Instagram giveaways are a great way to acknowledge your followers and appreciate them for their continued support. And what’s better than presenting them with a big hamper of your best-selling products or something they specifically love?

In fact, users want to participate in these contests – after all, who doesn’t love free gifts? Give them a chance to interact with your brand and shine on Instagram’s algorithm. But that’s not all. Giveaways significantly benefit brands in more ways than you might know.

Discover the ins and outs of Instagram giveaways, including how they boost brand growth and how you can organize a successful contest.

What does “giveaway” mean?

A giveaway is a marketing strategy that brands and influencers use to gift a product or service to the winning participant.

For example, a brand may ask users to subscribe or follow the brand’s handle to be eligible to participate. Next, users must click and upload an image using the brand’s product, tagging the brand. Alternatively, an influencer might ask followers to like and comment on the giveaway post, share the post on Stories to spread awareness, and get two people to follow the influencer.

Once participants tick all the requirements, they must wait for a few days until the account announces a winner.

You earn more than you give

A free giveaway may seem counterproductive, but it helps build brand awareness and following. Here are a few benefits.

• It helps increase followers: Many Instagram users likely pop in and out of your social media accounts without actually following you. Giveaways are a great way to build new audiences by enticing people to click the "follow" button, especially if there's a chance to grab freebies. This way, you incentivize your target audience to subscribe to content in exchange for prizes. Plus, you connect with new followers who may have previously been unaware of your Instagram account.
• It generates more likes and comments: As the organizer, you set the giveaway rules, which means you have the authority to decide eligibility and terms and conditions. For instance, you could ask users to tag their friends, post a hashtag, or like and comment, encouraging even more people to participate.
• It’s a great opportunity to store user-generated content (UGC): Giveaways offer a wealth of UGC. Ask people to submit photos or videos, and reuse them by putting the best ones on your page. Not only does this make users feel acknowledged and appreciated, but it also prompts others to participate in the hope they'll win next time. This provides a wealth of content and keeps Instagram followers engaged.

How to organize a giveaway on Instagram

Giveaways have clear advantages that benefit your brand. Whether you’re a verified influencer or a small business owner, here’s how to organize a successful contest.

Set your social media goals

Your brand's objectives define the type of giveaway you'll organize. Before anything else, ask yourself: why do you want to schedule an Instagram giveaway? Do you want to expand your following before releasing a new product or boost user engagement? Decide your goals early on and organize the post around them.

Establish and share the rules

An Instagram contest, like any other giveaway, must have rules. Otherwise, people clamber around asking why they haven't won, and you lose future entrants. Having a poorly organized giveaway can also garner a bad reputation. Rules keep things fair and square, so include them in the caption or wherever you announce the contest. And don’t forget to mention deadlines!

Define the national or international giveaway location

Factor in international shipping if you're rewarding winners with physical prizes. If the giveaway is exclusive to certain geographic regions, include that information in the giveaway’s announcement. Otherwise, you'll have unwanted entries from ineligible participants (and negative reviews). Also, remember that sometimes, giveaways are referred to as “contests,” which could result in legal issues. To avoid this, check your jurisdiction’s laws governing contests before running them.

Choose a giveaway prize

Finalize shipping logistics soon after you select a prize to put up for grabs, as the weight might impact shipping costs. Ideally, it should have some connection to your brand, such as your merch or new products. After all, the strategy is to increase participation and the number of potential customers through the contest.

Publish and promote

Now that you're prepared to launch the giveaway, start identifying strategies to spread awareness and create excitement. Make a post with an eye-catching design, or use video content such as Reels. Finally, promote the giveaway through paid ads, Instagram stories, or other social media channels. Another great way to unify your community and increase engagement is to create a unique giveaway hashtag. If possible, use influencer marketing. Contact local or well-known influencers relevant to the service or product launch and ask them to help promote the giveaway and encourage participation.

