What's the Minimum Budget to Advertise on Waze?

Waze's self-serve local ads start at $2 a day, or roughly $60 a month, for small businesses running location-based awareness campaigns. But as of November 2025, Google folded most Waze ad inventory into Performance Max campaigns inside Google Ads, so larger or more automated Waze buys no longer run through a separate self-serve minimum — they scale to whatever budget is set inside the Performance Max campaign, with no Waze-specific floor at all.

The Self-Serve Minimum That's Still Standing

Waze's small-business self-serve tier is built around simple, radius-targeted ads shown to drivers near a physical location, priced on a cost-per-thousand-impressions basis. The $2-a-day entry point makes this the cheapest way to get any presence on Waze at all, aimed squarely at local businesses — a coffee shop or auto shop wanting to catch nearby drivers — rather than at brands running national campaigns.

What Changed in November 2025

Google began routing most Waze ad inventory through Performance Max, the automated, cross-channel campaign type most Google Ads advertisers already use, rather than through a standalone Waze buying tool. For an advertiser already running Performance Max, this means Waze impressions can now show up as one more placement inside a campaign that also spans Search, Display, YouTube, and Gmail — with budget set once at the Google Ads campaign level instead of allocated separately to Waze.

Which Path Should You Use

A single-location local business wanting a cheap, simple test of Waze specifically is still best served by the standalone self-serve tier and its $2-a-day floor — it's the most direct way to control exactly how much goes to Waze and nothing else. A business already running Performance Max campaigns, or wanting Waze exposure folded into a broader always-on Google Ads presence, doesn't need to manage a separate Waze budget at all now; Waze inventory is simply part of what Performance Max can serve.

Why This Matters for Anyone Reading Older Waze Guides

Most advertising guidance written about Waze before late 2025 describes it as an entirely separate, self-contained ad platform with its own account and campaign manager. That's now only true for the small-business self-serve tier — anyone planning a larger or more automated Waze presence should be looking at Performance Max settings, not a standalone Waze dashboard, and should discount any guide that doesn't mention the change.

What This Means for Budgeting Going Forward

Anyone setting a Waze-specific line item in a 2026 media plan should first confirm whether that spend is actually routing through the standalone self-serve tool or through Performance Max, since the two paths report and bill differently — treating them as interchangeable is the most common budgeting mistake advertisers make during this transition.

Bottom Line

Use the $2-a-day self-serve tier for a simple, standalone local Waze test; otherwise, treat Waze as inventory inside an existing Performance Max campaign with no separate minimum to plan around, since that's how Google has routed most Waze buying since November 2025.

Sources: reporting on Waze's Performance Max integration from Search Engine Journal and MediaPost; self-serve pricing details via MKToolbox, "The Complete Guide To Waze Advertising (In 2026)."