5 Best Marketing Data Extraction Tools Compared

To gain a competitive edge in a data-centric business landscape, companies need to harness the power of data. Data is vital to making informed decisions, optimizing operations, understanding the target audience, uncovering market opportunities, and driving growth.

To take control over the inevitable data inflow and navigate the petabytes of data that company CRMs, analytics, social media, and other platforms produce, brands need data extraction tools. These robust solutions enable brands to gather, analyze, and leverage valuable data and derive insights to craft compelling campaigns and strategies.

This article reviews the top five marketing data extraction solutions most suitable for marketing departments and their unique needs. Features review, pricing details, and extraction options will give you an understanding of which tool can meet your brand's needs.

What Is Data Extraction?

Data extraction is the process of retrieving data from various sources, like advertising platforms, CRMs, marketing and sales apps, into a single storage for further processing and analysis. Data sources include databases, flat files, applications, and cloud services, and data can be extracted manually or using SQL queries, API calls, and script files.

Data extraction is also the first phase of the ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) and ELT (Extract, Load, Transform) processes. These two processes involve extracting data from various sources, transforming it into an analysis-ready format, and pushing the data into a desired destination, whether it’s a data warehouse, visualization, or BI tool.

Why Do Companies Need Data Extraction Tools?

Companies rely on data to decide everything from product development to marketing strategy. As a result, businesses need access to accurate and up-to-date data on a daily basis.

Manually extracting data can get the job done but is highly time-consuming and prone to human errors, which is a common cause of poor data quality. Data extraction tools automate this task, making it easier and faster for companies to get the data they need.

Thus, companies save time and resources while gaining insights that would otherwise be hidden in large data sets.

Top 5 Data Extraction Tools

The following list features the best data extraction tools based on speed, ease of use, scalability, cost-effectiveness, and customer service.

1. Improvado

Improvado is a powerful solution supporting each step of the data pipeline. — *An example of connected data sources from various applications in Improvado’s interface*

At a high level, Improvado is an end-to-end marketing data pipeline solution, streamlining the entire process from data extraction and transformation to loading the analysis-ready data in a dashboard or a BI tool.

Improvado extracts data from over 500 data sources, including ad platforms, marketing automation tools, social media platforms, CRMs, and more. If a company has unique needs and can’t find a required data source in the library, it can request a custom connector which is available to all users through Data Extraction Customization Services (DECS) and will be delivered in six weeks at the most.

Improvado is built for enterprise-grade and mid-market companies and marketing agencies. An explicit service-level agreement (SLA) guarantees your customization needs will be met and well handled. Get a demo with an Improvado representative to learn how Improvado can streamline your data operations.

Besides ready-to-use API connectors, Improvado provides alternative options to aggregate data. The platform supports flat-data ingestion, raw data extraction through email, spreadsheet, Amazon S3, and FTP/SFTP.

Additionally, Improvado is flexible in the frequency of data extraction and provides pre-built extraction templates. The library includes templates like Ads creative placements for Google Campaign Manager, Orders transactions for Shopify, Campaign month reach for LinkedIn Ads, and others.

Users can also create their own extraction templates, customizing settings, scheduling, metrics and dimensions extracted. This allows customers to re-use existing settings for future data extraction and speed up the data aggregation process. Extraction templates together with a bulk campaign extraction feature that allows customers to configure and edit settings or reload all their data in one click in the user interface eliminate routine configurations and adjustments.

Improvado aggregates high-granularity data. The solution pulls over 36,000 metrics and dimensions from the data sources, which allows marketing teams to analyze the performance of a particular audience, geo, cohort, or creative.

Users can also pull historical data for the historical window supported by the data sources. It can be done easily from the user interface without any tickets or requests to the Improvado customer support or development team.

All in all, Improvado will provide your company with an easy solution to collect data from all your marketing and sales platforms, feed your dashboard with up-to-date, high-quality data, and dive into marketing performance at a deeper level.

