Activations FAQ
Find answers to frequently asked questions about how Activations works. If you have questions about migrating your Census account to Fivetran, see the Census Migration FAQ instead.
Find definitions of key terms in this document in the Glossary.
What is Activations?
Fivetran Activations is our new integration of Census reverse ETL capabilities into the Fivetran platform. With Activations, you can send your enriched data from your data warehouse or data lake back into CRMs, marketing platforms, and support tools - fueling real-time decision making. Learn more in the Activations Overview page.
What is an activation?
In Fivetran, an activation is a set of activation syncs that define how data from various tables and datasets in a specific source are synced to the objects in a specific destination, such as Salesforce or Braze.
An activation sync is an individual configuration that moves data from an activation source to an activation destination, which is distinct from Fivetran connector destinations. Multiple activation syncs can write to the same destination.
Where can I find Activations in the Fivetran dashboard?
On the Activations tab of your Fivetran dashboard, you can create and monitor activation syncs, activation sources, activation destinations, datasets, and segments.
What is reverse ETL (rETL)?
Reverse ETL (extract, transform, load) is the process of moving data from centralized storage systems, such as data warehouses or data lakes, to CRMs, advertising platforms, or other SaaS apps. Learn more in our Reverse ETL documentation.
How can I use activations and connectors together?
You can use Fivetran's connectors (ELT) with Activations (rETL) to create a bidirectional, end-to-end data pipeline. Having a single place to ingest, unify, and activate data makes it easier to understand and act on your data. For example, an autonomous marketing agent cannot evaluate the success of a campaign change (ELT) unless it can retrieve and analyze the results of its own actions (rETL).
What is data activation?
Data activation is the process of unlocking and transforming raw, disparate data stored in storage systems into actionable insights that drive business decisions. Learn more in our Data activation documentation.
How does Activations pricing work?
You are only billed for your Activations usage, which is tracked in Monthly Active Rows (MAR) according to Fivetran's usage-based pricing model. Learn more in our Activations pricing information.