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How to set up an instagram giveaway


How to Host an Instagram Giveaway or Contest

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Increase engagement and drive brand awareness by holding a contest or giveaway on Instagram. Plan and execute your promotion in seven steps.

By: Jessica Elliott , Contributor
An Instagram contest can take many forms. You can require contestants to submit photos or videos, caption an image, follow a challenge or theme, or just leave a comment. — Getty Images/simon2579

With more than one billion active users, Instagram is a prime spot for interacting with leads and customers. Indeed, Tailwind found that "an Instagram contest or giveaway can help you grow your followers 70% faster in three months than if you didn't host a contest at all." Ensure your campaign is successful by outlining your goals, theme, and entry guidelines. Here's how to get started.

[Read more: Hosting a Social Media Giveaway? Here's What to Know First]

Define your Instagram contest goals and select a theme

Determine your ideal audience for your Instagram giveaway and what a successful outcome looks like to you. Do you want to increase followers, generate email signups, or get user-generated content (UGC)? Your approach may differ for each objective.

The theme and format for your contest set the stage for what you want participants to do. For instance, entries to a “Think Spring” contest may include outdoor photos, spring-themed makeup videos, or comments with a follower's favorite spring drink.

Ampfluence offers 15 creative examples. You can also consider using one of these formats for your Instagram promotion:

  • Selfie contest.
  • Tag-to-win.
  • Caption contest.
  • Comment-to-win.
  • Hashtag contest.

Choose a giveaway prize

Generic prizes are in demand but don't necessarily help you reach your goals. If you want fast new follower growth, giving away an Amazon gift card or fuel voucher may get the job done. But people may unfollow you after the contest ends. Conversely, a prize tailored to your target audience can weed out people who fall outside your interest categories and demographics. Consider offering your products or creating a bundled gift by partnering with another small business.

[Read more: Top 5 Instagram Features to Help Boost Engagement]

Write your contest guidelines and rules

Follow Instagram’s promotion guidelines and tell people how they can enter your contest. Your rules will depend on your format but may include liking the post, tagging a friend, or following your account. Don't forget to make an official guidelines page and put the link in your Instagram caption. ViralSweep offers a template for official guidelines and has a Google Document template as well. Here are two examples of Instagram giveaway rules from Little Bee Book and Brit + Co.

The theme and format for your contest set the stage for what you want participants to do.

Host your Instagram giveaway or contest

Once you've taken care of the nitty-gritty details, it's time to create your post and promote your giveaway. You can design a few graphics and use them on your landing page and social platforms. Remember to post your giveaway when your audience is online and use hashtags related to your brand.

Take these steps to hold your Instagram contest or giveaway:

  • Create a giveaway post: Develop an image or video and compelling caption. Use emojis and line breaks to make your post easy to scan. Get inspiration with examples from Hendrix Yancey and Spencers. Plus, don't forget to use Instagram hashtags.
  • Develop a landing page: For legal purposes, it's a best practice to offer an alternative method of entry (AMOE) for any giveaway requiring entrants to do or give something. A contact form on a landing page can collect entries and serve as a promotional tool.
  • Outline your promotional strategy: Share details and links to your giveaway on other social media sites and by email. Consider adding a pop-up to your website and a blog post about your Instagram contest.

Track entries and choose a winner

Tailwind suggests tracking entrants in a spreadsheet and "export[ing] the list to a randomizer to select a winner." Do this by adding the Instagram handle (user tag) to your spreadsheet for each person who follows your steps. You can use an online tool like Woobox to pick a winner, which is helpful if you're counting upvotes and offering bonus entries.

Alternatively, you can assign random numbers to all participants in your spreadsheet using the RAND function and use Google to pick a random number. Do this by searching for “Google random number,” and the tool pops up on your search engine results page (SERP). Random Picker by VeroMotion also offers an Excel template for generating winners.

[Read more: A Quick Guide to Marketing Your Business on Instagram]

End your promotion with a winner announcement

Have a post template ready, including your caption, so you can announce your winners as soon as possible after the contest ends. Pick a random winner or tally votes and share the results on social media, on your website, and by email.