Pick a winner and share the news

After promotion and participation, it’s time to announce a winner(s). Ensure the deadline is closed before picking a winner, and choose a platform and time to announce it. The announcement is a highly marketable event, as everyone participating will tune in to find out if they’ve won. Leverage the hype, build suspense, and announce the winner dramatically.

Bonus tip: As a last step, ensure the giveaway adheres to Instagram's policies and promotion guidelines. If the algorithm finds you crossing any lines, Instagram could temporarily suspend or even ban your account.

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6 contest ideas to inspire your next giveaway

You’re all set to organize your next giveaway contest, and followers are ready to enter to win. If you’re short on inspiration, don’t worry. We’ve compiled some of the best giveaway ideas to help maximize your Instagram marketing campaign.

• Like, comment, repost or share: This is the most common giveaway style. The rules are simple: include a call-to-action (CTA) asking followers to like, comment, repost or share to participate in your Instagram contest. Organizers may run a simple draw and leverage winner-picking tools to determine the winner.
• Tag a friend: Tag-a-friend contests are a fantastic way to attract new followers to your page. Let your audience do the legwork by spamming the comments section and tagging a friend or two to be eligible to enter the giveaway. Not only does this send notifications to tagged friends – prompting them to head straight to the post – but it also results in them tagging other friends, and the cycle continues.
• Follow to win: Similar to the first two methods, follow-to-win giveaways require interested users to follow your page to qualify for participation. Often, people track your content but may not follow the page. This method encourages them to hit the follow button.
• Brand collaboration: Joining hands with another brand creates a win-win situation for accounts. It's an excellent way to widen your audience, advertise the giveaway and encourage users to follow both pages. Plus, it sets the groundwork for future collaborations and paid partnerships.
• User-generated content: Remember, UGC makes followers feel appreciated and encourages them to participate in future contests. It's also one of the best ways to promote products. For instance, photo contests advertise your products, allowing you to passively reach out to potential customers and build a bank for future content.
• Caption contest: Another creative way to engage participants is to ask them to create a caption for your next post. This provides you with a wealth of captions with many different perspectives and enables you to interact with users by replying, liking, and pinning the best comments.

How do you pick a random winner for a giveaway?

Sometimes, participants other than the winner may protest and demand a different outcome. In such situations, evidence is vital to assure everyone you’ve picked fairly. Knowing the total number of participants and winners is also essential before choosing a winner. Finally, you’ll need a winner-picker for the Instagram giveaway. We’ve listed three tools to help pick lucky participants.

Gleam

Gleam offers five tools: Instagram Comment Picker, Competitions Live Draw, Multiple Competitions Draw, Multilingual Competitions Draw and Random Name Picker. These tools allow you to select winners randomly from comments, name lists and even marketing campaigns in different languages. The Competitions Package includes all these tools and starts at $10 a month, going up to $399 monthly for the premium plan.

Saver Front

Saver Front is a free online picker tool for Instagram comments. It has useful features that let you filter comments with specific hashtags or words. It also removes duplicate comments to ensure a fair contest – even by the same user.

Pickawinner

Pickawinner’s Instagram Random Comment Picker is another free tool. It lets you set custom filters, remove duplicate entries and find the first instance of a participant’s comment on any giveaway posts. It also has a “Crypto Filter” feature that scans comments for valid cryptocurrency wallet addresses.

Become a social media pro with Linktree

Marketing on social media demands a stellar campaign. Include giveaways in your digital marketing strategy and acquire a wealth of followers and subscribers. Remember, don’t limit giveaways to only Instagram. Instead, leverage its power on all your socials and garner skyrocketing engagement levels.

And, if you’re looking for ways to boost your social media marketing skills, head to The Linktree Blog and learn how to write a killer bio, the best times to post content to generate high viewership, and how to schedule posts so you never miss an opportunity to stay fresh in your followers’ memories.

While you’re at it, claim your free Linktree URL and get all your social networks under one roof. Design your page per your brand voice and make digital platform management seamless!