Google Delays Dynamic Search Ads Migration to 2027

Dynamic Search Ads have been on a path towards retirement for the best part of a year, with Google steering advertisers onto its newer, AI-driven campaign types. The original plan forced the issue: campaign creation was being switched off, and any DSA campaigns still running would be migrated automatically in September 2026. This update softens both deadlines. Advertisers now have until January 2027 before they lose the ability to build new DSAs, and until February 2027 before the automatic migration begins.

For a UK agency managing search budgets across a portfolio of clients, this is a meaningful piece of breathing room. It changes the urgency of a project that, for many accounts, was about to become a forced march. It does not, however, change the destination. DSA is still being wound down, and the smart response is to use the extra months to migrate on your own terms rather than waiting for Google to do it for you.

How the revised timeline works

Dynamic Search Ads work by matching searches to the content of your website rather than to a fixed list of keywords. Google crawls your pages, then dynamically generates the headline and landing page for each query it judges relevant. For ecommerce catalogues and large service sites, DSA has long been a useful way to capture long-tail queries that would be impractical to build out by hand.

The campaign type Google wants advertisers to move to is AI Max for Search, which it describes as an asset-based, AI-driven evolution of the standard Search campaign. In practice that means broad match keywords paired with Smart Bidding and automatically generated assets, with the targeting and creative decisions handed largely to Google's models. Remaining DSA campaigns that are not migrated manually will be converted to Performance Max or an AI-powered Search campaign when the automatic migration runs.

The revised schedule has four checkpoints. From June 2026, DSA campaign creation is fully restored, so advertisers can create and edit DSA campaigns as normal. Between June 2026 and January 2027 there is an extended testing and voluntary migration window. In January 2027 the ability to create new DSAs is removed. In February 2027 the automatic migration begins, and any DSA campaigns still active at that point are upgraded without further input from the advertiser.

Google's reasoning is straightforward. By restoring creation and moving the hard deadline, it is giving advertisers room to test AI Max against their existing DSA setup and to migrate when the numbers justify it, rather than during a learning phase forced on them by a calendar. The official documentation for the newer campaign types sits in the Google Ads Help Center.

What this looks like in a real account

Consider an ecommerce retailer running a DSA campaign that targets the whole product catalogue and quietly mops up a steady stream of long-tail product searches. Under the original timeline, that campaign would have been migrated automatically in September, dropping the account into a learning phase across the busiest pre-Christmas trading weeks. The delay removes that risk and lets the retailer run any migration test well clear of peak season.

For a lead generation account, the picture is similar but the stakes sit in cost per acquisition rather than return on ad spend. A law firm or a B2B services business using DSA to catch varied, intent-rich queries can now set up a controlled experiment: keep the DSA campaign running as a baseline, stand up an AI Max for Search campaign alongside it, and compare cost per lead and lead quality over a few weeks before committing budget.

The recommended approach in both cases is the same. Audit the account to find every active DSA campaign and ad group. Use the restored creation function to hold your baseline steady. Then run a side-by-side experiment using Campaign Experiments so the comparison is clean rather than a before-and-after guess. When the AI Max version reaches performance parity, use the one-click upgrade tools in the Google Ads interface, which preserve historical reporting and reduce the learning-phase disruption that comes with a cold start.

What this means for UK advertisers and agencies

The headline for UK advertisers is that nothing breaks this year. If you have DSA campaigns carrying meaningful volume, they keep running, you can keep editing them, and you can build new ones again from 15 June. The work that mattered a fortnight ago still matters, but the deadline has moved from September to the new year, which takes the migration off the critical path for the autumn trading period.

For agencies, the practical task is to treat this as a planned project rather than a fire drill. Pull a list of every client account still leaning on DSA, note how much spend and conversion volume each campaign carries, and rank them by risk. High-spend ecommerce and lead generation accounts deserve a proper side-by-side test before migration. Low-volume or experimental DSA campaigns can simply be left to the automatic upgrade in February, since there is little baseline worth protecting. This is exactly the kind of structural account work that sits at the centre of well-run Google Ads management.

There is also a client communication angle worth getting ahead of. Advertisers who read about DSA being switched off earlier in the year may assume their campaigns are about to disappear. A short note explaining that creation is restored, the deadline has moved to 2027, and a migration plan is in hand will save a round of worried questions. For ecommerce advertisers in particular, framing the change around protecting peak-season performance lands better than a technical explanation of campaign types.

Practical considerations before you migrate

The extra time is genuinely useful, but it is easy to misread it as a reason to do nothing. Google has been clear that the direction of travel is fixed, and February 2027 will arrive whether or not an account is ready. Campaigns left to the automatic migration are converted on Google's terms, with less control over how DSA targets map onto the newer structure and a higher chance of a disruptive learning phase. Proactive migration is the lower-risk path, and the delay simply makes it easier to do well.

It is also worth being realistic about AI Max for Search. Handing targeting and creative to Google's models can lift performance, but it reduces the visibility and manual control that some advertisers rely on, particularly in tightly regulated sectors or accounts with strict brand and messaging rules. The point of a side-by-side test is precisely to find out whether the automated approach holds up for a given account before the choice is taken out of your hands. Do not assume parity, measure it. Build the test on current settings rather than remembered ones, because AI Max for Search is still moving. Campaign-level language targeting was removed from Search and AI Max campaigns in late September 2026.

Finally, keep an eye on the search volume trend for DSA itself, which has been drifting downwards as Google promotes the replacement. The feature is not getting further investment, so even accounts where DSA still performs should treat the current setup as a baseline to migrate from rather than a long-term fixture. Use the months between now and January 2027 to build the replacement properly, with assets, bidding, and conversion tracking in good order, rather than rushing it in the final weeks.

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