Estimate your results with bid, budget, and target simulators

Note: Bid simulators aren't supported in Travel campaigns.

The Bid Simulator can help bring clarity to how different product group bids could affect your traffic by estimating what your advertising results could’ve been over the previous 7 days, if you’d set different bids. Use this tool to gauge what bid amount is likely to deliver the performance you want, with the budget you have.

On this page

Before you begin
How bid simulators work
Using the bid simulators for conversion estimates
Benefits of using the Campaign Bid simulator
Troubleshooting

Before you begin

There are 2 types of Google Ads simulators that you can use:

Manual CPC bid simulators
Smart Bidding simulators

Google Ads bid simulators help you discover how different bids might change your ads’ weekly performance.

The regular Bid Simulatorsshow you how changes to your max. CPC bid might change the cost or the number of clicks, impressions, conversions, and conversion value your ads would have received for your keyword or ad group. You can find them on the Ad groupsand Keywordspage.
The Campaign Bid Simulatorshows you how changes to your campaign’s bids might affect that campaign’s performance. Find it on the Campaignspage.
The Shopping Campaigns Bid Simulatorshows you how certain changes to your bid might have impacted your product group's performance. You can find it on the Product groupspage.
The Hotel Campaigns Bid Simulatorshows how changes to your max. CPC, max. CPC%, or Commission % might have impacted your hotel group’s recent performance. You can find it on the Hotel groups page for max. CPC and max. CPC% bid strategies and on the Campaign page for Commission % bid strategies.

Suppose you have a max. CPC bid of $1 USD for your keyword, but you're curious to find what results you might get with a bid of $1.50 USD or $0.75 USD.

The Bid Simulator can show you estimates of the clicks, cost, impressions, conversions, and conversion value you would have seen with max. CPC bids of $1.50 USD or $0.75 USD for your keyword.

The Campaign Bid Simulator can show you the same estimates based on setting a campaign-wide bid of $1.50 USD, for example, or increasing or decreasing your campaign-level bid by a certain percentage.

Any active bid adjustments for your campaign or ad groups are taken into account during simulations.

If your campaign has a "Limited by budget" status, you'll get budget ideas in the pop-up window on your Campaignspage instead of the Campaign Bid Simulator. Learn more about Types of recommendations .

How bid simulators work

The bid simulators collect and analyze data from ad auctions while considering information such as Quality Score , keyword traffic, and competition in the ad auction. The tools use this information to estimate how your ads might have performed in terms of key metrics like cost, impressions, clicks, and conversion volume.

You can estimate your bid simulator results at scale by using the Google Ads API .

How to get bid simulator estimates

Use bid simulators on the Search and Display Networks

Bid simulators work on the Search and Display Networks, and on Search Network campaigns with Display Expansion.

Note: Using a bid simulator in a “Search Network campaign with Display Select” only simulates the search portion of the traffic.

In your Google Ads account , select the Campaignsicon.
- Select the Campaignsdrop-down in the section menu for Campaigns or Ad groups .
- (Or) Select the Audiences, keywords, and contentdrop-down in the section menu for Search keywords .
Select the simulator icon Can't find this icon? Learn why .
- If you're in Campaigns, the icon is in the "Budget" column.
- If you're in Ad groupsthe icon is in the "Default max. CPC" column.
- If you're in Keywords, the icon is in the "Max. CPC" column.
You can change your bid by selecting a new bid option in the Bid Simulator.

Tip

Alternatively, you can add the bid simulator columns to the statistics table on your Keywords page to easily view estimates for multiple keywords. Learn more About columns in your statistics table .

Use the bid simulator for App campaigns

App campaign Bid Simulator can only be used for App campaigns.

Go to Campaigns within the Campaignsmenu.
Locate the App campaign you want to edit, then select the bid simulator iconwithin the "Budget" column. Can't find the icon? Learn why .
1. The bid simulator will appear to the side.
2. The shaded box changes dynamically as you enter new values for target cost-per-install bids or target cost-per-in-app-action bids.
Select Save and continueto apply your new settings. Select Cancelto exit without applying any changes.

Use the bid simulator for Demand Gen campaigns

Demand Gen campaign Bid Simulator can only be used for Demand Gen campaigns.

Go to Campaigns within the Campaignsmenu.
Locate the Demand Gen campaign you want to edit, then select the bid simulator iconwithin the "Budget" column. Can't find the icon? Learn why .
- The bid simulator will appear to the side.
Select Save and continueto apply your new settings. Select Cancelto exit without applying any changes.

Use the bid simulator for Performance Max campaigns

Performance Max campaign Bid Simulator can only be used for Performance Max campaigns.

Go to Campaigns within the Campaignsmenu.
Locate the Performance Max campaign you want to edit, then select the bid simulator iconwithin the "Budget" column. Can't find the icon? Learn why .
- The bid simulator will appear to the side.
Select Save and continueto apply your new settings. Select Cancelto exit without applying any changes.

Use the bid simulator for Shopping campaigns

The bid simulator is available for Shopping campaigns to help you estimate how changes to your bid would have impacted your clicks, cost, impressions, and conversions.

Bid changes across many product groups can increase traffic significantly, which could cause you to reach your budget limit. Google will show you the projected cost for bid changes, and you might need to raise your budget to make the most of your bid adjustment.

Here's how to find your estimates for an individual product group:

Go to Ad groups within the Campaigns menu.
Select the ad group for the Shopping campaign you’re interested in from the side navigation panel.
Find the product group you’re interested in and select the simulator graph icon next to the bid in the "Max. CPC" column.
In the Bid Simulator window, select different bid options to check how they could impact your traffic.
You can change your bid and have it applied directly to your product group by selecting a new bid option in the Bid Simulator then selecting Save.

