How to Run an Affiliate Contest: A Step-by-Step Guide

If you have affiliates in your program who aren’t promoting, a contest is the fastest activation tactic I know. The hard part isn’t finding the idea. It’s figuring out what actually motivates people to promote.

If you’re launching a new affiliate program, seeing low activity from your current partners, or just want to drive more traffic and sales, an affiliate contest can help. It works best when it’s set up with clear goals and the right incentives.

In this guide, I’ll walk you through how to run an affiliate contest using RafflePress. You’ll learn what it is, how to plan it, choose prizes, create your contest page, and get results. You don’t need extra tools or technical skills.

What Is an Affiliate Contest?

An affiliate contest is a type of giveaway contest designed for active affiliate partners. It works by motivating your affiliates to promote your affiliate program more, with the chance to win a prize as the incentive.

It’s a win for both sides. The harder your affiliates work to promote the contest, the more visibility you get and the more commissions they earn. For a small business or startup, that extra promotion can move the needle on brand awareness and revenue.

What Are the Steps to Run an Affiliate Contest?

Now that you know what an affiliate contest is, let’s go through the steps to successfully run an affiliate giveaway that gets results.

• 1. Determine Your Affiliate Contest Goals
• 2. Choose Which Contest Type to Run
• 3. Pick a Valuable Incentive (Prize)
• 4. Create Fair Contest Rules and Guidelines
• 5. Create Your Affiliate Contest
• 6. Promote Your Affiliate Contest
• 7. Choose a Contest Winner
• 8. Follow Up After the Affiliate Contest
• 9. Analyze Your Affiliate Contest Results
• FAQs About Affiliate Contests

1. Determine Your Affiliate Contest Goals

Before running any type of giveaway, creating a clear set of goals is important. Ask yourself why you want to run an affiliate contest.

Is it to:

• Increase your sales through your affiliate program incentive
• Engage affiliate partners more consistently
• Drive traffic to your website
• Activate inactive affiliates
• Support the launch of a new product or service

Finding the purpose of your affiliate giveaway will help you decide the best structure and strategy. It will also help you measure your results once the contest is over.

2. Choose Which Contest Type to Run

The format you choose determines who participates and what you get out of it. There are three main affiliate contest types, and each serves a different goal.

Contest Type	How It Works	Best For
Sales leaderboard	The affiliate who drives the most revenue wins	Product launches; motivating your top performers
Flat-prize threshold	Every affiliate who hits a defined sales or referral target wins a prize	Activating mid-tier or dormant affiliates
Content-creation contest	Affiliates create a blog post, video, or social campaign to enter	Brand awareness goals; building a content library

The leaderboard format is competitive and energizing for high performers, but it can demotivate affiliates who know they can’t beat the top earners. The flat-prize threshold is better when you want broader participation, because every affiliate who hits the bar wins, not just the one at the top.

Content-creation contests are a great affiliate contest idea if your goal is to generate promotional material. You could ask affiliates to participate by:

• Writing a product review on their blog
• Filming a video tutorial showing how to use your product
• Creating a social media campaign to encourage referrals

Whatever type you choose, make sure the entry requirements aren’t too complex. If it takes too much work to enter, affiliates won’t bother.

Affiliate Contest Ideas for Each Format

Not sure which format to use? Here are specific affiliate contest ideas that map to each type:

• Sales leaderboard with tiered prizes: Top affiliate gets a cash bonus, second and third place get commission increases. Works well for software products with clear tracking.
• Blog post review contest: Affiliates submit a URL to a published product review. You verify the post, award entries, and pick from qualified submissions. Good for content-heavy niches.
• Social media campaign contest: Affiliates run a campaign with a branded hashtag. Entries are tracked by hashtag, and the affiliate with the most reach or engagement wins. Good for awareness goals.
• Referral sign-up contest: Every affiliate who brings in a set number of new sign-ups within the contest window wins. Pairs well with a refer-a-friend giveaway mechanic to amplify reach.
• Video tutorial contest: Affiliates film a how-to video using your product. High effort, but the resulting content lives on YouTube and drives long-term traffic.

3. Pick a Valuable Incentive (Prize)

After picking your goal and deciding on the right type of contest, your next decision is selecting the right reward.

