So that you’re planning an Instagram giveaway—how beneficiant!
Right here’s a step-by-step information to throwing a profitable Instagram giveaway, full with ideas for laying down the competition guidelines, selling your giveaway and choosing a winner — plus 11 examples from manufacturers which can be doing it proper.
Let’s get began, you selfless, noble giver, you.
Bonus: Obtain 4 free, customizable social media contest templates that can assist you get began selling your contests on Instagram, Twitter, and Fb.
What’s an Instagram giveaway?
An Instagram giveaway (or an Instagram contest) is a sort of promotion involving a model or creator gifting a services or products to an Instagram consumer. Customers can enter the competition primarily based on standards outlined by the giveaway organizer.
Listed below are some frequent explanation why manufacturers throw giveaways on Instagram:
To get new followers. Contests have a tendency to herald new viewers to your web page.
To interact their viewers. Giveaways give your viewers an opportunity to work together along with your model and your content material—they bring about in algorithm-friendly engagement within the type of likes and feedback.
To gather user-generated content material (UGC). Contests could be a nice alternative to permit your viewers to generate (free and inventive) content material to your web page.
To offer again to their viewers. Who would we be with out our followers? Internet hosting an Instagram giveaway helps construct your relationship along with your viewers and provides them one thing in return for his or her help.
Easy methods to do an Instagram giveaway: 6 steps
1. Plan your contest objectives
Begin by deciding what the purpose of your contest is. Extra followers? Elevated gross sales numbers for a particular services or products?
No matter it could be, work out early on what you need to achieve. That can make monitoring the success of the competition far simpler.
2. Set (and share) the competition guidelines
Clear guidelines are important. When posting in regards to the giveaway on Instagram, it could be finest to incorporate the deadlines and promotion tips within the caption. This can make them simple to search out to your followers.
When sharing the competition in your web site, a devoted touchdown web page, or different social networks, embrace any necessary guidelines upfront. If this isn’t attainable, direct customers to the giveaway put up’s caption or wherever else the principles could also be outlined.
In case your contest is simply open to sure geographic areas, remember to embrace that data clearly.
3. Decide a giveaway prize
This half ought to be enjoyable! Resolve what it’s your followers will likely be competing for. It may very well be a product or assortment of merchandise, a present card, a service, or one thing else.
It’s smart to ensure the prize is expounded to your model. Normal prizes like money or Amazon reward playing cards will lure in random followers in search of an opportunity to win a fast buck. Providing merchandise and prizes associated to what your web page revolves round is simpler—it ensures that anybody who enters and follows you for the competition is engaged with what it’s you do.
4. Publish your contest (on the proper time)
And we’re dwell! Publish your contest utilizing Hootsuite’s Finest Time to Publish characteristic to make sure that your giveaway is being seen by the utmost variety of followers.
You may also use Hootsuite to see how properly the giveaway is performing in analytics, and reply to questions in your DMs or feedback utilizing Hootsuite’s inbox
5. Promote your contest
Promote your Instagram giveaway as broadly as attainable. You’ll need to share it in your Instagram Tales, your Instagram feed, in addition to every other social media platform your model makes use of. Publish in regards to the giveaway a number of occasions (“One week left to enter,” “Final likelihood to enter,” and so forth.) to be sure that nobody misses it.
6. Observe entries with a social media administration instrument
In case you’re operating a contest, you’ll in all probability need to see some concrete numbers proving the way it helps your web page’s visitors.
Hootsuite is the right useful resource to assist run and observe contests. Contest posts will be scheduled with the Planner. Feedback will be tracked and answered within the Inbox, and mentions/hashtag utilization will be tracked by way of Streams.
Be taught extra about how Hootsuite will help you with Instagram advertising and marketing contests (and, properly, your whole different social media efforts):
Instagram giveaway template
We’ve put collectively a free social media contest template that covers entry strategies, phrases of the giveaway, prize guidelines and disclosures about how winners will likely be chosen. In case you’re caught on tips on how to correctly phrase your giveaway guidelines, begin right here.
Bonus: Obtain 4 free, customizable social media contest templates that can assist you get began selling your contests on Instagram, Twitter, and Fb.
2 advisable Instagram giveaway pickers
Want a random remark picker to resolve your Instagram contest winner? Strive these.
1. Wask.co
Wask’s instrument is for IG feedback. It’s free to make use of as soon as, and after that asks for a login (however presents a free plan).
2. IG Remark Picker
When you have lower than 150 feedback to select from, this can be a good instrument to make use of (it’s free for 150 feedback). You additionally don’t should log in or enroll to make use of it.
11 Instagram contest examples
In case you’re looking for inspiration to your subsequent Instagram giveaway, hashtags are your finest pal: attempt looking out #contest, #giveaway, #instagramcontest, #iggiveaway, #contestalert, and different related variations to search out tens of millions of examples of contests — or scroll down the record of inspiring examples under.
