Meta (Facebook) CAPI Events Match Quality Score (EMQ)
Learn how Events Match Quality Score works and why it’s important
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Learn how Events Match Quality Score works and why it’s important
EMQ gives you a measurement of how well matching works for a CAPI event.
Matching is a process where Facebook tries to connect an event fired on your website to a Facebook user. This ensures that conversion tracking, targeting, and custom audiences based on events work properly.
Important: EMQ refers just to CAPI events, but matching is required and done for both browser and CAPI events. Facebook doesn’t show any data about browser events matching performance.
Some users reported warnings about their events not using the IPv6 format. In reality, PixelYourSite uses IPv6 whenever it’s possible. However, not all website visitors have an IPv6 IP. Some internet providers still rely only on IPv4 format. Watch this video to learn more.
Matching is done by Facebook using personal identifiers sent with an event. These identifiers can be information stored in cookies, like fbp and fbc, or data about your user, like IP address, email, first name, last name, phone number.
fbp: When the Facebook pixel is installed on a website, and the pixel uses first-party cookies, the pixel automatically saves a unique identifier to an _fbp cookie for the website domain if one does not already exist.
fbc: When a user clicks on an ad on Facebook, the link sometimes includes a fbclid query parameter. When the user lands on the target website, if the website has a Facebook pixel that uses first-party cookies, the pixel automatically saves the fbclid query parameter to an _fbc cookie for that website domain.
Matching for browser events is mostly based on fbp and fbc. When browser events work as expected, it means the Facebook Pixel script functions freely, and it can generate, store and use fbp or fbc cookie values in most cases.
Browser events matching can be improved by using something called Advanced Matching. Advanced Matching allows for encoded additional information about the user to be sent along with browser events.
There are two types of Advanced Matching:
In order to improve browser event matching, you should use both types of Advanced Matching.
CAPI Events Matching is based on the fbp and fbc parameters AND additional customer information sent with an event.
This additional customer information can be:
fbp or fbc are not available: Because of things like browser privacy settings, the fbc and fbp can’t be found in the visitor’s browser or can’t be tracked properly.
This issue is exacerbated by the fact that CAPI events work as a backup for browser events. It means that they are processed when the browser events don’t work for some reason. The same reason that blocks the browser events can block access to fbc or fbp.
Facebook can’t use fbp or fbc: For users under GDPR, Facebook shows a consent prompt on their website. If the user doesn’t grant Facebook permission to use cookies on third-party cookies, they will stop using data stored in cookies. This directly affects fbp and fbc for CAPI Events.
Personal information data is not available: It’s virtually impossible to know the name, email, or phone number of most of your normal visitors. That’s why most CAPI events will not have such information about the users that fired the event.
Visitor’s IP is masked: while usually reliable, there are situations when the visitor’s real IP can’t be detected. Either the visitor uses a VPN, or your website uses a CDN or similar services that re-route the traffic.
fbp and fbc are generated, stored in cookies in the visitor’s browser, and tracked by the Facebook Pixel script.
If Automatic Matching is turned ON inside your Events Manager, the Facebook Pixel will try to get the user’s data when possible.
If Advanced Matching is turned ON inside the plugin, AM data is sent for logged-in users events and WooCommerce or Easy Digital Downloads Purchase events.
The visitor’s IP address is sent for every event.
fbp and fbc are sent whenever we can find them.
Additional customer information is sent for events triggered by logged-in users and WooCommerce or Easy Digital Downloads Purchase events.
Events that are most common, like PageView, or ViewContent, will have a lower EMQ score. This is because a large number of these events are triggered by anonymous visitors of your website.
Events that are most likely triggered by logged-in users will have a better score.
If you use WooCommerce or Easy Digital Downloads, expect Purchase event to have the best EMQ score. That’s because for this event we can almost always send enough data.
PixelYourSite Professional will try to detect user-related data like email, phone, first name, or last name and use it for subsequent Meta CAPI events personal parameters, and Meta browser events Advanced Matching. This will increase the Event Match Quality (EMQ) score, allowing Meta to improve conversion attribution and ads delivery.
It works with most WordPress forms. You can improve data detection by adding the form’s fields name inside the plugin. This video explains how you can improve your EMQ score with automatic data detection: Watch Video
Turn ON Advanced Matching inside your Events Manager settings.
Keep Advanced Matching turned ON inside the PixelYourSite plugin.
Encourage your visitors to create an account and log in as soon as possible. This will allow the plugin to identify them, and send enough data to increase your EMQ score.
You should always respect your users’ privacy and the relevant regulations governing private data.
Inform your visitors about what data you or Facebook tracks, and how this data is used.
Ask your visitors’ permission before tracking them, if required by the law. This is mandatory under GDPR.
Give your visitors the option to opt-out of tracking.
While fbp and fbc are covered by the usual “cookie consent” message, Advanced Matching and personal data sent with CAPI events are not. In these cases, you send Facebook personal data your visitors shared with your business. Inform your users about it, ask their permission when required, and give them an opt-out option.
Recommended: watch this video to see how ConsentMagic, our consent plugin, helps you manage consent for Facebook Advanced Matching and CAPI events: WATCH VIDEO
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