Google Ads has been able to tell you which search query triggered an AI Max ad for months. It has never told you which headline, description or landing page ran against that query, so auditing AI Max's creative decisions meant working from two reports that could not be joined to each other. A new report, appearing in select Google Ads accounts since 13 October 2026, closes that gap. It looks like a small addition to a dropdown menu. What it actually does is let you see, for the first time, whether AI Max's targeting is the problem or its creative is.
Google Ads is rolling out a new "search terms and ad combinations" report for AI Max for Search campaigns, appearing in the Search terms dropdown of select accounts since 13 October 2026. For every search term, it shows the exact headline and description Google paired with it, the landing page the click went to, and whether the match came from AI Max's keywordless or broad-match targeting. Pull it, sort by cost, and for every expensive pairing decide whether the problem is the query, add a negative keyword, the destination, add a negative URL or fix Final URL expansion, or the creative, review or pause the asset. Do not add its numbers to your standard search terms report: Google's own guidance says the two views report many of the same AI-matched queries, so summing them double counts.
What this report actually adds
AI Max for Search campaigns has had a search terms report with an "AI optimized" label for a while, which tells you which queries AI Max matched that your own keywords would not have. What it never showed was the other half of the decision: which specific headline and description Google served against that query, and which landing page the click actually reached. The new report puts both halves in one place.
| Field | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Search term | The exact query AI Max matched, the same value as in the standard search terms report |
| Headline and description | The specific ad copy served against that query. Google concatenates up to three headline assets into one string separated by a pipe character, alongside the description used |
| Landing page | The final URL the click actually reached, which can differ from your default destination URL if Final URL expansion chose a different page |
| Match source | Whether the query came through AI Max's keywordless matching, its broad-match expansion, or your own landing page and URL inclusions |
| Asset source | Whether the headline or description shown was one you wrote, or one Google generated |
Where to find it
In the Google Ads interface, it sits inside the Search terms dropdown above a Search campaign's keyword table, labelled "Search terms and ad combinations." An earlier version of the same feature was reportedly labelled "Search terms and landing pages from AI Max," so do not be thrown if a help article or screenshot you find still uses that name. Through the API, query it directly with the segments.date field, the only segment Google currently supports on this resource. Access is rolling out gradually and Google has not published when every account will have it, so if you do not see it yet, that is expected rather than a configuration problem on your end.
The report only exists for Search campaigns running AI Max. It has no equivalent for Performance Max, and it tells you nothing about a Search campaign that has not been upgraded to AI Max. If you previewed AI Max's generated copy before opting in, we covered that audit separately; this report is for after you are already running it.
The audit: four questions for every expensive pairing
Pull the report for the period since your last AI Max review, sort by cost, and start at the top. For each search term and creative pairing that is spending the most, work through these four questions in order.
- Does the query itself deserve your budget? If the search term is simply the wrong audience, irrelevant to what you sell, or already covered more cheaply by an exact-match keyword, the fix is a negative keyword. This is a targeting problem, and no amount of better creative fixes it.
- Did the click land on the page the query actually asked for? Compare the search term's intent against the landing page column. If Final URL expansion sent a high-intent query to your homepage or a generic category page instead of the page that answers it, the fix is a negative URL on that destination, or a review of your Final URL expansion settings, not a change to targeting.
- Does the headline and description actually answer the query? A query can be exactly right and the destination can be exactly right, and the pairing can still fail because the ad copy is generic enough to say nothing. If the asset source shows a Google-generated headline, that is the one to review or pause first, since it is the easiest to have missed since setup.
- Is the sample big enough to act on? A pairing with a handful of clicks and no conversions is not evidence of anything yet. Reserve action for pairings with enough spend or clicks that the result would survive another week of the same traffic.
Say your top row by cost is the query "emergency plumber near me," paired with a Google-generated headline reading "Reliable Service, Great Prices" and a landing page that is your homepage rather than your emergency-callout page. Walk the four questions: the query is good, so no negative keyword. The destination is wrong, so a negative URL on the homepage for that query, or a look at why Final URL expansion chose it, comes first. The headline is also weak on its own merits, generic enough to apply to any plumber in any city, so it is worth reviewing or pausing regardless of the destination fix. Two separate problems were hiding behind one expensive row, and the standard search terms report would only have shown that the query was converting less than you wanted, not why.
