Entrepreneurship newsletter

So I'm finally experimenting with Meta ads to scale Zylvie.

I think it's finally time to do it -- the platform is ready for prime time, our gross merchandise volume shows that our users are getting genuine concrete value out of the platform.

First thing everyone tells me to do is to install Meta Pixel as quickly as possible, so I did just that.

(Apparently Meta Pixel needs to collect as much data as possible from my site visitors, so it knows who to target when serving my ads.)

Now, if you haven't touched Meta ads yet, let's just say there's a huge learning curve involved.

You'll have to familiarize yourself with:

• Interest-based audiences
• Lookalike audiences
• Retargeting audiences
• Custom audiences
• Audiences in general
• Campaigns
• Ad sets
• Ads
• Creatives
• Events
• Datasets/Data sources
• Conversions API
• Advantage+ audience

And the list goes on and on.

Where dogfooding came in handy

Now those of you familiar with Meta Ads know that you should track as many events as you can.

The more events you track, and the more metadata you can attach to those events, the more accurate your retargeting strategy will be.

Since I sell Zylvie plans using Zylvie itself (Zylvie-ception), I noticed there wasn't an existing feature to track Meta events, beyond the simple PageView and Purchase events.

So immediately I fired up Cursor Agent, typed a dozen or so prompts, let Cursor Agent do its magic, and then released our native Meta Pixel integration:

And now in my Meta Events manager, I can already see the other events being recorded.

I can see that there's a drop-off between adding items to cart vs. filling up the payment form vs. successfully purchasing.

I can now specifically retarget my ads at those who are closest to finishing the purchase process (e.g. those who have triggered the InitiateCheckout event), thus fine-tuning my retargeting accuracy even more.

Nothing inspires action like personal pain

A few users have been asking for native Meta Pixel integration for a while.

I've been putting it off in favor of delivering other features (which I believe were just as important).

But what pushed me over the edge this time was my own personal pain.

My own inability to do something with the platform I built just rubbed me the wrong way.

Which is why sometimes it's a big advantage to use your own products.

You immediately see the flaws, the quirks, the limitations, and you're more motivated than ever to fill up the gaps and fix the problems.

I've started a new newsletter recently in an unrelated niche, so I'll be also using Zylvie to build custom landing pages.

And believe me, I'm also aware there's room for improvement there.

So look out for improvements in our landing page builder soon.

With thanks,
Jay

What I've built:

Zylvie - High-converting cart software to sell your digital products and subscriptions

Zlappo - Automate your tweets across all your Twitter/X accounts to get sales on auto-pilot