Waze ads: how advertising on Waze works now

The facts here come from Google's own pages: the Waze Ads wind down FAQs, About Performance Max for store goals, Create a Performance Max campaign with store goals, the optimization tips for store goals and the Google Ads announcement Drive more in-store sales with Ads on Waze, plus the Waze Ads team's post Waze Ads are back, and here's how to buy them. Performance Max in general is covered in our Performance Max guide, so this page only covers the Waze part.

What happened to Waze Ads

Waze ran its own ad platform for years, where local businesses bought pins and other placements directly from Waze. According to Google's wind down FAQs, "Waze will no longer be providing Waze Ads after August 31, 2023", and from September 1, 2023, Waze stopped supporting campaigns through Display & Video 360 as well. Old Waze Ads accounts now only cover history: the FAQs point advertisers to a contact page for past campaign data, invoice copies and invoice revisions.

At the time, Google said it had "begun transitioning Waze's existing advertising system to Google Ads technology". That transition is what you buy today. Google Ads announced that it is "adding Waze ads inventory to Performance Max for store goals campaigns", and in February 2026 the Waze Ads team wrote that former direct buyers can now "purchase pin ads on the map again" through Google's Performance Max platform. If you find instructions for a separate Waze Ads Manager or biz.waze.com sign-up, they describe the old system.

What a Waze ad looks like

Google calls the format a Promoted Places in Navigation pin. Its store goals page describes it like this: "Your business promoted on Waze appears as a branded square pin on a user's driving route. Tapping the pin reveals key business details such as location and directions."

So the ad is a pin on the map along the route a driver is already taking, with your location and directions one tap away. You do not design a separate Waze creative: the Google Ads announcement says "Performance Max will automatically use your existing assets", and "No additional setup is required" for advertisers already running store goals campaigns.

Which campaigns can show on Waze

Only Performance Max campaigns for store goals. These are Performance Max campaigns built around physical locations, with conversion goals such as store visits, store sales, or local actions like calls and direction clicks. Google says store goals campaigns "include Promoted Places on Waze", and that this "is available when bidding on local actions (directions), either exclusively or alongside store visits or sales."

Not every account can use every goal. Google's optimization tips say a store visits campaign "must be set up within an account that's already active and eligible for store visits", and that "Advertisers who aren't eligible for store visits can optimize towards local actions, which includes contacts and direction clicks." Store sales need an account that is allowlisted for it. For most small businesses, the realistic route to Waze is a store goals campaign optimizing for directions.

Waze is one placement among several. The same campaign can also show on Google Maps, Search, YouTube, the Display Network, Business Profiles and Gmail, and Google AI decides where each ad runs.

Where Waze ads are available

The first Google Ads announcement covered U.S. advertisers only. The Waze Ads team's February 2026 post then listed the United States, Canada, Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Malaysia, Australia and Israel. Google's store goals page now lists 42 supported countries: those eight plus Argentina, Chile, the United Kingdom and a long list of European countries, including Germany, France, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Sweden, Norway and Switzerland. The list keeps growing, so check the current list on Google's page before you plan a campaign for a specific market.

How to set it up in Google Ads

Google's set-up article walks through these steps:

1. In your Google Ads account, create a new campaign and choose the "Local store visit and promotions" objective.
2. Select Performance Max as the campaign type.
3. Confirm the conversion goals: store visits, store sales, contacts or directions. You can pick store visits or store sales, not both at the same time. For Waze, keep directions in the goals.
4. Under campaign feeds, choose your locations: all locations from a linked Google Business Profile, a location group, or affiliate locations if you sell through other retailers' stores.
5. Name the campaign, set the budget and bidding, and add your ad assets (text, images and logo).

The Business Profile link matters most. "You'll need to define the store locations you want to promote", Google says, and that is done by linking your Business Profile or choosing affiliate locations. If your listing has the wrong address, hours or category, the pin and the directions it gives will be wrong too. Our Google Business Profile guide covers getting the listing right first.

