Abandoned cart and pre-checkout: the mid-funnel events Hotmart does not send to Meta
Between Lead and Purchase there is a whole funnel Meta does not see: the person opened the pre-checkout, reached Hotmart’s checkout, generated a boleto, did not pay. Each step is an event that gives the algorithm volume where Purchase is rare — and a remarketing audience that changes every hour.
An info product’s funnel has more steps than “saw the ad, bought”. The person opens the page, watches the video, clicks the button, fills a pre-checkout (name, e-mail, phone), is taken to Hotmart’s checkout, picks a payment method, generates a boleto or a PIX — and stops. Meta, by default, sees the first and the last step. The middle, where volume and intent live, stays invisible.
This article closes the Meta tracking track — after the Lead and the Purchase — with the mid-funnel events: where each comes from, which Meta name it maps to, and what to do with the audience it creates.
The funnel, event by event
| Step | Who knows | Event on Meta | Relative volume |
|---|---|---|---|
| Opened the pre-checkout (modal with form) | Your pixel | InitiateCheckout or custom event | High: ~4% of page visitors |
| Submitted the pre-checkout | Your pixel (form capture) | Lead | High |
| Reached Hotmart’s checkout | Hotmart’s pixel (on its domain) | InitiateCheckout | Medium |
| Abandoned the cart | Hotmart webhook (cart event) | AddToCart, or custom | Medium: ~20 thousand in 60 days in one account |
| Generated boleto / PIX and did not pay | Hotmart webhook (BILLET_PRINTED, PIX status) | Custom | Low, but very high intent |
| Paid | Hotmart webhook (APPROVED) | Purchase | Low |
Notice that the events come from TWO places: the pixel (what happened on your site) and the Hotmart webhook (what happened on its checkout). Only with both on the same person is the funnel whole — and that is the timeline doing its job.
Hotmart’s abandoned cart
Hotmart sends an abandoned-cart webhook when the person reaches checkout, fills in details and does not complete. It arrives with e-mail, phone and product — 100% identity — and with no cookie, because it happened on Hotmart’s domain. Sent to Meta via CAPI as AddToCart with the hashed e-mail and phone plus the fbc/fbp the pixel stored from the visit (the person’s last known), it becomes a high match quality event. In one account we measured 410 deliveries a week of that event, with zero failures.
The abandoned cart has no cookie of its own. What ties it to the ad is the cookie YOUR pixel stored on the previous visit, inherited through identity.
Two uses, two tools
- Signal for the algorithm: sending InitiateCheckout and AddToCart via CAPI gives Meta volume where Purchase is rare. A top-of-funnel campaign can optimize for InitiateCheckout with ten times more events than purchases.
- Remarketing audience: “opened the pre-checkout at least 30 minutes ago and has not bought since” is a living audience rule. We measured 899 people in one account, for one product — recomputed hourly, with buyers leaving on their own.
The 30-minute grace period is not a detail: we measured that 60% of those who buy after the lead buy within 30 minutes. Without the grace period, remarketing reaches people who were finishing payment. And the automatic exit is what prevents the mistake we audited in another account, where 1,797 buyers stayed in the “abandoned” audience.
The mistakes that make the funnel lie
- 01Sending a generated boleto as Purchase. It is intent, not a sale; the status filter decides.
- 02Counting an opened pre-checkout as Lead. They are different steps with different rates; mixing them hides the drop between the two.
- 03A pre-checkout that sends to WhatsApp instead of checkout. On a page we tested, the WhatsApp variant emitted ten times fewer contact events — the funnel looked broken and it was another path.
- 04Not deduplicating the cart. Hotmart may resend; the per-transaction key keeps the same person from entering twice.
In CrazyLeads the pre-checkout comes from the pixel, the abandoned cart and the boleto come from the Hotmart webhook, all match on the same person, the Meta delivery maps each to the right name with full identity, and the abandonment audience recomputes hourly with a grace period and automatic exit.