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Published June 20, 2022

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How to Host an Instagram Giveaway: A Step-by-step Guide

If you want to grow your following on Instagram, hosting a giveaway can be one of the most effective tactics.

With the right strategy, you can reach thousands of potential new followers -- all while building a stronger sense of community around your brand.

Ready to get started? We're sharing everything you need to know to plan the perfect Instagram giveaway in this guide.

Table of Contents:

  1. Why You Should Host an Instagram Giveaway

  2. How to Do a Giveaway on Instagram

  3. How to Pick a Winner on Instagram

  4. 3 Instagram Giveaway Ideas

Why You Should Host an Instagram Giveaway

Instagram giveaways are a powerful tactic for encouraging engagement from your community and reaching new audiences.

Accounts that host giveaways hold the potential to attract hundreds, if not thousands, of entries and followers. 

In fact, a study conducted by Tailwind found that Instagram giveaways can help grow your followers 70% faster in three months than if you didn’t host a contest at all. 

Source: Tailwind

But brands and businesses can often see drop-offs once the giveaway is closed.

So it’s all about hosting intentional, well-planned giveaways that attract your target audience -- so you can reach  people who actually want to stick around and engage with your content. 

Find out how in our step-by-step guide below.

Plan and schedule your Instagram posts in advance with Later — get started today for free! 

 

How to Do a Giveaway on Instagram: A Step-by-step Guide

Instagram giveaways may seem straightforward, but there's a huge difference between a good giveaway and a great one.

A great Instagram giveaway will support your overarching marketing goals, tap into your target audience, and support your brand values.

Step #1: Determine Your Marketing Goals 

The first step towards running a successful Instagram contest is to understand what you want to achieve.

The best and most successful Instagram contests are intentional and well thought out, with a clear underlying goal.

Do you want to grow your following? Give back to your community? Promote a product? Boost brand awareness? Raise awareness of a social issue? Increase engagement? Show affinity with another brand?

Having a crystal clear vision of your goals will help fine-tune your strategy and keep your campaign on track.

Step #2: Decide on an Instagram Giveaway Prize 

Next up, it’s important to consider exactly what you’ll be giving away --  a compelling prize that elicits excitement and motivates users to enter is the name of the game. 

Make sure the prize is relevant and fits your audience’s needs. Whether it’s a ​​product, service, or experience, you’ll want to choose a prize that’s enticing to both your existing and target audience.  

You can get super creative here. if you were to partner with another brand, what brand does your audience really love? What products or experiences would make your community feel great right now?

And it doesn't have to be something directly within your industry. For example, beauty retailer SpaceNK partnered with a luxury retreat destination to offer their community the opportunity to win an exclusive getaway.

When you have a few ideas lined up, test them out! Ask a few of your community members if they'd be excited by the opportunity to win the prize, and whether they'd be motivated enough to like, tag friends in, or share the post.

Step #3: Set the Entry Criteria 

Once you've got your eye on the prize, you'll need to define how someone can enter your giveaway. This will all depend on your goals (see Step #1).

For example, if your top goal is to attract new followers, you'll want to make sure that following your account is part of the entry requirements. You might also want to specify that entrants must tag 3-5 friends to be eligible.

You’ll also need to cover some of the admin details, such as:

  • How long will the contest run for? Specify closing dates and don’t forget to include timezones.

  • Will your contest be open to certain countries?

  • Is there an age limit? If your contest is only open to ages 18 and above, note that.

  • Include  Instagram’s

    regarding promotions on the app.

These details may seem a little boring, but transparency is key for a successful giveaway.

Step #4: Promote Your Instagram Giveaway 

Now it’s time to launch your giveaway. 

For example, if you’re on Instagram, announce your contest through a grid post, story, and Reel -- take advantage of all avenues. 

​​Be sure to use a strong image for the post itself and include a clear call-to-action in your caption to encourage as many entries as possible.

For the best results, don't forget to share your announcement post at your best time to post.  

If your brand lives on multiple platforms (aka Twitter, TikTok, Facebook) consider cross-promoting for additional reach. 

TIP: Re-promote your Instagram giveaway on stories before the contest ends!