Not every prize or affiliate program incentive will work. Make sure you understand what motivates your affiliate partners and match the reward to the effort.

Some of the most popular giveaway prize ideas include:

• Physical goods like merchandise, gadgets, and free products. This is limited only by your budget and creativity.
• Company resources such as free subscriptions, social media takeovers, and guest posting spots on your blog.
• Financial incentives, including Amazon gift cards, a flat bonus added to the top affiliate’s account, commission increases, and PayPal payments.

If you’re unsure which prizes would be attractive enough for your affiliates, ask them. Send them a short survey and use the results to inform your prize.

You can also check out this article for even more proven contest prize ideas.

4. Create Fair Contest Rules and Guidelines

Your next task is to decide on your affiliate contest rules. This will help entrants understand their eligibility and which entry methods qualify.

Here is a general list of contest terms you should include in your giveaway:

• Who can enter the contest
• If there is a minimum age limit
• If the contest is limited to specific locations
• Contest period and end date
• How people can enter
• What the prize is
• How you’ll choose a winner
• How the winner will be notified

Your affiliate contest rules should be easy for all participants to access. You can publish them on your giveaway landing page, social media, or email promotional messages.

Fraud prevention starts at the rules level, not the plugin level. Define entry methods that are measurable and verifiable.

A blog post review should require URL submission to a live, indexed post. A referral entry should require verified tracking through your affiliate platform, not just a claim.

Vague entry criteria invite gaming, and by the time you notice, the contest is over. RafflePress handles the technical side with reCAPTCHA, email verification, and IP tracking, but your rules structure is what closes the gap at the design level.

For more information, see our guide on how to write giveaway rules like a pro.

5. Create Your Affiliate Contest

Once your goals, prize, and rules are ready, it’s time to create your affiliate contest using RafflePress.

RafflePress is a WordPress giveaway plugin that lets you run viral contests to grow your email list, social followers, and traffic, using a refer-a-friend mechanic that turns every entrant into a promoter.

You can skip the messy email threads and custom code, and use the drag-and-drop builder to launch a branded contest page with viral entry actions and a distraction-free layout.

With RafflePress’s ready-made giveaway templates and flexible contest builder, you can easily create affiliate challenges that grow your email list, boost social shares, and drive more traffic without coding. If you’re not convinced, here’s how OptinMonster generated 3,500+ new users from one giveaway.

For this tutorial, we’ll show you how to run an affiliate giveaway contest using RafflePress. Just follow the steps below.

Step 1: Install and Activate RafflePress

First, click here to get started with RafflePress and download the plugin to your computer.

Note: You can use RafflePress for free; however, we recommend using the premium version for more social actions, email integration, SEO, and other powerful features. Check out the pricing for more details.

You’ll then need to install and activate the plugin on your WordPress website. If you need help with this step, you can follow these instructions to install and activate a WordPress plugin.

After installing and activating RafflePress, hover your mouse over the RafflePress icon and click Add New to create your first giveaway.

Step 2: Choose a Giveaway Template

On the next screen, you’ll see RafflePress’s library of giveaway templates. Each template automatically fills your giveaway widget with the actions needed to achieve your contest goals.

For example, if you want to grow your email list, choose the Grow Your Email List template. Your widget would then be pre-filled with a giveaway action that asks users to enter their email address to enter your contest.

For this guide, we’ll choose the Classic Giveaway template, which gives you a blank canvas to start with.

Go ahead and give your contest a name, then hover your mouse over the Classic Giveaway template and click the Use This Template button.

Step 3: Enter Your Contest Prize Details

On the next screen, you’ll see RafflePress’s drag-and-drop giveaway builder. Your first step is to add your giveaway prize details, which will appear on your giveaway widget.

Click the pencil icon under the Giveaway Prize Details section to get started.

In this area, you can enter the name of your affiliate contest prize and write a short description. It’s also possible to upload an image of your prize.

Just click the Select Image button under the prize description box. You can then select an image from your computer or your WordPress media library.

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

If your affiliate giveaway has more than 1 prize, click the +Add Another Prize button to add more details.

You can also set the date and the time your giveaway will start and end and select your timezone under the Start and End Time section.

Before moving on, click the Save button to store your changes.

