What is Event Match Quality in Facebook Ads Manager?

If you’re here, you probably already know that Event Match Quality (EMQ) is a key factor to your Facebook ads’ performance, but you might not fully understand what it is or how it affects your results.

Simply put: low EMQ means poor targeting and lots of wasted ad budget, where high EMQ results in better targeting, less wasted budget, lower CAC and higher ROAS. Without even increasing budgets or changing campaign strategies.

In this article, we break down EMQ in simple terms, showing why a low score drives up costs and a high score boosts targeting, conversions, and ROI. Our goal is to inform marketers about this overlooked metric so you can get the most out of your ad spend. And don’t miss our next article, “How to Improve Low Event Match Quality in Meta (Facebook) Ads Manager”.

What is Event Match Quality?

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Breaking Down the Basics

Event Match Quality (EMQ) is a performance metric in Meta Ads Manager that measures how accurately your event data, whether from your website (your Meta Pixel), app, or offline sources, matches real user profiles on Meta. 

This metric helps advertisers assess the quality of their data inputs, ensuring that uploaded customer information matches with actual users and their activity on Meta’s platform.

A higher EMQ score leads to better audience targeting, improved conversion attribution, and more efficient ad spend.

A high EMQ score doesn’t just improve targeting and attribution, it also plays a crucial role in how Meta’s ad algorithm learns and optimizes over time. Meta’s machine learning system relies on event data to understand user behavior, identify high-intent audiences, and predict which users are most likely to take the action you are looking for. (purchase, add-to-cart, sign-up, etc).

The more accurately your data matches real users, the better the algorithm can fine-tune its ad delivery, ensuring that your ads reach people who are genuinely interested in your offer at the right time.

This continuous learning process allows Meta to optimize bids, improve audience selection, and increase conversion rates, but it all starts with sufficient clean, high-quality event data.

The image below shows EMQ scores for different tracked events inside Meta Ads Manager. A higher score means your data is more accurately matched to real users, leading to better targeting and stronger campaign performance

Looking at the image, you see a list of events on the left. These are the actions set up on your website, like a PageView, Add to Cart, or Purchase. When these events occur, certain details are sent to Meta (for example, a purchase often includes a name, email, and payment info).

Meta then gives each event an Event Match Quality (EMQ) score from 1 to 10. A higher score means Meta is doing a good job linking that event to a real user, which helps improve your ad performance. A lower score means there’s not enough information, so Meta struggles to make a match.

Here’s why some scores are higher than others:

1. Purchase has the highest score (9.3/10) – When someone buys something, they usually enter key details like name, email, and payment info, making it easy for Meta to match them to a profile.

2. Lower scores for PageView (6.8/10) & View Content (6.6/10) – These actions don’t always include personal data. Meta has less to work with, so the match quality is weaker.

3. Checkout & Payment Info (7.8 - 8.7/10) – These events capture more user details than a simple page visit but still depend on how well tracking is set up.

4. Search has an 8.4/10 but only 657 events – The score might be higher because fewer users performed this action, and those who did may have been logged in or provided identifiable data.

What does this mean?

• Low EMQ = Meta struggles to identify users, leading to worse ad performance.

• High EMQ = More accurate targeting, better retargeting, and lower ad costs.

Scores below 6 mean the algorithm has serious issues targeting the right people, let alone identifying people ready to buy.

Why Most Marketers Have Low Event Match Quality Scores

Many advertisers don’t realize their Meta ads are underperforming because their tracking setup is incomplete.

They assume that just having the Meta Pixel or even the Conversions API (CAPI) means their data is being captured correctly. In reality, a huge portion of valuable event data is lost (that they paid for), leading to low EMQ scores, inefficient ad targeting, and rising acquisition costs.

Let’s break down why this happens.

How the Standard Meta Pixel Works (And Where It Fails)

The Meta Pixel is a small snippet of JavaScript code installed on your website. When a visitor lands on your page, the Pixel fires and sends event data back to Meta, tracking actions like page views, add-to-cart events, and purchases.

However, the Pixel relies entirely on browser-based tracking (client-side tracking), which has several major flaws:

• Ad blockers & privacy settings block tracking – Many users now use ad blockers or disable tracking through browser settings, preventing the Pixel from firing.

• Cookie restrictions & iOS privacy changes – Updates like iOS 14.5 and GDPR regulations limit third-party tracking, making it harder for the Pixel to collect and store user data.

• Session-based limitations – The Pixel mostly tracks events in a single session. If a user returns days later on a different device, their activity isn’t connected to their original session.

The result? Meta receives only partial data, making it harder for its algorithm to properly optimize ad delivery.

Because the Meta Pixel misses a lot of data, thanks to ad blockers and privacy settings, Meta often works with only part of the picture. When this happens, its system can’t always tell which users are most interested, and that can drive up costs and hurt your ad results. 

When Meta’s algorithm doesn’t receive full event data, it fails to accurately predict high-intent buyers. This leads to:

• Higher CAC (Customer Acquisition Costs) – You spend more to acquire each customer because Meta is targeting broader, less qualified audiences.

• Weaker Retargeting – If key purchase events aren’t matched correctly, Meta can’t build accurate retargeting audiences, leading to wasted ad spend.

• Slower Algorithm Learning – Meta optimizes based on past conversions. Less data = slower learning = lower ROAS.

