ai max for search campaigns in india (2026): what to keep, change and switch off

keywords are now hints, not rules. in the ai max era your landing page is your keyword list and your conversion data is your bid strategy, and that changes what indian advertisers should keep, change and switch off.

• automatically created assets and campaign-level broad match were set to move into ai max in september 2026. the automatic dsa upgrade slipped to february 2027 (search engine journal).
• google said it would remove campaign-level language targeting from search, ai max and the search part of performance max in late september 2026. nothing replaces it (search engine land).
• google holds about 97% of search in india (statcounter, march 2026, as reported by exchange4media), so these changes touch almost every indian search budget.
• conversion lift opened to search and performance max in early october 2026, for accounts with at least 1,000 observed conversions (search engine land).
• cashify saw 15% more conversions at 12% lower acquisition cost in early ai max tests (google-reported, via techcrunch).

google ads ai max: keywords are now hints, not rules

google ads ai max adds three layers to a normal search campaign: search term matching (it finds queries beyond your keywords), text customisation (it rewrites headlines from your site) and final url expansion (it picks the landing page). your keywords still matter, but as a starting signal. your pages and your conversions now steer the rest.

you used to tell google which searches to buy. now you tell it what you sell and who became a customer, and it finds more of them.

you still have controls. google lets you opt a campaign out, turn search term matching off per ad group, switch off text customisation and url expansion, and add url and brand exclusions (google ads api docs; google ads help). url expansion only works while text customisation is on.

this is why your landing page now does the job your keyword list used to do. if the page is vague, google's matching will be vague too. our guide to landing pages for lead generation covers how to write one page per offer.

google ads changes 2026: the dates that matter in india

three 2026 google ads changes matter most to indian advertisers: the ai max migration, the loss of language targeting, and conversion lift for search and performance max. each one moves control away from settings and towards the signals you give google: your pages, your assets and your conversions.

keep, change or switch off: the ai max decision table

there's no single right ai max setting. keep it on where you have steady conversion data and a clear website. restrict it where one wrong query costs you a lot. switch parts off where your landing pages can't be trusted to describe the offer, or where regulators care what your ads say.

this is how we'd set ai max for search campaigns by account type, as of october 2026.

the rule behind the table is simple. the costlier a wrong match, the more you restrict.

google ads language targeting removed: running telugu, hindi and english ads

with google ads language targeting removed, google decides language from the search query, your ad text, your landing page and what it knows about the user. so the language of your ad and page is now your targeting. hyderabad advertisers should build separate ad groups and pages for telugu, hindi and english searches.

google confirmed that nothing replaces the setting (search engine land). language settings still apply to the youtube, display, discover and gmail parts of performance max, according to google's notice as reported by techwyse. so one performance max campaign now follows two language rules at once.

a practical setup for a hyderabad business

• one ad group per language, not one campaign per language with a setting that no longer exists.
• keywords in the script people type. telugu script, hindi in devanagari, and romanised telugu or hindi ("flats in kondapur rate entha") kept separate from english.
• ads written in the same language and script as each ad group's keywords. don't mix scripts in one ad.
• a landing page per language, or at least a translated hero, headline and form. google reads the page to decide where you match.
• url exclusions so ai max can't send a telugu search to your english page, or the other way round.
• check search terms weekly by language for the first month, and add negatives where google guessed wrong.

our marut drones campaigns ran across 13 states, with state-specific creative and forms. that kind of page-level work is what now does the job the language setting used to do on search.

performance max lead generation: what changes when search is ai-driven too

performance max lead generation works only when google can tell a real lead from a form-filler. optimise pmax for submitted forms and it will find people who submit forms, including bots. optimise it for leads your sales team marks as qualified and it learns to find buyers. ai max makes search behave the same way.

search and performance max now share one logic, so one bad conversion action can spoil both. three fixes:

• use search themes and brand exclusions in pmax so it doesn't take credit for your own brand searches.
• give each asset group its own landing page, for the same reason ai max needs clear pages.
• count qualified leads, not form fills, as the primary conversion.