Ready to find your best days and times to post on Instagram? The feature is available on all paid plans. Upgrade now!

How to Pick a Winner on Instagram 

If you want to host an Instagram giveaway, it's important to have a fair and objective process in place to select a winner.

To do this, you can manually add all entries to a spreadsheet and use the random function to generate a winner. However, this can be quite a time-consuming process.

Alternatively, you can use an automated system to speed things up, such as:

  • Easypromos Easypromos uses the official Instagram API to import all the comments from your giveaway post to help determine if users entered the contest correctly and help you randomly select a winner.

  • Instagram Comment Picker This free and trusted tool does all the heavy lifting for you by selecting a random name from any contest ran through an Instagram Business or Creator account.

  • Wishpond Wishpond allows you to easily manage and monitor your Instagram giveaway by ​​keeping track of all entries -- their tools will help you determine a randomized winner.

Whichever option you choose, always make sure your process is fair and (if required) transparent. Trust is important on Instagram -- and a sketchy giveaway can do more harm to a brand's reputation than good.

3 Inspiring Instagram Giveaway Ideas

As we've already covered, there are tons of ways you can approach an Instagram giveaway. 

To provide some context, here are three different tactics you can take inspiration from:

#1: Introduce the Triple Threat: Tag, Follow, and Share to Enter

One of the most popular strategies to gain social traction is through a tag, follow, and share entry requirement. This format is a super straightforward and clear way to gain tons of engagement from various lanes on a single post.

F.Miller used this tactic like a pro by asking users to tag a friend for a chance to win their fifth-anniversary Necessity Kit.

#2: Partner with a Brand that Taps into Your Target Audience

Not only is teaming up with a like-minded brand an easy way to leverage their audience, it's also a great way to ensure you're attracting the right followers.

Think about it: double the traction, double the engagement. It's a win-win. 

For example, Fresh Restaurants collaborated with their health enthusiast neighbor, Spinco to launch the ultimate workout package giveaway. 

In a combination of various social requirements, users had to follow both accounts, like the post, tag their favorite workout buddy, and share on their Instagram Story for five additional entries -- generating a lot of engagement. 

#3: Generate a Social Buzz With a Task-based Entry 

For a creative spin on an entry, you can ask your followers to whip up a caption, answer a question, or create a piece of content to enter your giveaway.   

This type of entry requires a little more effort from users, but it's an awesome way to build brand loyalty and wider awareness. 

For example, documentary maker Louis Theroux encouraged his audience to redesign the cover of his new book, Gotta Get Theroux This, for the chance to win a signed copy.

This creative concept amassed over 13K likes and 585 comments, while the contributions were shared widely on social.

With a slew of audience-building advantages, Instagram contests are a treasure-trove for driving engagement.

Brands both large and small are taking advantage of Instagram giveaways to increase visibility, drive social shares, and boost brand awareness.

Turn Instagram into a traffic-driver for your content with Later’s Linkin.bio feature — available for free!

How to run a giveaway on Instagram in 2022

After creating an online store on Instagram, the page needs to be promoted to attract customers. One of the best ways to do this is by giving away prizes. In this article, we will tell you how to conduct draws, about their varieties and the goals that they solve.

What is the purpose of Instagram giveaways and contests? But contests have their own special benefits, which are especially useful on Instagram. By using this promotion method, you will increase user engagement. They will start mentioning you, liking, commenting on your posts and sharing posts more often. Profile engagement and mentions are important success factors in the social network, without which page promotion is impossible. By making your profile more recognizable, you will attract subscribers and new customers. You can read more about this in the article about Instagram algorithms in 2022. nine0003

How to run an Instagram raffle based on comments

Before the raffle, it is important to decide on the prize that the winner will receive. This approach will be correct for any type of draw. In the case of an online store, the best gift will be a product or a discount on purchases. After you choose a prize, you can think through the rest of the details of the draw.

