Yes—optimizing for upper-funnel events like “Page Visit” instead of “Checkout” can definitely be risky for eCommerce, especially if you're expecting consistent, purchase-driven results.
Here’s why:
What Actually Happens:
When you optimize for “Page Visit,” Meta (or Google, etc.) will go out and find the easiest, cheapest people to just land on your site—not the ones most likely to buy. That may give you more volume, but it's usually low-intent traffic, which can totally throw off your CPA and conversion rates.
So, while you get more data faster, you're also feeding the algorithm the wrong signals. And once it's trained to chase page views, it's harder to "steer it back" toward checkout conversions.
Why It Feels Unpredictable:
The audience quality is mixed—some may be curious, others just click-happy.
Your pixel starts optimizing for clickers, not buyers.
Retargeting audiences get bloated with low-quality visitors, which weakens your bottom-funnel efforts.
What You Can Do Instead:
Use “Page View” or “Add to Cart” optimization only temporarily—like in the first 2–3 days of a cold-start campaign to exit the learning phase quickly.
As soon as you have even 25–50 conversions, switch to optimizing for “Checkout” or “Purchase.”
Or try the “Maximize Conversions” goal with a minimum ROAS to guide the algorithm upward without completely cutting off volume.
Bottom line:
Upper-funnel optimization can help with data collection, but it’s a short-term play. For consistent CPAs and purchase intent, always train the algorithm on the final action you truly care about. Otherwise, it’ll just send you the cheapest clicks—not the most valuable ones.