How To Run an Engaging Instagram Giveaway: Strategic Guide

Looking to grow your Instagram follower count? It’s easy if you have ideas for an engaging Instagram giveaway.

A strategic Instagram giveaway can reach and convert thousands of Instagram users into your followers.

It can also foster a greater sense of community among your existing followers, encouraging them to engage and remain loyal.

Any Instagram user can create a giveaway. In this article, let’s find out how to create and run an engaging Instagram giveaway.

How To Run an Engaging Instagram Giveaway: Step-by-Step Instructions

Successful Instagram giveaways require a comprehensive process with different steps for setting up, running, and concluding the contest.

Your sweepstake goals are only achievable when all parts come together in a perfect symphony.

Many competitions failed to engage adequate audiences for lacking just one of these elements.

Step 1: Creating an Effective Strategy for Your Instagram Giveaway

Getting something for little to nothing excites people.

So your Instagram contest must be effortless enough to participate in and rewarding enough to do so.

It should also give you something in return, which requires sound planning.

Set Clear Goals That Are Aligned With Your Brand

It’s time to draw out a comprehensive plan, but first, do some brainstorming.

• What do you want to achieve with an Instagram competition?
• Is it about getting more followers or creating brand awareness?
• Do you want to engage your followers more?
• Looking to give back to your Insta community?

Finding answers to these questions will direct you toward the right strategy.

Your Instagram giveaway campaign should be driven by a clear and achievable goal with the ability to measure its performance.

It should also be aligned with your brand’s ambition.

For example, you can drive unique social media traffic to your e-commerce site.

Then, set a target for the total number of visitors, which you can measure after the campaign ends.

Even if you run a social media contest on your personal domain, it should bring measurable results for your personal brand.

You can have multiple goals for a single giveaway campaign but keep them linked to each other for profound effects.

Lay Out the Instagram Contest Terms and Conditions

Competitions are exciting for their rules, while a deadline can leverage human’s natural fear of missing out.

You must lay out the terms and conditions to participate and win the contest, along with the timeline to do so.

• Can any Instagram users participate?
• Should they tag their friends?
• How can they confirm their participation?

You should also know what you want the contestants to do based on your campaign goal.

For instance, if your goal is to grow your email subscription list, a condition to follow your Instagram account may be less effective.

Instead, provide a link and tell the participants to subscribe to the list.

Multiple goals can be achieved with various conditions for the participants, as seen in @glamnetic’s latest giveaway.

With 3 conditions (and a bonus), they are set to increase followers for three pages, improve the post’s engagement, and reach new audiences with tagging.

You should also set a deadline for the contest to end and clarify how to announce the winner.

This will make the competition more transparent and encourage followers to promptly complete the tasks.

Consider Partnering Up With an Influencer or Brand

Brands often partner up with each other to run Instagram giveaways for many good reasons.

This can help you to reach more audiences without much effort by leveraging the followers of each partner.

Find a similar niche brand offering complementary products or services (not substitutes) for more traction.

For example, if you are a travel agency or a hotel, you may partner up with an airline or restaurant to run a successful campaign.

This will create brand awareness for both brands, with travelers often needing to buy plane tickets to reach their destinations.

You can see the Instagram giveaway example below to learn how it’s done.

Another effective strategy is to collaborate with Instagram influencers in your niche. They can create original content like Instagram reels for your giveaway campaign and create a buzz around the contest.

The success of a social media giveaway depends mainly on how many like-minded people you can leverage, and influencers are likely to be great at doing that.

Pick a Worthwhile Prize for the Giveaway Winner

You can be super creative in picking a prize for the winner, but make sure it is worth the contestants’ efforts.

The prize can be another chance to increase brand awareness, whether it reflects the associated brands running the contest or not.

Hyping up the launch of a new product? Offer a goody bag with the specific product as the prize for the winner.

Don’t forget about the alternate winner. If your Instagram contest plans to have multiple winners, you should decide the prize for each beforehand.

Feel free to explore offering an experience instead of products, as a holiday or star meet-up remains with people forever.

The key is to find out what excites your target audience and offer them something similar.

Step 2: Launching and Managing Your Instagram Giveaway 

Got the strategy sorted out for your Instagram giveaway contest?

Then it’s time to put the plan into practice on your social media platform.

Announce the Giveaway With an Engaging Post

Create an appealing Instagram post to launch your giveaway campaign and share it with your followers at the pick time for engagement.

Use attractive visuals free of too much text, and leverage the caption to communicate your Instagram giveaway rules, deadline, disqualification terms, etc.

Don’t forget to add information about how the winner will be picked and when you will announce it.

Use straightforward languages and scannable formatting to engage every Instagram user while increasing post visibility with hashtags.

Find the most popular hashtags and add them at the end of your Instagram post. This is crucial to leverage the Instagram algorithm without bogging down your followers.

