Introduction

Automation is key for modern businesses looking to increase efficiency and productivity. Make.com offers powerful tools to automate repetitive tasks, connect apps, and build workflows without coding. While Make’s visual interface makes it easy to create basic automations, there are advanced techniques that allow you to take your business automation to the next level.

In this post, we’ll explore some of Make.com’s more advanced features to help you automate complex processes from start to finish. The goal is to provide actionable tips to streamline operations, boost productivity, and free up your time for high-value work.

Multi-Step Scenarios

One of the most powerful features of Make.com is the ability to create multi-step scenarios with multiple triggers and actions. This allows you to go far beyond simple one-step automations and build out complex workflows from start to finish (Make.com).

With Make.com, you can connect dozens of apps and services together and automate entire business processes end-to-end. For example, you could set up a scenario that is triggered when a new order comes in to your ecommerce platform. It could then automatically add the order to your accounting software, send a confirmation email to the customer from your email marketing platform, and add the customer to a list in your CRM – all in one automated sequence.

The ability to create conditional logic, branches, and multiple outcomes within these multi-step workflows makes the automation possibilities endless. If you have complex processes you want to optimize, Make.com has the robust tools to build them out.

HTTP Module

One of the most powerful advanced features in Make.com is the ability to connect to any API or web service using the built-in HTTP module. As noted in the Make.com help documentation, the HTTP module allows you to send requests to any web-based application or service, even if it doesn’t have a pre-built integration with Make.com (1). This opens up endless possibilities for automation.

By using the HTTP module, you can connect Make.com workflows to custom APIs, internal apps, CRMs, ERPs, payment systems, and virtually any other web service that has an API. You simply need to know the URL endpoints and required parameters. The HTTP module supports common API authentication methods like API keys, OAuth, and basic auth as well (2).

With the flexibility of the HTTP module, you are no longer limited just to the hundreds of pre-built app integrations in Make.com. You can integrate with niche services, legacy systems, or your own custom platforms to unlock new automation potential.

Sources:

(1) https://www.make.com/en/help/tools/http

(2) https://www.make.com/en/help/connections/connecting-to-any-web-service-that-uses-api-tokens-authorization

Conditional Logic

One of Make.com’s most powerful features is the ability to create conditional logic and branching workflows using the Router and Filter modules (https://www.make.com/en/help/modules/router). These allow you to create if/then scenarios and route your data down different paths based on criteria you set.

For example, you could check if a data field meets a certain condition, and then send the data through one sequence of actions if true, and a different sequence if false. The community post (https://community.make.com/t/basic-if-condition-on-workflow-level/7084) provides a simple example of using a Router to branch based on whether data exists or not.

By stringing together multiple routers and filters, you can create complex logic with multiple conditions and outcomes. This opens up many possibilities like handling different error scenarios, routing data to different apps based on its contents, and more. The key is to think through the different branches you need, and design the conditional logic accordingly.

Error Handling

One of the most advanced tricks you can leverage in Make.com is setting up automated error handling. Things don’t always go as planned, so having a system in place to detect and respond to errors is crucial. Make’s error handler module allows you to build resilient automations that can retry failed operations, send notifications, or trigger backup processes.

For example, you could set up an error handler that automatically sends you an email alert anytime a workflow fails. The email could include details on what went wrong so you can quickly investigate and resolve the issue. You could also use the error handler to trigger a backup automation that kicks in when the primary workflow fails. This provides redundancy to ensure critical business processes complete successfully.

Overall, proactive error handling is a best practice for advanced Make.com users. As you build complex multi-step scenarios, make sure to incorporate error handlers, notifications, and backup processes. This will save you immense time in monitoring and troubleshooting your workflows. Automated error handling gives you peace of mind that things will run smoothly even when problems occur.

For more details on implementing robust error handling with Make.com, check out their documentation here: Introduction to errors and warnings in Make and Overview of error handling in Make.

Webhooks

One powerful way to automate processes in Make.com is by using webhooks. Webhooks allow you to receive data in real-time from other apps and services to instantly trigger your automated workflows. Here’s how they work:

You can set up a webhook URL within Make.com that acts as an endpoint. When the other app sends data to that URL, it will automatically trigger the execution of your predefined scenario in Make.com. For example, you could create a webhook connected to your ecommerce platform that fires every time a new order is placed. As soon as that order data hits your Make.com webhook, it can automatically kick off workflows for order processing, inventory updates, shipping notifications, and more.

