Everyone enjoys getting things for free.
It’s not just the “extreme couponers” either; almost everyone loves the opportunity to snag some free stuff, regardless of whether it’s a buy-one-get-one deal on coffee at the grocery store or a chance to win free oil changes for a year.
While marketers might not prefer using terms like “manipulate” to describe their strategies, when it comes to engaging their audience, tapping into – or rather, leveraging – this desire for freebies is a very effective technique. In this article, we’ll explore how you can use giveaways and similar promotions on Instagram to expand your following and attract new customers. We’ll cover the marketing fundamentals of launching a giveaway, illustrate its impact on Instagram growth with real-world examples, and highlight potential pitfalls to avoid.
What Exactly Are Instagram Giveaways?
Instagram giveaways are time-limited promotions where brands offer a product or service as a prize to one or more participants based on pre-determined criteria.
Here’s an example of an Instagram giveaway post. If you’re even a little bit active on Instagram, you’ve likely come across a giveaway already. Big-name companies and small businesses alike use Instagram giveaways to generate excitement for new product launches, connect with new audiences, and expand their social media following.
Sometimes the prizes are amazing, while other times they might be… less exciting. Regardless of what’s being offered (or what you’re hoping to win), Instagram giveaways are a great way to create a buzz and draw in new potential followers.
Why Consider Running an Instagram Giveaway?
While you can run an Instagram giveaway for a variety of reasons, the two most common motivations for this kind of promotion are:
- To increase social media shares of a specific Instagram post.
- To expand your Instagram following.
Ideally, a well-executed Instagram giveaway should achieve both of these goals. A highly engaging post will naturally encourage sharing, leading to greater visibility and impressions, while the entry requirements for the giveaway can simultaneously work towards growing your audience on Instagram.
The more people participate, the more your post gets shared, leading to even more entries, more followers, and even more shares… you get the picture.
Why Give Away Free Stuff in an Instagram Giveaway?
If you’re new to this type of promotion, you might be wondering if running an Instagram giveaway seems a bit counterintuitive. It’s a valid concern, but it’s worth examining more closely.
Original art/animation by Snowbacon You’ve probably heard the saying, “You have to spend money to make money." This holds true for both giant corporations and small, independent businesses. Very few genuinely free methods of promoting your business exist (although there are some), and in reality, growing your audience will always involve some kind of investment. This could mean investing your time (like you would if you were trying to grow your Instagram following organically), dedicating a budget for paid social media campaigns if you’re advertising on Instagram, or even using inventory if you’re planning a giveaway.
Only you can determine the true value of a giveaway. However, viewing it as an investment rather than a loss might make it easier to accept.
How to Run an Effective Instagram Giveaway
Let’s say you’ve decided to take the leap and launch your very first Instagram giveaway. Now what? Well, it’s time to actually set up and execute your giveaway.
Step 1: Select a Prize for Your Instagram Giveaway
Before you launch your giveaway, you need to choose an appealing prize for the winner(s).
My wife, Nicky, recently ran her first Instagram giveaway to celebrate the one-year anniversary of her design studio and enamel pin company, CATPARTY (yes, it’s in all caps, and no, I won’t apologize for the shameless promotion).
The first thing she did was decide to offer a product bundle called the the Party Pack as the prize. This Party Pack features a limited-edition one-inch enamel pin, a one-inch button, and a vinyl sticker, all featuring CATPARTY’s beloved mascot, Party Cat.
Meet Party Cat – he’s ready to celebrate! The individual items in the Party Pack retail for about $14, while the pack itself is priced at just over $12. For Nicky, this was the perfect product for an Instagram giveaway; it was enticing enough to encourage participation (we’ll talk more about this later) without significantly impacting sales revenue.
Finding the right prize involves striking a balance. You need to offer something appealing enough to incentivize people to enter while also ensuring that the cost of the giveaway won’t hurt your bottom line.
Step 2: Establish the Entry Requirements for Your Instagram Giveaway
For her giveaway, Nicky set two entry requirements:
- Follow CATPARTY on Instagram
- Tag two friends when sharing the original post
Everyone who completed both of these steps was entered into the giveaway. To sweeten the deal, Nicky also decided that for every additional person tagged in a participant’s shared post, they would receive an extra entry.
Nicky’s primary goal wasn’t to boost immediate sales, but rather to raise awareness and grow her Instagram following. That’s why following CATPARTY was the most important entry criterion. She hoped that by combining this with the two-person tagging requirement, she could significantly increase her follower count. Every extra tag represented another potential follower.
Similar to selecting an appealing prize, defining the entry criteria for your giveaway is all about finding the right balance. You want to ensure that the effort you ask from potential entrants helps you reach your primary goal without making it too demanding and limiting participation.
Think of it like optimizing a web form; if you have too many fields, you’ll likely discourage a significant portion of people who might have entered the contest (or continued through your landing page, to extend the analogy). Too few fields, and you risk falling short of your goal of growing your following (or not gathering enough information about your potential customers).
