Optimization Events

Initiate Checkout vs Link Clicks: Choosing a Mid-Funnel Optimization Event

In short: Both can stand in for Purchase optimization when purchase volume is too thin, but Initiate Checkout sits much closer to the sale than Link Clicks does. Link Clicks buys taps with no visibility past the click; Initiate Checkout buys people predicted to actually begin paying, capturing real transactional intent. Initiate Checkout needs your checkout flow's event firing with enough volume, while Link Clicks needs nothing and works everywhere. If checkout volume is healthy and your funnel between checkout-start and purchase isn't badly leaky, Initiate Checkout beats Link Clicks and Add to Cart as the mid-funnel choice.

By the AdFlint research team · Fact-checked against current Google and Meta platform behavior · Last reviewed July 2026

Initiate Checkout Optimization

Targets people likely to begin the checkout flow, sitting between add to cart and purchase in both intent and event volume.

The event fires when a shopper enters checkout, so it carries stronger buying intent than a cart add while still firing more often than a completed order. It is the sensible middle step for stores that cannot sustain purchase optimization but find cart signal too loose. The trap is a leaky checkout: if payment or shipping steps kill conversions, you will buy abandoners efficiently and sell nothing.

Full definition

Link Clicks Optimization

Tells Meta to spend your budget on people most likely to tap the link, regardless of whether the page ever loads.

Meta ranks users by predicted click probability and buys impressions accordingly. It fills learning fast because clicks are cheap and plentiful, so it suits new pages with no conversion history or pure traffic goals. The mistake is treating link clicks as demand: the system happily finds compulsive tappers who bounce before the page renders, inflating volume while sales stay flat.

Full definition

Side by side.

The differences that actually change what happens in your account.

 Initiate Checkout OptimizationLink Clicks Optimization
Intent level capturedHigh - the shopper has entered the paying step.None - just curiosity or an accidental tap.
Volume relative to purchasesHigher than purchases but tighter than cart-add volume, sitting between the two.Far higher than purchases, and entirely unrelated to buying intent.
Event sourcePixel/CAPI InitiateCheckout standard event firing on the checkout page.The ad click itself.
What breaks itA leaky checkout - payment failures, shipping costs revealed late, forced account creation - killing conversions after the event already fired.Nothing; it's the click itself and needs nothing downstream.
Setup dependencyRequires the checkout step to reliably fire its own event, distinct from cart-add and purchase events.None.
What a falling purchase rate tells youA strong signal the checkout flow itself has a problem, not the ad.Nothing - Link Clicks has no checkout visibility to draw that conclusion from.
Position vs Add to CartLater in the funnel, closer to Purchase in both volume and intent.Pre-site, before any funnel step has occurred.

What actually separates them.

01

Link Clicks requires no on-site event and can't be broken by anything downstream of the click; Initiate Checkout depends entirely on the checkout page firing its event, so a payment gateway outage silently removes its ability to optimize even while ads keep running.

02

Initiate Checkout sits closer to Purchase in the funnel than any click-based signal, so an Initiate Checkout audience typically resembles a buyer audience more than a Link Clicks audience does.

03

Link Clicks volume tells you nothing about checkout leakage; a growing gap between checkout starts and purchases under Initiate Checkout optimization is diagnostic of the checkout flow itself, something Link Clicks can't reveal since it has no checkout visibility at all.

04

Switching from Link Clicks to Initiate Checkout moves the campaign from the Traffic objective's click-prediction model to the Sales objective's checkout-prediction model, changing which users the auction favors even for the same audience and creative.

05

Initiate Checkout needs enough weekly checkout-start volume per ad set to stabilize delivery; Link Clicks has no volume floor and spends the same regardless of what's happening on the checkout page.

Which one should you use?

Use Initiate Checkout Optimization when

  • Your checkout page reliably fires its event and gets meaningful weekly volume, but full purchase volume per ad set is still too thin for direct Purchase optimization.
  • You want an interim event closer to a real buyer signal than Add to Cart, without needing full purchase volume yet.
  • Your checkout flow is solid - low drop-off, no major friction - so people who start checkout usually finish it.
  • You're troubleshooting funnel drop-off and want to isolate whether the ad or the checkout page is losing sales.

Use Link Clicks Optimization when

  • You have no checkout event set up yet, or it isn't firing reliably.
  • Your destination isn't a checkout at all - a landing page, a lead form, an informational site.
  • Your checkout flow is known to be leaky, and optimizing to it would just buy efficient abandoners.
  • You need the broadest, cheapest traffic for a brand-new test with no downstream data yet.

Common questions.

My Initiate Checkout campaign gets plenty of checkout starts but few purchases. Is the ad broken?

Probably not the ad - this pattern usually points at the checkout flow itself, such as a late shipping cost reveal, a required account creation, or payment failures. Check the checkout-to-purchase rate specifically for this traffic and fix the flow before blaming targeting.

Is Initiate Checkout better than Add to Cart as a proxy event?

It's closer to a real purchase signal because it captures people who've actually started paying, but it needs a healthy volume of checkout starts to work, which not every store has. If checkout volume is too thin, Add to Cart's higher volume may stabilize delivery better even though the intent signal is weaker.

Why isn't Initiate Checkout available as an optimization option for my ad set?

Meta needs the InitiateCheckout event firing with enough recent volume through your pixel or Conversions API before it will surface as a selectable goal. Verify the event is implemented on your checkout page and that enough weekly volume is flowing.

Should I use Link Clicks while I set up Initiate Checkout tracking?

Yes, that's a reasonable interim step - run Link Clicks or Landing Page Views to keep traffic flowing and generate baseline pixel data while you get the checkout event implemented and verified, then switch once it's firing reliably.

Or stop choosing between them.

AdFlint picks the setting, writes the ads, and keeps optimizing inside the Google and Meta accounts you already own.

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