Imagine that you were out of your home for a while and want to know if an automation, eg. a noise sensor activates the automation if the noise is constant for more than 5s. I have no problem doing this automation, but I have no idea how to show on my dashboard if my automation was ever performed and for how many times.
Add a counter helper and in your automation increase the counter at the end.
That is probably the easiest way.
The history of the counter will also show you the times it ran.