If you work in digital marketing for hotels and haven’t yet heard about AI Max for search campaigns in Google Ads, now is the time to open your eyes.

NB: This is an article from mirai, one of our Expert Partners

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What we’re about to witness marks a before-and-after moment in how travelers search, choose, and book their next destination. In this post, we’ll break down this paradigm shift and what you can do to leverage it in your primary advertising channel.

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The change in Google Ads has already begun

Travelers’ online behavior is evolving at an unprecedented pace. Future guests no longer just search for “hotel in London,” now they say things like:

  • “Hotel near a quiet beach for families with breakfast included”
  • “Accommodation with spa and romantic dinner in Chelsea”
  • “Place with coworking, good coffee, and views in Notting Hill”

And most importantly: they do it via voice, image, text, or even AI-driven conversational queries.

Google has detected that 1 in 4 visual searches have commercial intent, and long-tail searches (5+ words) are growing 1.5 times faster than short ones. Understanding exactly what the user wants has never been more critical, and this goes beyond search intent to even capturing the emotional tone of the person looking for a hotel.

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Source: Google

What is AI Max and why does it change everything?

AI Max is a Google Ads search campaign setting designed to find, attract, and convert customers with unmatched relevance. It uses AI to:

  • Interpret the intent behind every search (even without exact keyword matches)
  • Automatically generate ad copy tailored to each user’s query
  • Select the landing page from your site to redirect the user, not just one, but the best for each individual, in real time.

All while giving you controls and reporting to keep steering your strategy.

What can you do in Google Ads to leverage AI Max?

leverage ai max google ads mirai

Google Ads is evolving with AI Max to offer new features you can activate directly within the platform. It’s not a separate tool, but an advanced setting within your Smart Bidding search campaigns. New AI Max–related features in Google Ads:

1. Activate “Search Term Matching” (matching without keywords)

Until now, Google Ads Smart campaigns have relied on broad-match keywords. This means you cover searches that don’t interest you at first, but after 5–6 weeks, the algorithm filters with proven efficiency those searches close to the set goal (e.g., maximize conversion value).

What will happen now?

– Keywords are now even broader, allowing you to reach users even if they don’t use your exact terms.

  • Find users even if they do not type exactly your keywords.
  • The algorithm will rely on intent, search history, context, location, etc.
  • You’ll capture long, spontaneous, personalized queries, like voice searches.

2. Activate “Automatically Created Assets” (Auto-Generated Ads)

Currently, Google Ads already had an option where AI automated the use of extensions (site links based on web pages, automatic call extensions, price extensions, etc.) based on the content it found on the pages under your domain and when it predicted it could improve ad performance.

Read the full article at mirai