Step 3: Determine the Duration of Your Instagram Giveaway
Next, you need to decide on the timeframe for your Instagram giveaway.
Nicky initially planned to run her Instagram giveaway for seven days, starting on a Monday and ending on Sunday night. However, an unexpected last-minute issue forced her to postpone the contest by a couple of days. In the end, she ran the giveaway from Tuesday morning to Wednesday evening, giving people a full seven days to enter.
Several factors can influence the duration of your Instagram giveaway.
One factor is the size of your current following. For instance, a shorter giveaway might make more sense if you already have thousands of followers. In Nicky’s case, with her smaller following, a full week felt like the right amount of time. It’s also worth considering that the longer a giveaway runs, the less effective it might become or you might see diminishing returns, so carefully consider this before making any announcements.
Time zones and international audiences are also important. It’s unlikely that all your potential entrants reside in the same time zone, so be very clear about when the contest closes. Posting reminders can be helpful to keep the contest top-of-mind and encourage last-minute entries.
Due to the potential for higher shipping costs compared to the prize’s value, Nicky had to consider whether to accept international entries. She ultimately decided to allow international participants but included a brief disclaimer about shipping fees to avoid any unpleasant surprises if, for example, someone from Australia won.
Step 4: Create an Effective Instagram Giveaway Post
You’ve completed the groundwork; now it’s time to officially launch your Instagram giveaway. Before you do, you’ll need an actual Instagram post.
The “perfect” Instagram giveaway post varies greatly from one account to the next. However, all Instagram giveaway posts should include:
- A visually appealing, high-quality image as the foundation for the post
- Concise and effective text announcing the giveaway
Nicky used the following image for her Instagram giveaway:
As you can see, the main image of the post features a striking, colorful visual along with text announcing the contest. While she could have added more text directly onto the image, Nicky smartly kept it minimal, instead using the post’s caption to explain how to enter.
Although there are no strict rules for creating Instagram giveaway posts, it’s beneficial to view your post from your audience’s perspective. If you’re giving away a particular product, featuring it in your announcement post makes sense. It wouldn’t be logical to use an image of a Maserati sports car for an Instagram giveaway promoting a weekend yoga retreat, for example.
Once you’re satisfied with your post, publish it and let the contest begin!
Step 5: Share ‘Reminder’ Posts Throughout Your Instagram Giveaway
Even though Instagram posts might not be as fleeting as tweets, the volume of posts appearing on an Instagram timeline at any given moment is significant, especially if you follow many accounts.
Therefore, Instagram giveaways aren’t a “set it and forget it” tactic. Be ready to provide regular updates throughout the contest, reminding people how much time is left to enter and ensuring a consistent flow of participants.
The frequency of these “reminder” posts is up to you. Nicky chose to publish a single reminder post on the third day of her contest. Based on her research, she felt that multiple daily updates were excessive, and since her giveaway lasted for a full week, one mid-week reminder was sufficient.
These reminder posts should be primarily visual to catch people’s attention as they scroll through their timelines. The captions should reiterate the giveaway rules, but experiment with the caption length based on how often you post reminders. A simple variation of the initial post with a shorter caption was enough for Nicky, but you might want to create more elaborate posts depending on your strategy.
Step 6: Calculate the Results of Your Instagram Giveaway
The week (or however long your giveaway lasted) is over, and you’ve gathered a list of Instagram followers who participated. Now, it’s time to pick the lucky winner!
Tallying up the entries for your Instagram giveaway can be very easy or a logistical headache – it all depends on your entry criteria and the number of participants.
Once her giveaway ended, Nicky reviewed her Instagram feed and compiled a spreadsheet with the names of all entrants who followed the rules. Each entrant had their name on a separate row. People who entered only once – by following CATPARTY and tagging two others – were listed on a single row, while those who tagged additional people had their names entered on multiple rows to reflect their extra entries.
Here’s the lucky winner and their prize Nicky used a simple online name-picking tool to select a winner from the list of participants. However, we couldn’t find any software that allowed CSV uploads, which meant manually entering each name. Entrants with multiple submissions had their names entered the corresponding number of times. (Let me know in the comments if you’re aware of a tool that supports uploads!)
No matter how you approach it, determining the winner of your Instagram giveaway will likely involve at least some manual effort, so opt for a system that allows you to select a winner as efficiently and impartially as possible.
Step 7: Announce the Winner of Your Instagram Giveaway
That’s it! You’ve successfully run your first Instagram giveaway and chosen a winner from the pool of participants. All that’s left is to notify the lucky individual!
Sure, sending a direct message is an option, but why miss out on an opportunity? Why not make the winner announcement as exciting as the rest of the contest?
GET READY FOR THE HYPE TRAIN Announcing the winner of your Instagram giveaway is another chance for exposure and audience growth. It’s a fun and engaging way to inform the winner while thanking those who didn’t win and reminding your audience about upcoming sales or future competitions.
