One of the main economic principles goes like this: nothing comes for free. According to the principle to achieving anything comes at the price of sacrificing something else. Does this principle apply to Instagram? It does if you come up with a plan. Giving Instagram giveaways could come back to you like free promotion, enhanced brand image, and increased popularity.

Are you out of any ideas about how to start? In the following article, we will introduce a pair of tools and strategies and real-life examples. Stick with us to learn about all of that:

Instagram Giveaways: How to

A successful giveaway comes from a perfect plan based on your initial expectations; considering your business goals throughout the process will help create an integrated giveaway plan that pays off.

  1. Write down specific goals for each giveaway plan. 

If you want the previously mentioned economic principle to work for you, you need to have specific goals; what do you want to achieve due to the Giveaways? Is it a better image, increased recognition, enhanced engagement rates, and more followers for your Instagram page?

By answering the previous questions and a couple more, you could think about yourself; you will set out your goals and objectives and base your actions on them. According to the dreams you have, you could choose the type of content for the campaign, the prize you’re going to present, and how you plan to promote those giveaways.

Take the following example:

Brand A sets up an Instagram giveaway campaign to reach its voice to a larger audience as a result. By increasing their target audience, they mean increasing engagement in their Instagram page, receiving more likes and comments on every post, and growing the number of followers by instructing participants to follow their page to be eligible.

Setting up clear and measurable goals, Brand A is likely to benefit from its giveaway campaign in the best way. On the other hand, participators will have no doubts about what is expected from them and willingly do their share to receive free products.

  1. A clear understanding of Instagram’s rules and regulations will be needed.

Instagram has specific rules for those willing to set up a giveaway campaign on the platform; taking the instructions provided by them into account could guarantee your giveaway campaign’s success. Ignoring the guidelines specifically defined for giveaways could bring about the risk of being shut down by Instagram.

So, which conditions do you need to meet? 

  • You need to set out specific goals for the giveaway; it could be following your page, liking particular posts, or mentioning a specific number of people in the comments.
  • The eligibility terms determine who can participate in the competition; is there an age barrier, should all participation come from your followers, etc.
  • Not holding Instagram responsible for any part of the process and admitting in the campaign description.
  • All of the information explained above should come in the form of a caption underneath the original post, excluding no necessary part.

In case of the absence of any of the above items, Instagram will remove your post, ending your campaign before it even started.

  1. Be picky with the prize.

The prize you chose is the beating heart of every giveaway campaign, without which none of the defined goals would be realized. If you select an award that does not appeal to your followers, participation will likely below. If yours is not an online shop, you could analyze your followers’ behavior and predict the items they would be delighted to have. On the other hand, if you have your brand’s product to offer, choose one which is not easily achieved and maybe with a higher price tag.

Offering discounts and trials can be a go-to for software companies and startups. To make even more from your giveaway campaign, you could partner with a similar brand and collaborate with them in attracting even more followers and clients to your brand.

Take a look at the following example:

In collaboration with Brand A and Brand C, Brand B is willing to give some products away. By doing so, Brand B wishes to include products from both the other brands and increase its popularity among the other two’s user bases.

Brand B is not the only benefiting party in this equation, as Brand A and C will receive the same amount of engagement and awareness from Brand B’s user base.

What is essential in such collaborations is that the participating brands should have the same or close values as the original brand; picking brands utterly indifferent to what your brand and followers hold dear would not bring in the results you were rooting for.

  1. Your caption is your winning ticket. 

Your Instagram caption includes necessary information about the requirements, the prize, and all predefined Instagram regulations. Should they mention people in comments, like particular posts, or share your page with other people? All of this information should be included in your caption for the content you have provided for this very purpose.

Reaching a more significant audience will increase engagement and traffic on your page; you must include hashtags in the caption for achieving that.

What would a proper giveaway caption look like? Take the following example:

Brand B’s 10.000th follower giveaway

As per the occasion of our 10.000th followers on Instagram, we’re giving away the prizes included in the picture; want to win one? All you need to do is provided below:

  • Follow our page
  • Tag and mention three friends of yours in the comment section, adding why you would like the prize.

Participators will be able to take part in the competition until 8 p.m tomorrow.

Participants worldwide are allowed to engage, and shipping costs will be paid for by our company.

  1. Use paid Instagram and Facebook ads to increase engagement

Using Facebook and Instagram ads can help you reach your voice to a larger audience and increase engagement. Like your prize should appeal to your target audience, you will need to gather a user base interested in your line of products which would bother taking part in your page’s competition to increase engagement through ads.

To make a more significant impact, you offer double the prize you were going to offer and emphasize the convenience of getting rewards in exchange for a follow or tag by using extravagant words and phrases.

What could help you during the course? Giveaway tools

Instagram giveaways come in various forms; the price could be alike, tag, follow, participating in a poll, and writing a caption. Luckily tools are facilitating every one of those giveaway campaigns. Take a look at the list we have gathered below:

  1. Sweepwidget

Offering six entry methods, Sweepwidget is a handy tool for tidying up Instagram giveaways. With Sweepwidget, you could define values for each entry; say 1 for a comment and 3 for a follow; picking the winner could be much easier this way, and oh, you can test how the giveaway works before publishing it and make further changes if required. If you plan to include people from a particular geographic location, Sweepwidget could help limit entries from other locations. You could decide just to ignore and entries and choose a winner randomly as you go by.

  1. Easypromos

Easypromos supports tags, hashtags, and comment entries; in fact, this tool is prominent for its comment feature, allowing you to randomly choose a user from the countless commentators below the post. Sorting comments based on date, hashtag, and the number of mentions, Easypromos does the job of choosing the winner a tad more easily. Easypromos offers users a deadline feature and a date filter eliminating the comments left after the time is finished.

  1. Woobox

The above is one of the most preferred giveaway apps by marketers and social media specialists; why? Since it offers fabulous features regarding comment and hashtag entries. Allowing you to manage hashtag entries manually or by enabling the auto-approve feature, Woobox gracefully displays all entries be it images, videos, or comments, and archives them into a gallery located on your profile.

What is more, you can have your followers pick the winner by rendering comments using Woobox’s Instagram Comment Picker feature. Such a method requires a second check regarding the winner’s compliance with the rules you have set out. If the chosen winner has not met all of your conditions, you can instruct Comment Picker to select another.

  1. Gleam

Gleam supports four entry types, namely the like, comment, hashtag, and tag entries. The platform allows users to run giveaways simultaneously on Instagram and their websites; campaigns could be parted to require users to fulfill particular tasks on Instagram and continue on the website. How can you make sure they will comply with the rules? It’s not up to you; Gleam will take up that for you; by tracking the contestants’ activities, Gleam will make sure nobody unwary of the rules will get the prize.

Wrapping up

Although giving free products might seem like an economically catastrophic decision, the benefits you could receive from Instagram giveaways enormously outweigh the cost and negative aspects of it. Laying out a perfect Instagram giveaway plan will help you carry up during the course and guarantee the success of the goals and objectives you wish to achieve. And when Instagram alone isn’t enough, numerous giveaway tools are helping you set up a fair and just competition and choose the winner most worthy of the prize