Step 4: Choose the Contest Entry Methods

The thing that makes RafflePress an excellent choice for running your affiliate contest is the fact you can give users more than 1 way to enter.

For example, users can get 1 entry for writing a blog post, a 2nd entry for joining your email list, and a 3rd entry for sharing the giveaway on social media.

Most people take all the actions they can because it boosts their chances of winning.

To add entry methods to your giveaway widget, click the Actions tab. All the different entry methods are grouped by goal, such as:

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

Click any action you like to add it to your giveaway widget.

For instance, if you want affiliates to write a blog post about your products to enter, click the Write a Blog Post action.

You can then enter more details about that action by clicking it in your giveaway widget.

The details include the action title, value (how many entries it’s worth), if the action is mandatory, and if users can repeat it daily.

You can then describe what users should write about. For instance, “Write a 500-word post reviewing RafflePress”.

There’s also a box where you can tell users what information you need to confirm the entry. In this case, it could be, “Post the link to your published article.”

Repeat this for any extra entry methods you’d like to add. If you add multiple entry methods, make sure the most important actions are worth the most entries.

Click Save to preserve your settings.

You can also add the Viral Refer a Friend action to encourage more people to sign up to your affiliate program and enter the contest.

Step 5: Customize Your Contest Design

Next, click the Design tab. This is where you can customize the look and feel of your affiliate giveaway. You can choose from 2 different layout options, several fonts, and pick custom button colors.

If you plan to create a standalone page for your affiliate contest, you can also choose a color for your page’s background or upload a custom background image.

When your contest looks the way you want, click the Save button.

To give your affiliate promotion a competitive edge, you could create a leaderboard showing affiliates who have referred the most people or earned the most entries. You can then offer distinct rewards for the most and best referrals.

Step 6: Configure Your Affiliate Contest Settings

Now, click the Settings tab to configure your affiliate giveaway settings.

In this area, you can configure your:

• General giveaway settings
• Giveaway rules
• Email verification
• Success tracking
• Success redirect
• Social logins
• GDPR
• Recaptcha

One of the most important settings on this page is the Giveaway Rules. In this area, you can add your rules and guidelines for people entering your contest.

RafflePress makes it easy to set up and display your affiliate contest rules with the Rules Generator.

Just click the +Generate Rules button to show a window where you can type the sponsor name, email, address, eligible locations, the minimum age to enter, and more.

Then click the Generate Rules button to add them to your giveaway widget.

You can check out our documentation for details on all the RafflePress settings.

Click the Save button before moving on.

Step 7: Publish Your Affiliate Contest

Now that you know how to create your affiliate giveaway, it’s time to make it live on your WordPress website.

Click Publish at the top of your screen to see the different publishing options.

There are 3 publishing options for your affiliate contest, including:

• RafflePress WordPress Block: Embed the giveaway widget in your WordPress post or page (new WordPress block editor).
• WordPress Shortcode: Embed the giveaway in the classic WordPress editor, sidebar widgets, or inside your WordPress theme.
• Giveaway Landing Page: Create a distraction-free landing page on your website for your giveaway.

For your affiliate contest, we’d suggest publishing it on a giveaway landing page. A custom giveaway landing page removes distractions and keeps affiliates focused on entering and sharing your contest. With RafflePress, you can create one in minutes without building a separate page or touching your theme.

A giveaway landing page also makes it easy to share your contest via email, social media, and so on. Just paste the page link into your message, and users can click the link to visit and enter, driving more traffic to your website.

Go ahead and choose the Giveaway Landing Page option.

Towards the bottom of the screen, RafflePress will ask you to “click here” to set up your landing page permalink, which is the URL.

Clicking the link takes you to the General settings page. Under the Page Permalink heading, enter your preferred URL for your giveaway page, and click Save.

Next, click the View button to see your affiliate giveaway.

You’ve successfully created an affiliate giveaway contest.

6. Promote Your Affiliate Contest

Start promoting your giveaway weeks before it goes live to give your affiliates time to create their content. There are several ways to do it well.

One of the easiest ways is to promote it on your social media profiles, such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.

You can also promote your giveaway by:

• Sending an email to your current affiliates
• Creating automated messages through your affiliate platform
• Personally reaching out to affiliates with tailored messages

You can check out this article for even more contest promotion ideas.

