In this guide
- Event match quality is Meta's 0 to 10 score of how well it can link an event to a Meta account.
- It rises with more and correct customer parameters: hashed e-mail and phone,
fbp,fbc, IP address, user agent and a stableexternal_id. - The fastest gains usually come from adding e-mail and phone to server events, and from keeping
fbpandfbcalive.
Meta needs to know who did what. A page view without a name or a cookie is hard to match, a purchase with a hashed e-mail and phone is easy. The Event Match Quality score in Events Manager summarises it for each event. This page explains the parameters, how to send them correctly, and what raises the score without breaking rules. It sits next to Meta Conversions API vs Pixel and common Conversions API mistakes.
What the score is
For each event type, Events Manager shows a score from 0 to 10, grouped as Poor, OK, Good and Great, and lists the parameters it received. It is calculated from the share of events that carried the parameters, and how well they matched. Meta updates it every few days. It is a diagnostic, not a goal in itself: a better score usually means better attribution and delivery, but a perfect score is not required.
Brands that grow on cleaner data
Stores and agencies use Open Tracked to see which ads earn the sale.
The customer parameters
| Parameter | Key | How to send it |
|---|---|---|
em | Trim, lower case, SHA-256 hash | |
| Phone | ph | Digits only with country code, SHA-256 hash |
| First and last name | fn, ln | Lower case, SHA-256 hash |
| City, state, zip, country | ct, st, zp, country | Lower case, no spaces in the zip, SHA-256 hash |
| External ID | external_id | A stable ID, hashed or plain, the same each time |
| IP address | client_ip_address | Plain, not hashed |
| User agent | client_user_agent | Plain, not hashed |
| Click ID and browser ID | fbc, fbp | Plain, from the cookies |
Hashing mistakes are common. If you hash before trimming and lower-casing, the value will not match. IP address and user agent must not be hashed.
Where the data comes from
The checkout or form
E-mail, phone, name and address, when the visitor gives them. Pass them to the data layer.
02Your server
IP address and user agent from the request, and the browser cookies fbp and fbc.
Memory of returning visitors
Open Tracked's Data Store and Enricher remember hashed e-mail and phone for up to 400 days and add them to later events from the same browser. Both are on every plan.
Location
The Visitor Location power-up adds country, region, city and postcode from your CDN's headers.
An anonymous ID
The User ID power-up sends a stable anonymous external_id.
Ask Ari instead of digging through reports
Ari reads your tracking and ad data and answers in plain words.
A plan to raise the score
Find your baseline
Events Manager, Overview, each event: note the score and the missing parameters.
Add e-mail and phone to purchases and leads
From the form data, hashed correctly, only with consent.
Pass IP, user agent, fbp and fbc
Server containers read them from the request and the cookies.
Add stored data for returning visitors
Turn on the Data Store and Enricher.
Recheck in a week
Scores update with a delay. Compare event by event.
Mistakes that hold the score down
Terms you will see
- EMQ
- Event match quality: Meta's score of how well an event matches an account.
- SHA-256
- The hash function Meta and others ask for.
- External ID
- Your own stable ID for a visitor or customer.
- fbc
- Meta's click ID cookie.
- fbp
- Meta's browser ID cookie.
How to read the Events Manager panel
- Open the dataset, then Overview, then the event, such as Purchase.
- The card shows the score and lists parameters by coverage, for example "E-mail: 62 percent of events".
- Aim to raise the coverage of the parameters that are low.
- Check Diagnostics for any warnings about parameter format.
Raw events in. Clean events out.
Open Tracked collects each event on your own domain, removes the noise and sends what is left to Meta, Google Ads, TikTok.
Frequently asked questions
What is a good event match quality score?
Meta labels scores from Poor to Great. Many advertisers aim for Good or Great on purchase events. The target depends on your data.
Which parameter helps most?
Hashed e-mail and phone, then fbp, fbc, IP address and user agent.
How long until the score updates?
Usually a few days after the change, and it needs a few hundred events.
Should I hash IP and user agent?
No. Send them plain.
Does a higher score guarantee better results?
No. It helps Meta attribute and optimise, but results also depend on your ads, offer and audience.
Do I need spreadsheets to read my results?
No. Once tracking is live, the Open Tracked analytics shows spend, revenue, ROAS and profit, and you can ask Ari, the built-in AI assistant, questions about your own numbers in plain words. Ari's allowance depends on your analytics plan.
Is Open Tracked different from Open Track or Open Space Track?
No. Open Tracked is the official name of our server-side tracking platform, and the website is opentracked.io. Many people search for it as Open Track, OpenTrack or Open Space Track. All of them lead to the same product: server-side Google Tag Manager hosting, first-party analytics and a CRM pipeline.
Fix your tracking at the source
Open Tracked hosts your server-side Tag Manager, keeps first-party cookies alive and shows what each ad is really worth.
The Open Tracked team
We build Open Tracked: server-side tracking hosting, analytics and the tools around them, for stores that spend on ads. Questions about this guide, or an idea for the next one?
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