I always recommend using Auto Optimizer. When setting up a campaign under the “campaign settings”, you will see SelfAdvertiser’s suggested settings.

Above are the default settings, and once you change the min bid, we automatically suggest the max bid accordingly.
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When you set the CPA goal, we automatically suggest the learning budget per source we think is best for this traffic and targeting type.
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Specifically:

For RON style campaigns (push, pop, and domain), we recommend not higher than 25% of the CPA GOAL for learning budget per source.
For KW campaigns to start with 100% of the CPA GOAL for learning budget per source.

RON traffic is high in volume, and there are many sources. If you sample them each with more than 25% of the CPA GOAL as a learning budget, you will spend a lot of money on the learning phase we want to spend wisely.
In any case, you can make sure your learning budget per source matches your goals by calculating the number of clicks you could get with this budget, to see if it's enough.
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​Learning budget/min learning bid (CPV) = number of clicks for learning budget
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For KW campaigns, we recommend the 100% CPA GOAL as the learning budget since traffic is more targeted, and we want to give it more chance to convert.

You are right, and that is why on a KW campaign, we recommend on 1*CPA GOAL and, in some cases, higher.
But on a RON campaign, there could be many sources - thousands in many cases.
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​(*) Let’s say your cap goal is $4. if you spent $2 on each source, or even more before pausing (which in some GEOs is a whole lot of clicks), you will spend a lot of money on learning.
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Since RON campaigns have many sources, we believe it’s better to eliminate the non-performing ones quicker and then going through more potential traffic so you will find the best ones for your offer.

The Optimizer works in 2 phases:

Note that:

Optimizing is always being done on a source level​.

Optimizing is being done all day long in real-time​.

Each source goes through a cycle. The learning phase will "end" if a source reaches its "learning budget" or has conversions.
If a source is not performing well, the bid will gradually decrease to almost 0$ (you will see a lot of 0.000001$ bids) - that is equal to pausing since it won’t be able to buy traffic with such a low bid.
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​(*) Note we never fully pause a source, just lowering the bid to a minimum as possible - giving it the option to reawaken if a late conversion appears.
If a source has conversions, we calculate the optimal bid according to CPA GOAL, number of conversions, etc...
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The range of min-max bid gives the optimizer the chance to raise the bid in case a source is performing well, and we should increase the bid to gain more traffic to withstand the competition. In many cases, most sources won’t reach the max bid if not needed.
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​So our recommendation is always to keep at least 3 times between min and max bid to have enough range to play.
In many cases, you will see bid being lower than the min bid in sources on optimizing phase if needed to stand the CPA GOAL. But never higher than the max bid.

At the end of the learning phase, with no conversions or if the cost per conversion is way too high, it will gradually reduce the bid to try and remain in the CPA goal, and in some cases, bids can go down to a very low bid (0.000001$).

Yes, all targeting settings. Device, OS, Browser, etc.
The only thing not considered is the ad creative for push campaigns (see the next question).
You will see an average bid on the platform, but backside, there are many different bids per each of the various targetings.
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No, the magic is only on a single GEO campaign since it considers all other settings, and the performance per source per geo could be very different, it could damage performance.

I always recommend that the overall CPA GOAL should be = payout - % Profit margin you would like to keep.
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​Let’s say your payout is $10 and you would like to maintain a 20% profit margin.
​CPA GOAL = $10*(1-0.2) = $8
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​CPA GOAL is only for optimized sources, meaning sources that are converting. So, setting the CPA goal too low to try and avoid losses, will cause the optimizer to lower bids in performing sources, sometimes unnecessarily.

​Learning phase - the system will pause a source (reduce bid to almost $0 once it reached the learning budget and didn't have any conversions). So, in case the learning budget is $2, it will be paused at around $2 spent.
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​Optimizing phase - sources get optimized all day long, through all targeting settings, taking into account a long period of statistics.
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If a source is on average doing good in comparison to the CPA GOAL, the optimizer will try to buy more of it.
If a source is underperforming, the optimizer constantly calculates the CPA for all targeting settings, and you will see it will lower the bid and stop buying traffic.
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We don't pause it straight away if the CPA GOAL is let's say $8 and the source is at $9 CPA. we try to optimize and reach the $8 CPA with a lower bid, and if we “don't succeed” we again lower the bid and try.
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This happens all day long and if a source does not reach the goals it will be paused.

Since optimization occurs at all targeting settings separately for converting sources, blocking OS or browser won't damage the optimization process.
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Yes, the default settings when opening a new campaign is our recommended one, at least to start with.
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​RON campaigns we recommend 1-12 hours (frequency) and evenly distribution of the budget.
​** Important to note that if you set up a campaign with a really low budget- $10 for example, the $10 budget will be divided throughout the day to less than 50 cents per hour.
​That is why we recommend at least a $20 - $50 daily budget.

KW campaigns we recommend 1 - 30 minutes (frequency) and as soon as possible, and that is because on a very targeted campaign, we want to try and buy all available traffic for the bid ranges you set. If you would set it on evenly, for example, you could “lose” potential traffic because of the hourly budget.