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Marketing Academy · Field Work●Paid Ads
All projects·From: Google AI Max and the New Broad Match Era
CoreSimulation· 55 minutes

The AI Max Migration: 30 Days From Standard Search to Full Orchestration

Rent the Runway

Objective: Practice the lesson's staged migration workflow, from hitting the conversion baseline through launching AI Max with multiple asset groups to protecting brand with Standard Search, reacting to a live-feeling dashboard at each checkpoint.

You manage paid search for Rent the Runway's new 'Try Before You Buy' subscription tier. Standard Search has been running for 6 weeks and just crossed the conversion baseline.

Decide when to migrate, how many asset groups to launch with, and how to react to a mid-flight overspend signal, following the lesson's staged workflow.

Before you start

What you'll need

Free path (everything below is enough to finish)

Google Ads
FreeMonitor conversions, CPA, and asset-group performance share

Free with any active account, dashboard read is sufficient for this simulation

Google Sheets
FreeLog the week-over-week CPA and conversion trend

Free tracking companion to the Ads dashboard

Paid upgrades (optional, faster/deeper)

Triple Whale(optional)
PaidCross-channel attribution once AI Max is stable and spend scales past a single-platform view

Useful once orchestrating AI Max + Standard Search + PMax together, not needed for this single-campaign migration

The process

Simulation

Week 6, migration checkpoint

Week 6 of Standard Search

Standard Search has run for 6 weeks on core non-brand keywords. This morning's dashboard shows the trailing-30-day conversion count just crossed 30 for the first time.

Sample output
Standard Search, 'Try Before You Buy', trailing 30 days
  Conversions              32
  Spend                $4,100
  CPA                  $128.10
  Current daily budget     $140
Spend to date:$4,100 over 6 weeks
Budget remaining:N/A, monthly budget cycle

Conversions just crossed 30 for the first time this month. What's the right migration move?

Final deliverable

A migration decision log covering the week-6 launch call and the week-8 asset-group fix, with the CPA trend and reasoning at each checkpoint.

See a reference example
Sample output
Allbirds, 'Wool Runners Restock' campaign, AI Max migration log (excerpt)

Week 5: Conversions crossed 31/month. Migrated to AI Max with a 20% budget increase ($3,200 -> $3,840/month).
Week 7, day 9: CPA up 44% vs. pre-migration, single asset group favoring one shoe colorway. Split into 3 asset groups (everyday, trail, limited colorway).
Week 9: CPA recovered to 12% above pre-migration baseline, conversions up 38% -- net positive once segmented.

Success criteria

You're done when you can:

  • Migrates at the week-6 checkpoint with a 20% budget increase, not a wait-and-confirm delay or an aggressive multiple
  • Diagnoses the week-8 CPA rise as a single-asset-group cannibalization problem and fixes it by segmenting, not by pausing or cutting budget