How to Promote Your Instagram Giveaway (15 Proven Ways to Get More Entries)

Promoting your Instagram giveaway well is what separates a contest that gets 10 entries from one that gets 10,000.

Most people post once and hope for the best. In this guide, I’ll show you 15 ways to promote your giveaway across every channel you own, so you get more entries and reach people who actually want to win.

Jump to my top Instagram giveaway promotion tips:

• 1. Tease Your Instagram Giveaway Before Launching
• 2. Encourage Social Media Sharing
• 3. Optimize Your Giveaway Landing Page
• 4. Announce Your Instagram Giveaway
• 5. Add the Giveaway Link to Your Instagram Bio
• 6. Redirect Website Visitors to Your Giveaway Landing Page
• 7. Promote Your Giveaway in Exit Popups
• 8. Send Emails to Your Subscribers
• 9. Promote Your Giveaway in Instagram Stories
• 10. Promote Your Instagram Giveaway on Other Social Networks
• 11. Add Your Giveaway to Contest Directory Websites
• 12. Create and Share a Promotional Video
• 13. Reach Out to Bloggers and Influencers
• 14. Promote Your Contest with Instagram Ads
• 15. Try Offline Marketing Tactics

How to Create an Instagram Giveaway on WordPress

If your business has a WordPress website, the easiest way to host your Instagram giveaway is with RafflePress. It’s a WordPress giveaway plugin with a drag-and-drop builder, ready-made templates, built-in viral sharing actions, and a random winner picker, all from your WordPress dashboard.

Check out this guide to learn how to run an Instagram giveaway in WordPress with RafflePress.

How to Promote Your Instagram Giveaway (15 Proven Tactics)

Once you’ve created your Instagram giveaway, the next step is to promote it to secure as many entries as possible. Before you start, define your goal: growing followers, building your email list, or collecting UGC each calls for a different mix of tactics. Knowing your goal tells you which steps to prioritize.

Follow these steps to promote your Instagram giveaway for the best results.

1. Tease Your Instagram Giveaway Before Launching

Before launching your Instagram contest, give your audience time to prepare by telling them a giveaway is coming soon. That way, they’ll remember to check in when your contest launches to enter.

An easy way to do this is to post “teaser” content on Instagram, releasing information about your giveaway bit by bit in the lead-up to its launch. A short pre-launch window matters because strong engagement in the first few hours signals momentum to social algorithms, and going viral on Instagram starts with a strong opening day.

Here’s an example from Shanti Soy teasing their upcoming giveaway for reaching 1,000 followers. They ask their followers to spread the word so there’s maximum excitement for launch day.

2. Encourage Social Media Sharing

When you’re building an Instagram giveaway with RafflePress, you can require users to share the contest to earn more entries.

For every person that enters to win, you can increase your leads if they share the contest with their friends. This is one of the easiest ways to drive viral growth and build brand awareness.

When choosing how people can enter your Instagram giveaway, keep your main goal in mind. For instance, if your goal is to collect more UGC, you should ask users to upload a selfie or other types of photos by giving that action more value in RafflePress.

You can even make it mandatory to submit an image to enter your contest. That way, you can boost your chance to go viral while still gathering UGC.

3. Optimize Your Giveaway Landing Page

After building your Instagram giveaway, make a giveaway landing page on your website. Your landing page is the link you’ll share when promoting your contest on other platforms.

Creating an Instagram giveaway landing page is easy with RafflePress. When you make your contest in RafflePress, you can choose a custom URL for your landing page, and RafflePress generates the page for you.

You can customize the page’s background color and background image to make it more attractive and user-friendly.

After, it’s a case of sharing the page link on Instagram to promote your giveaway and encourage people to enter. Check out these giveaway landing page examples for more inspiration.

4. Announce Your Instagram Giveaway

When the time to launch your giveaway comes, announce it on your Instagram profile. Even if people saw your teaser post, they may forget to check back and enter.

All you need to do is create a giveaway post on Instagram and include the following details:

• An eye-catching image or video to grab people’s attention
• What the giveaway is, and why you’re running one
• Instructions for entering the contest
• Any rules and guidelines
• When the giveaway ends

Here’s an example from Built By El that ticks all the right boxes.

Don’t forget to include several giveaway hashtags to reach even more people.

5. Add the Giveaway Link to Your Instagram Bio

Another important step is to add your landing page link to your Instagram bio. Since Instagram doesn’t support clickable links within posts, adding the link to your bio tells people where to go to enter your giveaway.

