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New Update: Boost Social Proof with Reviews & Automation
Stacey Corrin
Stacey Corrin
John Turner
John Turner
Want to run a successful Instagram giveaway?
Giveaways are a great way to get your brand noticed, increase engagement, and gain followers. Use the right hashtags, and you can also reach your target audience and get leads for your business.
I’ve spent over ten years in marketing, helping many businesses grow through contests. Instagram giveaways are one of the best ways to do this.
In this post, I’ll explain how to run a giveaway on Instagram in 10 easy steps—the right way.
How to Do a Giveaway on Instagram:
Instagram giveaways work by offering a prize to people who complete entry steps like following the account, liking a post, tagging friends, or sharing the post. When the giveaway ends, you can choose a winner either randomly or based on the rules you set.
Now, here’s a tip from my own experience: Most high-quality giveaways also ask contestants to perform actions on other social media platforms. This cross-promotion strategy is key for expanding your reach and driving traffic back to the initial Instagram post.
According to Sprout Social, Instagram’s average engagement rate is 1.22%, but a successful contest can push that number much higher.
Many brands use giveaways as part of their larger digital marketing campaigns for the following reasons:
Giveaways and contests are engaging marketing strategies, and they’re the best way to build relationships with your target audience.
By offering something for free, users will find your campaign exciting and feel more valued. That value encourages them to become potential customers and improves your Instagram marketing efforts.
A recent study found that hosting giveaways can help you grow your followers 70% faster in 3 months than not running one at all.
Moreover, giveaways are super engaging. Businesses have seen up to a 60% increase in engagement and a 20% increase in the follower count during contests.
The engagement your brand gets can help the Instagram algorithm learn that your post is valuable. As a result, it may display your post in more people’s Instagram feeds.
Now that you know what an Instagram giveaway is, let’s examine the steps for running one in WordPress.
Every successful Instagram giveaway starts with a clear goal. Trust me, I’ve seen it time and time again. Without a defined objective, it’s impossible to create a focused strategy or measure your success.
So, before you do anything else, take some time to think about what you want to achieve with your giveaway.
Do you want to:
You might have one primary goal or several that work together. The key is to make sure your goals are measurable. That way, you’ll be able to track your progress and see how well your giveaway performed.
Don’t worry too much about the how of measuring just yet. The entry criteria you set will play a big role, and I’ll dive into that in the next step!
A giveaway’s entry criteria are the actions you want people to take in return for entries. Entry methods can vary and depend on your overall marketing goals.
Here are some popular criteria for entering a giveaway with examples of the goals you might want to achieve:
| Goal | Action |
|---|---|
| Increase brand awareness | Share the contest post |
| Build your email list | Sign up for your newsletter |
| Grow your followers | Follow social media profiles |
| More blog engagement | Leave a comment |
| Get user-generated content (UGC) | Submit a photo |
This Instagram giveaway example from Carmex is an excellent example of clearly stating how people can enter. Their criteria are in caps to help it stand out from the rest of the content.
When thinking about your goals, also consider the type of giveaway you’ll run. Instead of a simple ‘tag a friend’ contest, you can make things more exciting with a theme.
Here are some different types of Instagram giveaways to consider:
Choosing what to give away on Instagram is an essential step in setting up your promotion. What you choose largely depends on your goal.
Do you want to raise awareness about your product? In that case, giving away a copy of it to a lucky winner would be a good prize.
Is it to celebrate the season? Then, a seasonally-themed prize or a gift card is a good choice.
Bomb Cosmetics did a great job with this seasonally festive giveaway post. Even the clever use of emojis helps to convey the time of year.
Alternatively, you could offer the chance to win an experience or meet a leader in your industry to win your prize draw.
Whatever it is, make sure your prize aligns with what you want to achieve for your business. People love free stuff, but if your prize isn’t relevant, you’ll end up with leads that don’t engage with your brand.
Check out these proven prize ideas I’ve curated to learn what else you can give away on Instagram.
Hashtags are an effective way to find things on your Instagram feed. Using a popular hashtag might result in your giveaway showing up in the Explore channel. This can further increase your contest’s visibility, making it easier for more Instagram users to find it.
Consider using some of these widely used hashtags yourself:
You could also consider creating your own branded hashtag to associate the contest with your business.
Coca-Cola’s #shareacoke branded hashtag campaign proved to be wildly popular. They even ran it as a Facebook Ad with fantastic results.
With your hashtags in place, it’s worth setting up some contest rules. Let’s look at that next.
Before you host Instagram contests, you must have clear rules. Without any rules or terms, your contest can get messy, with users unclear about what you expect of them and their eligibility.
