BeginnerGetting Started · 30 min

Make.com Beginner Guide: Build Your First Scenario

Make.com (formerly Integromat) is a visual automation platform. Instead of writing code, you build "scenarios" by connecting app "modules" on a canvas and watching data flow between them in real time. This guide walks you through building your first scenario from scratch — connecting two apps so that an event in one automatically triggers an action in the other.

By the FlowsOnDemand editorial team · Last updated May 2026

What you'll need

✓A free Make.com account (no credit card required)
✓Accounts in the two apps you want to connect (e.g., a form tool and a spreadsheet)
✓About 30 minutes — no coding experience needed

Key terms before you start

•Scenario — a complete automation (what Zapier calls a "Zap"). It contains one trigger and one or more actions.
•Module — a single step in a scenario. Each app you add is a module.
•Trigger — the first module. It watches for an event (e.g., "a new form submission") and starts the scenario.
•Operation — Make's billing unit. Each time a module runs and processes one bundle of data, that's one operation. The free plan includes 1,000 operations per month.

Step-by-step: build your first scenario

Create your account and a new scenario

Sign up at make.com and verify your email. On the dashboard, click "Create a new scenario" in the top-right corner. You'll land on a blank canvas with a single large "+" button in the center.

Add your trigger module

Click the central "+" and search for the app that will start your automation — for example, "Typeform" or "Google Forms." Select it, then choose a trigger event like "Watch Responses." This module will check for new entries on a schedule.

Tip

Triggers that start with "Watch" poll for new data on a schedule. Triggers labeled "instant" (webhooks) fire the moment the event happens.

Connect your account

Make will prompt you to create a connection. Click "Add," then authorize Make to access your app via the popup (OAuth login) or by pasting an API key. Once connected, this account is saved for future scenarios.

Configure the trigger

Select which form, sheet, or folder to watch from the dropdown. For a first run, set "Choose where to start" to "From now on" so Make only processes new events. Click OK.

Add an action module

Hover over the right edge of your trigger module and drag out a new module, or click the "+" that appears. Search for your second app — for example, "Google Sheets" — and choose an action like "Add a Row."

Map your data

In the action module's fields, click into a field (e.g., "Name") and a panel appears showing data from the trigger. Click a field from the trigger (e.g., the form's "Full Name" answer) to map it. The mapped value shows as a colored token. Repeat for every field you want to fill.

Tip

Mapping is the core skill in Make. The colored tokens are live references — at runtime they're replaced with real data from the trigger.

Test with "Run once"

Click the "Run once" button at the bottom-left. Make executes the scenario a single time using real data. Submit a test form entry (or trigger your event) and watch the bubbles travel between modules. A green checkmark means success; a red icon means an error you can click to inspect.

Schedule and turn it on

Once the test passes, set the scheduling clock (bottom-left) — e.g., "every 15 minutes" — then toggle the scenario from OFF to ON. Your automation is now live and will run on that schedule.

Common beginner mistakes to avoid

•Burning operations on testing — each "Run once" consumes operations. Use a single test record, not 50.
•Forgetting to map required fields — if an action field is required and left blank, the scenario errors out at runtime.
•Setting the schedule too aggressively — "every 1 minute" on a high-traffic trigger can exhaust your monthly operations fast. Start at 15 minutes.
•Ignoring error handling — for production scenarios, add an error handler route (right-click a module → "Add error handler") so one bad record doesn't halt everything.

Ready to build it?

Make.com is the platform used in this guide.

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