When creating your giveaway announcement post in the previous step, include the words “Click the link in my bio to enter.”

This directs people to your Instagram profile, where they can click your bio link and visit your giveaway landing page.

6. Redirect Website Visitors to Your Giveaway Landing Page

Even though you’re running an Instagram giveaway, everyone who visits your website is still a potential entrant. So, let them know about your giveaway so they can enter.

The easiest way to promote your Instagram giveaway on your website is by using OptinMonster to create floating bars across the top of your site. That way, you can grab your visitors’ attention and entice them to enter your contest.

A floating bar stays in place and doesn’t distract your visitors from reading. You can add a countdown timer ticking down until your contest ends to create urgency.

You can also schedule your OptinMonster campaigns to automatically stop showing when the giveaway ends, saving you time.

7. Promote Your Giveaway in Exit Popups

What if a website visitor is about to leave your page before entering your Instagram giveaway? You can use OptinMonster to create an exit-intent popup to capture people’s attention before they leave.

KnivesShipFree.com used this tactic and convinced over 8% of their visitors to enter their contest with a simple exit-popup campaign. That’s a significant lift from traffic you’d otherwise lose entirely.

8. Send Emails to Your Subscribers

Chances are you have fans who don’t follow you on Instagram but are subscribed to your email list. These are your biggest fans, making them more likely to sign up for your giveaway and share it with their friends.

With a good email marketing service, you can create eye-catching emails to promote your Instagram giveaway, like the example below.

You should send at least 2 promotional giveaway emails:

1. Send the first email right when your Instagram giveaway opens.
2. Send another email a day before the contest closes, giving subscribers an extra chance to win.

Make sure you include a strong call to action linking to your giveaway landing page.

9. Promote Your Giveaway in Instagram Stories

Another easy way to promote your Instagram giveaway is to post about it in your Instagram Stories. They have unique features, like animations, music, and live streaming, that make them stand out from a standard feed post.

Stories are a great way to build hype and interest throughout the giveaway’s duration. For example, you can:

• Share highlights of creative giveaway entries
• Add a question box so people can tell you what they’d most like to win
• Announce your giveaway hashtag so people know which hashtag to use to keep up with the contest
• @ mention your contest winners once the giveaway is over

You can also reshare Stories from people who have tagged you. If your contest lets people earn extra entries with a Story post, resharing them promotes your giveaway and shows examples of real entries.

Don’t stop at Stories. Instagram Reels reach people who don’t follow you at all.

Reels get more algorithmic distribution than feed posts or Stories, making them the strongest current organic reach driver on Instagram. I recommend posting at least one Reel when you launch and another on the final day of your contest.

To widen the reach of your Instagram promotions even further, try adding an Instagram Feed to your website. You can embed an Instagram feed anywhere on your WordPress site using Smash Balloon.

With Instagram Feed Pro, you can display hashtag feeds, Instagram Stories, IGTV videos, and more so website visitors can see your Instagram giveaway content too.

10. Promote Your Instagram Giveaway on Other Social Networks

While Instagram is typically the most effective platform for contest marketing, don’t overlook your other social media accounts.

You can promote your Instagram giveaway to people on Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), Pinterest, and even LinkedIn.

Here’s an example of how StFX Campus Food promoted their Instagram contest to win a custom beverage on their social profiles.

11. Add Your Giveaway to Contest Directory Websites

One of the most straightforward ways to promote your Instagram contest is to submit it to sweepstakes and contest directory websites. These sites link directly to your giveaway landing page, and they have a large audience checking daily for new giveaways to enter.

From what I’ve seen, this is one of the most underused tactics for driving extra entries without any additional ad spend.

Here are five directories worth submitting to:

• Sweepstakes Advantage – One of the largest sweepstakes communities online, with dedicated sections for social media contests.
• Contestgirl – A well-organized directory that categorizes giveaways by prize type and platform.
• Online-Sweepstakes.com – A long-running community site with active forums and daily giveaway listings.
• iSweepstakes – Covers Instagram-specific contests and links directly to your giveaway landing page.
• True Sweepstakes – Focuses on verified giveaways and attracts an audience looking specifically for real prizes.

Adding your contest to these directories gives your giveaway exposure to new audiences. It’s also a great way to find contest ideas for future campaigns.