On accounts we manage, we run this report monthly rather than waiting for a cost spike to force the question, because the Google-generated headlines are the asset nobody revisits after setup. Sort by cost once, work the four questions on the top ten rows, and most of the obvious fixes take less time to apply than to find. It is the same ongoing discipline we build into any performance marketing account we manage, rather than a one-off reaction to a new report showing up in the interface.
Two reporting traps this view creates
The report is useful precisely because it exposes detail the standard search terms report does not. That detail comes with two gotchas Google's own documentation calls out directly.
- Do not add the two reports' metrics together. Many of the same AI Max-matched queries appear in both the standard search terms report and this one. Google's guidance is explicit that summing metrics across the two views double counts the overlap.
- Your totals will not reconcile to your campaign numbers, and that is by design. Google excludes search terms with too little query activity from search term reporting to protect searcher privacy. The clicks and cost from those hidden terms still count toward your campaign totals, so the rows you can see in either report will always add up to less than the campaign figure.
A third, smaller trap: if you filter the standard search terms report on the match source field to measure how much traffic AI Max's broad or keywordless targeting is sending overall, know that the filter does not catch every AI-matched query. A bucket Google labels simply "other search terms" falls outside the standard match-source values, so a filtered total will undercount the real figure.
What this changes for how you manage AI Max
Before this report, an advertiser auditing AI Max had one honest option: judge the whole bundle by its output, cost against conversions, and accept that a bad number could be the targeting, the creative, the destination, or some mix of the three. This report lets you separate those causes instead of guessing at them. That matters most for the Google-generated headline and description assets, which most advertisers approved once at setup and have not looked at since. The report is the first place that shows, line by line, which specific generated line is earning its place in the auction, and that is a different kind of check from the broader diagnosis most advertisers have been running since AI Max auto-upgraded Search campaigns in September.
Frequently asked questions
What is the Google Ads search terms and ad combinations report?
It is a dedicated report for AI Max for Search campaigns that pairs each search term with the specific headline, description and landing page Google served against it, plus whether the match came from AI Max's keywordless or broad-match targeting and whether the ad assets were advertiser-provided. Google began rolling it out to select accounts on 13 October 2026, inside the Search terms dropdown as "Search terms and ad combinations."
How is it different from the standard search terms report?
The standard search terms report tells you which queries triggered your ads and labels the ones AI Max matched with an "AI optimized" tag, but it does not show which headline or landing page ran against each query. The search terms and ad combinations report adds that missing link for every search term. The two reports overlap heavily, since many of the same AI-matched queries appear in both, which is why Google warns against adding their metrics together.
How do I access the search terms and ad combinations report?
In the Google Ads interface, open the Search terms dropdown above your Search campaign's keyword table and select "Search terms and ad combinations." Through the API, query the resource with the segments.date field, the only segment currently supported. Access is rolling out gradually, and Google has not published a date for when every account will have it.
Can I add negative keywords directly from this report?
Yes. Selecting a row gives you the option to add it as a negative keyword or a negative URL, the same actions available from the standard search terms report. That makes the report usable for cleanup as well as analysis: once a mismatched pairing is identified, you can act on it from the same screen.
Why don't the totals in this report match my campaign totals?
Google excludes search terms with too little query activity from search term reporting to protect searcher privacy, and this report inherits that exclusion. The clicks and cost from those hidden terms are still counted in your campaign totals, so the visible rows will always add up to less than the campaign number, and that gap is not an error to chase down.
Should I use this report instead of the standard search terms report?
No, use both for different jobs. The search terms and ad combinations report is for auditing which creative paired with which query, since that pairing is invisible anywhere else. The standard search terms report, filtered on the match source field, is still the right place to measure how much traffic AI Max's keywordless and broad-match targeting sends overall. Querying both is fine; summing their metrics together is not.
The takeaway
The report does not change what AI Max does. It changes what you can see. For months, an advertiser running AI Max has had to judge the whole feature by one blended number and guess at which part, the targeting, the creative or the destination, was responsible for it. This report answers that question directly, line by line, for the price of sorting a table by cost. Run the four-question audit on your highest-spending pairings this week, fix what the report tells you to fix, and set a recurring monthly check so the next generic AI-written headline does not sit unreviewed for another quarter.
Sources & further reading
- Search Engine Land, "Google Ads adds search terms and ad combinations report for AI Max"
- Search Engine Roundtable, "Google Ads Search Terms & Ad Combinations As One Report" (October 2026)
- Google Ads API documentation, "AI Max reporting"
- TechWyse, "Google Ads Introduces Search Terms and Ad Combinations Report for AI Max Campaigns"