Google is testing exact and phrase match Search ads in AI Mode. What changed, what "direct intent" means, and what to check in your accounts this week.

Google is testing exact and phrase match Search ads in AI Mode. What changed, what "direct intent" means, and what to check in your accounts this week.

‍Until this month, the deal with exact match in Google Ads was simple. You gave up reach, and in return you decided where your ads showed. If you didn't want to appear inside AI Mode — Google's conversational search surface — you didn't run AI Max, you didn't run Performance Max, and you kept broad match off. Exact and phrase match keywords stayed on the classic results page.

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That arrangement is now under test. On 3 September, AdSquire founder Anthony Higman spotted exact and phrase match keywords serving text ads inside AI Mode, and confirmed it across multiple campaigns. Google's Ads Liaison Ginny Marvin confirmed it on 4 September: exact and phrase match keywords are now eligible to serve in AI Mode where there is "explicit and direct user intent", as part of "a small experiment that recently kicked off".

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Higman's response was that "small" undersells it, and he's right. This is the last keyword-level opt-out from AI surfaces going away. Here's what that means and what to do about it.

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What changed, precisely

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Before this experiment, there were three routes into AI Mode ad inventory: AI Max for Search, Performance Max, or broad match paired with Smart Bidding. All three are Google's automation products. If you ran a tightly controlled exact match campaign, you were structurally excluded — which for some advertisers was a feature, not a limitation.

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Now, standard Search campaigns on exact and phrase match can serve in AI Mode too, when Google judges the query to show "explicit and direct user intent". That is the whole public definition. Google hasn't said what qualifies, how it's scored, or where the line sits between a direct query and a conversational one.

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Two things this is not. It's not the 1 September AI Max auto-upgrade — that moved broad match campaigns and automatically created assets onto AI Max, and it's a separate change. And it's not, on Google's own account, a full rollout. Some coverage this week has described it as "already live" for everyone. Google's only statement calls it a small experiment. Treat it as one until Google says otherwise, and assume it will widen.

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Why it matters more than the word "small" suggests

You can't see it. Google Ads has no segment, filter, or impression share breakout for AI Mode or AI Overviews. There's no reporting that separates an exact match impression on the classic results page from one inside an AI answer. If your exact match campaigns start serving in AI Mode, the only evidence will be indirect — CTR, CPC, and conversion rate moving without an obvious cause.

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‍"Direct intent" is Google's judgement, not yours. The scoping sounds narrow. But the queries a user types into AI Mode are longer and more contextual than a classic search, and Google's matching has been loosening for years. Whether "best running shoes for flat feet under £100" counts as explicit and direct intent for your exact match keyword [running shoes] is a decision the system makes, and you'll find out from the search terms report afterwards.

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‍Exact match already isn't what it was. We wrote in July that after AI Max migration, exact match no longer cleanly blocks broad match expansion. This experiment closes the other side of the loop: even a campaign with no broad match, no AI Max, and no PMax can now serve on a surface that was previously automation-only.

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The honest counter-argument

Not everyone should be worried. If your exact match keywords are genuinely high intent — [buy brand x product], [product name price] — then an impression inside an AI Mode answer to a purchase-ready query is probably the best inventory you'll get this year, and you're getting it without the AI Max trade-offs. AI Mode users are further into a decision than a classic searcher; they've often already had the comparison done for them.

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The concern isn't that AI Mode inventory is bad. It's that you no longer choose, you can't measure it separately, and the scoping rule is undefined. For a brand campaign, that's likely fine. For a competitor campaign, a high-CPL B2B campaign, or anything where landing page relevance and ad specificity carry the conversion, it's a change in exposure you didn't approve and can't isolate.

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What to check this week

1. Pull the search terms report for every exact and phrase match campaign. Filter to the last 14 days and sort by impressions. You're looking for query shapes that don't belong in a classic search — longer, more conversational, more context. Those are your AI Mode candidates. If you don't find any yet, that's a baseline; check again in a fortnight.

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‍2. Compare CTR and CPC to the prior period at the keyword level. AI Mode ads sit beneath or within an answer, so CTR behaviour will differ from a top-of-page classic result. A keyword whose CTR has shifted with no change to ad copy, bids, or competition is worth flagging.

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‍3. Read your ad copy as though it's under an AI answer. In AI Mode, the user has already read a synthesis. Generic headlines ("Shop Now — Free Delivery") add nothing to a query the AI has just answered. Product name, specific feature, price, and availability do. Rewrite the weakest RSA in your highest-spend exact match ad group with that reader in mind.

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‍4. Check landing page fit for your top ten exact match keywords. A direct-intent query inside AI Mode is close to purchase. If the keyword's landing page is a category page, you're paying for a high-intent click and handing it a browse experience.

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‍5. Tighten negatives. They still gate the auction before matching happens. If there are query shapes you don't want to serve on under any surface, this is the control you still own.

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‍6. Decide per campaign whether you'd want the exposure. There's no opt-out, so this is about knowing where you'd act if it widens. Brand and product-name campaigns: probably welcome it. Competitor and high-value lead-gen: watch closely and be ready to move budget.

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What we'd tell Google

Serve where you like — but give advertisers a segment. The reporting gap is the real problem. An experiment that changes where ads appear, with no way to see which impressions it affected, isn't something advertisers can evaluate. Until there's an AI Mode breakout in the interface, every judgement about whether this is good or bad for an account is inference from aggregate data.

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FAQ

Can I opt out of exact match serving in AI Mode?

No. Google hasn't provided an opt-out, and negatives are the only pre-auction control that applies. The 1 September AI Max upgrade is separate: advertisers could avoid it by turning off campaign-level broad match and automatically created assets beforehand, and can switch off search term matching within AI Max afterwards. Nothing equivalent exists for this experiment.

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‍Will AI Mode traffic show up in my search terms report?

The query will appear if it triggered an impression, but nothing will label it as AI Mode. You have to infer it from the query shape.

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‍Is this the same as ads in AI Overviews?

No. AI Overviews are the summaries at the top of a classic results page; AI Mode is the separate conversational search tab. Both now carry ads. This experiment concerns AI Mode specifically.