A blog about data & Ops

How to improve social advertising ROI through Facebook's AI-driven targeting

Do you want to get more bang for your Facebook advertising buck? Check out this deep dive into the Facebook Ads Conversion API and learn how it can help you find the right people faster.

How To

SQL in the wild: Geotargeting w/ the haversine formula

Did you know you can set up geographic place recommendations with SQL and the haversine formula? Well, you do now. Here's how.

How To

4 ways to export CSV files from Databricks

Trying to find a way to pull your data out of Databricks as a CSV? Look no further. Here are four ways you can get the job done.

Best Practice

[Part 3.2] 3 (more) key considerations for evaluating the best reverse ETL tool

In the final installment of our series on evaluating reverse ETL vendors, we dive into three (more) key considerations for finding the best reverse ETL tool for your use case.

Best Practice

[Part 3.1] 4 key considerations for evaluating the best reverse ETL tool

In part 3.1 of our series on evaluating reverse ETL vendors, we dive into four key considerations to keep in mind while you shop: Data connector quality, sync robustness, observability, and security & regulatory compliance.

Best Practice

[Part 2] You can build reverse ETL yourself. But you don’t want to.

In part two of our series on evaluating reverse ETL vendors, we break down the price/cost of DIY reverse ETL solutions and best practices for weighing if you want to build reverse ETL yourself.

Best Practice

[Part 1] Why reverse ETL (and why reverse ETL now)?

In part one of our series on evaluating reverse ETL tools, we dive into why you should invest in reverse ETL in the first place (and why you should do it right now).

Product Announcement

Census + Airtable: Build workflows and apps on top of your data warehouse

Airtable + Census = more self-service for business teams and less stress for data teams. Find out how our newest integration makes sure you'll never worry about stale, inaccurate data again.

Best Practice

What is reverse ETL? Here's everything you need to know.

Feel like you should be able to do so much more with all that data you've been collecting? You're not wrong. Thankfully, a new class of data tool called reverse ETL can help you move data from a data warehouse into 3rd-party systems to make data operational. Here's everything you need to know.

How To

3 ways to export CSV files from Google BigQuery

Passing data to someone without BigQuery access? Need a simple CSV for a tool that won't play nice? Read this guide to learn how to export CSVs from BigQuery (no matter why you're doing it).

Best Practice

5 questions data owners should answer before submitting data discovery requests

While a lot of the lift on data discovery is done by the data team, here are five important questions data owners can ask themselves to make the analysis go smoother (and faster).

How To

4 ways to export CSV files from Redshift

Whether you're Redshift superuser or a newcomer trying to make the most out of all its features, you'll want to export CSV files at one point or another. Here are four solid ways to get the job done.

How To

You oughta know: 5 SQL date functions for business operations

Trying to make heads or tails of all the different SQL date functions out there? Follow our favorite fictional company--Sandy Shores--to learn five date functions to help your business ops.

Lessons learned from implementing DIY & pre-built reverse ETL tooling

Is your bespoke reverse ETL tool snowballing into a maintenance nightmare? Set yourself up for success with a tool like Census and check out these lessons the Perpay team learned from implementing both DIY and out-of-the-box solutions.

Best Practice

Primer on the types and features of fraud prediction models

There's a lot of powerful things you can do with good modeling, not least among the options is fraud prediction. In this article, we'll take a look at the types of fraud prediction models, the features you should include, and how to evaluate these models for your use case.

Company News

Operational analytics has never looked so good 💇

Surprise! Census has a new look (and we're pretty jazzed about it). Here's a deep dive into how we decided on our new color, typography, and logo design.

How To

Introduction to data-driven lead scoring for sales & marketing analysts

Do you wish you knew which leads were most likely to convert and where they needed the most support in their customer journey? Lead scoring can give you the answers you need.

How To

3 ways to export CSV files from Snowflake (and one better idea)

So you want to move your data from Snowflake to the tools, cloud platforms, and reports you love. Here are three ways to do it via CSV file export from Snowflake (and a bonus method to make you happy).

How To

Introduction to marketing mix modeling in Python

Data can help turn your marketing from art into measured science. Here's a primer on how you can harness marketing mix modeling in Python to level up your efforts and insights.

How To

Write to custom contact records with the HubSpot API & Python

Feeling frustrated that you can't leverage all your data in HubSpot to boost sales? Here's a quick and dirty guide to writing to custom contacts using the HubSpot API and a little Python.

How To

Moving customer data from Postgres to Google Sheets with Python

Need to move all your customer data from Postgres into Google Sheets with Python? Here's a quick guide to get from A to B (and a shortcut).

Product Announcement

Announcing the Census Airflow Provider to trigger syncs from your DAGs

Sync scheduling shouldn't stress anyone out. That's why we're excited to announce our newest data orchestration improvement: the Airflow Provider.

Product Announcement

Census has achieved SOC 2 Type 2 compliance 🎉

We know customer data security is more important than ever. So we're excited to announce we're officially SOC 2 Type 2 compliant.

How To

5 essential SQL window functions for business operations

Looking to take your SQL skills to the next level (and save some sanity)? It's time to tackle SQL window functions to unlock advanced analytics and deeper data insights.

Best Practice

Start small when building a modern data stack

Companies often get caught up feeling like they need the entire modern data stack built before they can start getting more out of their data. Instead, you can get started today by focusing on the most important, lowest-lift stack improvements.

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