I have audited Google Ads accounts for businesses across Jordan for 13 years. Different industries, different budgets, different agencies managing the accounts. The same five mistakes appear over and over.
These are not minor optimisation issues. These are structural problems that cause businesses to waste thousands of dinars every month on ads that never had a chance of working. Here is what they are and how to fix them.
Mistake 1: No Conversion Tracking (Or Broken Tracking)
How common: I find this in roughly half of the accounts I audit.
What happens: The business is spending money on Google Ads but has no system to measure which clicks lead to actual business outcomes — phone calls, form submissions, purchases, bookings.
Without conversion tracking, Google Ads is a black box. You know how much you spent and how many clicks you got. You have no idea which keywords, ads, or campaigns generated revenue. You cannot calculate your cost per lead or return on ad spend. And if you are using any automated bidding strategy, the algorithm is optimising toward nothing.
How to fix it: Install conversion tracking properly. For lead generation businesses, track form submissions and phone calls. For e-commerce, track purchases with revenue values. Verify that conversions in Google Ads match what your website actually records. This is the first thing I fix in every account I take over — not the ads, not the keywords, not the bidding. The tracking. Because everything else depends on it.
Mistake 2: Never Checking the Search Term Report
How common: Almost universal. Even accounts managed by agencies often have this problem.
What happens: The business sets up keywords and assumes those keywords control exactly when the ads appear. They do not. Google's match types — especially Broad Match — trigger ads for searches that are related to your keywords but often not relevant to your business.
A business selling luxury watches might appear for "cheap watch repair." An accounting firm might appear for "free tax software." Every click on these irrelevant searches costs money and generates nothing.
How to fix it: Open the search term report at least weekly. Add every irrelevant term as a negative keyword. Build a comprehensive negative keyword list over time — this list is one of the most valuable assets in your Google Ads account. I review search terms weekly for every account I manage. Not monthly. Not quarterly. Weekly.
Mistake 3: Sending All Traffic to the Homepage
How common: Extremely common, especially among small and mid-size businesses in Jordan.
What happens: Every ad in every campaign links to the homepage. A person searching "dental implants Amman" clicks the ad and lands on a general dental clinic homepage with navigation to ten different services, a mission statement, and a team photo gallery. They wanted information about dental implants specifically. Instead, they have to hunt for it.
Most will not hunt. They will tap back and click the next result — your competitor who has a dedicated dental implants landing page with pricing, procedure details, before-and-after photos, and a booking form.
How to fix it: Build dedicated landing pages for each major service or product category you advertise. The ad promises something specific. The landing page delivers that exact thing immediately. The landing page should have: a headline that matches the ad, the specific information the searcher wants, trust signals (reviews, credentials, photos), and one clear call to action.
Mistake 4: Mixing Brand and Non-Brand in One Campaign
How common: Found in most accounts that are managed in-house or by inexperienced agencies.
What happens: Keywords for your brand name ("ABC Clinic Amman") and generic service keywords ("dentist Amman") sit in the same campaign. The performance report shows a blended average that looks good — but it is lying to you.
Brand keywords always perform well. People searching your business name already know you and intend to visit your site. These clicks are cheap and convert at high rates. When mixed with generic keywords, they inflate the overall numbers and hide the fact that your prospecting campaigns might be performing terribly.
You think your Google Ads are generating leads at 3 JOD each. In reality, your brand campaigns are generating leads at 0.50 JOD and your generic campaigns at 8 JOD. The 3 JOD average is a fiction.
How to fix it: Separate brand and non-brand into different campaigns. Give each its own budget and measure them independently. Brand campaigns should be small and low-budget. Non-brand campaigns are your growth engine and should be evaluated on their own metrics — the number that actually matters for business growth.
Mistake 5: Using Automated Bidding Too Early
How common: Increasingly common because Google actively recommends it from day one.
What happens: A new campaign launches with Target CPA or Target ROAS bidding before any conversion data exists. Automated bidding strategies need historical conversion data to function. With zero conversion history, the algorithm has nothing to learn from. It guesses — and it spreads your budget across random signals trying to find patterns that do not exist yet.
The result: erratic spending, unpredictable costs, and performance that swings wildly day to day. The business owner sees inconsistent results, assumes Google Ads does not work for their industry, and stops advertising.
How to fix it: Follow the bidding progression. Start with Manual CPC or Maximize Clicks to collect data. Wait until you have at least 30–50 conversions before switching to automated strategies. When you do switch, start with a conservative target (10–20% above your actual average) and tighten gradually. The algorithm is powerful when it has data. Without data, it is an expensive guessing machine.
How Many of These Apply to Your Account?
If you recognised one or two of these mistakes, you can likely address them with focused attention. If you recognised three or more, your account has structural problems that are costing you real money every day.
For the full picture of how Google Ads works and how I manage campaigns, read my Complete Google Ads Guide for Jordanian & MENA Businesses.
13 years. $5M+ managed. Google Premier Partner. The mistakes are almost always the same — and they are almost always fixable.
For a real-world example, see how a Jordanian watch retailer scaled Google Ads as part of a full digital marketing suite.
13 years of documented results across Jordan and the Gulf. Explore the full Google Ads service or book a free strategy call.