How to use Google Ads Performance Planner and Reach Planner

When most digital marketers navigate to the “Tools and Settings” menu in Google Ads and hover over the “Planning” section, their cursor almost instinctively moves toward the Keyword Planner. It is a foundational tool that has served the industry for decades. However, stopping there means leaving some of Google’s most powerful predictive technology on the table. Tucked away in that same menu are two sophisticated engines: Performance Planner and Reach Planner.

As the digital advertising landscape shifts from manual bidding toward automation and machine learning, the ability to forecast results becomes more critical than ever. Advertisers can no longer afford to “guess and check” with their monthly budgets. Performance Planner and Reach Planner allow you to move from a reactive strategy—where you adjust budgets based on last month’s performance—to a proactive strategy where you model future outcomes based on real-time data trends. This guide explores how to master both tools to scale your account effectively.

Why Performance Planner matters for scaling search and display

Performance Planner is a forecasting tool that allows you to see how changes in your ad spend might affect key metrics like conversions, clicks, and conversion value. It is essentially a “what-if” machine. If you increase your budget by 20%, will your Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) remain stable, or will you hit a point of diminishing returns? Performance Planner attempts to answer these questions using billions of search queries and auction data points.

The primary value of this tool lies in its ability to simulate the auction environment. Google’s algorithms look at historical data and the current competitive landscape to predict how your specific campaigns would perform under different budget constraints. This is particularly useful for account managers who need to justify budget increases to stakeholders or clients. Instead of saying, “I think we should spend more,” you can present a data-backed forecast showing a projected 15% increase in conversions for a 10% increase in spend.

Performance Planner is not a one-time setup tool; it is designed for ongoing optimization. Google typically refreshes the forecasts daily, pulling from the most recent 7 to 10 days of data. This ensures that the projections account for sudden shifts in market demand, seasonal trends, or competitor behavior. Recently, Google added “Suggested Plans” to the dashboard, which identifies low-hanging fruit—campaigns where a slight budget or bid adjustment could lead to a significant performance lift without the user having to build a manual model from scratch.

How to create a new performance plan

Building your first performance plan is a straightforward process, but it requires careful selection of parameters to ensure the output is actionable. To begin, navigate to Tools → Planning → Performance Planner and click “Create new plan.”

Step 1: Set Your Foundation

Once you start a new plan, you will be prompted to select the timeframe and the specific dates you want to forecast. While you can choose custom dates, many advertisers align their plans with monthly or quarterly fiscal cycles. You will also need to choose the channel—Search, Display, or Shopping. If your account is multi-channel, you will see various options here.

Step 2: Choose Your Metrics and Targets

The tool asks you to define what success looks like. You can select key metrics such as Conversions, Conversion Value, or Clicks. Furthermore, you can input a specific target, such as a Target CPA (Cost Per Action) or a specific spend limit. This is crucial because it tells the algorithm to prioritize efficiency (maintaining a specific CPA) or volume (maximizing conversions within a budget).

Step 3: Select Eligible Campaigns

You must choose which campaigns to include in the plan. It is often best to group campaigns with similar goals together. For example, grouping all your “Brand Awareness” campaigns in one plan and “Direct Response” campaigns in another allows for cleaner data. Note that not every campaign will be eligible; Google requires a certain threshold of historical data and specific bid settings for its predictive models to work accurately.

In some cases, Google may suggest a $0 budget for certain campaigns within your plan. This isn’t a glitch. It usually indicates that the campaign is currently so inefficient compared to others in the group that the algorithm believes your total budget would be better spent elsewhere. This insight alone can help you trim waste and reallocate funds to high-performing areas.

Campaign eligibility and limitations to know

To ensure the accuracy of its forecasts, Google Ads enforces strict eligibility criteria. If your campaigns are missing from the selection list, they likely haven’t met one of the following requirements. These rules differ significantly between Search and Shopping campaigns.

Search campaigns

For Search campaigns to be eligible for Performance Planner, they must meet the following technical standards:

Bid Strategy: The campaign must use a supported strategy such as Manual CPC, Enhanced CPC, Maximize Clicks, Maximize Conversions, Maximize Conversion Value, Target ROAS, Target CPA, or Target Impression Share. Crucially, you must not have changed the bid strategy in the last 7 days.
Longevity: The campaign must have been active for at least 72 hours.
Activity Density: To provide a statistically significant forecast, the campaign must have received at least 3 clicks and 3 conversions in the last 7 days.
Budget Constraints: For Target Impression Share campaigns, the “Search lost IS (budget)” must be less than 5% over the last 10 days.

