ORBIT TODAY · {{28th August, 2026}} · ISSUE NO. 03
This week: Google Ads as the overconfident child asking for more freedom while the advertiser stands there holding the house rules.
Google’s AI Max is giving Search campaigns more freedom to understand what people are looking for, generate ad text and choose which page on your website they should land on.
Useful?
Very possibly.
But the more freedom Google gets, the more important it becomes for the advertiser to tell it where the boundaries are..
IN THIS BRIEFING
Google is moving beyond the old model of:
“I chose this search, this ad and this landing page.”
AI Max can now make more of those connections itself.
The opportunity: it may uncover demand you never planned for manually.
The risk: the customer may want something the business doesn’t actually want to sell.
The operator question: how much freedom should you really give it?
01 · PLATFORM / TOPIC
The Changing Dynamics
What changed
AI Max gives Google more freedom in three areas:
Search Term Matching
Google can understand searches beyond the exact ones you planned for.
Text Customization
Google can generate additional ad text it thinks better matches the search.
Final URL Expansion
Google can choose another relevant landing page from your website instead of always sending the user to the page you originally selected.
So the workflow changes.
Why it matters
Imagine you sell:
Running shoes.
Trail shoes.
Walking shoes.
But this campaign is specifically built to sell running shoes.
Someone searches:
“Best shoes for rocky trails.”
Google sees the intent.
Trail shoes.
Makes sense.
So it may decide the trail-shoe page is a better destination than the running-shoe page you originally selected.
From the shopper’s point of view?
Great.
From the advertiser’s point of view?
Maybe not.
What if:
Trail shoes have terrible margins.
Inventory is almost gone.
Another campaign already owns that category. Or the entire reason this campaign exists is because you need to clear running-shoe stock.
Google can understand the customer’s intent perfectly and still miss the business’s intent.
CUSTOMER INTENT ≠ BUSINESS INTENT
Google can be right about what someone wants and still make the wrong commercial decision for the advertiser.
A relevant click is not automatically a valuable click.
The platform understands the search.
The advertiser understands why the campaign exists.
What the operator should do/watch
If you’re selling one specific product:
Check whether Final URL Expansion gives Google more freedom than the campaign actually needs.
If the whole campaign is about one product, one offer or one page, tighter control may make more sense.
If you sell many products:
Decide which pages Google is allowed to explore.
Exclude pages that are:
Out of stock.
Low margin.
Old promotions.
Irrelevant to the campaign.
Not ready for paid traffic.
After launch:
Check where Google is actually sending people.
Don’t assume the page you originally selected is still doing all the work.
When the website changes:
Audit again.
BEFORE YOU GIVE GOOGLE MORE FREEDOM, ASK:
What are we actually trying to sell?
Which parts of the website are in bounds?
Which pages should never receive this campaign’s traffic?
And if Google finds something unexpected that converts:
Is it genuinely good business - or just a good-looking platform number?
ORBIT TAKE
Google knows what the customer is looking for.
You know what you’re actually trying to sell.
AI Max becomes useful when those two intentions meet.
And when they don’t?
That’s where the advertiser still earns their seat at the table.