#469: Alison Bechdol | Your Marketing Isn’t Broken — Your Data Is

Marketing is confusing for most owners — not because the tactics don’t work, but because the data underneath is broken.  

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In this episode, I sit down with Alison Bechdol, founder of Digital-ade, to break down why so many owners feel like they’re throwing money at marketing with nothing to show for it. And the truth is simple: you cannot build a predictable revenue engine without clean data, real attribution, and a clear picture of your customer acquisition cost. Most companies don’t have a marketing problem — they have a data infrastructure problem. Tracking is wrong, systems aren’t unified, and owners don’t have the visibility they need to design revenue, forecast cash flow, or make decisions from the boardroom. 
 
We also talk through the deeper issue: the marketing industry’s incentives are misaligned. Owners need doers, not gurus — and they need a clear order of operations to diagnose, fix, and scale what actually drives margin and enterprise value. 
 
10 Takeaways: 

1. Most owners don’t have a marketing problem — they have a data problem.  
2. If attribution isn’t accurate, every marketing dollar becomes guesswork.  
3. The marketing industry runs on misaligned incentives that reward activity over outcomes.  
4. Many “strategic” roles lack operational depth, leaving owners paying for insight without execution.  
5. Most companies’ tools are misconfigured, creating blind spots in revenue-critical data.  
6. Bad data kills owner confidence and leads to reactive, inconsistent decisions.  
7. There is a clear order of operations: fix tracking → unify systems → measure → optimize → then scale. 
8. Predictable revenue comes from diagnostics and visibility, not tactics or trends. 
9. Clean data + a reliable conversion funnel = predictable CAC, forecastable revenue, and controllable cash flow. 
10. Clear data empowers owners to make boardroom-level decisions and allocate capital with confidence. 
    
    Alison Bechdol is the owner of Digital-ade, specializing in analytics, tag management, event tracking, and paid media for both B2B and B2C companies. Known for cutting through noise and fixing the data foundations most businesses overlook, she helps owners build reliable tracking, clear attribution, and actionable insights. Alison also teaches GA4, KPIs, and Google Tag Manager through workshops, consulting, and speaking engagements. 

Chapters:  

• (00:00) Alison's unconventional journey from event planning to analytics mastery 

• (05:45) First principles thinking and understanding consumer psychology in data 

• (12:37) Predictable revenue and mapping the complete customer journey 

• (15:37) Moving from mindset to implementation: where to start with data 

• (20:20) Setting goals and KPIs: working backwards from conversion points 

• (32:09) Building your dashboard: Looker Studio as single source of truth 

• (43:04) Why AI can't replace expertise: the insights problem explained 

• (56:00) Fractional resources and finding the right doers versus strategists 

• (1:12:37) Getting started today: implement tracking and identify conversion points 

• Rate, comment, and share with the owner/operators you know! 

Resources: 
Company Website http://digital-ade.com/ 
Ryan Tansom Website https://ryantansom.com/