Shopping campaigns (Standard)

Standard Shopping campaigns have their own set of prerequisites to ensure the Product Feed data and auction history are sufficient for modeling:

Bid Strategy: The campaign cannot be part of a portfolio bid strategy.
Spend Consistency: It must have been active every day for the last 10 days with a minimum spend of at least $10 USD per day.
Traffic Volume: The campaign needs at least 100 impressions in the last 7 days.
Conversion History: There must be at least 10 conversions or conversion values recorded in the last 10 days.
Budget Health: The campaign status cannot be “Limited by Budget.” Similar to Search, Target ROAS shopping campaigns must have a “Search lost IS (budget)” of less than 5% over the last 10 days. Additionally, shared budgets are only eligible if every campaign in that shared budget is linked to a single Merchant Center account.

Why Reach Planner is different from Performance Planner

While Performance Planner is focused on bottom-of-the-funnel metrics like conversions and CPA for Search and Display, Reach Planner is built for the top and middle of the funnel. It is specifically designed to estimate the reach, views, and impact of video campaigns on YouTube and across the Google Video Partners network.

Reach Planner operates on “Google’s Unique Reach Methodology.” Unlike Search data, which is based on direct intent and auction volume, Video reach is about audience penetration. Google uses modeled third-party data and census-level information to estimate how many “unique” individuals your ads will reach. This prevents the common issue of over-reporting reach when the same user sees an ad on both their mobile device and their desktop.

This tool is indispensable for brand managers and media planners who are trying to solve the “frequency vs. reach” puzzle. If you have a $50,000 budget for a new product launch, should you show your ad to 1 million people once, or to 250,000 people four times? Reach Planner provides the data to make that choice, projecting unique reach, total views, and even anticipated conversions for Video Action campaigns.

How to build a Reach Planner forecast

Accessing Reach Planner is done through the same “Planning” menu as other tools. However, access can sometimes be restricted depending on the account type or spend level. If you do not see it in your account, you may need to reach out to a Google representative to have it enabled.

Initial Configuration

When you start a new plan in Reach Planner, the first step is selecting your geographic location and currency. You are then given a choice: build a plan for YouTube only, or a combined plan for YouTube and Linear TV. This second option is incredibly powerful for enterprise advertisers who want to see how their digital spend complements their traditional television advertising spend.

Audience and Targeting Parameters

Reach Planner allows for granular targeting long before you actually launch a campaign. You can input:

Demographics: Age and gender targeting.
Audiences: You can select from In-Market segments, Affinity groups, Remarketing lists, and even Custom or Lookalike segments.
Frequency Caps: You can set a limit on how many times a single user sees your ad within a week or a month, which is essential for preventing brand fatigue.
Devices: Choose whether to focus on mobile, desktop, tablet, or connected TV (CTV).

Selecting Ad Formats

The type of video ad you choose significantly impacts your reach. Reach Planner allows you to model different formats, such as Non-skippable 15-second ads, Bumper ads (6 seconds), or skippable In-stream ads. A newer feature within Reach Planner is “Advanced Plans,” which suggests an optimal mix of these formats based on your specific goal—whether that goal is pure Brand Awareness, Product Consideration, or Direct Action.

When to use each planner in your workflow

Mastering these tools requires understanding where they fit into your monthly management cycle. They are not meant to be used once; they should be integrated into your strategic workflow to ensure your budget is always working as hard as possible.

Performance Planner for Monthly Budgeting

At the end of every month, run your existing Search and Shopping campaigns through Performance Planner. Use it to check if there is any “untapped” potential. If the tool shows a steep upward curve in its graphs, it means you can likely increase spend without seeing a massive spike in CPA. Conversely, if the curve is flattening out, you’ve likely reached the point of diminishing returns, and you should consider moving that extra budget into a different channel or campaign.

Reach Planner for New Product Launches

Whenever you are tasked with introducing a new brand, product, or feature, Reach Planner should be your first stop. It allows you to build a “Media Plan” that you can export and share with stakeholders. It provides a professional outlook on how much it will cost to “own” a certain percentage of your target market’s attention on YouTube over a specific period.

Combined Strategy for Scaling

The most successful advertisers use both in tandem. You might use Reach Planner to build a top-of-funnel audience through YouTube video ads, then use Performance Planner to forecast how that increased brand awareness might trickle down into more searches and higher conversion rates in your Search campaigns. By using these tools together, you move away from siloed campaign management and toward a holistic view of the customer journey.

Ultimately, Google Ads Performance Planner and Reach Planner are designed to remove the “fear of the unknown.” By providing a window into the future based on the massive amounts of data Google collects, these tools empower account managers to scale with confidence, optimize spend with precision, and drive meaningful growth in an increasingly competitive digital marketplace.