What is ETL, and why should you care?

ETL is a three-phase engineering process through which you extract data from a source system, transform it, and load it into the target system for further use. A typical example would be to extract data from Google Ads, transform it, and store it in a database system through an API.

Now, before I lose your interest, let’s address why you should care. You can surely rely on exporting CSVs from whichever platform you are working on, be it a CRM, a survey platform, or a digital marketing media source, and work from there. And yes, you can do so. But you should not do so in the long run, for two main reasons:

• A proper ETL process will help you trust the data, enforce data types, and reduce errors
• Every time you cut the proverbial corner in the form of a CSV export, you are incurring technical debt for the long run

Note

Technical debt is a concept in programming that reflects the extra development work that arises when...