The mechanics of the draw based on comments is extremely simple - the user needs to leave a comment under the post with the action. What kind of comment it will be depends on the conditions of the competition. If you want to add interactivity, then, for example, invite users to tell why they subscribed to you. It is not necessary to complicate the competition too much, so as not to discourage people from participating. nine0003

It's best to allow any comments, but with the condition that subscribers like the post and tag their friends. Clarify that you can leave an unlimited number of comments and this will increase the chances of winning. You will solve two problems at once - increase engagement and attract new users to your page. Thanks to active commenting, the post will be promoted on Instagram and attract additional attention.

MasterZoo prank got 1292 comments with 9 friends tagged0006 There is no need to delay the drawing by comments. The optimal duration is one to two weeks. After that, you can choose the winner. To do this, use randomizers that will give out a random number and this comment will be the winner. Also, there are specialized services for choosing winners, such as YouToGift or LIZONAIR.

The store posted a video with the process of choosing the winner in stories

The draw through stories

The draw through stories is in many ways similar to the draw by comments. You need to make a post with a contest, and users need to write under it. The main condition is that they must repost the contest to their stories and mark your profile. The point is that regular reposts to the feed are less effective. Firstly, users make them reluctantly so as not to clog their page, and secondly, stories are viewed more often than regular posts. nine0003 Comfy combined the mechanics of drawing through stories and comments

The winner is selected according to the already familiar scheme, with the help of a randomizer. Stories are stored for 24 hours, so it is advisable to hold the draw in a short time. But even if the history disappears, you can still check if the user has fulfilled the condition. By going to direct, you will see a notification about the mark.

Despite the relative complexity of the organization of the draw, it allows you to reach a large audience. Thanks to the repost, the subscribers of your subscribers will see the post and, possibly, go to your profile. The draw through stories will give impetus to the development of new pages with a small number of readers. This effect can be enhanced by enlisting the help of popular bloggers. We wrote earlier about how to order advertising from bloggers. nine0003

Draw through hashtags

The essence of the draw through hashtags is that users make thematic posts on their pages, according to your conditions. For example, you will announce a competition for the best photo with your products and come up with a special hashtag for it. To participate in the contest, the user must post a post, tag you and write a hashtag. The winner will be the one who gets the most likes or who you choose yourself.

The hashtag draw is suitable for profiles that already have an impressive audience of subscribers. The competition will further promote the brand. Pay attention to the prize - make it valuable so that users have an incentive to complete your task and be original. Here are some contest ideas you can use:

  • a story about his acquaintance with the store;

  • product display in action;

  • unpacking of goods;

  • short video review of the product;

  • holiday themed photo.

A jewelry store came up with a draw through hashtags with difficult conditions, but valuable prizes

Conclusion

Instagram pranks cost you little but promote your profile well. Start with a simple comment raffle that works for profiles with any number of followers. And then try all kinds of pranks and see which one will be the most successful. But remember that all efforts to promote the store on Instagram can be multiplied by zero if the account is blocked. To accumulate your success, we recommend opening an online store with a separate website where users from Instagram will go. nine0003

How to run an Instagram contest or giveaway: step by step instructions

There are many ways to draw attention to your Instagram account. There is little interesting content and design - you need to be able to attract new subscribers, otherwise potential customers simply “will not get” either to a beautiful visual or to your useful posts.

Major bloggers and brands hold contests to increase awareness, activity and engagement. In this article, I will tell you how to run a giveaway on Instagram and get the maximum feedback from your followers. nine0003

Which type of competition should I choose?

It is worth starting a promotion on Instagram by choosing its specifics. Different types of contests give completely different returns and involve performing actions (from a simple like to creating creative works).

For example, you can offer your subscribers…

Leave a comment

Suitable for those who want to increase activity in their account. The only condition is that you must have at least a medium-sized audience. nine0003

The blogger offers to leave a comment in which subscribers should tell about what they like about her account

To make such an interactive, let's come up with a task for our readers. For example, let's ask them:

  • to explain why they should get the prize;
  • tell a story or answer a question in detail;
  • guess what you depicted (closed / painted over) in a photo or picture;
    • nine0083 guess which of the facts you wrote are lies;
  • leave comments until you type "STOP".

The choice of the winner depends on the task - award the most creative answer to the question or give a gift to a random user who found the object hidden in the photo.