12. Create and Share a Promotional Video

Video is one of the most effective Instagram contest promotion tools available. According to Sprout Social, citing Meta, Instagram Reels are reshared more than 4.5 billion times per day, which tells you just how much reach video gets compared to static posts.

You don’t need any fancy tech to make successful videos. With just your smartphone, you can quickly create a contest promotion video to share on Instagram Reels, YouTube, and other channels.

When making your video, try to include:

• Your contest prize details
• Information on how to enter your giveaway
• A call to action (like telling people to click the link in the description or bio to enter)

Make sure your video has good lighting, is filmed in front of an attractive background, and your appearance is presentable.

13. Reach Out to Bloggers and Influencers

Partnering with influencers is another way to promote your Instagram giveaway. Start by finding bloggers and social media influencers with an audience interested in your brand’s industry and prize.

For example, if you’re a fashion brand giving away the latest seasonal trends, look for fashion bloggers and influencers.

Once you’ve found the influencers you’d like to contact, send them a personalized email and explain how promoting your contest will benefit them and their readers. For this tactic to work, it needs to benefit you, the influencer, and their audience.

If you’re new to the world of influencers, check out this influencer marketing guide for beginners.

14. Promote Your Contest with Instagram Ads

To reach an even larger audience, consider creating Facebook or Instagram ads. Paid promotion lets you target the exact type of audience most interested in your giveaway, which makes every dollar go further.

Facebook ads allow you to promote your Instagram giveaway to more people online. You can set the criteria by gender, age, location, interests, and more.

If ads feel too complicated, you can boost your contest’s Facebook post. Boosting shows it to more users and can cost as little as $5.

15. Try Offline Marketing Tactics

Even though this article has focused on promoting your giveaway online, offline tactics can still drive entries. Create flyers to hand out at local events, or add promotional cards with your contest details to customer orders.

What to Do After Your Instagram Giveaway Ends

Most guides stop at “promote your giveaway.” But what happens after the contest closes matters just as much for your long-term results.

Here’s what to do once your Instagram giveaway ends:

1. Announce the winner publicly. Post the winner’s name on Instagram and tag them so followers know the contest was legitimate. RafflePress makes this easy with its built-in winner picker. Once you’ve selected a winner, you can click to email them directly from your WordPress dashboard.
2. Thank all participants. A follow-up Story or post thanking everyone who entered keeps your audience warm and sets the stage for your next campaign.
3. Review your entry source data in RafflePress. RafflePress tracks where every entry came from, so you can see which promotion channels drove the most participants. I always check this before planning the next giveaway.
4. Check follower retention over 7 days. Some follower drop-off after a giveaway is normal. If you lose more than 10-15% within a week, your prize may have attracted people who weren’t genuinely interested in your brand, and that’s worth adjusting next time.
5. Note what to improve. Write down what worked and what didn’t while it’s fresh. Better timing, a different prize, or a stronger influencer partnership can make a big difference on the next run.

Don’t announce the winner only on your website. Share it on Instagram and all your social media accounts so everyone who entered sees the result.

FAQs About Promoting Instagram Giveaways

How do I make my Instagram giveaway go viral?

Require sharing for bonus entries so every participant recruits more participants. Partner with a micro-influencer in your niche to tap their existing audience.

Use a prize that’s genuinely relevant to your brand, not a generic gift card, so the people who enter are people who actually want to follow you long-term. RafflePress makes it easy to set up viral sharing actions as part of your contest entry flow.

How do I track where my giveaway entries come from?

Use UTM tracking links for every promotion channel (Instagram Stories, emails, popups, etc.). Most giveaway tools like RafflePress track entry sources automatically inside your dashboard.

What should I do after my Instagram giveaway ends?

Announce the winner publicly on Instagram and tag them, then send them an email via RafflePress. Thank all participants with a follow-up Story to keep your audience engaged.

Review your entry source data in your RafflePress dashboard to see which promotion channels drove the most entries, and check your follower count over the following week to gauge retention. See the full post-giveaway checklist in the section above.

Do I need to follow Instagram’s rules for giveaways?

Yes. Always include clear terms and conditions in your caption or on your landing page. Instagram requires you to state that your contest isn’t sponsored or endorsed by them.

Ready to run your first Instagram giveaway? RafflePress makes it easy to build your contest, track entries by source, and pick a winner, all from your WordPress dashboard.

See RafflePress plans and pricing to get started.

And while you’re here, check out these Instagram giveaway examples to inspire your next campaign.

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