Is My Event Match Quality Score Good Enough?
If your browsing events score around 4 and your Purchase events score around 8, your tracking is working correctly. This guide explains why those numbers are the right ones to expect, and why Facebook will keep asking for more regardless.
The short answer
Open Meta Events Manager and you will find a column called Event Match Quality, scoring every event out of 10. Most shop owners see something like this:
| Event | Score |
|---|---|
| PageView | 4 |
| ViewContent | 4 |
| AddToCart | 4 |
| InitiateCheckout | 6 |
| Purchase | 8 |
That is a healthy, normal, correctly configured shop. Nothing needs fixing.
The scores rise as the customer moves down the funnel because the score measures how much the customer had told you at that moment — and by the time they place an order, they have told you a great deal.
What the score actually measures
This is the part that trips up almost everyone, so it is worth stating plainly:
Event Match Quality does not measure the quality of your tracking. It measures the quantity of customer information that came attached to the event.
The name is misleading. A score of 4 does not mean the event was poor, or wrong, or half-broken. It means the event arrived carrying four points' worth of identifying information rather than eight. The event itself fired perfectly, at the right moment, with the right value.
Facebook uses that information to work out which person the event belongs to — to connect the visit on your shop with a Facebook or Instagram account. The more it has to work with, the more confident the match. Email address and phone number are by far the strongest signals; a name, a city or a postcode help; and the technical details that are always available — the visitor's connection and browser — count for a little on their own.
So the score is really answering one question: how much did this shopper reveal about themselves before this event happened?
Why the number rises through the funnel
Follow a single visitor through your shop and the reason becomes obvious.
A visitor arrives from a Google search and opens a product page. You know essentially nothing about them. They have not logged in, not registered, not typed an email address. All that exists is an anonymous browser on an anonymous connection. The event fires correctly and is fully usable — but there is very little to identify the person with. Score: around 4.
They add the product to the basket and start checkout. Still often anonymous, though if they logged in — or are a returning customer who never logged out — their details come along and the score climbs. Score: 4 to 6.
They complete the order. Now you have their email address, their first and last name, their phone number and their delivery address. All of it goes out with the Purchase event. Score: around 8.
Nothing changed about the tracking between those three events. What changed is the customer.
Facebook is like a newborn bird — always hungry, always asking for more. It cannot tell the difference between information you chose not to send and information that simply did not exist yet. It will prompt you to improve your match quality on a PageView from an anonymous visitor exactly as insistently as on an order from a registered customer. Those prompts are automatic, not a diagnosis of your shop.
What "good" looks like
These ranges are what we see on correctly configured shops:
| Type of event | Healthy score |
|---|---|
| Browsing events — PageView, ViewContent, Search, category views | 3 – 5 |
| Basket and wishlist events | 3 – 6 |
| Checkout started | 5 – 8 |
| Registration and newsletter signup | 6 – 8 |
| Purchase and order events | 7 – 9 |
Two notes on reading this table.
Judge the shape, not the colour. What matters is that the numbers climb through the funnel and that order events land in the top band. Facebook will colour a 4 in orange or red no matter what — that colour is not a verdict on your setup.
A perfect 10 is not a realistic target. It would require every possible piece of personal information to be present on every single event, including events from visitors who have never identified themselves. No shop with normal browsing traffic reaches that, and chasing it is not a good use of your time.
When the score genuinely is worth a look
Most low scores are normal. A few are not. It is worth investigating if you see any of these:
- Purchase events scoring below 5. Order events should always carry the customer's email address. If they do not, check that Advanced Matching is switched on in the module configuration.
- Every event scoring 1 or 2. This suggests almost no information is reaching Facebook at all — usually an Advanced Matching setting that is off, or a cookie consent setup that is blocking every visitor rather than only those who declined.
- A sudden drop after a change to your shop. A new theme, a new consent banner or another marketing module can interfere with tracking. Compare the scores before and after the change.
- Purchase scoring lower than checkout. Unusual, and worth a closer look — it can indicate the order event is firing in a context where the customer's details are not available.
If your browsing events are low but your order events are healthy, none of the above applies to you.
What you can do to improve it
There are really only two things that move the number, and the second one matters far more than the first.
Turn on every Advanced Matching category
Pixel Plus groups the customer information it can attach to events into three categories — contact details, personal details and address details. Not all of them are enabled out of the box. Switching on all three means that whenever a customer is identified, everything you legitimately hold about them travels with the event.
Go to Modules > Module Manager > Pixel Plus for Facebook > Configure and open the Advanced Matching panel.
This typically adds a point or two to your order-related events. It cannot help browsing events from anonymous visitors, because there is no customer record to draw from.
Get customers to identify themselves earlier
This is where the real difference is, and it is a shop decision rather than a module setting:
- Encourage login or account creation before checkout rather than at the end.