Starting early means you’ll secure tons of entries from day 1 when your contest goes live.

7. Choose a Contest Winner

When your contest is over, you’ll need to choose a winner. The fairest way is to pick one at random, and RafflePress makes this straightforward with its built-in winner picker tool. You can read more about how to pick a giveaway winner fairly if you want to cover all your bases before the contest ends.

Head to RafflePress » Giveaways and click the Needs Winners link on the right.

On the following screen, you can see who entered your contest, how they entered, and how many entries they each have. To choose a winner randomly, click the Pick Winner button, select your options, and then click Choose Winners Now.

The winner will then be highlighted at the top of the list. You can now click to email them the good news.

8. Follow Up After the Affiliate Contest

After you’ve contacted the winner of your affiliate giveaway, it’s important to get in touch with those who didn’t win.

Even though they didn’t win your giveaway, following up allows you to develop stronger relationships with your affiliates. I’ve found that affiliates who get a personal follow-up after a contest are far more likely to stay active in the program between contests.

You can follow up with participants by:

• Sending an email broadcast thanking everyone for taking part and inviting them to join your next contest
• Announcing the winner via your affiliate marketing platform
• Highlighting the winner in a blog post and on your social media channels

Recognizing your affiliates’ hard work helps them see the value of entering your contest and promoting your brand.

9. Analyze Your Affiliate Contest Results

Once your contest ends, your first stop is the RafflePress dashboard. You can see total entries, how affiliates entered, which entry actions performed best, and who your top referrers were.

This data tells you which promotion tactic drove the most participation and which entry methods your affiliates actually used.

For a broader view of how the contest affected your site, check Google Analytics to see traffic changes to your giveaway landing page and any lift in overall referral traffic during the contest window.

The RafflePress data shows you what happened inside the contest; Google Analytics shows you what happened to your site around it.

FAQs About Affiliate Contests

How do you prevent fraud in an affiliate contest?

Define entry methods that require verifiable proof. For blog post reviews, require a URL to a live, indexed post. For referral entries, use your affiliate platform’s verified tracking data rather than self-reported numbers.

On the technical side, RafflePress includes reCAPTCHA, email verification, and IP tracking to block bot entries and duplicate submissions. Using both clear rules and technical safeguards together is what actually prevents gaming.

What types of affiliate contests get the best results?

It depends on your goal. Sales leaderboard contests work well for product launches and activating your top performers. Flat-prize threshold contests get broader participation because every affiliate who hits the bar wins, not just the top earner.

Content-creation contests produce the most long-term value because the blog posts and videos affiliates create keep driving traffic after the contest ends. Many programs run a combination: a leaderboard for top performers and a threshold prize to pull in the mid-tier group.

How do you choose winners fairly in an affiliate contest?

For random-draw contests, use a tool with a documented random selection process so no one can question the result. RafflePress has a built-in winner picker that selects randomly from all verified entries, and you can document the draw by screenshot.

For leaderboard or threshold contests, define the winning criteria before the contest starts and share them publicly with all affiliates. Changing the criteria after the fact, even with good reasons, damages trust faster than almost anything else.

How do you motivate affiliates to join a contest?

Offer clear, valuable prizes and make the rules easy to follow. Bonus commissions, gift cards, and public recognition consistently outperform generic merchandise prizes because affiliates are already motivated by money and visibility.

Promote the contest early so affiliates have time to prepare content or plan their campaigns. Personal outreach to your most active affiliates before the public announcement also helps, since they drive a disproportionate share of entries and can generate buzz within their own networks.

What’s the best prize for an affiliate contest?

The best prizes match the effort required. For a high-effort contest like a blog post review or video tutorial, consider cash bonuses, commission increases, or access to exclusive tools or resources.

If you’re not sure what your affiliates want, ask them before you design the contest. A short survey of your top 10 affiliates takes 10 minutes and often surfaces a prize idea you wouldn’t have thought of. The prize that motivates your top performers is usually different from the one that activates your mid-tier group.

You’ve now seen how to run an affiliate contest from start to finish. The affiliates who went quiet are exactly who this is built for.

Ready to grow your sales with your own affiliate contest? Get started with RafflePress today.

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