Google Ads Performance Planner: What It Won't Forecast

Performance Planner is a clear way to see what more budget might buy. It also leaves a gap: someone asks what it would take to stay ahead of a named rival, and the tool has no field for that.

What does Performance Planner do in Google Ads?

Performance Planner forecasts how changes to your campaigns’ budgets and bids might affect your results. You build a plan for a future period, and it draws a curve of spend against a key metric, with your current settings marked on it. It can also suggest changes that do better on the same spend.

How do you use Performance Planner?

1. Open it from the tools menu in your Google Ads account and create a plan.
2. Pick the campaigns, the period and a key metric, such as clicks, conversions or conversion value.
3. Add a target if you have one, such as a spend or a cost per acquisition.
4. Read the curve, adjust the plan, and apply the changes you agree with.

Not every campaign qualifies. For Search, Google asks for no bid strategy change in the last 10 days, plus at least 3 clicks, 10 impressions, 1 conversion or conversion value, and spend in the last 17 days.

Is Google Performance Planner free?

It sits inside your Google Ads account, and Google’s pages list no separate charge for it. You pay only for the ads you run.

How accurate is the Google Ads forecast?

Google publishes no accuracy figure. It says forecasts are measured against how campaigns eventually perform, and that they refresh daily.

The method explains what to watch. Google says the planner simulates auctions over the last 7 to 10 days, with variables such as seasonality, competitor activity and landing pages. So a rival’s recent push or pause can reshape the curve, and Google itself suggests planning weekly when markets are unstable. We read the curve as a view of the last ten days, projected forward.

What changed in Performance Planner in 2026?

Since 9 March 2026, Google says the tool no longer supports planning for Display and Video campaigns, nor “plans that involve metrics based on impression share”. If your goal was to plan for a share of the market, that route has closed.

Does Performance Planner account for competitors?

Yes and no. Competitor activity is inside the simulation, but you cannot see it. The plan never shows who it assumes you are up against, or what happens if one of them pushes.

What can’t Performance Planner tell you?

In our view, three things matter most for a budget conversation:

• What a named rival is doing. There is no rival in the plan to look at.
• What holding a share against that rival costs. The key metric is your own result, and share plans have gone.
• Whether a rival’s move last week should change your plan. A short look-back absorbs that move into the curve without telling you it happened.

None of this makes it a poor tool. We still find it a good choice for the questions it was made for, such as what more budget might buy in conversions.

How do you plan a budget against competitors?

“Give us more budget” is hard to approve without a price on it, and harder when the reason is a competitor. The useful answer has three parts: which rival moved, what holding your share would cost now, and who gains if you hold back.

That is the question Vickrey is built to answer, from your own account. See a goal priced on a made-up airline in the live demo.