First do some research and find the keyword phrases you can get for the lowest CPC. With what is currently going on I would recommend these tips:

1. New campaigns be limited to Google.com (opt out of both content and Google's search network). This will limit where your ads are displayed to the strongest converting traffic until you can verify that you are getting a decent conversion rate.

2. Keywords be entered as phrase and exact match ONLY (no broad match keyword phrases)

3. Put negative keywords in the new campaign immediately. Use any single word that shows up in any keyword research that doesn't apply to what you sell as a negative keyword. Then do a search in Google.com and scour the sites that show up for every other use of any word used in your phrases and add those as negative keywords too.

4. I saw a recommendation here that we can use negative embedded keyword phrases. I have not yet tested this. Years ago I saw doing this blocking keywords I wanted the ads to appear for so if you try this test your positive keyword phrases using the magnifying glass icon at the keyword level to see that it is working properly. To explain this concept, if you want your ads to display for all variations of your keywords except one add -[blue widgets]. Theoretically your ads will appear for blue fancy widgets, cheap blue widgets, blue widgets with black spots, etc. and only NOT appear for a search for just the words blue widgets.

5. Never use the suggested bids Google's system gives you. They're either ridiculously high or way too low. Start with something reasonable or a guess that is within what you can afford. There are two basic strategies:

A. Lowest cost: start bids low, get impressions and clicks, set the individual bids to get them barely onto the first page of results, then raise the default bid, get more keywords on the first page, set their bids, then raise again. PROS: Least risk. CONS: May affect CTR, will limit traffic.

B. Most aggressive: Set bids high, get impressions and clicks, and then drive individual bids lower to the position you want. PROS: More traffic, higher CTRs may lower CPC. CONS: Higher risk, higher spending.

The new magnifying glass icon feature can be used with either method to get your keyword bids set faster.