Summary
Performance Planner is the tool designed to simulate what-if scenarios involving simultaneous changes to ROAS targets and budgets. It builds a forward looking forecast from your own campaign auction data and lets you move spend and target sliders together to see the projected conversion value. Bid simulators only look back at a recent fixed window, and optimization score is a recommendations rating, not a planning tool.
Nitin Batra is a Google Ads Search certified professional who builds quarterly Performance Planner forecasts and manages target ROAS bidding for live search accounts.
Last updated: August 23, 2026
To simulate a what-if scenario that changes ROAS targets and budgets at the same time, use Performance Planner, the Google Ads forecasting tool built for long-term spend and target planning.
- Recommended Investment Strategy
- Performance Planner
- Bid simulator
- Optimization score
The correct answer is: Performance Planner
Key Takeaways
- – Performance Planner is the tool designed to simulate what-if scenarios that change ROAS targets and budgets together for long-term planning.
- – Performance Planner forecasts use your own campaign auction data from recent weeks, so the plan changes as your account performance and seasonality change.
- – Bid simulators are backward looking and campaign or keyword specific, while Performance Planner is forward looking and works across a group of campaigns.
- – Campaigns need enough recent conversion history and must have been running for a minimum period before they become eligible for Performance Planner, so new campaigns often will not appear in the plan.
Where exactly do you find Performance Planner in the Google Ads interface?
Click Tools in the left navigation, then open the Planning section and select Performance Planner. From there you choose Create plan, pick the campaigns you want to include, set the date range and select the key metric such as conversion value or conversions. The plan then opens with adjustable spend and target sliders for each campaign.
Can Performance Planner forecast both target ROAS and target CPA changes?
Yes. Depending on the bid strategy on the campaign, the plan will expose a target ROAS slider or a target CPA slider alongside the spend slider. Moving one recalculates the other projected metrics immediately, which is how you test a combined budget and target change before applying it to the live account.
Why is a bid simulator not the right tool for this scenario?
Bid simulators answer a narrow question: what would have happened last week or last month if the bid, budget or target had been different. They look backwards over a fixed recent window and sit at the keyword, ad group or campaign level. They do not build a forward plan across multiple campaigns for a future period, which is what long-term budget and ROAS planning needs.
How accurate are Performance Planner forecasts and how should they be used?
The forecasts are estimates built on recent auction data and they assume the market behaves broadly as it has been. Sharp competitor changes, landing page issues or a major seasonal event can push actual results away from the plan. Use it to size budgets and set expectations with the client, refresh the plan regularly, and treat the numbers as a planning range rather than a guarantee.