Liam Walsh
Liam is a Co-Director at Intelligency and heads up the agency's Digital Intelligence & Paid Social activity. Over the last decade, he has worked with brands from the world of sports such as Premier League clubs to entertainment such as Channel 4 and Disney.
Google’s decision to phase out Dynamic Search Ads (DSA) in favour of AI Max marks a notable shift in search advertising. While it is being positioned as progress, marketing departments should approach this change with a degree of scrutiny. Increased automation can drive efficiency, but it also reduces visibility and control, raising important questions about transparency, performance, and long-term reliance on Google’s ecosystem.
A Strategic Shift Away from DSAs
Dynamic Search Ads have long offered a practical way to capture incremental demand, particularly where keyword coverage was incomplete. They were not perfect, but they gave marketers a relatively clear view of how queries mapped to content and performance.
With Google removing the ability to create new DSA campaigns and automatically migrating existing ones, advertisers are being steered toward a more consolidated, AI-led approach. This shift limits optionality and signals a move away from tools that allowed for more hands-on management.
AI Max: Greater Efficiency or Reduced Control?
AI Max promises a more integrated approach, combining keywords, creative, and landing pages into a single system that optimises in real time. In theory, this should improve efficiency and performance.
However, that efficiency comes with trade-offs. As automation increases, the ability to see exactly how decisions are made can diminish. For marketing leaders, this raises valid concerns about where budgets are being allocated, how messaging is being adapted, and what levers remain available for meaningful optimisation.
Preparing for an Opaquer Future
As the transition unfolds, marketing teams will need to balance adoption with caution. Success will still depend on strong inputs such as high-quality creative and landing pages, but oversight becomes more challenging when decision-making is abstracted into AI systems.
Rather than fully embracing the shift at face value, leaders should test incrementally, monitor performance closely, and push for as much transparency as possible. This is not just a change in tools. It is a shift in control.
Ultimately, AI Max may deliver results, but it also concentrates more power within Google’s platform. For marketing teams, the priority should be ensuring that efficiency gains do not come at the expense of clarity, accountability, and strategic flexibility.
