Full Answer

The event tracking question is not about which events exist — it is about which events deliver actionable data for the platforms your WooCommerce store relies on for growth.

The four essential events form a complete conversion funnel. view_item fires when a visitor loads a product page, giving you the top of your remarketing audience. add_to_cart marks commercial intent and creates your most valuable retargeting segment. begin_checkout signals high purchase probability and triggers platform-side optimisation. purchase closes the loop and feeds revenue data back to ad platforms for ROAS calculation and Smart Bidding.

Without all four, you have gaps in both measurement and optimisation. A store tracking only purchase events gives its ad platforms no signal about visitors who showed interest but did not convert — which means remarketing audiences are thin and bidding algorithms lack the mid-funnel data they need to find similar high-intent users.

Advanced events extend the funnel with additional resolution. view_item_list captures category browsing behaviour. add_payment_info and add_shipping_info isolate checkout friction points. remove_from_cart identifies products that attract interest but fail to convert. Each feeds specific platform features: Facebook dynamic product ads use view_item_list for catalogue targeting, Google Ads uses add_to_cart volume for audience expansion.

The consistency principle matters as much as the event selection. Server-side tracking solves this by processing each WooCommerce hook event once and distributing it to all connected platforms simultaneously.