Instagram Giveaways in 2024: An Introduction
If you’ve ever used Instagram, you’ve more than likely seen a giveaway or two online.
Like regular giveaways, Instagram giveaways are used as a marketing campaign to build a business’s audience, get people hyped about new products, and increase sales. Both small businesses and individual influencers use this marketing tool.
This guide will explain each Instagram Giveaway category in-depth, whether you’d like to run your own Instagram giveaway or enter more of them.
Instagram Giveaway Types
This guide will serve those who want to run giveaways and participants who wish to enter them.
1. Giveaway Organizers: This section is for businesses and giveaway organizers who want to run their giveaways on Instagram. We will cover how to use Instagram to grow your following and tips for running a successful contest.
2. Giveaway Entrants: This section is for participants who want to enter giveaways on Instagram and maximize their chances of winning a prize. We will cover ways to use the platform to find giveaways.
Do Giveaways Help Grow Instagram?
Running a successful Instagram giveaway, contest, or sweepstakes is a great way to widen your audience, create brand awareness, and increase your product sales or services.
TailWind’s statistical research in 2020 found that Instagram contest posts (including giveaways) get, on average, 3.5 times more likes and 64 times more comments than regular Instagram posts.
Instagram giveaways provide momentum for growing businesses. Tailwind also noted that Instagram accounts that run regular contests grew 70% faster than those that don’t. Moreover, 91% of Instagram posts with over 1K comments are associated with a giveaway or contest.
Striking statistics, right? But despite those staggering figures, only 2% of Instagram accounts run contests or giveaways!
What does that mean for you? You can be in the spotlight, and there’s a high likelihood your competition isn’t! Even if you have competitors hosting giveaways, there are plenty of entrants to go around. You can try to hold a better giveaway yourself with our help.
When you’re considering running a giveaway on Instagram to grow your business, there are two primary goals to consider:
- You want to grow your Instagram following.
- You want your Instagram giveaway post to reach as many people as possible.
With luck, your giveaway should accomplish these two goals. Moreover, goal #1 will be made possible by #2.
If this is your first time using a giveaway promotion, you might be unsure about giving away something for free and sacrificing effort for little in return. This is a fair point, but we should look at the bigger picture.
You can see this effort as an investment. You’re investing time and money into your business and will see a return on your free giveaway prize. More followers mean more customers or clients.
In one way or another, you have to spend money to grow your audience, and you also have to spend your time. You can choose how much time and money you spend, but you can view the promotion as an investment rather than a loss.
While Instagram giveaways can be a great way to boost engagement, you must ensure you comply with Instagram’s rules and regulations.
Here are the official Instagram promotion guidelines. Whether running sweepstakes or a giveaway, you must comply with Instagram’s promotion guidelines.
How Can I Host a Giveaway on Instagram?
While hosting a giveaway isn’t complicated, an effective Instagram giveaway requires more than a pretty post and a prize.
There are common pitfalls when running your contest; many first-time giveaway holders have made the same mistakes. Failing to execute your giveaway campaign could waste your time and money.
To help you avoid that outcome, we have gathered tips for increasing the success of your giveaway campaigns.
Here are 9 steps you need to take to run your Instagram giveaway and grow your business simultaneously.
1. Choose the Giveaway Prize
Your giveaway prize might be the only reason someone will enter your giveaway, so you want to choose something your audience will love.
First, your giveaway might not gain traction if the prize doesn’t suit your target audience. So when you choose a prize, think about what your ideal customer would like to win.
The giveaway prize must be unique, practical, and aligned to your audience’s tastes.
The following giveaway post indicates the prize to a niche audience in text format and via a photo.
2. Clear Giveaway Rules
To run an excellent giveaway campaign, you need to outline how it works and how to enter clearly. This isn’t only for your sake; you must translate the instructions to your Instagram followers.
If it’s not obvious and people don’t understand how to enter your giveaway, you’ll have fewer entries, leading to missed opportunities. Remember, everyone who enters your giveaway could be a potential new customer.
Below is an Instagram giveaway post with clear instructions.
To avoid common pitfalls and to create something visually appealing, share a draft of your post with your colleagues or closest people. If they have questions, use that as a cue to make adjustments before launching your promotion.
3. Use a Simple Entry Method
Most Instagram giveaways are simpler to enter than multiplatform campaigns. There are no external links or long-entry forms to fill out. However, some brands choose this route.
