What Is Event Match Quality (EMQ)?
Event Match Quality (EMQ) is Meta's 0 to 10 rating of how many customer parameters (email, phone, name, external ID, IP, user agent, click ID) you send with each Conversion API event and how many of them successfully match a Meta user. Higher EMQ means Meta can attribute the event to a real person and use it for optimisation. Under 5 out of 10 and the algorithm treats the event as noise.
Formula
Meta weights identity signals differently. Email and phone are the strongest; fbc (click ID) and external_id are next; IP and user agent are supporting. Hashing is mandatory (SHA-256, lowercased, trimmed) and unhashed values are silently rejected.
EMQ in a real Shopify + CAPI account
A brand ships CAPI Purchase events with only email + IP. EMQ sits at 4.2 and Advantage+ Shopping shows 'insufficient signal' warnings. After adding hashed phone, first name, last name, external_id, fbc and fbp, EMQ climbs to 8.6 within 72 hours. Reported purchases in Ads Manager rise 18 percent (Meta now attributes iOS traffic it was dropping), and CPA drops as the algorithm gets cleaner training data.
Benchmarks
- Under 4: broken or missing identifiers, treat as unattributed.
- 5 to 6.9: acceptable minimum; still leaving optimisation on the table.
- 7 to 8.4: healthy; typical after a proper CAPI + Pixel dedupe setup.
- 8.5 to 10: excellent; usually needs phone + email + first-party CRM ID sent server-side.
Why it matters
EMQ is the single hidden number that decides whether your CAPI is actually helping. A live Pixel + CAPI setup with EMQ 4 is worse than a clean Pixel-only setup, because you are paying for infrastructure and getting duplicated but unmatched events. Every serious Meta account should audit EMQ per event weekly.
Common mistakes
- 1.Sending unhashed email or phone. Meta drops them; EMQ never rises.
- 2.Forgetting fbc / fbp cookies on server events. Click ID is the single strongest attribution signal you have.
- 3.Not deduplicating Pixel + CAPI with event_id. Double counting inflates events but EMQ stays flat.
- 4.Fixing EMQ once and never checking again. New checkout flows, consent tools and iOS updates all quietly break parameters.
Put Event Match Quality to work
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FAQs about Event Match Quality
What is a good EMQ score?
7 or higher per event. Under 5 the event is essentially unmatched and Meta cannot use it for optimisation or attribution.
Where do I see EMQ?
Events Manager, then Data Sources, then the event's Overview tab. EMQ is shown per event over rolling 7 day windows.
Does higher EMQ increase conversions?
It increases reported conversions and improves auto-bid learning, which usually lowers CPA. It does not increase the number of real purchases; it recovers the ones Meta was failing to see.
Why did my EMQ suddenly drop?
Common causes: a Shopify theme update stripped a hidden field, your CMP started blocking Pixel cookies (so fbc/fbp are missing), or your CAPI vendor changed how it hashes phone numbers.
Related terms
Server-side event stream from your site/CRM to Meta or Google.
Browser tag that reports events (view, add-to-cart, purchase) to Meta.
Running Tag Manager on your own server to improve match + control.
Meta's privacy-safe event system after iOS 14.5; caps you at 8 ranked events.
Apple's App Tracking Transparency; broke cross-app deterministic tracking.
Customer data you collected yourself with consent; the strongest signal.
Server-side event stream that sends conversions to Meta directly, bypassing browser-side cookie loss.
Meta's automated ecommerce campaign type with minimal manual controls.