Complete a creative task

To hold such a contest, we will set a certain tag and invite subscribers to post a photo with creative work in their account. Then we will choose the winner by the number of likes or the most interesting photo. nine0003

In order to win a baby dress, the participants should come up with a new outfit for the brand's mascot - pandas

Here are some examples of tasks:

  • make a video review of the product;
  • come up with an interesting recipe with your products;
  • depict the logo or mascot of the brand;
  • tell about acquaintance with the company;
  • come up with an interesting story about the brand or its mascot. nine0036

The contest will increase awareness, engagement and activity of your subscribers.

And here, a major cosmetics brand awards a beauty box for high-quality make-up in an interesting style (an example of a participant’s work)

The only drawback is that for a non-promoted account, you will have to set up a target or buy additional advertising from bloggers.

Share post in Stories

This format is relatively new, but because of its simplicity, it is the one used by most companies. To participate, your readers repost the draw to their stories with your account tag, and tag friends, like or simply leave a comment in the post itself. nine0003

A cosmetics brand raffles off lipstick for a repost in Stories and a comment or goods.

The mark in the stories is needed so that you can check if the person made a repost. The mention of the mark will remain in Yandex.Direct.

The only drawback of such a contest is that not all Instagram users know how to repost and make marks. And the stories themselves live no more than a day. nine0003

Like and comment

The easiest option. The result of such a contest depends on how valuable a gift you are ready to send to the winner, as well as on the number of your followers. Members:

  • like the post;
  • tag one or more friends.

To increase activity and attract attention, you can not limit the number of marks.

To win a lamp, just like, subscribe and tag a couple of friends

Even if not all users tagged in the comments are interested in the prize or subscribe to the account, your company's recognition will be increased.

Subscribe to sponsors (Giveaway)

What is a Giveaway? This is probably the most popular type of Instagram prank. At least, most of the major bloggers with an already recruited and loyal audience use it.

The so-called "givas" are usually hosted by well-known influencers, and the prizes (cars, large sums of money, phones) are provided by sponsors. The mechanism is the same as the previous version - subscribe to several partner accounts (from 2-3 to 20-30), leave a like and a comment. nine0003

In this case, you need to subscribe to all sponsors to participate. Why? Here are a few reasons:

  • not your target audience subscribes to your account, but random people;
  • they are not interested in your products and will not like/comment on posts, over time more than 50% of them will unfollow;
  • , engagement rates will drop, and Instagram may stop showing your posts in the feed, as the algorithms will consider them uninteresting (followers do not like them and generally leave the profile). nine0036

The only solution in this case is to initially participate only in those shows whose organizers have a similar or the same target audience.

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What to give?

Before holding a contest on Instagram, we will choose a prize for our subscribers. The reward should be one for which the followers want to compete. It can be your product (if you are running a giveaway in your store) or some product related to your industry (if the contest is on a personal account). nine0003

Are you talking about motherhood? Play an educational game or smart gadget for kids.

Account dedicated to needlework? Gift your subscribers a creative or storage kit.

Is your target audience girls who want to lose weight? Try offering them a personalized workout plan or a tracksuit for tagging in stories.

Services are much more complicated. For example, if a beauty salon will raffle off a hair care complex, even those who live in another city will want to participate in the competition. Of course, after the announcement of the results, they will unsubscribe. nine0003

Therefore, it’s better to draw a certificate for your services (this way you will be sure that all participants are from your city) or try to interest a nonresident audience with posts (for example, in the same hairdresser’s account, tell not only about the work performed, but also publish life hacks on hair care).

How to compose an advertising post?

A bright and eye-catching post is one of the most important success factors for the contest. To interest followers will help ...

Detailed description

Specify all conditions for participation in the draw. The post under the photo must contain such information as:

  • a caption to attract attention - understandable for users, for example, “Raffle”, “Gift a car” or “Get a chance to win an annual subscription to our gym”;
  • prize description - tell us what the lucky ones will get, who will be chosen by the randomizer or organizer;
  • participation conditions - when the results will be announced, what participants need to do, how many comments / posts under the hashtag can be left, in which region or city you need to live to participate. nine0036

The more details, the less likely to hear claims after the winners are announced. For example, if a participant from another country got the most likes, and you forgot to indicate in the rules that you are sending the prize only within Russia, when announcing the results, he may naturally be indignant.