Hosting your giveaway on a giveaway platform such as Gleam and linking that to your Instagram post is possible. However, overcomplicated entry processes can result in slow traction, whereas simple contests will gain traction much faster.
Bonus Tip: The value of the prize determines how much effort participants should expect to put in. For example, reserve asking for user-generated content (UGC), such as video entries, for your expensive prize giveaways.
Here is an example of a giveaway that could be asking too much from participants.
This brand asks for a like, a repost of the giveaway post, tag a coffee-loving friend, and follow four separate accounts. That’s a lot of accounts to follow in one go and quite a lot to ask for in one giveaway.
The only upside to this is that the prize is quite expensive; therefore, the extra effort might be worthwhile for the entrant.
Overall and in general, keep the entry method simple.
If you want to ask more from your Instagram audience, you could give them optional actions that aren’t mandatory to enter.
4. Focus on Your Target Audience
As noted earlier, one of the significant benefits of Instagram and any marketing on social media is the ability to connect with a vast audience. With that benefit also comes a pitfall. You might build up thousands of leads, only to have none of them interested in your business or products.
See Instagram’s advertising guidelines to learn more about targeting your perfect audience. You can get your giveaway to the right audience with a few simple tricks.
- Target your people. To target interested entrants in your products, ask them to prove their interest as part of the giveaway’s entry process. For example, if you sell gardening equipment, you could ask entrants to tag your account in their posts or stories involving gardening or share their favorite tools in the comments section of your giveaway post.
- Eligibility requirements. To filter out users who aren’t in your country of business, include your demographic in your rules and only include entrants eligible to win due to their location.
- Collaborate with related brands. Consider partnering on a joint giveaway with a brand that has audiences with similar interests.
- Use hashtags wisely. While it’s easy to gain followers by using broad Instagram hashtags like #contest or #giveaway to promote your post, you’ll draw in people who aren’t interested in your brand. To avoid that, use hashtags related to your products and industry to target people looking for your product.
Notice that the following Instagram giveaway has a good selection of generic and giveaway-specific hashtags related to the brand and its product niche.
5. Decide on the Giveaway Duration
The next step is to decide how long your giveaway will last. A few factors must be considered when determining this.
The size of your following should be taken into account. Running a shorter giveaway may make more sense if you have thousands of followers. You will have a bigger chance of more people entering your contest. You will rely on your hashtags to draw in more giveaway entries if you have a couple hundred followers.
Find the perfect length of time before you announce your giveaway. A minimum of 1 week and a maximum of 4 weeks is a good benchmark, while 2 weeks is an ideal time on average.
Giveaways that last a few days, held by businesses with thousands of followers, tend to be popular. But that’s a good choice if you already have a big following.
One last thing: Consider time zones (especially if you have an international audience). Your entrants will likely be dotted around the world, so be sure you’re clear about when the contest deadline ends.
Pro Tip: Post weekly reminders to remind people that the contest is ending. This is also a great way to encourage last-minute entries.
6. Promote Your Instagram Giveaway
When you launch your giveaway, remember that one announcement isn’t enough. Your audience may not be constantly browsing Instagram, so they may miss it.
To counteract that, plan a few promotional posts to get your giveaway to your audience.
- Create suspense with a post to announce when the giveaway will start.
- Create an announcement post to launch the giveaway officially.
- Announce your giveaway with an Instagram story and create one whenever you post.
- Create a repost of previous posts to remind your followers (and draw in others) to enter your giveaway. This step isn’t as important if your giveaway isn’t running for long.
- Share a final call-to-action post to create urgency a few days before your Instagram giveaway ends.
- Announce the winner by congratulating them in a post and share an image of your prize.
In addition to using Instagram to share your giveaway, other digital marketing channels can also be used to promote it. You could post to Twitter, Facebook, and any other social media sites you use to drive traffic to your Instagram post.
7. Don’t Clash With Major Holidays
Before launching your Instagram giveaway, check the calendar to ensure you’re not clashing with any major holidays. There are a few reasons for this.
Some holidays, such as Christmas or New Year’s, are when people have the least time to spend on other activities. So, if you run a giveaway around major holidays, announce it well in advance.
That said, it’s possible to capitalize on a holiday like this. For example, you could use the holiday parallel to your giveaway and create a Christmas-themed giveaway.
If your product (and therefore the prize) is seasonal, consider timing your giveaway posts so that your audience’s interest will be piqued.