Even worse, after Meta’s 7-day attribution window, you lose visibility on past visitors who didn’t convert within that period. Meaning, if a user doesn’t convert within 7 days of interacting with your ad, their activity data gets deleted, meaning Meta no longer links those visitors with your ads for retargeting. 

This means potential buyers, who showed interest weeks or months ago, can no longer be retargeted effectively because their data has expired from Meta’s tracking system. Leading to lost conversions, because many people take longer than 7 days to convert.

The Conversions API (CAPI): Yes Better, But Not the Solution

To combat the limitations of the Pixel, Meta introduced CAPI (Conversions API), a server-side tracking solution that sends conversion data directly from your backend to Meta’s servers. Unlike the Pixel, CAPI is not affected by browser restrictions, ad blockers, or cookie settings.

But even with CAPI, data loss is still a major issue:

• Delayed event tracking – Unlike the Pixel, which fires events instantly, CAPI events can have a slight delay, making real-time tracking harder.

• Missing user identifiers – While CAPI improves data transmission, if user details (like emails or phone numbers) are missing, Meta still struggles to match events to actual buyers.

• Data duplication risks – Many brands set up CAPI without proper deduplication, leading to inconsistent reporting and inflated event counts.

• Up to 20% of data is still lost – Despite being server-side, CAPI alone doesn’t fully close the data gap, meaning Meta’s algorithm is still learning with incomplete data.

Data Loss = Poor Optimization & Slower Learning = Higher Costs.

What’s Needed To Prevent Data Loss And Improve EMQ?

To achieve higher EMQ scores and better ad performance, brands need a tracking solution that goes beyond the standard Pixel and CAPI.

This means:

• Capturing 100% of first-party data – Ensuring every visitor’s interactions are tagged and tracked for better audience matching.

• Solving the attribution gap – Preventing lost conversions due to Meta’s short tracking window.

• Fixing broken retargeting – Retargeting audiences for up to 365 days, not just Meta’s 7-day limit.

By eliminating data leaks and feeding Meta with complete, high-quality customer data, advertisers can unlock higher ROAS, lower CAC, and scale profitably. 

Let’s find out what’s needed to improve EMQ.

The Components of Event Match Quality

Event Match Quality (EMQ) is driven by several key elements that determine how effectively Meta links your event data to actual users. These components are:

• Data Completeness - This refers to how detailed your data is that’s received. Including complete information, such as full names, email addresses, phone numbers, and postal codes, helps Meta accurately match an event to a user profile. When data is missing or incomplete, the match quality suffers, reducing the overall EMQ.

• Data Freshness - This measures how current your data is. Regular updates ensure that the information reflects the latest user interactions and details. If your data is outdated, it may not align with users’ current profiles, leading to mismatches and a lower match quality.

• Match Rate - This is the percentage of your data points that successfully connect with user actions on Meta’s platform. A high match rate indicates that most events are being accurately linked to the matching user profiles, which is essential for precise attribution and effective targeting.

In essence, having complete, up-to-date, and accurately matched data maximizes your EMQ, giving Meta the best chance to optimize ad delivery and boost your campaign performance. Some technical aspects, such as deduplication and secure data hashing, also play a role, ensuring that the data you send is both precise and privacy-compliant.

As you’ve seen, there are two major challenges with how Meta handles your event data:

1. Incomplete Data Reception: Meta often doesn’t receive all the data you send, which means valuable information about your users is missing.

2. Short Data Retention: Even when data is received, much of it is lost after just 7 days, limiting its usefulness for retargeting and optimization.

This means we need to find a way to ensure Meta not only receives every piece of data but also retains it for longer. Addressing these issues is key to improving targeting accuracy, tracking conversions more effectively, lowering your ad costs. Results of solving this has led to a 30% increase in overall ad performance without the need of extra ad budget or even complex strategies.

All the ad algorithm needs is more complete data in a higher quantity. The solution really is that ‘simple’.

Resulting in higher-quality leads, stronger engagement rates, and a more predictable revenue stream from ad campaigns. Additionally, improved conversion attribution allows advertisers to identify which campaigns, creatives, and audience segments are driving the most value, making it easier to scale successful strategies while cutting ineffective ones.

Without a strong EMQ, campaign performance becomes less predictable, attribution models become weaker, and ad optimization is less effective, ultimately increasing costs and reducing ROAS (Return on Ad Spend).

We are nearing the end of this article and hope you have a clear understanding of what Event Match Quality exactly is and its cruciality. I want to end this article with two things.

The first is for you to go and check your EMQ scores and come back to read the next article “How to Improve Low Event Match Quality in Meta (Facebook) Ads Manager” to start preventing wasted ad spend, serve laser-targeted ads that lower your CAC’s and increase your ROAS.

In the next article, you’ll learn:

• A quick recap what’s Event Match Quality

• What “good” and “bad” EMQ scores look like (with real data examples)

• What does CAPI really do?

• Why Your 180-Day Website Visitor Audience Isn’t What You Think

• What is a Lifetime ID?

• How to prevent losing up to 20% of your data due to cookie deletion and prevent you retargeting audiences from being deleted

• A case study about a men’s clothing store improved their Purchase EMQ from an 7.2 to 9.2

• How to automatically improve your EMQ by turning this on

Where to find your EMQ?

1. Login to your Meta Ads Manager

2. Click the Events Manager section in the menu on the left hand-side 

3. Click “Show all events” on the right hand side

Read the next article: How do I fix low Event Match Quality in Facebook Ads Manager in 2025?