Specific dates

Nobody likes to wait. And even more so, no one likes it when the announcement of the results is constantly postponed - trust in you will fall, users will delete their comments or even unsubscribe. The draw will appear to be "fake". nine0003

Long periods are suitable only for competitions with expensive prizes, and at the same time, you need to constantly stir up the interest of the audience by reminding them of the draw. Long contests are also not suitable for small profiles - it is best to limit yourself to three to six days.

Attractive photo

The photo can show a beautiful layout with your products or a blogger who holds the product in his hands (sitting next to him, using it, etc.). It is better to add text to the picture itself, since many users do not read the posts and scroll through them in their feed. nine0003

The main thing is that the text looks organic and fits into the overall composition of the picture. For example:

The inscription “ drawing ” fits into the composition

Some posts without “identification marks” in the photo itself risk being leaned:

without reading the text, it is possible and not to guess that it can not be guessed that competition is held

What will help make the competition recognizable?

The success of the competition depends on how much people trust you and your brand. If you have few followers:

  • Tell us about the competition in your personal account. If you are a blogger with your own brand, tell your subscribers about the contest and invite them to take part in it.
  • Buy ads from another influencer. Make sure that your target audience is the same, and the blogger does not have likes or subscribers. Some services (for example, InstaHero) immediately give out information about geolocation, age and gender of followers. Be sure to ask for statistics from the influencer himself. nine0036
  • Run targeted ads on Instagram. Potential members will see the post in stories (or feed) and be interested in your offer.

The method you use depends on your budget and the focus of your account.

How to determine the winner?

Art contests let you know the lucky winner in an obvious way - give the prize to the most creative participant of your choice, let you choose the most interesting work by voting, or simply find the post with the most likes. nine0003

There are only two options for randomly determining the winner.

Special services for choosing a winner

The easiest and fastest way is to copy the link to the post, paste it into the field on a special site and look at the result. The winner is determined by:

  • tag - the service finds the entry with the maximum number of likes or randomly;
  • comments or likes - the user is chosen randomly.

You just have to check if the participant complied with all the rules (some sites do this automatically, sometimes you have to check manually). nine0003

For example, try Giveaways and Lizaonair. The latter has a premium version, with which you can automatically check for a repost in stories and compliance with other rules.

Randomizers

The random number generator (randomizer) is an old method used on the Internet since the first contests appeared. Participants receive personal numbers, and the application itself determines the winning number.

How to assign numbers? You can ask followers to leave a comment with a serial number (and then check the correctness by sorting the comments by date) or write it to readers in Direct when you receive a message about the mark. nine0003

By the way, it is not necessary to indicate the serial number - suggest choosing a “lucky” number in the range from 1 to 100. After uploading comments using Insta Comments or any similar site, just find the lucky one using the Excel spreadsheet search. The main thing is that the numbers do not repeat - be sure to mention this in the description of the contest.

There are several sites with the option to generate random numbers: I personally managed to try out You to Gift, Randomus, RandStuff. All of them are quite primitive, but this is even a plus. nine0003

To avoid being accused of "rigging" the results, be sure to record the screen when summarizing. To increase loyalty, broadcast live.

How to work with a new audience?

In order not to "catch" the shadowban and avoid a large number of unsubscribes (and the outflow of users is inevitable, no matter how sad it may sound), new followers should immediately be interested in something. There are several solutions:

  • First, targeting or buying advertising from bloggers. But this option is not suitable for owners of half-empty accounts, as well as corporate profiles without useful content (people will come in, see solid ads and close the page). nine0036
  • Secondly, post interesting posts - the target audience will be motivated to subscribe, and your credibility will increase.
  • Third, interact with the audience. It is unprofitable to hold drawings endlessly, but you can diversify the feed with small contests, games or other interactive activities.

Let's summarize

Let's summarize. Four "keys" to the success of your competition: