I’m a new seller and just launched my first product ads 5 days ago.

My problem: extremely low impressions, almost no clicks, and I’m totally lost on what to adjust.

My current setup:

  • Launched Auto campaign (Close Match only) on Nov 1, fixed bidding, $20 daily budget.

  • After 6 days: only around 1,000 total impressions.

  • I started with a $0.90 bid and gradually raised it to $1.55 (no suggested bid was shown when creating the campaign).

  • Added +25% bid adjustment for Top of Search yesterday.

  • Finally got 1 click today at $0.45 CPC, even though my max bid is $1.55.

I also set up a few other campaigns and have some beginner questions:

  1. Why is my actual CPC ($0.45) so much lower than my set bid of $1.55?

  2. There’s a default ad group bid AND a separate targeting bid for Close Match ($1.55). What’s the difference? Should they be the same? How do they work together?

  3. My category is correct, I have the Buy Box, and my listing isn’t suppressed. How can I improve impressions and clicks?

  4. I ran another Auto campaign with Loose & Similar targets, $20 budget, but only got ~100 impressions in 3 days and zero clicks. I turned it off and moved those match types into my main Auto campaign. What caused those near-zero impressions?

  5. I also have a Manual campaign with 1 broad main keyword + 1 broad core keyword, $20 budget. Only ~600 impressions in 2 days, still no clicks. Most impressions are on product pages, not search results. Is this just because my bid is too low?

I really don’t have a clear strategy yet.

How should I actually structure ads for a new listing from scratch?