Instagram rules dictate that you declare how the competition isn’t associated with the social media platform itself (see the example). So make sure to do that.

Create a Buzz Around Your Instagram Giveaway 

Remember how more tractions mean more engagement for your social media contest? You can achieve it by sharing your giveaway post on various channels.

Start by sharing your giveaway post to your Instagram story. This can also be useful to give a reminder about your contest from time to time.

Creating an Instagram reel that details your Instagram marketing campaign can also benefit in reaching a broader Instagram user base.

Reach out to Instagram influencers and friends to post about your giveaway in their Instagram feed, story, and reels.

Leave no stones unturned; promote your contest on your website, other social media channels, newsletters, online blogs, etc.

You can also run a specific Facebook ad or newspaper campaign promoting your brand and its latest Instagram giveaway idea.  

Keep Track of the Participants and Performance

With your Instagram giveaway running at full speed, you have to focus on keeping track of the eligible participants.

Look at Instagram users who have fulfilled all the contest criteria and list their usernames. You may want to do it manually using a spreadsheet tool like Google Sheets.

You can automate the process using a third-party social media management tool or Instagram contest tracker.

Tools like Hootsuite or Sprout Social offer a comprehensive solution, while Wishpond or Woobox can track the contestants and choose a random winner.

If you want to track new followers or visitors to your site, you may set up an analytical tool like Iconosquare or Google Analytics.

Step 3: Picking a Winner and Analyzing the Instagram Giveaway 

As your contest nears its completion date, you must prepare to announce the winner.

You should also ensure the prize reaches its rightful winner quickly and inform your followers about the contest closure.

Announce the Winners of Your Instagram Contest

You must pick a winner (or multiple winners) for the Instagram giveaway within the timeframe declared in your contest post.

Make sure to choose a random winner, and do so transparently to avoid accusations of favoritism and the like.

If you have been using a spreadsheet to list the eligible contestants, use the available random function.

A free Instagram giveaway picker like Popsmash can also do so without much effort on your part.

You can send a direct message to the winner for a personal touch, but doing that alone won’t give you much exposure.

Instead, leverage your winner announcement post to enhance your brand awareness further.

After all, it’s not a crime to create a spectacle out of your winner announcement with multiple posts in the Instagram story, feed, and other channels.

Don’t forget to thank all the participants, sympathizing with their loss this time. You may also keep your followers engaged with the promise of a new Instagram giveaway soon.

Announce Closure and Analyze the Performance

As soon as your competition runs its course, you should announce it by adding a line to your Instagram giveaway post.

Don’t wait until you announce the winner, as it may confuse your followers and mislead a new user to participate.

Once the winner is announced, you can archive or delete the post.

It’s also okay to keep it published in the feed as long as you put a clear and visible closure notice in the caption.

When all is done and dusted, head to your Instagram account insights to analyze the contest performance.

Learn in-depth about your new followers and strategize about keeping them engaged.

You should also measure the performance of your campaign and how it holds up against your goals.

Utilize the Instagram creator studio or a third-party tool like Later to access performance metrics like the increase in follower counts, likes, comments, shares, etc.

Evaluate the posts that helped gain maximum engagement and note their publishing time and content type. This will help you finetune your giveaway strategy for the future.

Disburse the Prize and Encourage Confirmation Post

If your contest prize is a product, you must promptly ship it to the winner’s address. Get in touch with the winner and communicate how and when you will deliver it.

Claiming gifts like all-inclusive holidays or meet & greet events should be as comfortable as possible. Otherwise, your brand’s reputation may get tarnished.

Why not encourage winners to create a confirmation post and tag your brand! This can effectively whip up interest and give your Instagram page more traction.

Sharing the thankful post from the winner in your Instagram feed can also strengthen the bond of your Instagram community.

Similar Tutorials To Check Out

Excited about using an Instagram giveaway to reach out and engage a broader Instagram user base? Why not check out the following posts to capitalize on your increased brand awareness!

• How to Sell on Instagram: Convert your followers to rewarding customers by exploring the methods in my How to Sell on Instagram article.
• How to Get More Followers on Instagram: Find your people among millions of social media users by learning how to get more followers on Instagram.
• How to Become an Instagram Influencer: Make your social media voice heard and count by reading about how to become an Instagram influencer.

Wrapping Up

People love to get free things, yet running a successful Instagram campaign is comparatively more demanding than other social media activities.

Nevertheless, the speedy gain in follower counts or brand awareness is worth the effort.

You can set up an Instagram contest that attracts new followers and excites the existing ones by following the steps in my guide.

The post also offers guidance toward finding a winner objectively and reflecting upon your performance.

Can’t understand something clearly? Please leave a comment for me to clarify. It will also help me grow if you share this tutorial with others.