How to Do a TikTok Contest or Giveaway (Step-by-Step)

Thinking about running a TikTok contest but not sure where to start? If you’ve ever wondered how to do a giveaway on TikTok that people actually enter and that grows your followers, boosts engagement, and drives traffic, you’re in the right place.

I’ll show you the exact steps to plan, launch, and promote a TikTok giveaway from your WordPress site, using a tool that makes it simple to manage entries and pick a winner.

What Are the Benefits of Running TikTok Contests?

There are plenty of reasons to run a giveaway on TikTok. Here’s why it works:

• TikTok videos can go viral quickly, expanding your reach across multiple platforms at once.
• The platform has a large, engaged audience that responds well to contests and branded challenges.
• A spike in visibility can drive traffic to your website, turning contest entrants into leads and potential customers.

Can You Do a Giveaway on TikTok?

Yes. TikTok allows giveaways and contests as long as you follow their advertising guidelines. That means including official rules, avoiding misleading claims, and not requiring copyrighted content in entries.

You also need to comply with contest laws in your state or country. In practice, this means a clear “no purchase necessary” statement and a defined process for choosing and notifying your winner.

Types of TikTok Contests You Can Run

Before planning your contest, it helps to know which format fits your goal. There are three main types of TikTok contests:

• Random giveaway (follow to win or comment to win). Users enter by following your account, commenting, or visiting a giveaway page. This is the simplest format and works well for follower growth or email list building.
• Hashtag challenge. You create a branded hashtag and invite users to post their own videos using it. The e.l.f. Cosmetics #eyeslipsface challenge is a well-known example. This format generates user-generated content but requires creative direction from your side.
• Video or duet contest. Participants record and submit a video, often a duet with your branded content. This drives deep engagement but has a higher participation barrier than a follow-to-win giveaway.

How to Run a TikTok Contest in WordPress

You’ve decided to run a TikTok contest, and you know the benefits of doing so. The next hurdle is knowing where to start.

Follow the steps below to plan, launch, and promote a TikTok giveaway from start to finish on your WordPress website.

Step 1. Set Clear Goals for Your TikTok Contest or Giveaway

The first step is to think about why you want to run a TikTok giveaway. What are your ultimate TikTok marketing goals?

Do you want to:

• Get more followers to grow your TikTok account?
• Raise awareness of your TikTok profile and brand?
• Collect user-generated content (UGC) with TikTok challenges?
• Send traffic to your website to boost leads?

You should also think about the type of TikTok account you have. For example, if you want to add a link to your TikTok bio and drive traffic to your site, you’ll need to switch to a business account.

Note: You can only add a link to your TikTok profile once your business account reaches 5000 followers.

If you haven’t made it to that milestone yet, it would be best to focus your strategy on using TikTok to increase engagement.

Defining a goal for your giveaway will make it easier to analyze your results when it’s over. You can then learn from the experience and refine your strategy for your next giveaway campaign.

Step 2. Choose a Prize That Attracts TikTok Contest Entries

After setting a goal for your giveaway, it’s time to choose a prize that will excite your target audience. Users won’t enter your giveaway if the prize isn’t desirable.

Moreover, people won’t engage if the giveaway prize isn’t relevant to your brand and audience’s interests.

Some tried and tested prize ideas for brands with a healthy budget include:

• Tickets to events and concerts
• All expenses paid vacations
• Large cash prizes
• Consoles and tech equipment
• Vehicles

If your budget is smaller, we have tons of giveaway prize ideas in this post.

Step 3. Write TikTok Giveaway Rules and Entry Guidelines

Every giveaway contest needs a set of robust rules to ensure it runs smoothly, and TikTok contests are no different. Your rules will explain the ins and outs of your giveaway and should include the following key points:

• Who can enter your contest, including age and location limits
• How users can enter, such as visit a giveaway page, follow you on TikTok, etc.
• That your giveaway is ‘no purchase necessary.’
• How you’ll choose and notify the winner.

TikTok doesn’t offer a lot of guidance about contest guidelines. However, if you look at TikTok’s advertising guidelines, you’ll see that there are several things you should do to stay compliant, which are similar to other social media platforms.

For example, you should:

• Include official giveaway rules as mentioned in the points above
• Not require users to use copyrighted material to produce their entry
• Follow the laws and social guidelines of your state or country
• Ensure you don’t send participants to a non-functioning landing page

Many of these guidelines also depend on the type of contest you run. For more information, see this guide on Sweepstakes vs. Contests vs. Lotteries.

Step 4. Choose TikTok Contest Entry Methods That Match Your Goals

Now let’s think about how people will enter your TikTok contest. Your entry methods should align with the goals you set out earlier to get the best results.

For example, if your primary goal is to drive traffic to your website, you can ask users to share your giveaway page for a chance to win. Alternatively, you can ask users to follow your TikTok profile if your goal is to get more TikTok followers.

You can also use unique hashtags to create fun and engaging challenges for your giveaway, like e.l.f cosmetics.

The cosmetics brand commissioned the “Eyes. Lips. Face.” song for the challenge. They then asked participants to show their moves for a chance to win $250 worth of their skincare and cosmetics products.

This campaign generated millions of entries, but it also attracted influencers like Jessica Alba. We’ll share more giveaway entry ideas in the next step.

Step 5. Create and Set Up Your TikTok Giveaway in WordPress

By now, you know your goals, giveaway prizes, and official rules and have an idea of how users can participate in the contest. The next step is to build your giveaway and launch it on your website.

Running your giveaway from your website instead of directly on TikTok gives you more control over your campaign. You can also use a giveaway tool to simplify the setup process and management.

Because we’re running a TikTok giveaway in WordPress, we recommend using RafflePress.

RafflePress is the best WordPress giveaway plugin. It lets you run any type of giveaway contest from your WordPress website and takes just minutes to set up.

You can get started with a pre-made giveaway template and build your giveaway app visually with its drag-and-drop builder. You can then choose from many different entry methods to raise brand awareness, boost your website traffic, and grow your social media followers.

The good news is you won’t need any extra TikTok plugins for WordPress.

Follow the steps below to run your TikTok giveaway with RafflePress.

Install the RafflePress Giveaway Plugin

First, get a copy of the RafflePress giveaway plugin and install and activate it on your WordPress website.

Note: RafflePress offers a free version; however, you’ll need a paid plan for the TikTok giveaway actions.

You can follow this guide on installing a WordPress plugin if you need help.

After installing the RafflePress plugin, go to RafflePress » Settings from your WordPress dashboard and enter your license key.

You can find your license key in your account area on the RafflePress website.

After verifying your key, click the Save Changes button and move on to the next step.

Choose a Giveaway Template

Next, go to RafflePress » Giveaways and click the Add New button to choose a giveaway template.

RafflePress comes with 8 pre-made giveaway templates that center on specific marketing goals, including:

• Grow Your Email List
• Refer-a-Friend Viral Giveaway
• Pre-launch Campaign
• Grow Your Facebook Page
• Grow Your Instagram Following
• Grow Your YouTube Channel
• Grow Your Twitter Following

We’ll go with the Classic Giveaway template for this tutorial, so enter a giveaway name, hover your mouse over the template, and click the Use This Template button.

Enter Your Giveaway Prize Details

The giveaway template will now open in RafflePress’s drag-and-drop giveaway builder. This is where you can enter your prize details and add more information about your TikTok contest.

Click the pencil icon to open the editing panel on the right-hand side. Then enter your prize name and description, and click the Select Image button to upload a prize photo.

When you’re happy with your prize details, click the Done Editing button.

You can also enter the start and end date and time in the left-hand panel and choose your preferred time zone.

Add Giveaway Entry Actions

Now it’s time to add ways to participate in the contest called Actions in RafflePress. Click the Actions tab on the left to see the different entry methods you can add to your giveaway widget.

RafflePress separates its actions by goal to make it easier to find what you need:

• Get More Subscribers
• Get More Social Engagement
• Get More Traffic

Under each heading, you’ll find actions that only take a single click to complete. For example, you can use the Follow us on TikTok action to grow your TikTok followers or the View a TikTok Post/Video action to increase engagement on your TikToks.

Click the plus icon on any action to add it to your giveaway widget. You can then click it from the widget to view its settings.

For example, inside the Follow us on TikTok action, you can choose:

• Title: such as “Follow RafflePress on TikTok”
• Value: how many entries that action is worth
• Make Mandatory: make following you a requirement for entering
• Allow Daily Entries: let users complete this action every day
• TikTok URL: the URL of the TikTok profile you want users to follow

The View a TikTok Post/Video action is slightly different. Inside the action settings, you can do all of the above, but instead of pasting a URL, you need to paste the embed code of the relevant TikTok post or video.

That will enable users to watch your post directly from your giveaway widget, which is an excellent way to keep them on your website longer.

You can use these TikTok giveaway actions with any other action to meet different giveaway goals, including:

• Raise brand awareness: Watch a TikTok video and refer-a-friend
• Get more blog subscribers: View a TikTok post and leave a blog comment
• Promote a product: Watch a TikTok promo and visit a product page
• Get more podcast subscribers: Watch a TikTok trailer and subscribe to a podcast
• Promote your live stream: View a TikTok clip and follow you on Twitch

When you’re happy with your giveaway actions, click the Save button in the top-right corner.

Customize the Giveaway Widget

RafflePress offers several ways to make your giveaway widget stand out. Click the Design tab to see the customization options.

First, you can choose from 2 layouts: Header, Text, Image, or Image, Header, Text. You can also choose different font styles and select a custom button color.

If you plan to use RafflePress’s built-in giveaway landing page, you can upload a custom background image further down. You can also enter custom CSS if you have the technical know-how.

Remember to save your changes before moving on to the next step.

Configure Your Giveaway Settings

Now let’s look at the different settings you can configure by clicking the Settings tab.

RafflePress offers the following giveaway settings:

• General: change your giveaway name, permalink, show/hide winners, etc.
• Giveaway Rules: enter your official rules and terms of service.
• Email Verification: require entrants to confirm their email addresses.
• Success Tracking: enter scripts such as your Google Analytics tracking.
• Success Redirect: redirect contestants to another URL after entering.
• Social Logins: this allows users to log in via Facebook.
• GDPR: include a GDPR consent checkbox and message.
• Recaptcha: enable invisible Recaptcha to reduce spam and fraudulent entries.
• Webhooks: integrate your giveaway with 3rd party tools and software.

The Giveaway Rules section is handy for any giveaway. It includes a rules generator that automatically generates rules based on the information you enter.

You can then display your rules inside your giveaway widget for users to see before entering.

Publish Your TikTok Giveaway in WordPress

Now you’re ready to make your TikTok giveaway live on your WordPress website. Click the Publish tab at the top of your screen to see the different publish options.

You can publish your giveaway in a post or page using the RafflePress WordPress block or use a shortcode to embed your giveaway inside your theme, sidebar, or the classic WordPress editor.

However, we recommend publishing your TikTok giveaway on a dedicated giveaway landing page to reduce distractions.

To do that, click the Giveaway Landing Page option. You can then click the View Page button to see a preview of your giveaway page.

Congratulations, your giveaway is live! Now let’s look at promoting your giveaway to boost traffic and entries.

Step 6. Promote Your TikTok Contest on TikTok and Beyond

The fastest way to get entries is to promote your TikTok giveaway directly where your audience already spends time, on TikTok. Use short, eye-catching videos to announce the contest, explain how to enter, and show off the prize.

For example, Essence Cosmetics shared and promoted a video on TikTok, asking users to tag a friend in the comments for a chance to win.

You can follow a similar approach by sharing your giveaway video on other platforms and including a link to your giveaway page.

Here are some more TikTok giveaway promotion tactics:

• Create an announcement video. Show the prize, explain the steps in under 15 seconds, and add a bold call-to-action to click the link in your bio.
• Post multiple reminders. Share at least 3-4 follow-up TikToks during the contest with updates, countdowns, and quick entry tutorials.
• Use trending audio. Pair your giveaway posts with trending sounds to increase reach in the TikTok algorithm.
• Add a branded hashtag. Create a unique hashtag for your contest so entries are easy to track and encourage participants to use it.
• Collaborate with TikTok creators. Partner with micro-influencers in your niche to share your contest with their followers.
• Go live on TikTok. Host a live stream to announce the giveaway, answer questions, and draw the winner in real time.
• Pin your contest video. Keep your main giveaway video at the top of your TikTok profile so new visitors see it instantly.

Live prize draws are one of the most trusted giveaway formats on TikTok. Audiences respond well to watching a winner get chosen in real time because it signals the contest is fair and legitimate. RafflePress handles all the entry tracking, so you can focus on running a great live stream without worrying about managing entries manually.

Outside of TikTok, drive traffic to your contest page by sharing the link in your email newsletter, adding a popup on your website, posting in relevant Facebook Groups, and submitting to contest directories. The more channels you use, the more entries you’ll get.

Check out this post for even more contest promotion ideas to help your TikTok giveaway go viral.

Step 7. Pick and Announce Your TikTok Contest Winner

When your TikTok contest is over, you’ll need to pick a winner and spread the good news. The easiest way is to select the winner randomly.

