Is your account ready for Google AI Max? Pre-checklist

AI Max is Google’s latest keywordless targeting system.

While you need keywords to rank first, Google uses signals beyond keywords to determine how to show ads to searchers.

For accounts with a strong track record of extensive game success, AI Max can be effective in finding new conversions.

If the accounts are not well executed or not successful with broad matches, AI Max can be a huge money pit.

Clearing the rumor before we get into the data: you don’t have to use AI Max for ads to appear in AI Overview.

Broad match keywords can show ads in AI Overview regardless of your use of AI Max.

We consider AI Max a conversion option, not just an AI Overview display option.

This article examines the review steps you should take before deciding to test AI Max.

What to check before enabling AI Max

Accurate conversion tracking

Your conversion tracking should be accurate, repeatable, and focused on business results. AI Max prepares for what you defined as success.

If you don’t track all of your conversions, or if your conversions are inflated, AI Max will be working with the wrong data and making bad decisions.

Automated bidding with a conversion-focused strategy

Broad matching only works well if you have a conversion-focused bid strategy, such as:

Our tests with AI Max have shown that it is more predictable with target options (Target CPA or Target ROAS) than big bid options (Increase conversion rate or Increase conversions).

Since the Max conversion options are designed to help you as much as possible, regardless of CPA or ROAS, they will usually continue to use your budget when the next set of conversions have the highest CPAs or the lowest ROAS.

If you’re using AI Max as one of the larger bid options, take a close look at your budget and AI Max data.

Conversion volume

Technically, you can enable AI Max without campaign modification.

However, with less than 30 conversions per month, AI Max has been very flexible.

At over 100 conversions per month, it’s done pretty well, considering you’ve had success with extensive matching in the past.

In general, you’ll want to test AI Max for campaigns with at least 30 conversions per month.

If you’re going to test AI Max, starting with non-brand campaigns with high conversion volume will usually give you a better introduction to AI Max’s potential in your account.

No share of vision is lost due to budget

If you’re already losing impressions because of your budget, your handpicked keywords will get less budget if you enable AI Max.

The goal is to spend as much money as possible on your top keywords, then test AI Max on a budget that you can’t spend.

If you’re already losing impressions because of your budget, enabling AI Max often results in poor performance.

They have shown the success of a wide game

AI Max will treat all of your keywords as broad matches, and expand beyond your broad match keywords.

If you haven’t successfully used extensive matches, enabling AI Max will be a waste of money.

You must first ensure that broad match can work for you, which may require rearranging ad groups, testing new ads, and optimizing your landing pages.

Only after you see good results with wide matches should you try AI Max.

Dig deeper: How to tell if Google’s AI Max search is really working

Should you use URL expansion?

If you enable AI Max, you can extend the URLs of other pages on your website.

This means that Google can choose any page of your website to use as the landing page when AI Max triggers an ad.

Google allows you to exclude URLs. Most sites should not include:

• Help files and support pages.
• Pages not designed for conversion.
• Pages without conversion tracking capabilities.
• Frequently Asked Questions.
• Blogs.
• An examination of the old landing page that still exists.
• Old website designs that are still alive.

Several people have found success using AI Max with blogs and support pages. However, these seem to be different more often than the average result.

AI Max struggled when there were multiple landing pages.

We’ve seen accounts that target different destinations per campaign, and each campaign has its own set of landing pages.

AI Max tends to not match the target location of the campaign with landing pages targeted for other locations.

For example, your California campaigns send all of their traffic to landing pages dedicated to Texas traffic.

If you want to use the AI ​​Max URL extension, and you have landing pages dedicated to different locations, you’ll need to remove all landing pages that don’t match your campaign’s location.

For companies that create dedicated landing pages for each campaign or ad group, I have yet to see an example of AI Max finding better landing pages.

In every example, the AI ​​Max URL extension had to be disabled. Ultimately, this option may work for advertisers, but I have yet to see that happen.

You can review the URLs used by Google and remove them. If you enable URL expansion, you’ll want to update these URLs regularly.

Dive deeper: AI Max in action: What previous examples and a new analysis document reveal

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Should you try auto-generated properties?

My biggest hope for AI Max is the automatically generated assets.

I wish I could enable this only for extensions. AI Max can help you amplify messages dramatically.

It can go into all your ad groups and automatically create sitelinks and callouts at the ad group level.

This level of customization is one that most marketers don’t have time to fully explore.

We had a client enable this feature, and suddenly, all of their sitelinks were linking to pages that weren’t relevant for keywords.

We have seen other clients use this feature, and their calling has improved significantly.

Google still has a ways to go to make it automatically create properties, but this is a feature I have high hopes for.

Unfortunately, you cannot enable this feature for ad-only properties (extensions). If you enable auto-created properties, Google will create additional RSA properties for you.

These goods may cause confusion to customers by:

• Making promises your product doesn’t deliver.
• Using messages that do not comply with regulated industry law or that do not follow your product’s guidelines.

You can write guidelines for how you want your ads to appear and rules for what not to use.

If you’re going to have Google automatically create properties, you’ll want to add a guide to how the ads should be created.

Note that term exclusions and text guidelines (Google’s official names for these features) do not appear to be enabled for all accounts at this time and may still be excluded from advertisers.

Overall, Google’s auto-generated RSA assets have a poor track record, and if you enable them, you’ll want to regularly review what Google creates for you.

How to test AI Max

Since Google has a history of matching broad match keywords with other brands and general keywords, AI Max has been very inconsistent with brand keywords.

I would suggest you start with non-brand keywords to test AI Max.

For most brands, there’s more conversion to be had from non-brand promotion than getting more people already searching for your product.

AI Max can be enabled at the campaign or ad group level.

One of the best ways to run a limited test with AI Max is to enable it only on a few ad groups that have a lot of conversion data and a successful history with broad matching.

On the interface, enabling AI Max for a few ad groups is painfully slow.

You have to enable AI Max at the campaign level, then go into every ad group and turn it off where you don’t want it enabled.

Google Ads Editor allows you to turn AI Max on or off at the ad group level.

If you want to test AI Max on only a few ad groups, use the editor in your initial setup.

Dig deeper: When to trust Google Ads AI and when not to

Is your account ready to test AI Max?

Google has long wanted a keyword-free indexing option for searches. Its first step was Performance Max.

AI Max is another way to introduce marketers to the idea that they don’t have to choose every keyword in their search campaigns.

As with all Google Ads products, they often don’t work well when they’re first launched.

After several years of data collection, optimization, and additional marketer controls, these products are often successful.

AI Max is still a new product. Some accounts have had success with it. Some have only experienced failure.

As with everything related to Google Ads, you should test it before using it extensively.

The best way to test AI Max is to find non-branded ad groups with high conversion volume and a successful history with broad match keywords.

Run tests limited to these ad groups. If you find success, you can expand the ad groups that use AI Max.

During your testing, you should review your search terms, URLs, and automatically generated properties.

If you can’t add these tasks to your workflow, you’re not ready to explore all of AI Max’s features.

The power of AI Max is enormous. However, it is not a good solution for everyone. Its ad writing could be worse.

New search terms can be hit or miss. You must supervise the child. However, saving time and energy is undeniable.

Although I believe there is a bright future for AI Max, you should first ensure that you complete all the steps to ensure that your account is ready for testing.

If you follow the steps outlined in this article, you’ll know when you’re ready to test out AI Max and see what these new campaign options can do for you.