Newbie Adwords Questions

[webatomic]

I have a simple poll linking to an email submit CPA offer that I am experimenting with. I set my budget at $5 a day. I'm using only the content network. I have my CPC bid limit set at 0.05. Questions: Should I set it to automatic bidding or manual bidding? All devices, including iphones etc? Can I set my CPC down to .01 or will I simply receive no traffic? Yesterday I had 428 impressions, 3 clicks and no conversions. This morning it shows no ads being served at all today. Why is that? Is that normal?

[Gina71]

Hi there....I see a few issues here, if I understand you correctly.
1) Your budget is $5 a day - already you are limiting your impressions. I suggest a minimum of $10 per day or $15 if you can do it.
2) If you have set your cpc to .05, automatic bidding should be fine.
3) I include all devices, but thats up to you. I don't think it matters too much.
4) I wouldn't lower your cpc below .05 yet. .05 is really low and may even be too low to get any traffic as it is. But its a good place to start. It all depends on your kw. Once you have traffic flowing nicely, and a high CTR, then you can consider lowering your cpc down by .01 at a time.
5) If you have 428 impressions, thats just not enough to get a valid sample. However to only get 3 clicks from those impressions it indicates to me that perhaps your ad is not grabbing their attention. You need an emotionally powerful ad headline that will stand out from the crowd.
6) Adjust your campaign a little using these ideas and see what happens. You'll know more once you've spent about $5-$20.
7) In my experience, one poll is just not enough to get a good idea of what works and what doesn;t. If you can, launch about 10-20 polls this week and from that you'll find a few keepers.

Good luck to you!!