More importantly, Instagram has its own set of rules for promotional activity.
Instagram’s promotion guidelines require a disclaimer releasing Instagram from any responsibility. Over the years, I’ve seen businesses run into trouble by overlooking these guidelines, so we’re going to make sure you have all the bases covered.
You should include a disclaimer on your giveaway saying something like this:
“As per Instagram’s rules, this promotion is not sponsored, administered, or associated with Instagram in any way. By entering, you confirm that you are at least 13+ years of age, agree to Instagram’s terms of use, and release Instagram of any responsibility”.
As you can see from this Instagram giveaway post, they’ve followed Instagram’s promotional guidelines by clearly marking their rules and stating they have no affiliation with Instagram.
You should also avoid asking entrants to tag themselves in your content or something that isn’t in the photo. If you do, Instagram might penalize you for it.
Additionally, to avoid unnecessary confusion, tell people how long they have to enter your giveaway by stating your time limit in your rules.
For a complete list of Instagram’s rules and regulations, take a look at their promotional guidelines here.
There are several ways to set up your giveaway. You could run it right directly on Instagram, use a web-based giveaway tool, or host the giveaway on your website.
Running your giveaway directly on Instagram can make it harder to monitor and manage. It also can’t protect you from fraudulent entries and spam.
Web-based giveaway tools can help with spam protection and entry management. However, it relies on using their platform, which can have limitations. For example, you’ll have less control over your giveaway domain name, design, and content.
With this in mind, we suggest hosting your giveaway on your business website. That way, you’ll have complete control and ownership of your content. It also helps drive valuable traffic to your site.
If your website is on WordPress, we recommend using RafflePress to set up and manage your giveaway.
RafflePress makes it easy to create any giveaway type on your WordPress website. Plus, it has various giveaway templates to make the setup process a breeze.
Here’s a step-by-step guide to help you get started:
Click here to get started with RafflePress and download the WordPress plugin to your computer. If you need help, here’s a step-by-step guide for installing a WordPress plugin.
Once you’ve installed the RafflePress plugin, navigate to your WordPress dashboard, click the RafflePress icon, and select Add New.
On the next screen, give your giveaway a name and choose a giveaway template. RafflePress offers a range of templates designed to meet specific business goals, such as Growing Your Facebook Page or Email List.
For this guide, let’s choose the Grow Your Instagram Following template. So hover your mouse over the giveaway template and click Use This Template.
After choosing a template, you’ll go to the RafflePress contest builder, where you can set up your giveaway. The first thing you should do here is to enter your prize details.
So go ahead and click on the pencil icon under the Giveaway Prize Details section.
In this area, you can enter your prize name and add a description so that participants can learn about the prize.
You can also include an image of your prize by clicking the Select Image button under the description box.
When you’re happy with the prize details, click Done Editing.
It’s also possible to set the giveaway duration under the Start and End Time heading on the left.
Click the Save button now and then to store your settings.
RafflePress makes it easy to add ways for users to enter your Instagram contest. Plus, by using the Instagram template, you already have several entry actions added automatically, such as:
These actions fully comply with Instagram rules for giveaways, as they don’t require anyone to like or share. It’s completely optional.
That said, the chances are anyone using those actions will like your profile out of instinct, making it a win-win situation.
Moreover, the View Instagram Post/Video action lets you embed your post right inside the giveaway widget. That means users won’t need to leave your website to claim their entry, but it will still count as Instagram engagement.
Here’s an example I put together of how this looks to end users:
Depending on your contest goals, you might want to add bonus entries to your contest, such as visiting your Facebook page, referring a friend, etc.
Click the Actions tab and click any action to add it to the giveaway builder.
You can then click each action in the widget to access the entry options. These include changing the action label, choosing a value (how many entries the action is worth), making the action mandatory, etc.
Repeat this process for each entry action and click Save to store your settings.
Next, click the Design tab to customize the look of your giveaway. You can choose from 2 different layouts and several font and button colors.
If you’re creating a standalone giveaway landing page, you can select a page background color or upload your background photo.
When your contest looks how you want, click the Save button.
Upon clicking the Settings tab, you’ll see several options you can configure. It includes your giveaways’ general settings, rules, success tracking, social logins, and more.
One of the most important settings you’ll need is the Giveaway Rules.
RafflePress makes creating rules for your giveaway easy. While it doesn’t offer a specific Instagram giveaway rules template, it does have a rules generator to get a head start on creating your rules quickly.