To further streamline reporting and insight discovery, Improvado supports steps beyond data extraction:

The platform provides two data transformation options: an out-of-the-box solution with a pre-built cross-channel Data Studio dashboard and a self-service transformation solution for teams with more advanced needs.
Improvado can then push analysis-ready data to a data warehouse, analytics tool, BI, data visualization platform, or other desired destination.

It's important to mention that none of the Improvado ETL steps require SQL, Python, or technical expertise. The tool follows a zero-code philosophy, while the Improvado Professional Services team can help with any technical issue. It means your team no longer needs to wait for IT resources or hire more staff to handle the data extraction tasks.

2. Web Scraper

Web Scraper extracts data from websites with multiple levels of navigation.

Web Scraper is a popular browser-based data extraction tool, which means it runs directly in your browser and does not require any software installation.

Web Scraper supports data extraction from websites with multiple levels of navigation, including categories and subcategories, pagination, and product pages. The tool can extract data from sites with complex JavaScript and AJAX requests, allowing users to extract data without writing code. It even allows users to interact with website forms and extract data from them.

You can customize the frequency of website scraping to an hourly, daily, or weekly basis.

Web Scraper enables users to define the data structure of the extracted data, and it supports a wide range of output formats, such as CSV, JSON, and XML. Using Web Scraper Cloud, users can scrape and push their data to Dropbox, Google Sheets, or Amazon S3.

To automate scraping workflows and integrate Web Scraper with other applications, you can use a REST API. It allows users to manage their web scraping projects programmatically.

Data you extract with Web Scraper can be used for market research, competitor monitoring and analysis, and other marketing-related activities. It can help marketing teams extract data on user behavior and preferences, which can be then used to improve ad targeting and increase the effectiveness of advertising campaigns.

However, Web Scraper can't cover all the needs of a data-driven marketing department. The tool aggregates information that is publicly available and can't help with pulling data on ads performance, order details, or customer engagement.

3. Supermetrics

Supermetrics is a data extraction tool with a small number of data destinations.

Supermetrics is a data collection and exporting tool designed for marketing teams and agencies.

The platform offers native data source connectors for 100+ platforms, including Google Ads, Google Analytics, Twitter Ads, HubSpot, and other popular tools. Additionally, Supermetrics supports data extraction through JSON/CSV/XML and Supermetrics API. Supermetrics API helps your team integrate with other applications and programmatically retrieve data. But to extract data through API, you need to know one of the programming languages: JavaScript, Python, Ruby, or PHP. Note that Supermetrics doesn't support custom connectors requests, nor does it allow for pulling additional metrics and dimensions from existing data sources.

Supermetrics allows relatively high data granularity, meaning it can pull a large number of metrics and dimensions from its data sources. Once the data is exported, Supermetrics can push it to Google Sheets, Snowflake, BigQuery, Excel, Amazon S3, Looker Studio, or other tools. Supermetrics doesn't support some of the enterprise-grade destinations like Power BI or Tableau. If your marketing department relies on those tools, you'll have to find a way around.

Based on the pricing and product functionality, Supermetrics is most suited to companies using Google Sheets or Excel and with small data needs.

The current customers also note that Supermetrics experiences performance issues when processing more than 100,000 data rows or more than 10,000 to 15,000 data rows per request for slow APIs. These issues slow down the data aggregating process and require constant supervision and debugging. Additionally, Supermetrics doesn't provide bulk editing, setup, or reloading features, meaning each query, data update, or error should be handled separately.

Prevent data corruption in the first place, integrate a data extraction and management solution that can meet your needs. Improvado is an enterprise-level solution that can process hundreds of data rows, offers over 500+ data sources and destinations, provides multiple customization options, and more. Get a demo with an Improvado representative to learn how the platform can benefit your business.

4. Octoparse

Octoparse is a data extraction tools, pulling data from websites, databases, and APIs.

