I’ve set up a Zapier workflow that searches for people in my Salesforce database by checking both contacts and leads. My goal is to automatically create a new lead entry when someone doesn’t exist in either category.
The problem I’m running into is that my zap completely stops executing when the contact search comes back empty. I need the automation to keep running even when no matching records are found so I can trigger the lead creation step.
Has anyone figured out how to handle empty search results in Zapier? I’m looking for a way to make the workflow continue to the next action even when the Salesforce lookup doesn’t return any matches. Are there specific Zapier steps or filters that can help with this scenario?
u could try adding a formatter step right after ur search - use “utilities” and choose “line itemizer” or simple text formatting to handle empty results. this helps u see if anything came back before moving on. webhooks can work too, but that’s kinda overkill for this. continue on error helps, but it gets messy with multiple searches.
I had the same problem and Path by Zapier works way better than filters here. After your Salesforce search, add a Paths action that splits based on whether you got results back. One path handles existing contacts, the other handles when there’s nothing. The empty path can trigger lead creation directly. This beats trying to handle errors and it’s way more reliable. Throw in a delay step before creating the lead - helps avoid race conditions with Salesforce’s API. Just test it first with records you know don’t exist.
Turn on “Continue on Error” in your Salesforce search step’s advanced settings. This stops the zap from crashing when it doesn’t find anything. Then add a Filter step after the search to check if the contact ID field is empty or missing. When the filter fails (no contact found), the zap moves on to create the lead. I’ve done this same setup for database lookups and it’s solid. Just test it with records you know don’t exist before you go live.