New Update: Boost Social Proof with Reviews & Automation
New Update: Boost Social Proof with Reviews & Automation
Small businesses always need more customers, and social media is often suggested as a go-to solution. Facebook giveaways, for instance, seem like a way to get noticed. So, naturally, I tried one thinking it would be easy to get likes and shares.
Diving in, I planned a giveaway, picked a prize, and wrote a post. Then I put it on Facebook hoping for more followers and more business as a result.
But it didn’t work as well as I thought it would. I got a few new people, but it wasn’t a big change at all. This experience showed me giveaways might be harder than they initially look.
So, if you’re thinking about Facebook giveaways for your business, this guide is for you. I’ll show you how to run a Facebook giveaway that really works.
Facebook giveaways are a powerful way to grow your business. They’re great for creating buzz around new products, getting your name out there, and collecting leads. Plus, they can send traffic to your website and help you build a loyal following.
Facebook’s huge user base makes these benefits even better. With almost 3 billion people using Facebook every month around the world (Source: Meta) and about 7 out of 10 American adults on the platform (Source: Pew Research Center), your giveaway has the potential to reach a massive audience.
Now, let’s dive into the steps for creating an effective Facebook competition.
Consider what you want to achieve with your giveaway. Some options include increasing brand awareness, generating leads, driving website traffic, or to boost engagement and page likes. A clear goal will guide your strategy and help you measure success.
Some potential giveaway goals could be:
Once you’ve decided on your giveaway goal, the next step is to determine what prize you’ll give to your winner.
Select a prize that aligns with your giveaway goal. For example, if you’re highlighting a new product, you could give one away to your audience, as Soak & Sleep did with the example below.
Alternatively, you could offer the lucky contest winner a bundle of goodies based on the time of year or your giveaway theme (more on that coming up).
You should also tailor your prize to your target audience to make your giveaway exciting. Otherwise, users won’t find it enticing enough to enter.
Here’s how to tailor a prize to really excite your target audience:
For even more prize ideas, check out this article.
Expert Tip
“At WPBeginner, we often give away free licenses of WordPress plugins and themes to our winners. One of our partner companies, WPForms, runs monthly giveaways of cool gadgets such as MacBooks.
Because our 14th birthday was a big celebration, we offered a big prize: premium plugins worth $50,000. On top of that, we offered a 1-1 mentorship call with WPBeginner founder, Syed Balkhi.”
WPBeginner – Tips to Run a Successful Giveaway Like WPBeginner
A theme can make your giveaway more engaging. Consider tying it to a season (like Christmas or summer) or an interest related to your brand. For example, a photography contest could offer a new camera as a prize.
Paper Christmas offers a stationery bundle for the best festive line drawing entry in this Facebook giveaway example. Isn’t that creative?
Here are some other giveaway themes you can try:
Have fun coming up with your theme. The more fun you have, the more fun your audience will have entering.
Learn how to run a Facebook photo contest here. You can also check out these inspiring Facebook giveaway ideas.
Decide how people will enter and choose methods that support your goal. For example, to grow your Facebook page, ask people to like your page and tag a friend. To increase newsletter signups, require email entry.
Keep the entry process simple and choose methods that match what you want to accomplish, such as:
It’s just as important to keep the entry process easy. If it’s too difficult to enter, you could deter people from taking part.
Clear rules keep things fair, protects you legally, and ensures you’re playing by Facebook’s guidelines.
In this giveaway post, participants can see exactly what’s expected of them:
Here’s how to make your Facebook contest rules easy to understand and follow:
I’ve found that the easiest way to run a Facebook giveaway is with a giveaway tool. They make it easier to set everything up, manage entries, and even draw winners when the contest is over.
Some popular options include Gleam, Rafflecopter, and Wishpond. But, personally, I like setting things up on my WordPress website. This allows me to send valuable giveaway traffic to it while also growing my Facebook page.
For that reason, I use RafflePress, a popular WordPress giveaway plugin.
It makes running any type of giveaway easy and there’s no need to wrestle with code. Just choose a Facebook giveaway template, enter your prize details and requirements, and you’re up and running.