The next 11 giveaways show completely different contest methods, contest concepts, entry strategies, prize concepts and inventive methods to advertise your giveaway.
1. Like, remark, and/or share to enter
That is the only type of IG giveaway. Your viewers enters by interacting with the put up (by means of liking, commenting or sharing—and put up importantly, following). This makes coming into tremendous simple; it’s low-effort, high-reward.
Your Instagram contest might ask followers to share a put up to their story as a type of entry, or save the put up…
…and even ask customers to remark (and tag associates within the feedback part, extra on that later) to enter.
Steal this technique
Hold your digital advertising and marketing objectives in thoughts when deciding your entry strategies. Do you need to achieve followers, get likes or feedback, up your “share” stats, and so forth.?
Attempt to maintain coming into so simple as attainable—complicated entry strategies are a recipe for low engagement. To spice up engagement, make coming into your contest a lazy particular person’s dream.
Take into consideration long-term progress when selecting entry strategies. For instance, “wish to enter” solely will get you likes on a single put up, however “observe to enter” has the potential to earn you everlasting supporters.
2. Tag a pal to enter
Asking customers to tag their associates within the feedback—and counting every of these feedback as an entry—is principally an evil genius transfer. It implies that the entrant’s associates will get notified once they’re tagged, encouraging them to additionally enter the competition.
If one consumer tags three associates, these three associates tag three extra associates, and so forth, fairly quickly you’ll have taken over the world. In fact, not everybody will do that… we’re fairly sure that friendships have ended over serial tagging. Even so, it’s a really efficient technique for progress.
Tagging a pal is much less of an evil genius transfer when it truly has one thing to do along with your model, or the giveaway itself. For instance, in case you’re freely giving a spa package deal for 2, you would possibly ask people to tag the particular person they’d carry with them in the event that they received.
This contest for hotpot asks customers to “TAG 1 pal within the remark part under (limitless entries, should tag a unique particular person every time)” within the feedback. They’re freely giving two $50 reward playing cards, seemingly one to the competition winner and one to the tagged pal.
Steal this technique
Make tagging a pal within the feedback a way of entry to extend your giveaway’s attain.
Take into consideration how tagging a pal can present worth to the consumer, as properly—for instance, you may give away two prizes (so the tagged pal additionally will get a prize). In any other case, you threat your contest merely annoying all of the tagged associates.
3. Give away a brand new product
A brand new product launch is a superb cause to host a contest—it helps create hype across the product and share information of the launch along with your viewers.
Plus, a recent product robotically has extra perceived worth, even when the precise financial worth of the prize isn’t tremendous excessive (for instance, this giveaway of ready-to-eat boxed waffles).
Steal this technique
Contemplate incorporating contests into your advertising and marketing technique when launching new merchandise.
Emphasize the “newness” of the product when selling this contest—if attainable, take into account timing the competition so the winner is the primary particular person to expertise the product.
4. Associate with one other model
Collaborating with one other model or influencer robotically expands the attain of your giveaway as a result of the competition has the potential to achieve each your followers and your collaborator’s followers.
You possibly can accomplice with a model on each the competition promotion and the prize—for instance, within the contest under, a reusable takeout container model collaborated with a vegan meals producer, and the prize consists of services or products from each manufacturers.
Or, a contest collaboration can simply embrace a prize from one of many manufacturers, whereas the opposite collaborator merely promotes the competition—as is the case with this hair salon and Vancouver foodie.
Both means, crucial think about any collaboration is that your collaborator’s model values align with your individual. Reusable containers and vegan meals producers each have the purpose of sustainability, whereas the hair salon and the Vancouver foodie have crossovers of their audiences.
Steal this technique
Associate with one other model to faucet into a brand new viewers to your giveaway.
Be sure that the model’s values align with your individual (along with this being a superb apply on the whole, it additionally makes their followers extra prone to love your content material).
If it is smart, make the prize embrace one thing from each manufacturers.
5. Have fun a vacation or special day
You don’t really want an excuse to have a contest—individuals love free stuff at any time of 12 months—however in case you can have fun a vacation or event with a contest, do it.
This could be a private event (for instance, your model’s anniversary or reaching 2000 followers) or a publicly-recognized one (Valentine’s Day, Christmas, Mom’s Day).
This contest, hosted by a grocer, celebrates their Decision Reset sale by freely giving two possibilities to win free groceries this month.
Steal this technique
Centre your giveaway round an upcoming vacation or particular date to offer your contest a way of timeliness and event.
In case you can, make the competition prize one thing that pertains to the event (for instance, give away a zero-waste product for Earth Day or a sweet cane-scented candle for Christmas).
