Google's AI Max adds guardrails to answer its harshest PPC critics
Google is answering the biggest complaint about AI Max, its fastest-growing AI bidding product: that it burns spend with too little control. A year in, it is rolling out AI Brief, a Gemini-powered steering layer where advertisers set messaging, matching and audience boundaries in plain words, plus expanded reach into Shopping and travel. Practitioners who felt the feature was pure negative-keyword overhead finally get an explicit, pre-commit feedback loop in the driver's seat.