Google Just Killed Broad Match. Here's What Dentists Do Now.

If your practice runs Google Ads, the rulebook just changed.

On April 15, 2026, Brandon Ervin, Director of Product Management at Google Ads, announced that Google is retiring three of the most widely used tools in paid search: Dynamic Search Ads (DSA), automatically created assets (ACA), and the campaign-level broad match setting. All three are being folded into a new suite called AI Max for Search.

The voluntary phase starts this week. In September, Google starts flipping campaigns automatically whether you're ready or not.

Nearly every dental practice I audit is running at least one of these legacy settings — usually broad match or DSA — and most have no idea their campaign is about to get rebuilt under the hood. Here's what you need to know.

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What Google Actually Announced

Three things are being deprecated:

1. Dynamic Search Ads (DSA) — the campaign type that auto-generates headlines and landing page targeting from your website content. Popular with dental practices because it's "set it and forget it."
2. Automatically created assets (ACA) — the feature that writes ad copy variations for you inside standard search campaigns.
3. Campaign-level broad match — the keyword match type that lets Google show your ad for any search it considers "related" to your keywords.

All three are being replaced by AI Max for Search, which Google describes as a unified feature suite with three core components: search term matching, text customization, and final URL expansion. In plain English: Google's AI now decides which queries to show your ad for, rewrites your ad copy on the fly, and can send clicks to any page on your site it thinks is a better match than the one you chose.

Google says campaigns using the full AI Max suite generate 7% more conversions at a similar cost per action compared to using search term matching alone. That's the sales pitch. Whether that number holds up in dental — a category with wildly variable intent between "emergency dentist" and "teeth whitening cost" — is a separate question.

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The Timeline (And Why September Matters)

This rollout has two phases.

Phase 1 — Now: An upgrade banner appears in your Google Ads interface. It's voluntary. Existing DSA campaigns get tools to port historical settings and performance data into new AI Max ad groups.

Phase 2 — September 2026: Automatic upgrades begin for every remaining eligible campaign. Creating new DSA campaigns through Google Ads, Editor, and the API gets disabled. If you haven't migrated manually, Google will do it for you — and your controls, your exclusions, and your match type settings may not survive the transition intact.

September is five months away. If your practice is running any meaningful ad spend through broad match or DSA, you or your agency should be testing the AI Max upgrade path now, not on the day Google forces it.

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Why This Matters More for Dental Than Most Verticals

Dental Google Ads have a specific pathology that makes the AI Max transition risky if you don't audit it.

Intent varies wildly by search term. "Emergency dentist near me" is a same-day high-value lead. "Teeth whitening at home" is usually a tire-kicker. Broad match and AI Max both lean on Google's AI to decide which queries deserve your budget — and that AI doesn't know the difference between your practice's ideal patient and a competitor's.

Negative keyword lists are load-bearing. Most well-run dental accounts have hundreds or thousands of negative keywords blocking queries like "free," "DIY," "for kids" (if you're an adult-only practice), or competitor brand names. AI Max's search term matching can expand beyond your keywords — which means some of the query filtering you've spent years building may get bypassed.

Landing page mismatches waste budget. Final URL expansion can send a patient searching for "dental implants cost" to your blog post about flossing. On a well-structured site this might be fine. On a generic WordPress template where every page looks the same, it's a conversion killer.

If you've been running ads for two-plus years, you've almost certainly built guardrails that the new system may or may not respect. That's the thing worth auditing before September.

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What to Actually Do About It

Here's the playbook, ordered by what to do this week vs. before September.

This week

1. Log into Google Ads and look for the AI Max upgrade banner. If you're running DSA, ACA, or broad match campaigns, you'll see it. Don't click "upgrade" yet — just note which campaigns are affected.
2. Export your current search term reports for every ad group. You need a baseline. When AI Max starts expanding queries post-upgrade, you'll want to know what changed.
3. Pull your negative keyword lists and review them. Make sure the core ones (competitor names, "free," "at-home," service categories you don't offer) are applied at the account level, not just the campaign level. Account-level negatives are harder for AI Max to override.

Before September

4. Test AI Max on one campaign, not all of them. Pick a campaign with solid historical data and use Google's upgrade tool to migrate it. Run it alongside your legacy campaigns for 30-60 days and compare cost per lead, cost per booked appointment, and search term quality.
5. Audit your landing pages for final URL expansion. If AI Max might send traffic anywhere on your site, every page with a service mention needs a phone number above the fold, a clear CTA, and tracking. Most dental websites fail this basic test.
6. Tighten your brand controls and text customization settings. AI Max can rewrite your ad copy. If you have specific language you're legally required to use (or compliance language around specialties), configure brand guidelines inside the AI Max setup — not after the fact.
7. Have a real conversation with your agency. If they can't explain how they're planning to handle the September transition, or if they're just saying "we'll deal with it when it happens," that's a red flag. Here's how to evaluate whether your dental marketing agency is actually adding value.

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The Bigger Pattern

This isn't an isolated announcement. It's part of a much bigger shift — Google turning paid search into something that looks more and more like Performance Max, where advertisers give up granular control in exchange for AI optimization.

If you read my post on how AI is changing dental marketing, this is the same pattern playing out on the paid side. The AI is getting better. The human's job is changing from "pulling the levers" to "setting the boundaries the AI operates inside of."

For dental practices, that means two things matter more than ever:

• Your first-party data — conversion tracking, CRM feedback on lead quality, offline appointment data piped back into Google Ads. AI Max is only as good as the signals you feed it.
• Your negative lists and brand guardrails — the fence around the AI. Without them, AI Max will happily spend your budget on searches that never convert to patients.

The practices that thrive in the AI Max era will be the ones that treat Google's AI like a junior account manager: capable, fast, and occasionally brilliant, but absolutely requires supervision.

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What's Next

I run free competitive audits for practices trying to figure out where their ad spend is actually going — including a live look at what your current Google Ads setup looks like under the hood and whether you're going to take a hit when AI Max kicks in. Book a 20-minute discovery call and I'll walk through it with you on the spot.

If your organization wants this kind of briefing delivered to a study group, DSO leadership team, or dental conference audience, here's my speaking page. AI Max is going to be a recurring topic in dental marketing talks for the rest of 2026.

Sources

• Google's Dynamic Search Ads are upgrading to AI Max — Google Ads & Commerce Blog (primary announcement)
• Google to retire Dynamic Search Ads in favor of AI Max — Search Engine Land
• Google Is Replacing Dynamic Search Ads With AI Max — Search Engine Journal
• Google Replacing Dynamic Search Ads With 'AI Max' — MediaPost
• Google brings AI Max for Search out of beta, will deprecate legacy tools — Marketing Dive
• Google ends Dynamic Search Ads: DSA upgrades to AI Max in September — PPC Land

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I cover shifts like this at dental conferences, study clubs, and DSO leadership meetings throughout the year. If you want this kind of practical, no-fluff marketing intelligence delivered to your team, check out my speaking page.