Fix forecasting issues in Reach Planner

When there's enough data to model your potential reach (given your campaign settings), Reach Planner generates a forecast. In most cases, Reach Planner generates forecasts for campaigns with broader targeting and a greater potential for earning impressions.

If Reach Planner doesn't generate a forecast, you may need to examine the targeting in your campaign. Use this article to find out why Reach Planner may not generate your forecast.

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Advertising policies

Forecasts take into account Google Ads policies that are included in your Reach Planner settings. We uphold the Alcohol, Gambling and games, and high fat, sugar and salt (HFSS) Food and non-alcoholic beverages (F&B) policies.

Alcohol and Gambling and games policy restrictions exist and may vary by country. Your campaign can target only countries that are allowed to show alcohol or gambling ads. To expand the reach of your campaign, target different countries, which are allowed to show such ads or update your settings in Reach Planner. Learn more about the Alcohol policies and Gambling and games policies.

To run high fat, sugar and salt (HFSS) Food and beverage (F&B) ads, you’re required to self-declare that you’re using your Google Ads account to run HFSS F&B campaigns. Learn more about the High fat, sugar and salt Food and beverage ads policy.

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Instructions

Rate card campaigns don't return forecasts

• Next year's rates may not be available in Reach Planner yet. Please check again soon for updates.
• Date ranges that span two years for rate card campaigns won't return forecasts.

Keywords aren't recognised by Reach Planner

Note: The instructions below are part of the new design for the Google Ads user experience. To use the previous design, click the 'Appearance' icon and select Use previous design. If you're using the previous version of Google Ads, review the Quick reference map or use the search bar in the top navigation panel of Google Ads to find the page you’re searching for.

If your media plan includes a custom affinity audience or a custom intent audience, check if your audience includes keywords that Reach Planner can't recognise.

1. In your Google Ads account, click the Campaigns icon .
2. Click the Campaigns drop-down in the section menu.
3. Click Campaigns.
4. Click the plus button , then select New campaign.
5. Select Video for your campaign type.
6. While creating the campaign, scroll to the 'Budget and dates' section and give your campaign an end date.
7. Scroll to the 'Audiences' section and select the Browse tab.
8. Click Your custom audiences.
9. Click to tick the box next to the custom audience that you're using in the media plan.
10. On the right-hand side of the page, check for an estimate.
11. If you see the message "We aren't able to provide estimates because of the following keywords that are part of custom audiences. Remove all instances of these keywords to get estimates", hover over the custom audience, then click Edit.
12. Remove the keywords identified by Google Ads, then click Save audience.
13. Return to Reach Planner and create a new forecast with the audience.

Not enough keywords

If your media plan includes a custom affinity audience or a custom intent audience, check whether your audience has enough keywords.

1. In your Google Ads account, click the Campaigns icon .
2. Click the Campaigns drop-down in the section menu.
3. Click Campaigns.
4. Click the plus button , then select New campaign.
5. Select Video for your campaign type.
6. While creating the campaign, scroll to the 'Budget and dates' section and give your campaign an end date.
7. Scroll to the 'Audiences' section and select the Browse tab.
8. Click Your custom audiences.
9. Click to tick the box next to the custom audience that you're using in the media plan.
10. On the right-hand side of the page, check for an estimate.
11. If you see a low amount of estimated impressions or no estimated impressions, hover over the custom audience, then click Edit.
12. Add more keywords to your audience to improve your estimated impressions, then click Save audience.
13. Return to Reach Planner and create a new forecast with the audience.

Audience targeting is too narrow

If your media plan's targeting is too narrow, you may see very few impressions, and Reach Planner won't be able to confidently generate a forecast. To fix narrow targeting in your media plan, expand your targeting.

1. In Reach Planner, scroll to the statistics table (below the forecast table).
2. Click Edit next to a line item.
3. In the editing panel, update your targeting. You can:
   • Expand your location and demographic targeting.
   • Remove Google audiences (including custom affinity and custom intent audiences).
   • Expand the date range for your media plan.

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Related links

• About forecasts in Reach Planner