The Advertising Skill Set Built Over 20 Years Is Being Automated. The Shift Isn’t Optional

The voluntary migration window is open but closes when automatic upgrades begin in September

This isn't a Google product update. It's a structural shift in how paid search works, and both major platforms are executing it on roughly the same timeline.

Google announced this week that starting in September, it will stop allowing advertisers to create new Dynamic Search Ad campaigns. Existing DSA, automatically created asset, and campaign-level broad match campaigns will be automatically migrated to AI Max, its newer AI-powered campaign suite. Google expects all eligible migrations completed by end of September.

This isn't optional. Your campaigns will be migrated whether you touch them or not.

At the same time, Microsoft retired standalone Target CPA and Target ROAS as bidding strategies for new campaigns in August 2025 and has since pushed all automation through Performance Max and Microsoft Copilot, its AI-powered campaign management system. Microsoft's own first-party research, published August 2025, shows Copilot users drive 73% higher click-through rates and 16% stronger conversion rates compared to traditional search advertising, with customer journeys compressing by 33%.

Both platforms are executing the same play. The question isn't whether AI-led campaign management is coming. It's here.

What Google Is Actually Saying About Your Keyword Strategy

Google framed the AI Max migration carefully. When asked directly whether this update reduces the role of manual keyword strategy, a Google spokesperson responded:

"Keywords remain an essential component of a successful campaign strategy, providing the 'fuel' for our AI and for the intent signals necessary to drive performance."

Read that slowly. Keywords are now described as fuel. Not the strategy. The fuel.

That framing is telling. You're not building a campaign structure anymore. You're feeding inputs into a system that makes its own decisions about where, when, and how to show your ads. That's a fundamentally different job description than what most PPC professionals have spent careers developing.

How Significant Is the Performance Gap?

Google's own data on AI Max shows an average 7% lift in conversions or conversion value at similar efficiency for non-retail campaigns when advertisers use the full feature set, including search term matching, text customization, and final URL expansion together. That's compared to search term matching alone.

Seven percent isn't a dramatic number. But it represents Google's conservative public estimate for a migration that's being forced on every eligible advertiser regardless. That's not a test. That's a platform-wide reset.

Microsoft's Copilot data is more striking. According to Microsoft Advertising's first-party research covering November 2024 through May 2025, ads in Copilot conversational search drive 73% higher click-through rates and 16% stronger conversion rates compared to traditional search. Customer journeys are 33% shorter, meaning fewer steps between first interaction and purchase.

For advertisers still managing campaigns the traditional way, those numbers represent the gap between where the platforms are investing and where legacy campaign structures are operating.

DSA Was Already an Admission That Keywords Weren't Enough

It's worth understanding what DSA actually was. It existed because keyword campaigns had structural limitations. Advertisers couldn't anticipate every relevant query, so Google built a system that dynamically matched users to landing pages based on website content. DSA was a workaround for keyword coverage gaps.

AI Max makes DSA redundant by solving the underlying problem differently. Instead of using your website to fill keyword gaps, it uses real-time intent signals, your existing creative inputs, and a broader view of search behavior to expand reach and customize messaging dynamically. The landing page matching is smarter, the copy customization is richer, and the expansion logic isn't constrained by what's indexed on your website.

Removing DSA isn't Google taking something away. It's Google consolidating toward a system that does what DSA was trying to do, but better.

Microsoft Is Running the Same Playbook

Microsoft's version of this story is Performance Max and Copilot. PMax campaigns run across the full Microsoft ecosystem including Bing Search, Outlook, MSN, LinkedIn, Xbox, and Windows. Copilot ads now appear directly inside AI-generated search responses, with Microsoft placing them based on the entire conversation context, not just the most recent query.

Microsoft retired Target CPA and Target ROAS as standalone bidding strategies because they're no longer the right abstraction for how their system optimizes. Maximize Conversions and Maximize Conversion Value, with optional targets nested inside them, are the new default. Manual bid control is being replaced by target-setting within AI-managed frameworks.

The feature gap between Google and Microsoft is closing fast. Both platforms are moving advertisers toward the same model:

• define your business objectives

• provide quality creative inputs

• set appropriate guardrails

• let the AI determine how to reach those goals

Why the Migration Timeline Is the Part That Should Concern You

The campaigns being retired aren't fringe campaign types. DSA, ACA, and broad match settings have been core tools in paid search management for years. Removing them isn't a minor cleanup.

For businesses running these campaign types, the practical risk isn't the migration itself. Google has said it will preserve campaign history, settings, and URL controls through the automatic migration process. The risk is running an auto-migrated campaign you didn't set up intentionally, with default settings applied, and not noticing until performance has already shifted.

The businesses most exposed are those with accounts that haven't been actively managed, where nobody has the context to evaluate whether AI Max's defaults are appropriate for their goals, audience, or category.

For ACA campaigns, search term matching and text customization will be turned on by default. For broad match campaigns, search term matching will be enabled. Those defaults may or may not align with what your business actually needs. You won't know unless you're in the account before September doing that evaluation yourself.

What Should Actually Happen Now

Google is rolling out upgrade tools for DSA campaigns this week. ACA and broad match advertisers will see in-platform prompts to switch. The voluntary migration window is open now and closes when automatic upgrades begin in September.

Migrating manually means controlling initial configuration, keeping your settings intentional, and having time to test AI Max before the forced migration removes that option. The hard deadline is September. The businesses that come out of this with clean setups and interpretable data will be the ones who moved before the deadline rather than after it.

If you're working with an agency or in-house team managing these campaign types, this conversation needs to happen in the next few weeks.

Where This Leaves Advertising Professionals

The professionals most at risk from this transition aren't the ones who can't use AI tools. They're the ones whose entire value proposition is built on campaign structures that are being retired.

The shift both platforms are making doesn't eliminate the need for expertise. It changes where expertise is applied. Campaign architecture decisions are moving from ad group structure and bid settings into the quality of inputs:

• what signals you give the AI

• what creative assets you provide

• what conversion events you're optimizing for

• how accurately those events reflect actual business value

Feeding a poorly configured AI Max campaign better data won't fix the underlying problem. It'll produce more efficiently optimized outcomes against the wrong goals.

The professionals who will thrive in this environment are the ones who understand measurement, who can interpret AI-generated performance signals, and who can identify what the system needs in order to work correctly. That's a more strategic job than managing match types, and it's harder to commoditize. If you're building a practice in this space, that's where your positioning needs to live.

Auto-migration means Google sets the defaults. That's fine if your campaigns are simple. If they're not, default settings will cost you. We're helping mid-market advertisers audit and migrate before the deadline. Book a call and let's look at your account together.

Sources: 

Search Engine Land

Google Ads Help

Microsoft Advertising Research

PPC Land