Using Your Instagram Giveaway Data in Future Campaigns
Instagram giveaways aren’t just a great way to grow your following and generate buzz; they also provide a treasure trove of valuable data waiting to be analyzed.
You probably already know that you can access analytics for your Instagram feed if you have a Business account. If you haven’t explored this data yet, right after an Instagram giveaway is an excellent time to start.
Once her giveaway concluded, Nicky examined her analytics data to learn more about her audience.
Nicky discovered several interesting insights after her contest. For instance, despite being located on the East Coast of the United States, she learned that she had a loyal (and expanding) following in London. This is largely because the enamel pin community is closely connected and currently very popular in the UK’s capital. Nicky has also made a number of sales to London-based customers, which might also explain this trend.
Next, Nicky looked at more specific demographic data about her audience. She discovered that the majority are women between the ages of 25 and 34 – a very profitable and desirable demographic.
Unlike some analytics data, demographic information might not be as influenced by Instagram giveaways. As long as you’re not unfairly favoring one demographic over another in your contest – for example, by giving women twice as many entries as men – you can likely be confident in the accuracy of your demographic data, both before and after the contest.
It’s important to approach Instagram analytics data with caution if you’re looking at it after a giveaway, as valuable as it can be. For instance, you can see in the screenshot that many of Nicky’s new followers started following CATPARTY’s Instagram account on Thursday afternoons. However, since her Instagram giveaway ran from Tuesday morning to Wednesday night, this follower data could easily be skewed by the contest.
That said, this data could also indicate a surge in entries on the second day of the competition, which is potentially valuable information for future giveaways.
How Successful Was CATPARTY’s Instagram Giveaway?
By now, you might be wondering how effective CATPARTY’s first Instagram giveaway turned out to be.
As I mentioned earlier, CATPARTY’s primary goal was to increase their Instagram follower count – any sales would be a bonus, but boosting revenue wasn’t the main objective.
Prior to the giveaway, CATPARTY had approximately 200 followers on Instagram. Afterward, that number jumped to 340 – an increase of 70%!
Using traditional marketing metrics to gauge success, we can calculate the cost-per-acquisition for each new Instagram follower. We do this by dividing the value of the prize Nicky offered in her Instagram giveaway (around $12) by the number of new followers gained during the contest.
CATPARTY attracted about 140 new followers throughout the giveaway. This means each new follower cost a mere eight cents to acquire – not bad at all, particularly considering these are genuine followers (unlike followers Instagram accounts can pay for) who could potentially become paying customers in the future. In terms of ROI, this is quite impressive, even if the numbers themselves seem modest.
Utilizing Third-Party Instagram Analytics Tools
I was interested in diving deeper into Nicky’s Instagram analytics to see how else the giveaway might have affected CATPARTY’s Instagram presence.
While Instagram offers decent built-in tools, they are still somewhat limited. I decided to use a free online tool called Gabstats to analyze other performance metrics during the week of Nicky’s Instagram giveaway.
CATPARTY published 10 posts on Instagram during the contest week. Within that timeframe, CATPARTY’s Instagram posts received:
- 536 total Likes
- An average of 54 Likes per post
- 111 total comments
- An average of 12 comments per post
We can examine each of Gabstat’s performance metrics individually. Here’s a graph showing the Likes on CATPARTY’s Instagram posts throughout the giveaway period:
As you can see, Likes on CATPARTY’s posts during the contest increased considerably between March 5 and March 6 – the day Nicky shared her reminder post.
We can also see which specific posts resonated the most during our chosen timeframe:
Interestingly, all three top-performing posts had similar numbers of Likes. However, the initial announcement post received significantly more comments compared to the reminder post shared six days later, which had only one. (The second most popular post was part of a month-long “Meet the Maker” series that CATPARTY participated in.)
The image above shows which hashtags Nicky used during her giveaway correlated with the most Likes. The hashtags #pinstagram and #pingiveaway tied for second place (#pinstagram is a common and popular hashtag within the enamel pin community, as is the third hashtag, #pingame). This provides you with additional data points to optimize your future posts.
Frustratingly, Gabstats doesn’t offer graphed or tabular data for follower counts, so we’ll have to rely on other data for this information. Still, it’s a pretty good tool considering it’s free. I’m always open to recommendations for similar Instagram analytics tools, so feel free to share them in the comments!
Give It Away, Give It Away Now
Instagram giveaways are a fantastic way for any business to connect with potential new fans, grow their social media presence, and engage with their audience. While certain businesses are naturally better suited for Instagram giveaways and similar promotions, I hope this article has sparked some ideas for you to experiment with during your next – or your very first – giveaway.
Have you tried this type of contest in your own social media campaigns? Share your thoughts, suggestions, and tips for running an Instagram giveaway in the comments below.