Triggers, actions and data

Every automation in Zapier and Make follows the same pattern: something happens, then something is done with the information it produced. Understanding this pattern makes both tools easy to learn.

Triggers

A trigger is the event that starts an automation. Examples:

• A new row is added to a Google Sheet.
• A new email arrives with a specific label.
• A form is submitted.
• A deal moves to Won in the CRM.
• A scheduled time arrives, such as every Monday at 9am.

Triggers work in two ways. Polling triggers check the app every few minutes for new items; the interval depends on your plan. Instant triggers receive a message from the app as soon as something happens, usually through a webhook. Instant triggers are faster and more efficient where available.

Actions

An action is what the automation does: create a record, send a message, update a row, upload a file. Most automations have several actions in sequence, each one able to use data from the trigger and from earlier actions.

Zapier calls a whole automation a Zap, with steps. Make calls it a scenario, made of modules connected on a visual canvas. The concepts are the same.

Data and mapping

When a trigger fires, it produces data: the form fields, the email subject and sender, the row values. Each later step can use this data by mapping fields. For example, when creating a CRM contact, you map the form's email field into the contact's email field.

Look carefully at the sample data your trigger produces. Field names in one tool rarely match the next tool, and formats differ too. A date might arrive as 2026-03-14T09:30:00Z from one app while the next expects 14/03/2026. We will learn to transform data in sections 2 and 3.

Searches and lookups

Many automations need to find something before acting: does this contact already exist? Which salesperson owns this region? Both tools offer search actions that look up a record and return its data, often with an option to create it if not found. Searches prevent duplicates, which are one of the most common automation problems.

Runs and history

Each time an automation runs, the tool records it, along with the data passed between steps. This history is your main debugging tool. When something goes wrong, open the run, step through it and see exactly what each step received and returned.

Sketch a trigger and three actions for the lead routing workflow we will build later.