Estimate what your Google Ads budget could deliver before you spend it. Project clicks, conversions, cost, CPA, and ROAS for five campaign types, with conservative, base, and optimistic scenarios.
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Forecast Disclaimer: These projections are model-based estimates, not guaranteed Google Ads outcomes. Real performance varies with ad quality, landing page experience, auction competition, seasonality, bidding strategy, and search features such as AI Overviews. Use this forecast for budget planning, not as a financial commitment.
📌 The figures above, the charts, and the table show the base case, calculated from your inputs as entered.
📌 Each step depends on creative, landing page, and audience quality. The chart uses a log scale.
⚠️ A ROAS above 100% does not guarantee profit. Account for cost of goods, fulfillment, and overhead.
| Metric | Projected Value |
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⚠️ Single-month projection for a campaign running steadily. New campaigns and bid strategies go through a learning period, so the first weeks often differ from later months.
This planner uses your inputs and starting assumptions. SEO Ninja's PPC management services can build a forecast from your live Google Ads account, including impression share, Quality Score, and auction insights.
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A forecast turns a proposed budget into expected outcomes. Without one, it is hard to know whether $5,000 a month might produce 50 leads or 500, or whether your return on ad spend will clear the level you need to be profitable.
Google Ads can send traffic as soon as a campaign is approved, which makes planning before launch especially valuable. New to paid search? Start with our guide to PPC advertising, then come back to forecast.
Each campaign type works differently. Search is driven by keyword demand and cost per click, Display by cost per thousand impressions, Video by cost per view, Shopping by your product feed, and Performance Max by Google's automated bidding across many placements. A good forecast uses the right model for each.
This planner uses a single-month projection. Here is the logic behind each step:
Search and Shopping are priced mostly per click, Display usually per thousand impressions, and Video per view. Performance Max is goal-based and can serve across Google's inventory. Picking the right type determines which inputs the forecast uses.
Your budget limits how many clicks, impressions, or views you can buy. For Search, the planner also checks whether your budget or the available demand is the tighter limit.
For Search, eligible searches are your keyword count multiplied by average monthly searches, then reduced by your expected impression share, because ads rarely show for every eligible search. Clicks come from applying your CTR. For Display, impressions are budget ÷ CPM × 1,000; for Video, views are budget ÷ CPV; Shopping and Performance Max use budget ÷ CPC.
Conversions are clicks multiplied by your conversion rate for every campaign type. For Performance Max, your target CPA or target ROAS is compared against the result rather than assumed, because Smart Bidding aims for a target without guaranteeing it.
Revenue is conversions multiplied by order or lead value, and ROAS is revenue divided by cost. The planner then runs conservative and optimistic versions that change your conversion rate and click costs, so you can see a realistic range.
Impression share: Your ads show only for a portion of eligible searches. Budget, bids, and ad quality all limit it, which is why this planner asks for an expected impression share.
Auction competition and Quality Score: Click costs rise and fall with competitor bids, and ads with stronger expected CTR, ad relevance, and landing page experience tend to earn better positions at lower cost.
Learning periods: Smart Bidding strategies and new campaigns need data before they settle, so early weeks are often less efficient than later months.
Budget pacing: Google Ads can spend up to twice your average daily budget on busy days while keeping monthly charges within your daily budget multiplied by about 30.4.
AI features on the results page: AI Overviews and automated features such as AI Max for Search are changing where and how ads appear. Industry reports have found lower click-through rates on some result pages, so treat benchmark CTRs as an upper bound for informational searches. See how we approach this in our guide to PPC intelligence.
Text ads shown when people search for your keywords. WordStream's 2026 search advertising benchmarks report an average CTR of 6.64%, average CPC of $5.42, and average conversion rate of 8.18%, based on a sample of US campaigns from April 2025 to March 2026 (medians across industries). Your industry can differ a lot from these averages.
Image and responsive ads across Google Display Network sites and apps, typically bought per thousand impressions. They suit awareness, prospecting, and remarketing, with much lower click-through and conversion rates than Search. The planner's Display defaults are editable starting points, not a published benchmark.
Skippable, non-skippable, bumper, and in-feed ads on YouTube and video partners, commonly bought per view. They are strongest for awareness and consideration. The planner's Video defaults are editable starting points.
Product listings driven by your Merchant Center feed, shown on Google Search and the Shopping tab. Feed quality, pricing, and product images have a large effect on results. The planner's Shopping defaults are editable starting points.
A goal-based campaign that uses Google's automation to serve ads across Search, YouTube, Display, Discover, Gmail, and Maps from one budget. It works best with reliable conversion tracking. The planner's Performance Max defaults are editable starting points, and Demand Gen campaigns are not modeled yet.
Bring projected clicks, conversions, CPA, and ROAS to budget discussions, with a clear range.
Forecast each campaign type with the same budget to see where it could work hardest.
Every assumption is visible, so decision-makers can question the inputs rather than the outcome.
Confirm that your target CPA or ROAS is achievable with realistic inputs before you spend.