The key benefit of webhooks is removing delays. You don’t have to manually export data and import it into Make.com – instead, everything happens instantly and automatically. This allows you to build workflows triggered by real-time data and events. According to Make.com’s documentation, webhooks create a URL you can call from external apps to trigger scenario execution. This is a powerful way to automate processes as soon as key events occur.

To learn more, refer to Make.com’s guide on Webhooks.

Data Processing

One of the most powerful features of Make.com is the ability to process and combine data from multiple steps and modules in your workflows. With Make, you can map and transform data fields, merge data from multiple apps, and even create entirely new datasets to work with.

For example, you could pull in customer data from your CRM, transaction data from your accounting software, and email metrics from your email marketing platform. Make allows you to merge these disparate datasets together into a single unified view. You can clean up data formats, map field names, filter out unnecessary data, and more.

Make’s data processing tools allow you to:

• Merge data from multiple sources into a single data structure
• Map field names from one data source to another
• Transform data types (e.g. convert date strings into proper date objects)
• Filter dataset rows based on conditions
• Perform calculations on data fields (e.g. calculate lifetime value for customers)
• Append datasets by adding rows from one dataset to another
• Build entirely new datasets by combining fields from different sources

By leveraging these data processing capabilities, you can unlock new insights and automate workflows using enriched, unified data. For example, you could create a daily email report for your team that brings together data from across all your business platforms. Or build a workflow that alerts you when a high-value customer places a large order based on CRM data merged with order data.

As discussed in the Make.com community (source), you can combine text and data from across many steps and modules to create new datasets. The possibilities are endless!

Batch Processing

One of the most powerful advanced tricks in Make.com is leveraging batch processing to automate high-volume repetitive tasks. With batch processing, you can iterate through large datasets or lists of items to perform the same actions on each item automatically.

For example, you may need to extract data from multiple PDF invoices and log each invoice in a Google Sheet. Or perhaps you need to resize hundreds of images and upload to a cloud storage folder. Instead of doing these tasks manually one by one, you can use Make’s Array and Iterator modules to process items in batches.

The key steps for batch processing are:

1. Import your dataset or list of items using a module like the Google Sheets module.
2. Use the Array module to split the list into batches of a defined size, like 50 or 100 items.
3. Connect the Array module to an Iterator module to loop through each batch.
4. Within the Iterator loop, perform your desired actions like extracting invoice data or resizing images.
5. The Iterator automatically processes each batch, avoiding limits and speeding up large workflows.

By leveraging batch processing, you can automate very high volume, repetitive tasks exponentially faster than doing them manually. This helps you reinvest time into more important business activities.

For a step-by-step tutorial on setting up batch processing automations, see this helpful resource: FREE Google Sheets Batch Update Custom App for Make.com

Scheduled Automation

One powerful feature of Make.com is the ability to schedule your automation scenarios to run automatically on a recurring basis. Instead of manually triggering workflows or relying on incoming data, you can set your automations to run on any custom schedule you choose – whether that’s every few minutes, hourly, daily, weekly, or on whatever cadence matches your needs.

Within Make’s scenario editor, you simply access the “Schedule” section and define when you want the automation to run. You can set it to fixed intervals like every 5, 15, or 30 minutes. Or get more advanced by using cron expressions to define more complex recurrences. This cron syntax gives you the flexibility to schedule workflows at very specific times, like 9am every Monday or the 1st and 15th of every month.

The key benefit of scheduled automation is that it allows you to completely take repetitive tasks off your plate. No more remembering to manually trigger things or constantly checking if a process needs to run. Make.com handles it automatically based on the schedule you define. For example, you could set up daily reports, weekly data syncs between apps, or monthly billing automation. The time savings quickly adds up.

As this Make.com guide states, scheduled automation helps you “run your business automatically in the background”. So leverage Make’s scheduling capabilities to truly automate repetitive processes on autopilot.

Organization

As you build out more workflows, it’s crucial to keep things organized so that you and your team can easily manage your automations. Make.com provides several useful tools for organization, including folders, labels, and comments.

With Make’s folder system, you can group related scenarios into folders and sub-folders to keep things tidy. For example, you may want a Sales folder containing automations related to your sales processes. Folders allow you to categorize your scenarios in a logical way.

Make also allows you to add labels to scenarios to tag them based on categories like the department, use case, or app integrations involved. Labels make it easy to search for and filter scenarios. For example, labeling a workflow “Marketing” and “Social Media” makes it simple to find later.