8. Set Realistic Goals
Don’t run an Instagram giveaway if you don’t know why you are doing it. Instead, set measurable goals you want to achieve for your campaign.
Here are a handful of tips for setting goals for your Instagram giveaway.
- Be specific. For example, to extrapolate on growing your audience, aim to increase your Instagram followers by any amount you decide. That way, you can mark your progress daily and strive toward your goal.
- Make them measurable. Following on from being specific, use numbers or percentages to determine your goals. This way, you can measure whether your giveaway underperformed or exceeded your expectations.
- Be realistic. While keeping your eyes on the prize is good, setting realistic goals and working towards them is wise.
9. Follow Up With Your Audience
Following up with your audience and converting them to customers holds more value than increasing your followers. The overall goal of your giveaway shouldn’t only be to draw in new people, but you want to build lasting relationships and loyal customers.
Follow these steps:
- Link in bio. If your realistic and measurable goal is to increase sales, help Instagram users find your shop. Adding bio links to your profile is the best way to do that. Include call-to-actions in your posts, inviting users to click the link in your bio and shop!
- Promote your prize. When your Instagram contest ends, and you announce the winner, remind your audience where they can buy the prize.
- Offer a discount. Consider following up your Instagram giveaway with a “consolation prize” thanking everyone for entering the giveaway. Offer a discount on the prize item for a limited time for all your customers.
What are the Best Instagram Giveaway Ideas?
Some of the best giveaway types on Instagram are the simplest to enter. Some of these include:
1. Tag-to-win giveaway: This type of giveaway requires the entrants to tag a certain number of friends. If this idea is coupled with a couple more, it’s one of the most effective giveaway ideas.
2. Like-to-win giveaway: As the title suggests, all the entrants must do is like your post. However, it’s not the best Instagram giveaway idea because it doesn’t involve much engagement. So it’s best to combine this idea with another one.
3. Comment-to-win giveaway: This requires the entrants to comment about a certain topic. You can also ask them to comment with a particular emoji to enter the giveaway.
4. Repost-to-win giveaway: This type asks the entrants to repost to enter the giveaway. Overall, it also performs well as it’s so easy to enter and widens your IG reach. You can also ask the entrants to repost your post on their IG stories!
5. Caption-this contest: This type of giveaway requires the entrants to write a caption about an image you’ve shared. Then, the best caption wins.
6. Photo contest: This type of giveaway is more time-consuming for the entrant and requires them to post a photo as you requested. They must tag you as the giveaway organizer in their photo entry, and then you get to select the best one!
Some more creative giveaway ideas you might like to consider are as follows:
- Give away a free giveaway prize daily for a week-long promotion.
- Give away more than one prize or a selection of inexpensive products in a hamper.
- Give a high-value prize to whoever can design a new logo for your company.
- Create a contest that includes using your product and sharing a post about it.
- Hold a photo contest where fans can submit photos taken with a specific product.
- Create a contest where people tag three friends who don’t already follow you to win.
- Ask your followers to like your post and share your giveaway on their profile.
How Can I Pick the Instagram Giveaway Winner?
Depending on your giveaway type from the above list, you will choose the winner in one of the following ways.
- From replies
- From hashtags
- From retweets
- From manual selection
That said, there are primarily two ways you can choose a winner on Instagram:
1. Manually: You can write down the eligible entrant’s names in a spreadsheet, then choose a random name from the lot. The downside is that it’s a time-consuming process.
2. Automatically: You can choose a winner with an Instagram giveaway picker tool. These tools will help you automate the selection process and save time.
These tools include Wishpond, AiGrow, Instagram Random Comment Picker, Easy Promos App, Shortstack, Viral Loops, Vyper, and Gleam. Among those tools, Gleam is our absolute favorite! Read our comprehensive Gleam Review to find out why!
Top Instagram Giveaway Picker Tools
One way to choose a winner fairly (and easily) is to use a free Instagram Giveaway Picker tool.
The following tools will help you choose giveaway winners randomly.
- Wask. This is an easy tool to use when choosing a winner. To use it, you only need to enter the URL of your Instagram post. It then helps to pull the giveaway comments and find a winning account for your giveaway.
- Instagram Comment Picker. This trusted and free tool selects a random winner from any contest you create.
- Wishpond. This picker provides many tools to run and track your social promotions. It can help you run your contest and grow your audience. You can also choose giveaway templates on this application or create one yourself.
Entering Instagram Giveaways to Win Prizes
It’s easy to enter an Instagram giveaway, but winning is another matter altogether. Everyone wants to win a giveaway, although few know how to maximize their chances of winning.
