By the Mayab Media Team
Most advertisers treat Microsoft Ads as a copy of Google. Import, set a lower budget, check it once a month. That habit just got riskier. AI Max is now live on Microsoft, and if you import from Google, you may have switched it on without meaning to.
What Microsoft launched
In an August 27, 2026 post, Microsoft Advertising said AI Max for Search is now available to all advertisers. Search Engine Journal covered the global rollout on August 19, following an April 21 announcement and an open pilot that started in May.
It mirrors Google's version with three features:
- Search term matching: reaches queries beyond your keyword list, using your keywords, ads, landing pages and intent signals, including conversational searches on Bing and Copilot.
- Text customization: generates extra ad messaging from your assets and website. It replaces auto-generated assets in responsive search ads.
- Final URL expansion: sends people to whichever page on your site Microsoft thinks fits best.
The defaults are where you need to pay attention:
- AI Max is enabled by default for new Search campaigns, though you can turn it off at creation or later.
- Google Ads imports carry over AI Max settings, and scheduled imports keep inheriting them on each sync.
- If you already used predictive matching or auto-generated text assets, SEJ reports those moved under AI Max and the matching AI Max setting was switched on automatically. The rest stays off unless you opt in.
- Google AI Max campaigns that were upgraded from Dynamic Search Ads convert back to DSA on import, and Microsoft says DSA stays supported "until further notice."
Controls at launch include brand inclusions and exclusions, term exclusions for generated text, and URL rules for final URL expansion. Your negatives, bidding, budgets and targeting still apply. Prompt-based messaging guidelines are listed as coming soon.
On results, Microsoft says early tests showed at least an 8% conversion increase versus campaigns with AI Max off. Its footnote cites 44 A/B experiments run June to August 2026, with a spend-weighted uplift of about 13.6%, though only ten were statistically significant. Microsoft also says uplift was higher for campaigns relying more on exact and phrase match.
Why this matters to your budget
Microsoft traffic is often cheaper and, for many B2B and older-skewing audiences, quite good. But it's usually the account people check least. That's the danger. An automation feature that's quietly expanding queries and rewriting copy in an account nobody looks at is how a "cheap" channel becomes an expensive one.
The import piece makes it worse. If Google auto-upgraded your Search campaigns to AI Max on September 1, and you sync to Microsoft on a schedule, those settings can flow straight across. You'd be running AI Max on two platforms without having decided to on either.
To be fair, Microsoft's own data looks decent, and its finding that tighter keyword campaigns benefited more is interesting. We'd just want to see it in your numbers, not theirs.
Your Microsoft Ads check, step by step
- List your Search campaigns and check the AI Max toggle on each. Note which of the three features are on. Do this before anything else.
- Review your import settings. If you run scheduled Google imports, decide whether you want AI Max settings to follow. If not, adjust before the next sync, then recheck after it runs.
- Look for the "AI optimized" match type. Microsoft added it to search term and keyword reports. Filter for it and check cost, conversions and query relevance over the last 30 days.
- Add brand controls. If you run brand and non-brand separately, use brand lists so AI Max doesn't blur them. Brand traffic is cheap and you don't want it inflating non-brand results.
- Set term exclusions and URL rules. Block words you'd never want in your ads, like "free" or "cheapest," if they don't fit. Restrict final URL expansion to pages that actually convert.
- Test before you trust. Microsoft made optimization experiments generally available in September for Search, Shopping, Audience and PMax. Use one to run AI Max against a control with a clear CPA target.
- Put Microsoft on your weekly calendar. Fifteen minutes a week. Search terms, spend, conversions. That's enough to catch drift early.
Our take
We like that Microsoft shipped real controls on day one and published its test methodology, even with the caveats. That's more transparency than we usually get.
But "on by default for new campaigns" plus "inherited through imports" means plenty of accounts will run it by accident. Our rule is the same on both platforms: automation is fine when you chose it, measured it and set guardrails. Anything else is just spending money and hoping.
Takeaway: Check every Microsoft Search campaign and your import settings for AI Max now, and turn on only what you'll actually measure.
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