"What does Performance Planner automatically do?" and "what can the Performance Planner recommend?" are common questions for anyone studying for the Google Ads Search certification or planning next quarter's paid budget. Performance Planner is the forecasting tool inside Google Ads, and knowing what it does on its own versus what it only suggests matters before you trust its numbers.
Short answer: Performance Planner automatically forecasts how your campaigns will perform at different spend levels, refreshing those forecasts daily from simulated ad auctions, and it suggests budget and bid changes that could get more results for the same spend. Google describes it as "a tool that lets you create plans for your advertising spend and assess how changes to campaigns might affect key metrics and overall performance." It does not change live campaigns on its own: you apply suggested changes with an explicit click. Source: Google Ads Help, About Performance Planner.
What It Does Without Being Asked
According to Google's documentation, Performance Planner does the following automatically once a plan exists:
- Simulates auctions. It "simulates relevant ad auctions over the last 7 to 10 days, including variables like seasonality, competitor activity, and landing page."
- Refreshes forecasts daily. Forecasts are refreshed daily and based on the last 7 to 10 days, adjusted for seasonality.
- Accounts for conversion delay. For Search, it includes conversion delay estimates, so forecasts reflect conversions expected within your conversion window rather than only same-day ones.
- Checks its own accuracy. Google measures forecast accuracy against eventual campaign performance and uses that to fine-tune future forecasts.
What It Can Recommend
The same help article lists four uses: access forecasts for your campaigns, explore outcomes by adjusting campaign settings, understand opportunities in seasonal periods, and manage budgets across accounts and campaigns. In practice the recommendations are:
- Budget and bid changes per campaign that Google expects to improve results "for the same spend".
- Budget shifts between campaigns, including a suggested budget of zero for campaigns that "aren't contributing to the most efficient spend distribution", which effectively means pausing them.
- A forecast for a specific conversion goal you choose, as long as its conversion actions are set to primary.
Applying the plan is a separate step: Google added an "Apply suggested changes" button that pushes the selected budget or bid changes to live campaigns, and the changes can be reviewed and undone under Bulk actions.
Limits Worth Knowing
- Since March 2026 it no longer supports plans for Display and Video campaigns, or plans built on impression share metrics.
- Search, Standard Shopping and Performance Max campaigns need recent activity to be eligible: at least 3 clicks, 10 impressions, 1 conversion, spend in the last 17 days, and no bid strategy change in the last 10 days.
- Campaigns in experiments are not eligible.
Those thresholds are low, but they show where the tool gets its confidence from: recent auctions for campaigns that already run. For a brand-new B2B campaign with a handful of conversions a month, treat the forecast as a direction, not a commitment.
Why a B2B Marketer Should Care About the Landing Page Input
One line in the documentation is easy to skip: the auction simulation includes "landing page" as a variable. Forecasts assume the page keeps converting the way it has. If you plan to raise budget by a third and send that traffic to a page that converts at 2%, the planner forecasts more of the same 2%. It cannot know that you are about to rebuild the page or that the extra traffic will come from broader, colder queries.
Two practical consequences:
- Fix conversion before scaling spend. A higher conversion rate changes every forecast the planner produces, because more clicks turn into the conversions it optimizes for. Our guide to B2B landing page optimization covers the changes that usually matter most.
- Choose the right conversion goal. The planner forecasts the primary conversion actions you select. If "demo request" and "newsletter signup" are both primary, a forecast of "conversions" mixes leads of very different value. Set only pipeline-relevant actions as primary before you plan.
Worked B2B Example (Illustrative)
Illustrative numbers: a B2B software company runs three Search campaigns: brand, competitor comparisons and generic category terms. Finance asks what an extra 25% of budget next quarter would produce.
- The team sets "demo request" as the only primary conversion action and creates a plan for the quarter.
- The planner forecasts more conversions at the higher spend, but the curve shows most of the gain coming from the comparison campaign and very little from generic terms, where the forecast suggests diminishing returns.
- It suggests moving part of the generic budget into comparison terms.
- Before applying, the team checks the comparison landing page. Its engagement rate in GA4 is fine, but only a small share of visitors reach pricing. They test a version with a comparison table above the fold, using the A/B test calculator to check how long the test needs to run.
- Only after the page test do they apply the suggested budget shift, and they compare actual demo requests to the forecast after four weeks.
The forecast answered "where should the next euro go?". The page test answered "will that euro convert?". You need both.
How to Read a Plan
- Look at the shape of the curve, not only the point. A flat curve means extra budget buys little; a steep one means you are constrained.
- Compare forecast to actuals monthly. If you keep missing the forecast, check whether the landing page, the conversion setup or the traffic mix changed.
- Separate brand from non-brand. Brand campaigns often look efficient in any forecast because the demand already exists. Our post on personalization attribution covers why credit assignment needs care.
- Match the bid strategy to the goal. Forecasts depend on how the campaign bids; see which auto-bidding strategy fits which goal.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does Performance Planner automatically do?
It forecasts campaign performance at different spend levels by simulating ad auctions from the last 7 to 10 days, refreshes those forecasts daily, adjusts for seasonality and conversion delay, and produces suggested budget and bid changes.
What can the Performance Planner recommend?
Budget and bid changes for each campaign, budget reallocation between campaigns and accounts (including pausing campaigns that do not add efficient results), and forecasts for a specific conversion goal you choose.
Does Performance Planner change my campaigns automatically?
No. It suggests changes. You apply them with the "Apply suggested changes" button, choose which campaigns to include, and can undo the changes in Bulk actions.
Can I use Performance Planner for Display campaigns?
Not any more. Google ended support for Display and Video campaign plans in March 2026. It covers Search, Standard Shopping, Performance Max, Demand Gen and App campaigns that meet the eligibility rules.