Waze Ads for Local Business: How They Work, What They Cost & Who Should Use Them

Part of the guide: Local Marketing Strategy

May 31, 2026·Nataliia· 8 min read All posts

Waze no longer sells its own ads. Waze stopped providing Waze Ads after August 31, 2023, and Google now points advertisers to Performance Max for store goals, which can show your business as a promoted pin on Waze (Waze Ads wind-down FAQ, checked Oct 2026). So the practical way to advertise on Waze today is a Google Ads campaign built around store visits, not a separate Waze account.

Picture it: 7:42 am, a driver is stuck at a red light two blocks from your cafe. No plan for coffee yet. A square pin glows on the route and says you are on the way. That is the whole pitch of Waze. It is also why half of the guides on page one of Google are wrong. They still describe a self-serve Waze platform that was switched off in 2023, with its own minimum spend and its own dashboard. None of that exists any more.

What Waze is good for

Waze is a navigation app. People open it because they are driving somewhere, and a driver on a route is still making small decisions: coffee, lunch, fuel.

Proximity. A driver two miles from you is worth more than someone scrolling at home.
Timing. The ad shows during the trip, not three hours before it.
Format. A pin on the map, not a post in a feed people flick past.

Pro Tip

Waze only makes sense if an on-the-way stop is realistic for your customers. If they book ahead or walk to you, skip it for now and spend on search and your Google Business Profile first.

What changed: the old platform is gone

Guides written before 2023 describe branded pins, promoted search and zero-speed takeovers bought straight from Waze. Google's FAQ says Waze would no longer provide Waze Ads after August 31, 2023, and that support for buying Waze through DV360 ended on September 1, 2023 (Google Waze Ads wind-down FAQ, checked Oct 2026).

If an agency or tool offers you "Waze zero-speed takeovers" or a Waze minimum daily spend today, ask one question: what exactly am I buying, and where will it appear? Those offers describe the retired product. Get the answer in writing before you pay anything.

How Waze ads work now

Google's Local Ads help page says your ads can appear as promoted places on Waze: location-based square pins along a driver's route. It also states that Waze Ads are currently available only through Performance Max for store goal campaigns bidding to Store Visits, Store Sales or Local Actions Directions (Google Ads Help: Local Ads, checked Oct 2026).

In practice:

You do not pick Waze on its own. It is one surface a store-goal Performance Max campaign can use.
Google describes the campaign type as one that uses AI to maximize in-store visits and sales, bringing location formats across Search, Display, Gmail, Google Maps and YouTube into one product (Waze Ads wind-down FAQ, checked Oct 2026).
The budget is shared. The campaign decides how to split spend across surfaces. Waze gets no guaranteed share, so you cannot buy "just Waze".

That last point is my main objection. If your goal is specifically to test Waze, you cannot isolate it. You test the whole store-goal campaign. Check in your Google Ads account what is available before you plan around it, and see our Google Ads service if you want help setting it up.

Which businesses suit it

Good fits, where a driver can plausibly pull over:

Coffee shops and cafes. Morning commuters passing your door.
Quick-service restaurants. Lunch and dinner commute windows.
Gas stations and auto services. Drivers are already on the road.
Gyms and fitness studios. Evening commuters deciding whether to train.
Pet businesses. Weekend errand runs, with a promotion to match.

Poor fits:

Pedestrian-heavy city centers where most customers walk
Appointment-only services that need advance planning
Businesses targeting people without cars

The math: what a test has to earn

There is no Waze price list, so nobody can quote you a cost per visit honestly. What you can do is work out in advance what a test must deliver to be worth it. Here is the arithmetic with invented inputs.

Example only: swap in your own numbers. Assume a cafe tests a store-goal campaign at $15 a day for 28 days, a customer who walks in spends $7 on average, and about 60% of that is gross margin.

Step	Example figure	Result
Test budget	$15 x 28 days	$420
Margin per visit	$7 x 60%	$4.20
Visits needed to break even	$420 / $4.20	100 visits
Per day	100 / 28	about 3.6 extra visits a day
If 1 in 3 visitors returns once more	extra $4.20 per 3 visitors	break-even drops to about 75 visits (about 2.7 a day)

Read it this way: if you cannot imagine roughly 4 extra customers a day coming from a location campaign, the test will not pay for itself on the first visit alone. Then the question is whether the repeat visits cover the gap. The figures are assumptions for illustration, not a market average and not a result from any client.

How to measure it

Google Ads store-goal campaigns report actions such as store visits and direction requests where enough data is available. A directions request is a strong signal: someone asked an app to route them to you. Add three more checks:

A unique offer code customers say at the counter
A dedicated phone number or tracking link
A weekly look at calls and direction requests in your Google Business Profile insights

Do this today

Open your Google Business Profile and confirm the address, hours and phone number. Location ads depend on them.
Write one offer in a single line, such as "Free pastry with any large coffee before 10am".
Decide your break-even visits per day using the table above, with your own ticket and margin.
Set a calendar reminder for day 14 and day 28 to compare visits, directions and code redemptions with the 4 weeks before the test.
Set ad hours to your open hours. Paying for visibility when the doors are shut is waste.

Waze versus other local channels

Channel	Reaches	Best when
Waze (via Google Ads store goals)	Drivers near you	Customers can make an on-the-way stop
Google Ads (Search)	People searching right now	Customers already know what they want
Google Local Services Ads	People hiring a local pro	Service businesses with calls and quotes
Meta Ads	People browsing social feeds	Visual offers and local awareness

I would start with search and a complete Google Business Profile, then add a location campaign once the basics convert. Our local SEO service covers what to fix first.

FAQ

Q: How do Waze ads work for local businesses? A: Waze no longer sells ads directly. Ads can appear as promoted location pins on Waze through Google Ads Performance Max for store goals campaigns.

Q: How much do Waze ads cost? A: There is no separate Waze price. Spend comes out of your Google Ads campaign budget, and results depend on your area and competition, so start with a limited test and work out your break-even first.

Q: Can I still buy zero-speed takeovers or branded pins directly from Waze? A: No. Google says Waze stopped providing Waze Ads after August 31, 2023, and recommends Performance Max for store goals instead.

Q: Can I track visits from Waze ads? A: Partly. Google Ads may report store visits and direction requests where there is enough data. Add promo codes, tracking links or phone numbers for more reliable measurement.

Q: Waze ads or Google Local Services Ads? A: They solve different problems. Local Services Ads reach people actively searching for a service. Location ads on Waze reach drivers on the move, which suits walk-in and impulse businesses.

Sources

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Nataliia

Local marketing strategist with 10+ years at global agencies — OMD, Dentsu, GroupM, and BBDO. Now helping small businesses get the same data-driven edge. Based in Europe, working with clients in the US, UK, Australia, and beyond.

About Nataliia