Why Marketers Need SQL
The days of relying solely on drag-and-drop report builders are fading. As marketing data moves into cloud data warehouses like Snowflake, BigQuery, and Databricks, the ability to write SQL (Structured Query Language) has become a superpower for Marketing Operations professionals.
SQL allows you to bypass the limitations of your CRM's native reporting. You can join tables from different sources (e.g., ad spend from Facebook merged with revenue data from Stripe) to get a true picture of ROAS.
Common Use Cases
- Segmentation: Creating complex audience lists that are impossible to build in standard UI filters.
- Data Hygiene: Finding duplicate records or normalizing inconsistent state codes (e.g., converting "Calif." to "CA").
- Attribution: Querying event logs to see every touchpoint a user had before converting.
Salesforce SOQL vs. Standard SQL
If you work in Salesforce, you use SOQL (Salesforce Object Query Language). While similar to standard SQL, it has key differences:
- No `SELECT *`: In SOQL, you must specify every field you want to retrieve. You cannot just ask for "all columns."
- Relationship Queries: SOQL uses dot notation (e.g.,
Account.Name) to traverse objects, whereas standard SQL typically requires `JOIN` statements.