A setup is the full set of decisions a person passes through from first contact to a paid action. Break it into elements — without that you cannot know what to fix when it stalls.
The five elements
- Source. Where people come from.
- Audience. Which niche, which segment, how warm.
- Approach. What you say and how.
- Offer. Where you send them and on what terms.
- Geo. Country and language, which affect all of the above.
A setup is one specific combination of all five. Change one and it is a different setup; the old numbers do not carry over.
Which element is at fault
- Few replies. Approach or audience — the offer is irrelevant, nobody reached it.
- Replies but no clicks. The approach promises something the offer does not deliver.
- Clicks but no conversions. Offer or geo.
- Conversions the network does not confirm. Traffic quality or shaving — and only your own statistics tell them apart.
This ladder saves weeks: it says where to look before you start changing everything at once. See also where the margin is.