Google AI Max Asset Checklist
Asset, pin, feed, URL-expansion and claims checklist for AI Max on Search — plus the PMax/Demand Gen files AI Max will not invent for you.
AI Max is an automation layer inside campaigns (Search first), not a second Performance Max. It expands matching, can write text from your site, and can pick a URL. This checklist is the assets, pins, feed and claims gates you still own — auto-upgrades in 2026 are a reason to learn it, not a reason to skip the human pass.
AI Max is not PMax and it is not a creative department
Performance Max is a campaign type across Search, YouTube, Display, Discover and more. AI Max is a feature suite — broader matching, text customisation, final-URL expansion — that Google has been folding eligible Search (and Shopping-adjacent) campaigns into, with automatic upgrades on the calendar. You still need product truth, a feed, and real creative. AI Max will not cast a UGC avatar or cut a 15–60s 9:16 file. That file still comes from you. Confusing the names in a weekly report is how you 'turn on AI' twice and cannot explain cannibalisation. Keep brand Search labelled, and keep a human claims pass on every generated line.
Fill the RSA-class assets, then pin what is specific
Text customisation generates extra headlines and descriptions from your domain, landing pages, existing ads and keywords. Unpinned generated lines will cycle with whatever Google adds later, including sentences you would never type. Your job is a full set of human assets first: headlines that contain a noun or a true constraint, descriptions that rebut a real objection, sitelinks that go to pages you would buy traffic for. Then pin the lines that carry the offer and the claim. Kill anything that would still work if you swapped your domain for a competitor's. Gemini inside Google Ads is a draft engine with the same rule: feed a SKU brief, not a homepage crawl.
URL expansion and the feed are claims surfaces
Final URL expansion lets Google pick a landing page per query. That can match long-tail intent; it can also send a high-intent click to an old blog or a policy-risky claim page. Use page controls. Exclude what you would never buy media for. Merchant Center titles, prices and availability must match the live PDP or AI Max will advertise a lie at scale. Conversion volume still matters: starving campaigns with thin conversion history make matching look random. Do not pause Meta UGC tests to fund a six-week Google learning clock — two clocks, named budgets. Video for YouTube still lives in PMax or Demand Gen asset groups, not in an AI Max toggle.
How to use the tables below
Work top to bottom: text assets and pins, extensions, feed and URL controls, conversion and audience seeds, then the YouTube/PMax files AI Max will not create. Each row is a pass threshold. Generate talking-head 9:16 in Klip Kanvas for Demand Gen and PMax; paste proof nouns into AI Max headlines rather than uploading the vertical file into Search. If a generated line is not on the claims list, it is dead, not 'saved for later'. Screenshot auto-apply toggles on day one so a UI change cannot silently opt you in.
6 checklists: RSA/AI Max text assets and pins, extensions, Merchant Center + URL expansion gates, conversion and audience seeds, YouTube/PMax video still required, and a 10-point launch QA — every row is Pass/Fail or a numeric band.
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