Definition
Match rate is the share of records in a customer list that a platform can connect to a known person or account. For dealers, it usually means the percentage of an uploaded customer list that Google, Meta or another ad platform matches to its users, or that a data vendor can link to its records.
Pasch Group Dealer Glossary
What it means for a dealership
Match rate decides how much of a list a campaign can actually reach. Customers who don’t match won’t see the ads or show up in the results, no matter how valuable they are to the store.
The biggest driver is data quality. Old phone numbers, outdated emails, misspelled names and duplicate records all pull the rate down, and a DMS with a decade or more of history is full of them. Including more identifiers per customer, such as both an email and a phone number, also gives the platform more chances to find a match.
Compare match rates with care. A vendor’s number depends on what it counts as a match, exact or probabilistic, and on which identifiers were in the list. Ask how the rate was calculated before comparing two vendors.
Questions
Why is our Google or Meta match rate low?
Often the list is the cause. Old emails and phone numbers, missing fields and duplicates all reduce matches. Cleaning DMS data, including every identifier you have and removing customers who no longer own their vehicles are the usual fixes.
Updated October 11, 2026