How to improve Meta Event Match Quality on Shopify
What Event Match Quality measures, which customer data raises it, how to hash it, and the Shopify-specific fixes that move a score from OK to Great.
Short answer: Event Match Quality (EMQ) scores from 0 to 10 how well the customer data in your Conversions API events matches Meta accounts. To raise it, send hashed email and phone whenever you have them, keep fbc from ad clicks and fbp on every event, add IP address and user agent, send an external_id, and send events as they happen. Aim for Good or Great.
What Meta scores
EMQ applies to website events sent through the Conversions API and uses the last 48 hours of data. It reflects how much customer information each event carries and how many events match Meta accounts.
| Priority | Parameters |
|---|---|
| High | Email (em), click id (fbc) |
| Medium | Phone (ph), external id, browser id (fbp), country, date of birth, Facebook login id |
| Low | First name, last name, city, zip, lead id |
Fixes that move the score
- Send email and phone on checkout events, not just on Purchase. Shopify exposes them once the shopper enters them in checkout.
- Normalise before hashing: trim and lowercase emails; strip symbols and leading zeros from phones and include the country code; then hash with SHA-256.
- Keep the click id. Build
fbcfrom thefbclidin the landing URL (fb.1.timestamp.fbclid) and store it in a first-party cookie so later events still carry it. Meta suggests 90 days. - Send
fbp, IP address and user agent unhashed on every server event; user agent is required for website events. - Add an
external_idthat stays stable for the same shopper across events, hashed. - Send in real time. Batching events hours later lowers their value for optimisation.
How TRACK ATLAS handles it
TRACK ATLAS builds fbc from fbclid on landing and keeps it in a 90-day first-party cookie, and sends hashed email, phone, name, city, state, zip, country and external id with IP address, user agent, fbc and fbp on its Conversions API events.
Questions
What is a good Event Match Quality score?
Meta rates scores as Poor, OK, Good or Great and recommends aiming for Good or Great. The score runs from 0 to 10.
Which parameters matter most?
Meta lists email and click id (fbc) as high priority; phone, external id, browser id (fbp), country and date of birth as medium; name, city and zip as low.
Why is my Purchase score higher than my PageView score?
At purchase you have the buyer's email, phone and address. Earlier events usually only carry IP address, user agent, fbp and sometimes fbc, so their scores are lower.
SOURCES
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