More importantly, RafflePress has 1-click giveaway actions for Facebook built right in. You can require users to:
I think connecting your giveaway to your WordPress site is the best way to do a giveaway on Facebook, and RafflePress simplifies the process.
To see how I do it, take a look at the video below:
Alternatively, you can follow my written steps for using RafflePress to run an online contest.
There are a few ways you can publish your giveaway:
I think the smart move is to publish your giveaway on a Landing Page. This way, you can easily link to it in your initial Facebook post, and all that traffic will go to your website and your Facebook page.
Here’s how to do it.
From your RafflePress giveaway editor, click Publish. You’ll then see a new page with 3 options. Click the Giveaway Landing Page option. Then click the click here link to set up the permalink for the landing page.
Now, enter your chosen URL parameters and click Save.
Pasting the URL you just created into your browser will show you the landing page of your giveaway. You can share this link with people so they can enter your contest.
Now all you need to do is create an eye-catching Facebook post with the URL for your giveaway landing page.
Here’s a great example from SeedProd, who used the landing page option for their Black Friday contest on Facebook. You can see SeedProd’s giveaway results in this case study.
A good description, an excellent image, and a link to your landing page are all you need.
Here’s how to grab attention with your giveaway post:
You can’t just sit around and wait for people to enter your contest. Instead, start promoting your contest aggressively to help spread the word.
A good contest marketing strategy will help your giveaway to go viral, so you can grow your audience and generate as many leads as possible.
Here are several effective ways to advertise your giveaway on Facebook:
How to Promote | What to Do |
---|---|
Social Media | Share it everywhere! Link back to Facebook. |
Tell your subscribers. | |
Influencers | Team up with influencers to spread the word. |
Facebook Posts | Post regular reminders with eye-catching pictures and videos. |
Facebook Ads | Use ads to reach more people. |
Live Stream | Talk about your giveaway live! |
Facebook Groups | Share in relevant groups (if allowed). |
Website | Add a link on your website. |
Newsletter | Include it in your newsletter. |
Popup | Use a popup on your website. |
Contest Sites | List it on contest websites. |
Bloggers | Ask bloggers to talk about it. |
Start promoting your contest weeks before it goes live to get tons of traffic and entries on day 1.
After all the work that went into creating, publishing, and promoting your contest, the time will eventually come to announce the winner. So how do you pick a giveaway winner on Facebook?
RafflePress has a super-easy way to do this with the automatic random winner generator. You can learn all about drawing winners in RafflePress here.
Using this option takes the pain out of selecting a winner yourself manually. Even better, there’s a link you can click to email the winner right away.
After announcing your winner, make sure you follow up to keep participants engaged and nurture them into loyal customers.
For example, you can create a celebratory announcement thanking everyone for participating. Share photos or videos of the winner receiving the prize (with permission, of course).
Here’s an example from MCTV who shared winner photos on X. We love how they included their branded hashtags to improve their reach.
Similarly, you could reward everyone who entered with a special discount code, a free trial, or early access to a new product. This incentivizes them to explore your offerings further and potentially turn them into paying customers.
Running a successful Facebook giveaway is just the first step. To maximize the impact and get valuable insights for future campaigns, you’ll need to analyze your results.
Here are some powerful tools to help you dissect your giveaway’s performance:
1. Dig Deeper with Google Analytics:
If you’ve integrated your Facebook page with Google Analytics, you can delve into website traffic generated by your giveaway.
Look for metrics like:
To make this even easier in WordPress, you can use a Google Analytics plugin like MonsterInsights. It pulls your analytics data and displays it inside your WordPress dashboard in easy-to-understand reports.
2. Use RafflePress’s Entries Report:
RafflePress offers an Entries Report that provides insights into participant behavior. You can see which entry actions resonated most with your users so you know what to use in future giveaways.
3. Social Media Analytics for Reach and Engagement:
Both Facebook and other social media platforms offer built-in analytics tools.
Use them to track key metrics like:
And there you have it!
You’ve successfully learned how to run a Facebook contest to increase likes and engagement with hardly any effort. Now, you can enjoy engaging with all the new people who are now part of your audience.
You may also find the following guides helpful:
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This was very helpful.