Instagram offers various prizes and every type of giveaway, including book giveaways, NFT, and even instant cash giveaways.
Instagram giveaways don’t have many secrets regarding how they work. An individual or business will advertise a product (or the prize). Whether it’s a physical or digital item, the entrants will be required to complete action steps to play by the rules.
The giveaway will be shared on the platform via an Instagram post, and there is usually an eye-catching image along with the giveaway rules in a giveaway post.
The giveaway image will sometimes include the deadline for the giveaway so that you know when to enter.
If the giveaway host uses a computer-generated (CG) winner-picker, the winner will be selected randomly based on all the criteria. That’s why it’s vital to follow all giveaway rules to win.
Are Instagram Giveaways Worth it?
It’s easy to find individuals holding giveaways to enter on Instagram, but is it worth it? Of course, they’re worthwhile when it comes to winning, as everybody loves to win something!
Only entering popular giveaways can be disappointing, as these giveaways are competitive. Some people who only enter popular giveaways and don’t win might say giveaways aren’t worth it. But generally, the bigger the prize, the more competitive it will be.
Signing up for every giveaway doesn’t guarantee winning a prize, either. It can be frustrating to enter every giveaway without maximizing your chances, which might lead to zero wins.
Aside from luck being on your side, there are ways you can maximize your chances of winning an Instagram giveaway. We will share essential tips.
Finding a Giveaway on Instagram
Before you begin entering giveaways, you must know how to find them. Begin by searching for giveaways on Instagram that excite you.
There are many ways to search for giveaways on the platform. Like winning giveaways, sometimes this also comes down to luck. You might not be expecting to find a prize, and one shows up unexpectedly in your search.
This can work to your advantage because the giveaways that are more tricky to find will typically have only a handful of entries!
Before we get into the top tips for finding more Instagram giveaways to win, here is the easiest way to find giveaways on Instagram right now.
- Make relevant searches on Instagram. You can search for single hashtags associated with giveaways using the Instagram search bar. For example, #win, #competition, #competitiontime, #instagramcompetition, #sweepstakes (US), #contest (US), #giveaway (international), #giveawayuk (UK), #ukgiveaway (UK), #loopgiveaway (these are popular in US, Canada, and Australia).
Bonus Tips: Filter the search results by “recent first.”
You can also select “follow” a hashtag. Then, hashtagged posts will automatically appear in your feed. The search will give numerous generic results, but you can easily look for “win” or “giveaway” in the photos.
9 Steps for Winning Instagram Giveaways
Here are 9 tips to ensure you find and win more prizes on Instagram. These tips will guarantee you don’t run the risk of letting a prize slip through your fingers.
1. Narrow Your Search
We emphasize the importance of filtering the giveaways you want to enter and choosing the ones that interest you. Remember, registering for everyone who appears might result in disappointing results. So don’t overdo it; focus on what you want.
Also, don’t forget to search for what you want using hashtags. You can only search for one hashtag at a time.
2. Be an Active Fan
If you’re following a brand that regularly posts giveaways, you should endeavor to engage with them regularly on their Instagram page. That way, they’ll know you’re a fan, and when you enter their competition giveaways, your account name will already be familiar to them.
Pro Tip: If you use their services or products or visit their physical business, tag them in a photo you post to Instagram or a story. This touch will help you win a prize when you enter a giveaway.
3. Maintain Your Profile
You want to ensure your Instagram profile account looks good. Some promoters might check your profile before deciding if you’re a winner.
They do this to ensure you’re not a spam account or, in cases, they’d like to give the prize to a deserving fan.
You can pin 3 of your favorite posts to the top of your profile – people will see those first when they check out your profile.
4. Use Twitter and Google
Most companies tweet about their Instagram accounts or automatically tweet their Instagram content. Finding giveaways on Twitter is usually a win-win situation, as some giveaways are unpopular with thousands of entrants.
For that reason, use Twitter’s advanced search function. Like you would with Instagram, use the search function to find hashtags with words such as win, competition, giveaway, or prize. When you get the results you’re after, select “latest” to see the most recent tweets.
You can also save the search by clicking “more options” and “save search.” That way, you can always return to your preferred search terms in Twitter’s search box.
Tweetdeck is also a great tool for making multiple searches. You can also use Google search to find unique giveaways on Instagram.
