Written by: Val Riley, VP of Marketing and Strategy, Unbounce and Insightly
If you’ve been lucky enough to be in the beta group for AI Max, you’ve been experiencing what Google is calling “a comprehensive suite of targeting and creative enhancements that brings the best of Google AI to help you take your search campaigns to the next level.”
AI Max beta launched back in May and, as of the start of Q3, was rolling out to accounts globally. You’ll find a lot of experts talking about how to approach AI Max. Just like with the roll-out of Performance Max in late 2021, an iterative approach is the safest way to try it out. With so much riding on your Google spend, you’ll be hard pressed to find a digital marketer willing to go all in.
That said, the promised land that Google is presenting with AI Max is intriguing. The pressure is off to nail the exact right key words. AI Max combines broad match, dynamic creative, and smart bidding to improve query matching. You get the benefit of AI and machine learning powering your ads and it’s all available right in the platform.
I’d like to zero in on the post-click experience, however, because the concept of intent-based traffic hitting your post-click funnel, including your landing pages, presents a host of new opportunities – and complexity.
Will traffic from AI Max convert differently?
On paper, the answer to this question is yes. I’d like to see it prove out, but here is why I am thinking it will work: data. AI Max can use a person’s search history, app usage, location, etc., way more than what they typed in to search. This means that it has a chance to find and deliver high-intent searchers you might have missed out on with traditional keyword or demographic targeting.
Buyers don’t always know what they need—they just know they have a problem, and they know they want it solved fast. But with shrinking attention spans and a growing list of choices, the traditional search experience isn’t enough. Keywords alone can’t decode intent.
That’s where intent-based search comes in. By understanding the broader context, like pain points, search history, and behavior patterns, it connects people with what they actually want, not just what they typed. Google AI Max doubles down on the reality of the search journey, rewarding brands that solve real problems, not just those that chase keywords.
Beyond the conversion, Google says that AI Max looks for outcomes all the way through the funnel to better serve up ads. This means that your full funnel experience has to be top notch.
In my opinion, the Google Ads Quality Update that dropped back in February (to very little fanfare, I might add) was laying the groundwork for AI Max. That update doubled-down on the quality of the post-click experience, pointing out that a dedicated landing page that matched the ad content and was easily navigable was paramount to ad success. It referred to a “new prediction model” that would help determine if the post-click funnel was of high quality and therefore, was worthy of traffic. This model may have been introduced as the beginnings of AI Max.
Was Google giving us all a heads up? I think so. It was a runway of sorts for marketers, letting them know to start creating quality funnels with landing pages per ad (vs. per campaign) that now AI Max can leverage to send traffic to the most likely variation to convert. Google seems to have always had a roadmap to nudge marketers towards relevancy, and now it’s going a step beyond that to reward companies with great solutions to real problems.
What does AI Max mean for digital marketers?
Digital marketers know better than to expect instant results from new features. Just as Performance Max wasn’t a silver bullet, neither is AI Max. Success still requires a thoughtful rollout, often guided by an agency with the right expertise. Many customers are taking a smart, phased approach: testing AI Max incrementally, allocating a portion of their budget, and maintaining guardrails to monitor performance. They’re tracking the full customer journey, from ad click to landing page conversion to sales rep engagement.
Taking things a step further, savvy digital marketers are digging into their Customer Relationship Management system (CRM) to compare how AI Max leads perform through the closed deal phase versus those from Performance Max and traditional Google Ads. That’s the kind of disciplined, data-driven approach that reveals real impact. Tactics like these promote true sales and marketing alignment. It’s a big part of the reason why Unbounce, known for being a landing page builder, acquired a CRM company in 2024. Knowing the full customer journey is key to optimizing for conversion.
Depending on how your team is structured, digital marketers may find themselves spending more time on the post-click experience. What does the landing page look like? Is it a dedicated, hyper-focused experience that matches the ad perfectly. Is there a predictable next step, e.g. a thank you page? How does that experience flow? Diagraming all of the possible routes and outcomes in a tool like Miro makes sense now more than ever. Digital teams should be looking at all of the variations and ensuring each one is a solid path should AI Max send traffic in that direction.
What does AI Max mean for agencies?
I can already hear the cries about AI Max…”it’s the end of the agency.” Not so. Creative thinkers will always play a vital role in marketing, and agencies continue to lead that space. They not only bring big ideas but also ensure ad budgets are managed by experts who know how to leverage the latest tools for meaningful insights. Platforms like AI Max—and before it, Performance Max—give marketers valuable feedback to refine and expand ad funnels and variants. With AI Max, creative teams and digital marketers can test more ideas, iterate faster, and deliver data-driven results for their clients.
CRO in the world of AI Max
Now is the time for marketers to leverage AI Max to improve conversion rate optimization (CRO) to optimize ad spend. A key part is to ensure the full funnel, including the landing pages, are hyper-relevant, highly navigable, and conversion-focused for all types of searchers. I find it exciting that Google is investing heavily in improvements to the ad world. Marketers who rise to this challenge will win.
About the Author
Val has found a home in the technology marketing field, and is currently with her fourth software company. In her current role, she leads content marketing, video production, PR and creative at Unbounce, a 100% distributed workforce across the US and Canada. Prior to this role, she led content and digital marketing for Insightly CRM which was acquired by Unbounce in 2024. She previously served as the head of marketing at ITProTV, an EdTech startup that was acquired in 2022, and she also led product and content marketing at SharpSpring which was acquired by Constant Contact. She has 2 teenagers, 2 cats, and one husband.
