The Surprising Mistake Draining Millions from Your Ad Budget—And How to Stop It Now
Ever wonder how much of your ad budget is just vanishing into thin air because of lousy data? Brett Fish has been staring that problem right in the face—and he’s not impressed. As the brains behind TagHero, Brett dives deep into the chaotic world of digital ad tracking across Meta, Google Ads, and TikTok, proving time and again that these platforms are nothing but algorithms begging for clean, solid data. Feed ’em junk, and watch your money go poof—“garbage in, garbage out” isn’t just a saying; it’s a harsh reality in the ad game. In this eye-opening chat, Brett spills the beans on where most campaigns fumble right out of the gate, how to spot those sneaky double-counting glitches, and why getting your tracking setup nailed down is the secret sauce before any creative magic happens. Plus, he breaks down when it’s actually worth shelling out for third-party tools and how privacy concerns are reshaping the landscape. If you’ve ever tossed cash at ads hoping for a miracle, you might wanna hear what Brett has to say first. LEARN MORE
Brett Fish sees a lot of wasted ad spend. His company, TagHero, tracks clients’ advertising performance on platforms such as Meta, Google Ads, and TikTok. He says the platforms are merely algorithms that respond to data. Good data leads to good results. Bad data wastes money, a kind of “garbage in, garbage out.”
In our recent conversation, Brett addressed common ad setup errors, optimization opportunities, campaign management tools, and more.
Our entire audio is embedded below. The transcript is edited for clarity and length.
Eric Bandholz: Tell us what you do.
Brett Fish: I’m the founder of TagHero, a data-tracking tool for advertisers on Meta, Google Ads, and TikTok. We help brands and agencies implement and audit tracking to make campaigns as efficient as possible.
The use cases for our clients can get complicated and require customizations. Maybe it’s a tag installed years ago that no one knows about, for example, that results in double-counting and duplication.
We were a paid vendor of Meta for several years, helping advertisers fix glitches and get dialed in.
Usually once we’re done, a setup should be good to go for the immediate future. Still, all sorts of things can change, break, and evolve. So we also offer ongoing checks and preventative maintenance.
Bandholz: Are people still using Google Tag Manager?
Fish: Yes, it’s on millions of websites. It’s a really good tool. Placing a single code snippet from Google Tag Manager on a website can eliminate similar site snippets from Google Analytics, Meta Pixels, and a slew of other providers.
We always recommend the easiest and most cost-effective solutions, such as native Shopify integrations for ad campaigns on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Google, and more. The integrations are free and easy to set up and use.
Clients with larger ad spend and web traffic can usually benefit from third-party data tools such as Elevar and Blotout.
Bandholz: How can established brands identify tag optimization opportunities?
Fish: Look at your Meta Events Manager. We recently audited a big brand and found systematic double-counting and over-reporting of all of their events. Definitely not ideal. So glitches can occur even to large companies.
There are so many variables that impact ad performance, such as creative, offers, landing pages, and account structures. But underlying all of that is data. Ad platforms are just algorithms with garbage in, garbage out — good data in, good results out. I might produce the best ad known to man, but improper setup leads to bad data and subpar performance.
Advertisers should prioritize the data level, the underlying infrastructure. Once that’s dialed in, focus on the creative, landing pages, and account structures. But get familiar with the data first.
Bandholz: What should advertisers know about privacy and consent?
Fish: U.S. brands are slowly coming around to what Europe-based advertisers have dealt with for years.
At a high level, advertisers should place a banner on their site that allows visitors to opt in or out of cookies. There are different categories of tracking, such as analytics, ad targeting, and cookies that keep users logged in.
A lot of users get to a website, see the cookie banner, and opt in to everything. But it’s critical to respect users’ choices if they don’t do that. If a visitor opts out of ad targeting, you cannot send tracking data to Meta, Google, TikTok, and any other ad platform.
Privacy is a big deal for U.S. brands and increasingly regulated.
Bandholz: At what point should advertisers invest in third-party data optimization?
Fish: Our recommendation is typically at about $80,000 in monthly ad spend. At that point, the cost of external optimization tools becomes worthwhile compared to the free tools from, say, Shopify. The benefit is usually incremental, however, not massive.
Bandholz: Where can people follow you, reach out, hire you?
Fish: Our site is TagHero.io. I’m on X and LinkedIn.
