Improve Event Match Quality Score: Expert Tips from Data Analysts
Unlock your Ad campaign’s potential with these 6 tips to improve your Event Match Quality (EMQ) score, all verified by expert data analysts.
Dana Boehm
You’ve optimized your tracking, cleaned up your tags, and still wonder—why isn’t your Event Match Quality (EMQ) score perfect?
EMQ measures how accurately your web and server events connect to Meta users. A stronger EMQ means Meta can better match your conversions to real people, improving optimization and lowering your costs.
While a perfect 10 is nearly impossible, there’s a lot within your control. Here’s what EMQ means, what a “good” score looks like, and five proven ways to improve it.
In this article you will learn:
Overview: Event Match Quality Scores
An Event Match Quality (EMQ) score is a rating to indicate how effective the customer information parameters sent with the server-side events may be at matching the event to a Meta account.
The EMQ’s ranking system varies per marketing channel. For instance, Meta uses a number ranking system from 0 to 10, with 10 being the highest and indicating the best match quality.
Event Match Quality is directly tied to advertiser return on ad spend. See how Elevar’s Session Enrichment + server-side tracking can dramatically improve spend profiles for advertisers. Based on internal benchmark data, increasing your EMQ by one full point can correlate to a 10-20% reduction in effective cost per acquisition for some advertisers. Individual results will vary.
The Quest for the Perfect 10.0 EMQ
Let’s talk about the quest for the perfect 10.0 Meta EMQ.
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but based on the type of event and the data available, it is highly unlikely that you will hit a perfect 10.0 EMQ.
For example, let’s look at a page view event.
A page view event will have limited data because when a shopper first lands on your site, we don’t know much about them yet.
Now, when we look at a purchase event – we have information on this user but may still be missing the required parameters to obtain that elusive 10.0 score.
To achieve the perfect 10.0 EMQ – you would need to pass a birthdate and Meta user ID (different from email) with every purchase event.
In all reality, you are not going to have a birthdate and Meta User ID for every purchase event.
What is a Good EMQ Score?
So, if the perfect 10.0 EMQ score is elusive, what should you aim for?
Based on industry benchmarks and Elevar’s internal data, strong EMQ scores typically fall between:
- 6–7 for pre-checkout events
- 8–9 for checkout and purchase events
These are healthy targets, though actual ranges vary depending on your data completeness, event setup, and business model.
6 Tips to Improve Your Event Match Quality (EMQ) for Meta
Below are six tips, tested and proven effective by expert data analysts, that can help improve your Event Match Quality (EMQ) score for Meta.
1. Implement Advanced Matching
There are two types of advanced matching parameters for Meta: automatic advanced matching and manual advanced matching.
For best performance, use both!
Automatic advanced matching will automatically look for recognizable form fields and other sources on your website that contain customer information (first name, surname, and email address.)
Meta can then use the hashed information to more accurately determine which people took action in response to your ad.
To set up Automatic Advanced Matching, read this article, “Set up automatic advanced matching in Meta Events Manager.”
The second type of advanced matching parameter is “manual advanced matching.”
Manual advanced matching gives you control over which customer information you send to Meta.
To set up manual advanced matching, you must pass this information with your client and/or server-side event tracking.
We’ve got you covered—whether you are using Elevar’s tracking for web, server-side, or both. Elevar automatically passes manual advanced matching data for you.
Not on Elevar’s tracking? Chat with us to explore how you can implement advanced matching for Meta.
Or, learn more about the manual matching setup with Meta’s developer doc, “Advanced Matching.”
2. Require Email and Phone Number at Checkout
Requiring an email address and a phone number at checkout is a simple update you can make today.
By requiring email and phone numbers at checkout, you will effectively increase the number of data points collected.
On the other hand, if you are missing one of these values, your EMQ score will be reduced.
3. Website Data Validation
Using email validation on your site to ensure that only valid email addresses are collected and passed to your marketing channels will increase the likelihood of your data matching.
Ensure that collected phone numbers are formatted in the E.164 format (e.g., +12345678900), as this is the format accepted. Proper formatting improves the reliability of phone number matching.
4. Maximize Session Enrichment
Elevar’s Session Enrichment uses a 1-year server-set cookie to identify returning users—this is not affected by the restrictions that impact browser-set cookies.
In addition to storing user identifier information, Session Enrichment also stores attribution information, such as click IDs, UTMs, and referrers.
Most Click IDs are stored as browser-set cookies (meaning in the user’s browser), so they must adhere to browser restrictions.
Elevar does not store cookies in the user’s browser, so attribution information will not expire; it will be sent to your server-side destinations.
Session Enrichment will definitely boost your match rates because it can pass more user information, which improves your EMQ score!
5. Use the Latest Web Tags
Keep your browser-side tracking up to date to ensure you pass the maximum data available from the browser to your destination.
The EMQ is based on server events, but getting the most out of your browser tracking is important to your overall account.
Elevar provides the latest tags available in your destination, already configured for your settings, and ready for you to import into Google Tag Manager (GTM).
Ready to Improve Your Meta Event Match Quality Scores?
Improving your EMQ doesn’t require a complete rebuild—just the right data foundation. Elevar helps ensure Meta gets the clean, enriched conversion data it needs through server-side tracking and session enrichment. Book a demo to see how improving your EMQ can strengthen your Meta ad performance.
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