So I started my first campaign yesterday and it ran some, but today my account balance isn't dropping so it must not be running. I think I saw somewhere that my mac CPC was too low (I had it at $0.50). So I guess I need to raise to $1.10 or something? Also, where can I see what websites my ads ran on? Or where the clicks came from other than Google Search. Thanks
First off, I'd really recommend you put your search and content into 2 separate campaigns - it makes it easier to see the wood for the trees, to set a budget and to see what is and isn't working for you. To see where you clicks came from click the reporting tab - go to reports and create a placement report - you need at least 24 hours-worth of activity for most reports
I'll even go one step further and recommend you turn the Content Network off until you get some learning under your belt. That content net can cost you bigtime.
For the content network, you can actually see your stats without running a report - after 24 hours, go to the "Networks" tab and scroll down to where it says 'managed placements' and 'automatic placements' - you can click next to these where it says 'show detail' and you will see where your ads were showing. Agree with comments above about separating content from search - makes it very difficult to manage having all the stats mingled together.
Use the placement tool from managed placements and it will help you to find sites relative to your ad content and place your ad in these sites.This make the cpc much lower because not many people use placement tool.You can also target audience by age or annual income and you will get thousands of impressions and a lot of clicks.with 0.5$ per click you gonna get nice results.