new AI-driven landscape.
AI Max is no longer an optional experiment — it is becoming the backbone of Google search advertising. The branded search toggle is a reminder that as Google hands more decisions to automation, the advertisers who win are the ones who know exactly which levers they still control.
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