Here's how to find your estimates for product groups with subdivisions:

Go to Ad groups within the Campaigns menu.
Select the ad group for the Shopping campaign you’re interested in from the side navigation.
Find the subdivided product group containing the product groups you’re interested in and select the simulator graph icon in the "Max. CPC" column (there won’t be a bid since this product group is subdivided).
To check how percentage changes to your bids for these product groups could impact your traffic, select Bid scaling (%)in the Bid Simulator window. To change your bid by that percentage, select the option next to your desired bid, then select Save.
To check how different fixed bid amounts across your subdivided product group could impact your traffic, select the Product group-wide bidoption. To change your bid, select the option (or enter your own bid next to “Use a different bid”), then select Save.

If you're using Conversion Tracking, the bid simulator offers conversion estimates to help you understand the number of conversions and conversion value your ads might have received if you had set different bids.

Use the bid simulator for Hotel campaigns

The Hotel Campaigns Bid Simulator helps you estimate how changes to your bid would have impacted your recent clicks, cost, impressions, and conversions. Learn how to Use the bid simulator to analyze your hotel campaigns .

Using the bid simulators for conversion estimates

If you're using conversion tracking, the simulators offer conversion estimates to help you understand the number of conversions your ads might have received if you had set different bids. On the Search Network, if you've assigned values to your conversions or set conversion values, you can review your conversion value estimates to get an idea of the conversion value you might have received if you had set different bids.

Here's some information to keep in mind:

Conversion definitions:Conversions rely not only on ad interactions such as clicks, but also on the actions that customers take on your site. This can also make them more difficult to predict.
Changes to conversion tracking:Removing or moving the conversion tracking tag could invalidate the estimates. Don't make any major changes to the conversion tracking code for at least 2 weeks before using the bid simulators for conversion and conversion value estimates.
Conversion delay: Conversion delay occurs when people click on an ad and then take some time to complete a conversion action. Keep in mind that the conversion could still occur up to 90 days after each interaction depending on your chosen conversion window .
- Search, Performance Max, and App campaign simulators count conversions related metrics recorded so far and also those that are expected to arrive, so that the current metrics and projected metrics are more accurate. For example, if 10 clicks took place during the simulation period but 5 conversions were recorded after the simulation period, the 5 conversions would be counted in the estimates.
- Simulators for all other campaign types count conversions that are recorded during the simulation period. For example, if a click took place during the simulation period but the conversion wasn’t recorded until after the simulation period, the conversion wouldn’t be counted in the estimates. Learn more About conversion delay estimates .
Sparse conversion data: There is usually less conversion data than click or impression data when calculating these estimates, so conversions can be more difficult to estimate. If your account doesn't typically get a lot of conversions, we may not have enough information to generate an estimate for conversions. The longer the history and the more conversions you have, the more accurate these estimates will be.

Benefits of using the Campaign Bid Simulator

You can view bid changes in aggregate and model changes even when keywords or ad groups might not have enough data for this on their own.
Bid scaling is available, so you can check what might happen if you increased or decreased all your bids by a specific percentage (10%, for example).
Because campaign-level bid changes can increase traffic significantly, we'll tell you whether you need to increase your budget and, if so, what to change it to.
You can model what happens if you changed all your bids in the campaign to a fixed value. If you choose to apply one of these campaign-wide bid changes, your ad group default bids will be changed to this fixed value, and your keyword-level bids will be erased.

Troubleshooting

Unavailable bid simulator

A bid simulator may not always be available to help you estimate how changes to your bid, budgets or target CPA/ROAS might affect performance. If a simulator is unavailable, the simulator icon () will be grayed out. In Google Ads, the simulator icon will be grayed out with a slash through it. Here are some common reasons why:

Not enough data
The bid simulators use data from the last 7 days to provide estimates. They might not be able to provide estimates if a campaign, keyword, ad group, or product group was recently added, or didn't receive many clicks in the last 7 days.

If you've just added a new campaign, keyword, ad group, or product group, check back after more time has passed to check if the simulators have provided estimates. If your campaign, keyword, ad group, or product group doesn't get many impressions, increasing your bids can help give your ads more exposure.
Campaign uses shared budget
If your campaign uses shared budgets the campaign bid simulator won’t be available.
Campaign average daily budget
If your campaign has reached or nearly reached its average daily budget at least once in the last 7 days, the simulators may not be able to provide estimates.
Campaign Experiments
The simulators don't work with campaigns that have running or recently ended (within the last 8 days) experiments. Learn more About experiment statuses .
Product groups in Shopping campaign using the Item ID attribute
The Bid Simulator isn't available for product groups that use the Item ID attribute.
Product group has been excludedThe Bid Simulator isn’t available for product groups you’ve marked as “excluded,” which means the products in that product group aren’t being advertised with that ad group.

Missing columns within the simulator

Here are some reasons why a bid simulator might be missing the following columns:

Clicks and cost
The clicks and cost columns will only appear if you met a minimum threshold of clicks within the last week.
Top of page impressions
This column only appears if you're estimated to receive at least 1 top of page impression for any of the bids simulated. This only appears for the Search Network.
Conversions and conversion value
The "Conversions" and "Total conv. value" columns only appear if:
- You're using Google Ads conversion tracking .
- You received a minimum threshold of conversions within the last week.
Additional budget/day required
This column may only appear in bid simulators at the campaign level.

Tip: Bid simulators vs. Keyword and Display Planners

Bid simulatorsestimate your ad performance based on detailed information that's specific to your campaign, including your Quality Score and keywords.
The Keyword Plannerand Display Plannerestimate ad performance based on your advertiser information, and provide information about overall traffic patterns across all Google advertisers.

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