Show clients a transparent model with conservative and optimistic cases instead of a single promise.
Compare monthly results with the forecast. A persistent gap points to Quality Score, targeting, or landing page issues.
impressions = keywords × avg_searches × impression_share (50% if blank); clicks = impressions × CTR; cost = clicks × CPC, capped at budget, in which case clicks = budget ÷ CPC.impressions = budget ÷ CPM × 1,000; clicks = impressions × CTR. A rough view-through estimate (viewable impressions × 0.08%) is shown separately and is not included in conversions, revenue, or ROAS.views = budget ÷ CPV; impressions = views ÷ view_rate; clicks = impressions × CTR.clicks = budget ÷ CPC. Target ROAS or target CPA is compared against the projected result.conversions = clicks × conversion_rate; revenue = conversions × value; ROAS = revenue ÷ cost × 100; CPA = cost ÷ conversions.Last reviewed: September 2026 | Methodology version: 1.2.0
Answers to common questions about Google Ads forecasting, PPC budgets, and campaign planning.
A Google Ads forecasting tool projects how a paid campaign could perform before you launch it. It takes inputs such as budget, click-through rate, cost per click, conversion rate, and order or lead value, then estimates clicks, conversions, cost, revenue, CPA, and ROAS.
This planner covers Search, Display, Video, Shopping, and Performance Max, and shows conservative, base, and optimistic scenarios so you can plan around a range instead of a single number.
A forecast is only as accurate as its inputs. Results depend on auction competition, Quality Score, landing page experience, seasonality, bidding strategy, and how much of the available search demand your ads actually win. New campaigns and bid strategies also go through a learning period, so early weeks often look different from later months.
Treat this forecast as a planning estimate. Replace the starting assumptions with your own account data as soon as you have it, and compare actual results against the conservative and optimistic cases.
For Search, Google Keyword Planner shows monthly search volume and suggested bid ranges for your keywords. If you already run ads, your Google Ads account shows your real CTR, average CPC, conversion rate, and Search impression share.
For order or lead value, use your average order value, or multiply your lead-to-customer close rate by your average deal size.
ROAS (return on ad spend) = revenue from ads divided by ad cost, multiplied by 100. A ROAS of 400% means $4 in revenue for every $1 spent.
What counts as a good ROAS depends on your margin. Your break-even ROAS is 100 divided by your gross margin percentage, multiplied by 100: a business with a 25% gross margin needs a 400% ROAS just to cover the cost of goods and ad spend. Set targets from your own unit economics rather than industry averages.
It varies widely by industry. WordStream's 2026 search advertising benchmarks put the average cost per lead at $66.69, ranging from about $26.84 for arts and entertainment to $131.63 for attorneys and legal services. Read more in our guide to how much Google Ads cost.
The right target comes from your economics: set your maximum CPA as a share of the profit a customer brings in, then check whether the forecast's projected CPA fits under it.
For Search campaigns, WordStream's 2026 benchmarks report an average conversion rate of 8.18%, from 2.64% in finance and insurance to 16.22% in animals and pets. Display, Video, Shopping, and Performance Max conversion rates vary even more by account and goal, so this tool treats its defaults for those types as editable starting points rather than benchmarks.
Your conversion rate depends on traffic quality, landing page quality, and offer strength. Our conversion rate optimization services focus on the last two.
Search captures people actively looking for what you sell. Display and Video build awareness and reach people who have not searched yet, usually at a lower cost per impression. Shopping suits e-commerce brands with a product feed. Performance Max uses Google's automation to run across Search, YouTube, Display, Discover, Gmail, and Maps from one campaign, and works best with reliable conversion tracking.
Many accounts combine several types. Run a forecast for each to compare how the same budget could perform.
Your ads rarely appear for every eligible search. Budget, bids, ad quality, and competition all limit how often they show. Google Ads reports this as Search impression share. Multiplying search volume by an impression share gives a more realistic starting point than assuming you win every auction. If you leave the field blank, the tool assumes 50%.
Keyword Planner focuses on keyword-level Search forecasts, and Performance Planner forecasts eligible campaigns inside an existing Google Ads account using that account's data. Both are worth using.
This planner is useful earlier, before an account has history, and for comparing campaign types side by side with revenue, CPA, ROAS, and a range of outcomes. For deeper planning, read our full guide to Google Ads forecasting.
On some days, yes. Google Ads can spend up to twice your average daily budget in a single day when there are more opportunities, but it will not charge more than your average daily budget multiplied by the average number of days in a month (about 30.4) over a calendar month. That is why this planner works with a monthly budget.
The forecast is calculated in your browser. If you unlock the results, we save the name, email, and company you enter, your campaign type, budget, and forecast, plus your IP address and browser type, so our team can follow up. The site also uses standard analytics, and we never sell your data. See our privacy policy.
This free planner gives you a directional estimate. SEO Ninja's PPC team can replace starting assumptions with your live Google Ads data, including impression share, Quality Score, and auction insights. Explore our PPC services or get in touch for a free consultation.
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