demand gen also changes through google's monthly feature "drops". the latest one we could confirm is the august 2026 drop, so check what has changed before you copy last quarter's setup.

enhanced conversions for leads: your conversion data is your bid strategy

enhanced conversions for leads sends a hashed email or phone number from your form to google, then matches it to the lead's later outcome in your crm. that's how google learns which clicks became sales. in the ai max era, this signal decides who google finds for you, so it matters more than any bid setting.

send google every form fill and it finds more form fills. send it qualified leads and site visits from your crm and it finds more of those.

there is also a technical change to check. google ads api v26 removes the old enhanced conversions for leads field and replaces it with a single account-level enhanced conversions setting, as reported by relevant audience. if a script or connector sends your conversions to google, ask whoever maintains it whether it has been updated. once these signals flow, keep the monthly view to the few numbers that drive decisions (why we don't send 47-slide reports).

for lodha developers, 45 flats were sold with sales attributed 100% to digital, at a conversion rate 3.8x the industry average. the lesson carries over to google: define a serious buyer, then feed that definition back to the platform.

conversion lift google ads: how to prove the ads worked

conversion lift in google ads splits people into a group that can see your ads and a group that can't, then compares conversions. the difference is the sales your ads actually caused. as of october 2026 it covers search and performance max, for accounts with at least 1,000 observed conversions and a study budget of about us$5,000.

trade press calls it self-serve, but google's own help page still says conversion lift isn't available to every account and points advertisers to their account representative (google ads help). the same page says results near those minimums may only be directional, meaning below 90% confidence. most indian smb accounts won't qualify yet.

if you don't qualify, run a simple holdout. pause one city for two weeks and compare crm leads with a similar city that kept running. it's rough, but it's better than trusting platform attribution.

google ads cost in india, and google ads vs facebook ads in the ai max era

google ads cost in india depends far more on your conversion rate than on your cost per click. ai max can lower cost per lead by finding cheaper queries, or raise it by buying junk. against meta, google wins where people already search for what you sell, and meta wins where you need to create demand.

cpcs swing by city, industry and season. treat any single cpc figure without a stated method with suspicion, and judge google on cost per qualified lead instead.

the google ads vs facebook ads choice is rarely either/or. for one saas client, a targeted linkedin and meta mix delivered 3x trial signups. a useful rule: if people already type your category into google, start with search. if they don't know your category exists yet, start with meta.

your first 30 days with ai max

give ai max a controlled first month. fix your conversion data first, then your landing pages, then turn ai max on in one campaign while a second campaign stays as it is. after two weeks of search terms you will have real evidence to decide what to keep, change or switch off.

who wrote this, how and why

who: puneetraj chavan, founder of rapchik media, with 8+ years running performance marketing for 30+ brands across india and the us.

how: product changes and dates come from google's own announcements, documentation and trade press, checked on 17 october 2026. platform-reported figures, such as cashify's results, were not independently audited. client results come from rapchik case studies.

why: most ai max guides are written for us accounts, and indian advertisers deal with more languages, smaller budgets and patchier crm data, which changes which settings make sense.

• google: google ads help: ai max for search · google ads api: ai max reporting and controls · google ads help: conversion lift · google: august 2026 demand gen drop · google: india financial services verification
• ai max and dsa timeline: search engine journal: dsa migration deadline extended · search engine land: dsa migration delayed to february 2027
• language and measurement: search engine land: language targeting removed · techwyse: language targeting and performance max · search engine land: conversion lift for search and pmax · relevant audience: google ads api v26
• india: techcrunch: ai max india launch and cashify · social samosa: ai max in india · exchange4media: dsa retirement and india search share

want a second opinion on your ai max settings? see our performance marketing services or talk to us.

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written by puneetraj chavan

founder of rapchik media. 8+ years scaling 30+ brands across india and the us, from agri-drones to a us job portal. strategy and execution, same brain.

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