How-to · Updated October 11, 2026
Turn off automatically created headlines and assets in Google Ads
Updated October 11, 2026
20 minutes
To turn off automatically created headlines and assets in Google Ads, uncheck Text customization in each campaign's settings, then switch off the Account level automated assets you do not want and any auto-applied ad recommendation. They are three separate switches. First find what Google wrote: it shows as Google AI in the Added by column.
Before you start
- A Google Ads login that can edit campaigns. Every switch here is a campaign or account setting.
- The claims your business actually makes. Write down prices, hours, response times and guarantees, and judge every Google-written line against that list.
See what Google wrote for your ads
Look before you switch anything off: text Google created is labelled Google AI in the Added by column.
- In Google Ads, open the Campaigns menu and click Ads. Under a responsive search ad, click View asset details.
- Read the Added by column. Lines marked Google AI were generated. If the column is hidden, add it under Attributes.
- Open the Campaigns menu and click Assets. Click Add filter, type Added by, tick Google AI and click Apply. This lists the sitelinks, callouts, snippets and images Google added at the account level. Mark every line that promises a speed, price, availability or guarantee your list does not hold.
Turn off text customization in each campaign
Generated headlines and descriptions are a campaign setting, so turn it off in every Search and Performance Max campaign.
- For Search campaigns: open the Campaigns menu and click Campaigns. Select the Settings tab, tick the campaigns you want to change, then select AI Max.
- In the Asset optimization panel, uncheck Text customization and click Save. Google says assets generated by the setting then stop serving. If Final URL expansion is on for that campaign, it is turned off too.
- If a Search campaign has not moved to the new setting yet, its Edit menu still offers the older one: tick the campaign on the Settings tab, click Edit, choose Change automatically created assets settings, select the Off option, which uses only the assets you provide, and click Apply.
- For Performance Max: on the Settings tab, select the campaigns, click Edit, choose Change text customization settings and turn it Off. Google turns text customization on by default in Performance Max.
To keep the setting but drop one bad line, remove just that asset: on the ad's asset details, hover over the status next to it, click Remove, then Confirm. Google says the removal is permanent.
Switch off account-level assets and auto-applied ad text
Assets shown below your ads, and headlines added by recommendations, come from two more switches that the campaign setting does not touch.
- Open the Campaigns menu and click Assets. On the Associations tab, click the three-dot menu on the right and choose Account level automated assets.
- Click the three-dot menu again and choose Advanced settings. Select each asset type to turn off, such as Dynamic callouts or Dynamic sitelinks, pick a reason, then click Save.
- Open the Campaigns menu, click Recommendations, then Auto-apply settings. If Improve your responsive search ads is ticked, untick it and click Save. Google says it builds headlines and descriptions from your existing content, including the ad's final URL and other assets in the same ad group.
Check it worked
After a day or two, open View asset details on the same ads again. Lines marked Google AI should no longer be serving: in Performance Max, Google says they are reported as Removed.
Run the Added by filter on the Assets page again for the types you switched off.
Keep generated text but forbid certain words
To keep text customization on, use text guidelines, which Google labels a beta: up to 25 term exclusions per campaign, such as "cheapest" or "same day", and up to 40 messaging restrictions, such as "Do not mention specific prices."
They also apply to text already generated: lines that break them stop serving. In Search, find them under AI Max, Asset optimization, Add text guidelines.
Why a generated line is a risk, not only a style problem
Google builds this text from your landing page, domain, keywords and existing ads, and asks advertisers to monitor it for accuracy. A generated line can still promise something the business never offered, such as same-day appointments at a dental office that books a week out. Once it serves, the business is making that claim, to customers and under Google's Unreliable claims policy, which has its own page in the reference library.
Campaigns may have moved to AI Max on their own
Google says that starting in September 2026, campaigns using text customization, formerly called automatically created assets, are upgraded to AI Max automatically, so the setting may now sit under AI Max. Once the old setting is turned off, Google says it cannot be turned back on; the only way back is through AI Max.