This month Google began automatically upgrading campaigns to AI Max. If you were
By Michael Erickson Facchin ยท September 28, 2026 ยท Curated by George's Blog
This month Google began automatically upgrading campaigns to AI Max. If you were using automatically created assets or campaign-level broad match, your account probably changed while you were doing something else.
I've watched this exact movie before. On a different platform. With a different cast.
I've spent my career in a slightly odd position - running a Google Ads agency since 2012 and an Amazon PPC software company since 2017. Two platforms, same decade, and I get to watch them make the same moves several years apart. It's like having a time machine that only works on ad tech, which is the least glamorous possible time machine.
Here's the pattern, and it has now run twice:
๐๐ญ๐๐ ๐ ๐จ๐ง๐: ๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎ ๐ฌ๐๐ญ ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐๐ข๐. Skill means precision. The best practitioner is the one with the most granular structure and the steadiest hand.
๐๐ญ๐๐ ๐ ๐ญ๐ฐ๐จ: ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐ฉ๐ฅ๐๐ญ๐๐จ๐ซ๐ฆ ๐จ๐๐๐๐ซ๐ฌ ๐ญ๐จ ๐ฌ๐๐ญ ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐๐ข๐, ๐๐ง๐ ๐ฌ๐ฐ๐๐๐ซ๐ฌ ๐ข๐ญ'๐ฌ ๐จ๐ฉ๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง๐๐ฅ. Everyone who tries it too early gets burned, writes a thread about it, and concludes automation is a scam.
๐๐ญ๐๐ ๐ ๐ญ๐ก๐ซ๐๐: ๐ข๐ญ ๐ฌ๐ญ๐จ๐ฉ๐ฌ ๐๐๐ข๐ง๐ ๐จ๐ฉ๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง๐๐ฅ. Not by announcement by default. The manual path still technically exists, the way a staircase exists next to an escalator.
๐๐ญ๐๐ ๐ ๐๐จ๐ฎ๐ซ ๐๐ง๐ ๐ญ๐ก๐ข๐ฌ ๐ข๐ฌ ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐จ๐ง๐ ๐ฉ๐๐จ๐ฉ๐ฅ๐ ๐ฆ๐ข๐ฌ๐ฌ: the skill doesn't disappear. It relocates. It moves from ๐๐ฅ๐๐๐ข๐ก๐๐๐ the decision to ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ฆ๐๐๐ it. From "what should this bid be" to "what is a conversion actually worth to me, and have I told the machine the truth about that."
Amazon ran this play years ago. Google is mid-stage-three right now.
So here's what I'd tell anyone panicking about the AI Max upgrade, having already lived through the Amazon version:
๐๐ก๐ ๐ฉ๐๐จ๐ฉ๐ฅ๐ ๐ฐ๐ก๐จ ๐ ๐จ๐ญ ๐ก๐ฎ๐ซ๐ญ ๐ฐ๐๐ซ๐ ๐ง๐จ๐ญ ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐จ๐ง๐๐ฌ ๐ฐ๐ก๐จ ๐๐๐จ๐ฉ๐ญ๐๐ ๐๐๐ซ๐ฅ๐ฒ ๐จ๐ซ ๐ฅ๐๐ญ๐. They were the ones who adopted โ๐๐๐๐ค๐๐ฆ gave up the control, never did the work that makes automation safe, and then blamed the robot. Half-automated is the worst square on the board.
๐๐ก๐ ๐ฐ๐จ๐ซ๐ค ๐ญ๐ก๐๐ญ ๐ฆ๐๐ค๐๐ฌ ๐ข๐ญ ๐ฌ๐๐๐ ๐ข๐ฌ ๐ฎ๐ง๐ ๐ฅ๐๐ฆ๐จ๐ซ๐จ๐ฎ๐ฌ ๐๐ง๐ ๐ข๐ญ ๐ข๐ฌ ๐๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐ฎ๐ฉ๐ฌ๐ญ๐ซ๐๐๐ฆ. Conversion values that reflect margin, not revenue. Exclusions for pages that should never receive paid traffic. Brand controls set deliberately. None of it is clever. All of it is the difference.
๐๐ง๐ ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐ช๐ฎ๐ข๐๐ญ ๐ฉ๐๐ซ๐ญ: no platform has ever, in the history of this industry, suggested you spend less. Their automation is excellent. It is also not your CFO.
The golden age of PPC was never the era when the tools were dumb enough to need us. It's whichever era we're still asking better questions than the machine is.
That one I'm fairly confident survives the upgrade.