RafflePress makes choosing a winner super easy. When your giveaway ends, go to RafflePress » Giveaways from your WordPress dashboard and click the Needs Winners link on the right.

You’ll see all the people that took part in your contest and how many entries each user has. To choose a winner randomly, click the Pick Winner button, select your options, and click the Choose Winners Now button.

You will see the winner at the top of your list with a trophy icon. You can then click a link to email them and tell them the good news.

Step 8. Follow Up With TikTok Giveaway Entrants

After choosing your TikTok contest winner, you should follow up with your contestants, even if they didn’t win. Following up with your new leads will help you develop better connections and give you another chance to mention your contest.

For example, you can send an email broadcast to participants thanking them for taking part and inviting them to join in again next time. You can also announce the giveaway winner on social media and share a discount code to celebrate your contest’s success.

This approach will keep your brand top-of-mind, offer users more ways to engage with you, and eventually turn them into loyal fans.

Step 9. Measure TikTok Contest Results

The final step in your TikTok giveaway is to look at your results. By analyzing your results, you can learn what worked and turn your next giveaway into an even greater success.

RafflePress includes Entry Reports that make it easy to see what worked best for your contest.

You can find it by going to RafflePress » Giveaways and clicking Users under your TikTok contest. Then at the top of the screen, click the Entries Report link.

You’ll see a chart breaking down your giveaway actions by total entries. You can use this information to see which actions produced the most entries, helping you identify the best actions for future giveaways.

Another easy way to get the insights you need is with MonsterInsights, the best Google Analytics plugin for WordPress.

MonsterInsights makes tracking your giveaway landing page visits, traffic to your website, and referral traffic easy. It will also generate reports that you can view from your WordPress dashboard.

Moreover, MonsterInsights’s real-time stats allow you to monitor your website traffic during your giveaway and make adjustments on the fly.

See our MonsterInsights review for more details.

FAQs About Running a TikTok Contest or Giveaway

Can you do a giveaway on TikTok?

Yes. TikTok allows giveaways and contests as long as you follow their advertising guidelines. You need official rules, no misleading claims, and entries that don’t require copyrighted content. You also need to comply with sweepstakes and contest laws in your state or country, including a “no purchase necessary” statement.

What types of TikTok contests can you run?

The three main types are random giveaways (follow to win or comment to win), hashtag challenges where users post branded videos, and video or duet contests where participants submit creative entries. Random giveaways are the easiest to run and work well for follower growth. Hashtag challenges generate more user-generated content but need stronger creative direction.

What are the rules for TikTok giveaways?

TikTok giveaways must follow the platform’s advertising guidelines and your local contest laws. Your rules should state who can enter (age and location limits), how to enter, that no purchase is necessary, and how you will choose and notify the winner. You also cannot require entries that use copyrighted material or direct participants to a non-functioning page.

How long should a TikTok contest run?

Most TikTok giveaways run between 5 and 14 days. Shorter contests create urgency and keep momentum high. Beyond two weeks, engagement typically drops because people assume they have plenty of time to enter and forget to come back.

How do I get more entries for my TikTok giveaway?

Post multiple TikTok videos about your giveaway, use trending audio, and pin your contest post to your profile. With RafflePress, you can add multiple entry actions like Follow on TikTok, Watch a TikTok Video, and refer-a-friend to maximize participation. Outside TikTok, promote via email, popups, and contest directories to reach more people.

Creating a TikTok Contest is Easy with RafflePress

Running a TikTok contest is one of the fastest ways to grow your followers, boost engagement, and drive traffic back to your website. When you know how to do a giveaway on TikTok the right way, with clear goals, a prize your audience loves, and a simple way to enter, you can turn short videos into lasting brand growth.

With a tool like RafflePress, you can set up your TikTok giveaway in minutes, track every entry, and choose a winner fairly. This means you spend less time managing the contest and more time connecting with your audience.

If you are ready to launch your own TikTok contest, start today and see how much it can grow your brand.

You may also find the following giveaway guides helpful:

• How to Create Custom Giveaway Images for Free
• How to Write Giveaway Rules Like a Pro
• How to Use Good Giveaway Copywriting to Drive Entries
• How to Use Contest SEO to Boost Your Website’s Rankings
• How to Use Contest Marketing to Grow Your Business
• Sweepstakes Definition Vs Contest Vs Lottery
• How To Pick A Winner For A Giveaway

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