Make.com looks intimidating at first — a blank canvas covered in connection points and module icons. But once you build your first scenario, the logic clicks into place and you start seeing automation opportunities everywhere. This tutorial gets you from zero to your first working automation in 30 minutes.
What You'll Build
A simple but genuinely useful automation: when someone submits a Google Form, their response is automatically added as a new row in a Google Sheet AND a notification is sent to a Slack channel. This is the foundation of dozens of real-world business workflows.
Step 1: Create a Free Make.com Account
Go to make.com and sign up for a free account. The free tier gives you 1,000 operations per month — more than enough to learn and run small automations. No credit card required.
Step 2: Create a New Scenario
From your Make.com dashboard, click 'Create a new scenario'. You'll see a blank canvas with a large '+' button in the centre. This is where you'll add your first module (the trigger).
Step 3: Add Your Trigger Module
Click the '+' button and search for 'Google Forms'. Select the 'Watch Responses' module. This is your trigger — Make.com will watch your form and fire the scenario every time a new response is submitted. Connect your Google account and select the form you want to watch.
Step 4: Add a Google Sheets Action
Click the '+' after the trigger module and search for 'Google Sheets'. Select 'Add a Row'. Connect your Google account, select your spreadsheet and sheet, and map the form response fields to the corresponding columns. Make.com shows you exactly which data is available from the trigger — you just drag it into the right fields.
Step 5: Add a Slack Notification
Click '+' after the Sheets module and search for 'Slack'. Select 'Create a Message'. Connect your Slack workspace, choose the channel, and write your message. Use Make.com's dynamic values to include the submitter's name and key fields in the notification: e.g. 'New form submission from {{1.Name}} — {{1.Email}}'.
Step 6: Test Your Scenario
Click 'Run once' in the bottom-left corner. Make.com will check for any recent form submissions and process them through your scenario. You'll see a green tick on each module as it executes successfully, and bubbles showing the data flowing between steps. Check your Google Sheet and Slack channel — the data should be there.
Step 7: Turn It On
Once you've confirmed everything works, toggle the scenario ON using the switch in the bottom-left. Now every new form submission triggers the automation automatically — you don't need to do anything. Make.com checks for new submissions on a schedule (every 15 minutes on the free plan, down to 1 minute on paid plans).
Congratulations — you've just automated your first workflow. The same logic applies to far more complex scenarios: more modules, conditional paths, data transformations, API calls. But it all starts from this exact foundation.
What to Build Next
- Add a filter — only notify Slack if the form response meets certain criteria
- Add a Gmail module — send the submitter a personalised confirmation email
- Replace Google Forms with a Typeform or Airtable form
- Add a CRM module — create a contact in HubSpot or Pipedrive automatically
If you want to skip the learning curve and get professional Make.com automations built for your business, we can help. Book a free consultation and we'll map out exactly what to automate first.