5. Play by the Rules
One of the biggest mistakes people make on Instagram is not paying attention to the giveaway rules. Even if you are selected, you won’t win the prize if you don’t abide by the rules.
It’s important to read the giveaway rules carefully, and if you still have any questions, you can ask the organizer to clarify.
6. Do What is Asked
While following the rules, be careful to do what is asked of you and not overdo it. Suppose you have to enter the giveaway by tagging x3 friends and commenting on a specific topic on the post. You might forget to comment on the topic, or you might only tag two friends.
If that’s the case, you’ll immediately be out of the draw, especially if an automated winner-picker will choose the winner.
In addition, it’s not worth tagging more friends than you are asked to tag. If you have to tag 3 friends, don’t tag 6!
7. Check Out Your Competition
The following tips are especially helpful for competition giveaways. Most giveaway hosts will use generic and branded hashtags (the branded hashtags are the best to use here). Checking out the hashtags they’ve used is one of the best ways to check out your competition.
Tapping the hashtags, you can see how many entries there are so far. If the giveaway requires you to upload a photo or create a meme, for example, you’ll also be able to get ideas for your entry.
What are all of the entries like so far? What can you do to make your entry the best amongst the current competition?
8. Enter as Late as Possible
When planning to enter Instagram giveaways, entering as late as possible can be advantageous.
The entries are public, so promoters can track them. That means other entrants can copy your photo contest image and wait for your entries. You could wait a day or two before the deadline to avoid being copied.
When you’re feeling organized, save your giveaways to dated collections. That way, you can easily enter the closing date.
This also means your entry will be at the top of the recent search results, which is great when many people have entered the giveaway.
9. Follow Giveaway Accounts
Following giveaway-specific accounts on Instagram, such as @giveawaylisting, is a great way to find giveaways.
To find other giveaway accounts and people who regularly share and enter giveaways, click on relevant hashtags in the search bar and tap on entries in the results. After that, tap the account’s username.
By doing this, you’ll find loads of new giveaway accounts. You’ll also see others commenting on photos and can tap to visit their profile. You can follow them or save a link to their account as a browser bookmark.
People who regularly enter and reshare giveaways usually do so via their stories, so make sure to tap and view their stories when you visit their profile.
Top tip: If you follow a business account or a user, you can ‘get notifications every time they post. Tap “following” on their profile page, then tap “notifications.”
Bonus Tip: log in to Instagram as often as possible. You want to check your inbox and activity every day if you’re expecting to win prizes. If winners are announced in an Instagram story, you’ll only have 24 hours to determine if you’ve won. So, make sure to check your inbox daily!
Instagram Giveaways: Closing Thoughts
As the staggering stats revealed earlier, Instagram giveaways can give you the traction needed to grow your business or give you the ability to win amazing prizes.
You can implement various Instagram giveaway ideas now as a small business. As a giveaway goer, there are plenty of giveaways you can enter!
If you’d like to check out the latest IG giveaways, check out our live feeds. On our home page, you’ll find an updated list of giveaways from Instagram.
Good luck with creating your giveaway or winning more prizes! Tag us on Instagram if you want to update us with your good news!
Instagram Giveaways FAQs
Here are answers to some frequently asked questions about Instagram giveaways in 2024.
How to Do a Giveaway From Instagram?
First, to host an Instagram giveaway, determine your goals and choose a relevant prize. Then, clear rules and eligibility requirements will be set, and the duration of the giveaway will be decided.
Create an eye-catching post with all the necessary details, promote it across your social media platforms, and pick a winner transparently. After the giveaway, analyze the results to see if you met your goals.
Are Instagram Giveaways Real?
Many Instagram giveaways are real and used by brands and influencers to increase engagement and followers. However, there are also fake giveaways designed to scam users.
To ensure a giveaway is legitimate, check if the account is verified, has a history of activity, and clearly outlines the terms and conditions.
How to Find a Giveaway Winner on Instagram for Free?
You can find a giveaway winner on Instagram for free by using tools like [WASK](4) or [Rafflys](5). Copy and paste the link to your Instagram giveaway post into the tool. It will automatically pick a random winner based on the comments. These tools also allow you to apply filters and ensure transparency in the selection process.
How Can I Increase my Chances of Winning Instagram Giveaways?
To increase your chances of winning Instagram giveaways, follow the giveaway account and engage actively with their posts.
Follow all the instructions, use relevant hashtags, and tag friends as required. Additionally, participate in giveaways that have fewer entries to improve your odds.