- Ask for the email address as early in the checkout as you reasonably can.
- Build your newsletter list — a subscriber who browses while logged in carries their details into every event, not just the order.
- Consider making the phone number a required field on the address form.
Each of these converts anonymous browsing into identified browsing, which is the only thing that lifts the score on non-order events.
There is no setting anywhere that makes an anonymous visitor's email address appear. If a shopper has not given it to you, it cannot be sent — by this module or any other. Any tool claiming otherwise is either guessing or breaking data protection law.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: My PageView events score 4 out of 10. Is something broken? A: No. Around 4 is the normal, expected score for anonymous browsing. The event fired correctly — it simply carried less identifying information, because the visitor had not identified themselves yet. Look at your Purchase events instead: if those are around 8, your setup is working as intended.
Q: Facebook keeps telling me to improve my match quality. Should I act on it? A: Only if your order events are scoring low. Those prompts are generated automatically for any event below a perfect score, and Facebook has no way of knowing whether a missing email is a tracking fault or simply a visitor who has not registered. Treat the prompt as informational on browsing events, and as worth acting on for Purchase and checkout events.
Q: Is a low score costing me sales? A: Far less than the red and orange colouring suggests. Good match quality helps Facebook attribute conversions and build better audiences — but a low score on a PageView from an anonymous visitor is not losing you anything, because that visit was never going to be individually attributable. What genuinely matters for your advertising is that your Purchase events are well matched, correctly valued and not counted twice.
Q: Can the module send more information than it currently does? A: Only if that information exists. Everything that is always available — the visitor's connection details and the Facebook tracking cookies — is already sent on every event, automatically, with no configuration needed. Everything else depends on the customer having provided it.
Q: I turned on all the Advanced Matching categories and the score barely moved. Why? A: Because those extra details only apply to customers who have a record in your shop. If most of your traffic is anonymous browsing, the average across all events will barely shift. Look specifically at your Purchase events, where the customer's details do exist — that is where the improvement shows up.
Q: Is my customers' personal data safe? A: Yes. Personal information is never sent in readable form. It is converted into an irreversible fingerprint before it leaves your server, and Facebook applies the same process to its own records and compares the fingerprints. Neither side ever sees the other's raw data, and this is exactly how Facebook requires it to be done.
Q: What score should I aim for? A: Around 8 on your order events, and whatever the funnel naturally produces above them. If you are there, stop optimising the number and spend the effort on your campaigns instead.
My PageView events score 4 out of 10. Is something broken?
No. Around 4 is the normal, expected score for anonymous browsing. The event fired correctly — it simply carried less identifying information, because the visitor had not identified themselves yet. Look at your Purchase events instead: if those are around 8, your setup is working as intended.
Facebook keeps telling me to improve my match quality. Should I act on it?
Only if your order events are scoring low. Those prompts are generated automatically for any event below a perfect score, and Facebook has no way of knowing whether a missing email is a tracking fault or simply a visitor who has not registered. Treat the prompt as informational on browsing events, and as worth acting on for Purchase and checkout events.
Is a low score costing me sales?
Far less than the red and orange colouring suggests. Good match quality helps Facebook attribute conversions and build better audiences — but a low score on a PageView from an anonymous visitor is not losing you anything, because that visit was never going to be individually attributable. What genuinely matters for your advertising is that your **Purchase** events are well matched, correctly valued and not counted twice.
Can the module send more information than it currently does?
Only if that information exists. Everything that is always available — the visitor's connection details and the Facebook tracking cookies — is already sent on every event, automatically, with no configuration needed. Everything else depends on the customer having provided it.
I turned on all the Advanced Matching categories and the score barely moved. Why?
Because those extra details only apply to customers who have a record in your shop. If most of your traffic is anonymous browsing, the average across all events will barely shift. Look specifically at your Purchase events, where the customer's details do exist — that is where the improvement shows up.
Is my customers' personal data safe?
Yes. Personal information is never sent in readable form. It is converted into an irreversible fingerprint before it leaves your server, and Facebook applies the same process to its own records and compares the fingerprints. Neither side ever sees the other's raw data, and this is exactly how Facebook requires it to be done.
What score should I aim for?
Around 8 on your order events, and whatever the funnel naturally produces above them. If you are there, stop optimising the number and spend the effort on your campaigns instead.
Related Features
- Advanced Matching — Controls which customer details are attached to your events. This is the main setting that affects your score.
- Conversion API Setup — Sending events from your server as well as the browser keeps tracking working when ad blockers or browser restrictions get in the way.
- GDPR & Cookie Consent — Your consent settings determine how much can be collected in the first place.
- Facebook Asks for IPv6 Events — A different Facebook warning that is often mistaken for a match quality problem.