Octoparse is a data extraction tool from websites, databases, and APIs. The platform supports two modes for data extraction:

Wizard Mode enables users to select and extract data using a point-and-click approach, meaning you choose the data you want to pull directly from the web page. Wizard mode also includes predefined templates for popular websites, simplifying and speeding up the extraction process.
Advanced Mode is a more robust solution with advanced data extraction features. This mode relies on a coding approach: users write custom scripts to extract data from complex websites. It also provides more advanced features, such as Conditional Extraction, Loop Item, and Multi-level Extraction. The Advanced Mode is suitable for users who have programming skills and need to extract data from more complex websites.

The Octoparse website mentions multiple tool use cases relevant to the marketing teams. Thus, Octoparse can help with social media monitoring by scraping data on shares, likes, hashtags, dates, followers, and other relevant data. Alternatively, Octoparse can be used for market research. The tool can parse competitors' pricing, product reviews, and customer feedback pages. This data can help you identify your brand differentiation, tailor marketing campaigns, and identify unique offerings.

5. Hevo Data

Hevo Data is a data extraction tool that also supports data transformation and loading.

Hevo Data is a data pipeline platform that helps extract data from various data sources, run transformations to prepare data for analysis, and deliver operational intelligence to business tools.

Hevo Data offers 150+ plug-and-play integrations, including popular marketing platforms like Salesforce, Google Analytics, Shopify, HubSpot, and others. The tool can also be used for extracting data from a database, cloud storage, or webhooks and supports flat-file ingestion.

Similarly to Improvado, Hevo Data also supports data transformation and loading. The platform can perform pre-load and post-load transformations. Hevo Data allows users to perform custom data transformations, such as data cleaning, enrichment, and normalization. This helps ensure that the data is in a format suitable for further analysis or use in other applications.

Centralize All Your Marketing Data with Improvado

When selecting a data extraction tool, it's essential to consider things like what data sources you use, what the use cases of the pulled data are, whether you need historical data or not, etc.

Improvado stands out as a comprehensive solution that handles the whole cycle of data extraction, transformation, and loading for further processing, visualization, and analysis. The platform provides multiple data extraction features that cater to different company needs and use cases. Improvado automates and simplifies the process to the greatest extent so marketers regain control over their time and resources.

Frequently Asked Question

What is data extraction?

Data extraction is a process of collecting specific, relevant data from diverse sources, including customer databases, social media, email campaigns, and website analytics. This process is essential for gathering insights on consumer behavior, campaign performance, and market trends. The extracted data is then analyzed to inform marketing strategies, personalize customer experiences, and optimize advertising efforts for better engagement and ROI.

What is data consolidation?

Data consolidation is the process of combining data from multiple sources into a single, cohesive dataset. This practice allows for more efficient data management, analysis, and reporting, enabling organizations to gain a unified view of information for better decision-making and strategic planning.

Is data extraction and data consolidation the same thing?

Data extraction involves retrieving information from various sources, while data consolidation refers to merging this information into a single dataset for unified analysis. Extraction is about collecting the data, and consolidation is about organizing it cohesively.

Is data extraction and data consolidation the same thing?

What is the purpose of extracting data?

Extracting data is a critical step in gathering detailed insights from various channels. This process allows marketers to compile a comprehensive view of consumer behaviors, preferences, and trends. By analyzing this data, brands can identify opportunities for optimization, personalize customer communications, develop targeted campaigns, and ultimately, drive more effective marketing strategies that resonate with their audience and increase ROI.

How to integrate data from different sources?

To integrate data from different sources, use a data aggregation platform or tool that can consolidate disparate data sets into a single, cohesive database. Ensure compatibility by standardizing data formats, naming conventions, and metrics across sources. Utilize APIs for real-time data syncing and employ ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) processes to clean, transform, and merge the data. This approach enables a unified analysis of customer behavior and campaign performance, facilitating informed decision-making and strategy optimization.