Location targeting

Store goals campaigns target the area around your locations rather than a map area you draw yourself. Google says they "use radius targeting" around Business Profile and affiliate locations, either a radius you set or one Google works out from the locations, how far people are willing to travel, your vertical, population density and existing competitors.

Google also warns against adding normal geographic targeting: it is "highly inadvisable to apply geographic targeting together with location assets," because the locations override the campaign's targeting settings.

What Waze ads cost

There is no Waze price list any more. You pay for a Performance Max campaign in Google Ads: you set a budget, choose a bid strategy, and Google AI "optimizes bids, ad placements, and asset combinations" across all the placements, Waze included. Google does not publish a separate rate for Waze pins, and we do not quote averages here.

Google's optimization tips recommend running a store goals campaign for at least 30 days, and at least 5 business locations for campaigns with local actions (10 for store visits or store sales). Its own example of a set-up that meets the account requirements is 5 campaigns with a $200 USD daily budget each, 2 stores per campaign and a 30 day duration. That is an example of structure, not a minimum spend. How Google Ads bills you is covered in our Google Ads budgets and bidding guide.

Reporting and judging results

Visits and local actions are reported per store location, while store sales reporting is only available at the campaign level. Google suggests comparing the campaign "against other performance-oriented campaigns with the same conversion action", and waiting "1-2 complete conversion cycles" before judging it, because offline conversions take longer to show up.

Plan on judging Waze as part of the whole campaign. Google's pages describe Waze as one placement inside Performance Max for store goals, and you choose the locations, goals and budget, not the individual placement.

Waze, Google Maps and other local ads

• Google Maps: the same store goals campaign can show promoted pins and ads in Maps search results and place sheets. Google notes you can't run ads only in Google Maps.
• Apple Maps: Apple sells its own Maps ads through Apple Business or Apple Ads, with a separate account and billing. See our Apple Maps ads guide.
• Local Services Ads: for service businesses that go to the customer (plumbers, cleaners, lawyers), Google charges per lead, and in our view that usually fits better than a map pin. See our Google Local Services Ads guide.

How we would start

This is our own view, not Google's guidance:

• Waze pins suit places drivers can pull in to: restaurants, coffee, fuel, car services, shops near main roads. A business customers book days ahead gains less from a pin on the route.
• Fix the Business Profile first (address, hours, category, photos), because it feeds the pin and the directions.
• Start with directions as a goal so the campaign can use Waze, and set a budget you would be fine spending in full while the campaign learns.
• Judge it on visits, directions and calls per store over a month or more, not on clicks.

For help with local listings and ads, see our services.

Frequently asked questions

Does Waze still sell ads?

Not directly. Waze's own Waze Ads platform stopped on August 31, 2023. Waze ad placements are now bought through Google Ads, as part of Performance Max campaigns for store goals.

How do I advertise on Waze?

Create a Performance Max campaign for store goals in Google Ads, link your Google Business Profile locations and include directions (local actions) in the conversion goals. The campaign can then show your business as a pin on drivers' routes in Waze.

Is there still a Waze Ads Manager?

No. The old self-serve Waze Ads platform is closed, and Google's Waze Ads help now only covers the wind down, past campaign data and invoices. Campaigns are set up in Google Ads.

How much do Waze ads cost?

There is no separate Waze price. You set a budget and bid strategy for the whole Performance Max campaign, and Google spreads it across Waze, Google Maps, Search, YouTube and other placements. Google publishes no standard rate for Waze pins.

Can I run ads only on Waze?

Google's pages describe Waze as one placement inside Performance Max for store goals, and they do not describe a setting that limits a campaign to Waze. You choose the locations, goals and budget, and Google decides where each ad shows.

In which countries can I run Waze ads?

Google's store goals page lists 42 countries, including the United States, Canada, Brazil, Mexico, Australia, the United Kingdom and all 27 European Union countries. Check Google's page for the current list.