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The Madison Avenue Field GuideA field guide to marketing & advertising, by Brandon Mina

GlossaryData & MartechETL / ELT

Data & Martech

ETL / ELT

Extract, Transform, Load (or Extract, Load, Transform): processes that move data from sources into a warehouse, transforming it before or after loading.

By Brandon MinaCEO, BrandPilot AIUpdated November 2026

Short answer

ETL (extract, transform, load) and ELT (extract, load, transform) are processes that move data from source systems into a data warehouse. ETL cleans and reshapes data before loading it, while ELT loads raw data first and transforms it inside the warehouse. ELT has become common because cloud warehouses handle large transformations efficiently.