Clicking this button will allow you to type in the sponsor name, email, address, eligible locations, the minimum age to enter, and more.
See how quickly we generated rules on our test website:
Once you’ve finished editing your settings, click the Save button.
Now it’s time to make your giveaway live. RafflePress offers 3 easy ways to publish your contest in WordPress, including:
Publishing your contest on a dedicated Giveaway Landing Page is the easiest option. Since it has nothing to distract page visitors from entering, you’ll generate many entries and leads.
Creating a landing page for your giveaway is also an excellent way to help your website rank on Google.
Go ahead and choose the Giveaway Landing Page option. Then click the View button to see how your giveaway looks.
Here’s an example of a giveaway we created on our website for Instagram:
Once you’ve set up your giveaway in RafflePress, it’s crucial to create an engaging Instagram post to announce and promote it.
Here are some key elements to include in your giveaway post:
Keep your post relatively short – aim for 150-300 characters in the main text. You can add more details in the first comment if needed. Remember to make your post visually appealing by using line breaks and emojis to break up the text.
Here’s a template you can adapt:
You can’t just sit around and wait for people to enter your giveaway. It would help if you began promoting it immediately to generate excitement and get tons of entries.
The easiest way to promote your Instagram giveaway is to add your giveaway page link to your Instagram bio and share an announcement post on Instagram, asking people to check the link in your bio to enter the contest.
You can also promote your giveaway by:
Start promoting your giveaway weeks before it goes live to generate tons of interest and entries from day 1.
With your giveaway over, you may be wondering, “How do you pick a winner on an Instagram giveaway?”.
A popular way to choose a winner is to use a random number generator. However, this is often time-consuming for busy website owners.
An easier alternative is to use RafflePress to draw a winner for you and display it live on the widget. Simply use the built-in random winner picker, then email the winner right from your WordPress website.
You can also announce the winner of your giveaway in a new Instagram post.
Most businesses ask winners to contact them via Direct Message to arrange for the delivery of their prize. But if one of the requirements for entering included having participants provide their email addresses, you can contact the winner via that method.
When you announce your winner, don’t forget to thank everyone else for entering. A good way to reward the contestants who didn’t win is to give them a coupon or discount. That way, you’ll benefit from new sales.
Now, remember those goals I asked you to set earlier? How are you going to know if you met them? We’ll learn that in our final step.
Finding the results of your Instagram giveaway isn’t too tricky.
If the goal for your Instagram campaign is to drive more traffic to a product or web page via Instagram, MonsterInsights is the solution. It’s the best analytics tracking plugin for WordPress websites.
It gives you the ability to track traffic to your giveaway landing page, referral traffic from your Instagram account and other social platforms, product sales, and more.
You can easily compare how many new followers you gained over the competition’s duration. The same goes for growing your email list, too. Just measure the difference in email subscribers when you began and ended your giveaway, and you’ll get your results.
You can learn more details in my MonsterInsights review.
With RafflePress’s Entries Report, you can also see which giveaway actions drove the most entries. Just click the Users link under any contest that has ended in RafflePress. Then, at the top of the screen, click the Entries Report link.
It will show you a pie chart that breaks down which actions resulted in the most giveaway entries. As a result, you’ll know which actions drove the most Instagram contest results and use them in your next contest.
Congratulations! You’ve now learned how to run a successful Instagram contest.
Doing so provides an excellent way to understand the likes and dislikes of your followers. It also helps you increase brand awareness and send more traffic to your business.
To run a legal giveaway, clearly outline entry methods, relevant prize details, and end date in your post. Make sure to disclaim that Instagram isn’t involved and follow their promotion guidelines.
To do a giveaway on Instagram Stories, create a post detailing the rules and prizes, use engaging visuals, and encourage followers to participate by following, liking, and sharing.
Some of the best giveaway ideas for Instagram include:
For more, check out these social media giveaway ideas.
You should typically run your Instagram giveaway for 1 to 2 weeks to allow ample time for participation while maintaining momentum and excitement. Plus, the best day to do a giveaway on Instagram is typically on a Wednesday or Thursday, as engagement rates are often higher midweek.
The best time to post an Instagram giveaway is typically during weekday afternoons, between 1 pm and 3 pm. This timeframe often sees the best user engagement.
The easiest way to keep track of entries is to use a giveaway tool like RafflePress with entry-tracking features. You get an overview of who entered, which actions they took, and more inside your WordPress dashboard.
We hope this guide helped you learn how to create an Instagram giveaway. If you’re interested in running a contest using RafflePress, take a look at this step-by-step guide.
You might also find the following Instagram tips helpful:
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