6. Make a inventive carousel
When planning your contest, take into consideration the way you’re going to promote it (in spite of everything, individuals can’t enter in the event that they don’t understand it exists). Create attention-grabbing—and informative—visible content material to assist unfold the phrase about your giveaway.
For instance, the Instagram contest under makes use of one lengthy graphic posted as three separate carousel photographs. It creates a cool impact when scrolling, and likewise shares a variety of details about the competition and the prize with out being too visually overwhelming.
Steal this technique
Incorporate a advertising and marketing plan into your Instagram contest technique.
Create visuals that talk every thing that customers have to know in regards to the contest, with out bogging them down with data.
Think about using carousel posts with one super-sharable cowl picture, then particulars in regards to the prize in later photographs.
7. Make a Reel
With regards to social media advertising and marketing, movies are the secret in 2025. Strive making a Reel to attract viewers in and promote your contest.
For the giveaway under, the creator made a Reel that first engages customers with sturdy visuals and sounds (an ASMR-ish cooking video) and features a contest within the description. He retains the format easy, similar to his non-contest Reels. It’s not merely a Reel that markets the competition; it gives worth to his viewers as properly.
Steal this technique
Use Instagram reels to market your contests and giveaways.
Make your giveaway reels match the remainder of your content material, so it doesn’t really feel misplaced.
Incorporate worth past the competition announcement within the reel to make the video extra participating.
8. Make it a paid partnership
As a creator, paid partnerships are probably the greatest methods to become profitable on Instagram—and as a enterprise, paid partnerships are a fantastic methodology for increasing your target market and getting some main road cred.
Do your analysis into creators or influencers that may assist market your contest (and naturally, your online business’s product) to search out the right match.
Associate with a trusted creator who has a powerful portfolio for one of the best outcomes.
Steal this technique
In case you’re a enterprise operating an Instagram contest, do your analysis into creators that might be able to aid you market it.
When you’ve discovered the right creator, work with them to develop the competition content material (and pay them for his or her work).
Be sure that to mark all posts as a paid partnership, or threat Instagram eradicating the posts or flagging your Instagram account.
9. Host a photograph contest
Instagram picture contest have been round for the reason that daybreak of—properly—cameras, and so they’re a useful technique for connecting with artists and getting some superior user-generated content material.
In case your web page advertises merchandise you’ll be able to ask entrants to put up a photograph along with your wares. You may also encourage your viewers to put up a photograph that merely follows a theme.
Contests like these are additionally an effective way to gather testimonials. You possibly can ask customers to share their favourite private tales in regards to the model, product, or ones that relate to your web page’s ethos. The selection is yours; simply be certain it’s made clear within the contest’s official guidelines that you’ve got the precise to repost any of the entries.
Steal this technique
When internet hosting a photograph contest, be sure you have the sources and time to evaluate it.
Think about using the picture entries as user-generated content material (with the photographer’s permission, after all).
Embody within the guidelines that you’ve got the precise to repost any entries.
10. Make your individual giveaway hashtag
Hashtags make for an effective way to host giveaways. Like a user-generated content material contest, hashtag giveaways require entrants to put up to their web page or tales below a particular hashtag (you identify what that’s your self).
Ideally, what you’ll find yourself with is a hashtag with sizeable visitors. This format doesn’t simply assist you to simply maintain observe of entries. It additionally drives engagement with a particular hashtag, which the algorithm tends to be aware of. A well-performing hashtag will drive visitors again to your Instagram put up and your web page.
Be sure that to choose a hashtag that’s distinctive sufficient that nobody else is utilizing it… for instance, #goatsarefamily.
Steal this technique
Select a hashtag that your viewers can use to enter your contest.
Be sure that the hashtag is inventive and that you just’re the one one utilizing it.
Observe how widespread the hashtag is and what number of entries you’re getting to find out whether or not or not you will have a profitable Instagram contest.
11. Share the winner
What number of manufacturers’ Instagram contests have you ever entered solely to by no means hear from them once more? Most of us completely overlook in regards to the contest post-entry. One solution to maintain the competition recent in your viewers’s minds (even when they don’t win) is to share the title of the winner.
In fact, ask the winner’s permission earlier than you do that, and don’t give out any of their private data. However sharing the winner helps show your authenticity to customers (and would possibly encourage them to enter your subsequent contest).
Steal this technique
When you’ve picked a winner of your giveaway, ask the particular person if their first title or Instagram deal with will be shared on-line.
Share the winner’s title to substantiate to your viewers that you just’re legit, and to encourage them to enter once more.
Use Hootsuite to run your Instagram giveaway. From a single dashboard, you’ll be able to schedule your posts, reply feedback and DMs, and monitor engagement in real-time. Strive it free right this moment.
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