Finally, you can add comments to individual steps within a scenario to provide notes and documentation. Comments help explain the purpose of each step, making your automations easy to understand for anyone on your team. They also allow you to leave reminders or clarifying details.

With Make’s organization tools like folders, labels, and comments, you can keep your growing library of automations structured and manageable. This organization pays dividends as the number and complexity of your workflows increases over time.

Leverage Make.com’s Templates

One of the best ways to unlock advanced automation techniques is to leverage Make.com’s vast library of templates. Make.com offers over 6000 ready-made workflow templates covering an incredibly wide range of business use cases. These templates serve as a shortcut, allowing you to skip building workflows from scratch. Instead, you can simply find an existing template that matches your needs, customize it for your specific apps and data, and get automating right away.

Make.com’s template library includes templates for everything from social media automation to data entry, lead generation, project management, HR tasks, ecommerce, and more. There are templates tailored to popular business apps like Gmail, Slack, Trello, HubSpot, and hundreds of others. The templates use many of the advanced techniques discussed in this article, so you can learn by example.

Browsing and experimenting with Make.com’s template ecosystem is a great way to discover new automation ideas you may not have considered. The Make.com community forums are also full of users sharing templates and automation strategies. Leveraging these resources can inspire you to take your workflows to the next level.

Community

The Make.com community is an invaluable resource for learning new tricks and techniques. With an active user forum, you can connect with other Make.com users to get ideas, find examples, and see how others are leveraging the platform. The community often shares templates, scenarios, and modules that you can import into your own account. This makes it easy to learn from real-world implementations created by fellow users. You can get inspiration for new ways to utilize Make.com’s capabilities that you may not have considered. The community also provides troubleshooting and technical support from knowledgeable users if you get stuck. Tapping into the collective knowledge of the Make.com community accelerates your learning and helps you fully maximize the platform.

Link to My Services

As you can see, advanced Make.com automation requires specialized expertise. If you’re looking to take your automations to the next level, consider hiring an expert freelancer. I have over 5 years of experience as a Make.com automation specialist and integration expert. You can view my profile and services on Upwork here:

https://www.upwork.com/freelancers/~01fb1a3627e1ddcb12

I can help you implement any of the tricks covered in this article, build complex multi-step workflows, integrate new APIs, optimize your automations for efficiency, and more. My knowledge of Make.com best practices will allow me to automate your business like a pro. I also offer ongoing support and maintenance to keep your automations running smoothly over time. Get in touch for a free consultation!

Conclusion

These advanced Make.com tricks allow you to take your business automation to the next level. As shown throughout this post, Make.com provides powerful capabilities like multi-step workflows, conditional logic, bulk processing, webhooks, and tight integrations with other apps. By leveraging these advanced features, you can build complex automations to streamline even your most complicated business processes from end-to-end.

The key benefits you gain are saving substantial time on repetitive tasks, reducing human error, instantly connecting systems, handling large datasets, and triggering instant workflows. This frees you up to focus on high-value business activities that truly require human insight, creativity, and intelligence. Just imagine how much more productive your team could be if freed from manual busywork.

The conclusion is that implementing these Make.com tricks results in next-level automation that drives productivity, efficiency and ultimately business growth. Don’t leave these powerful capabilities untapped – start exploring advanced automation for your business today.

FAQ

Here are some frequently asked questions about using advanced techniques in Make.com:

What are some best practices for creating complex multi-step scenarios?

When creating multi-step workflows, it’s best to break the process down into logical segments. Plan it out before building and document each step. Use descriptive names and comments so you understand the flow later. Test frequently as you build. Check for errors, timeouts, looping issues. Monitor live runs to see where improvements can be made.

How can I monitor my automations to prevent failures?

Monitor using Make’s logs and notifications. Set up notifications to alert you when errors occur or scenarios fail. Check logs regularly to spot trends. Use error handling modules like Retry, Circuit Breaker, etc. Have backup scenarios ready to run if primary ones fail. Consider a status page to monitor uptime.

What are some good ways to organize and document my scenarios?

Use folders, labels, colors and comments liberally. Give scenarios and modules descriptive names. Document the purpose and logic flow. Diagram complex workflows. Delete old/unused scenarios and modules periodically to keep it clean. Share key docs with team members who need to understand the automations.

For more FAQs, see the Make.com community FAQ page.