How to do a successful giveaway on Instagram?

Instagram, a social media that needs no introduction is a real goldmine for your brand. Hundreds, if not thousands, of different giveaways mechanics are published every day on this social media. Running a giveaway on Instagram is a great way to increase your visibility, engage your followers and convert leads into customers.

So, are you ready to become a master of Instagram giveaways?

Why create a giveaway on Instagram?

Instagram, the leading social media

Instagram is one of the most used social networks in the world. According to CNBC, in 2021, Instagram had more than 2 billion monthly active users. More than 500 million Instagram accounts worldwide are active every day.

In the United Kingdom, according to a study conducted by Statista, in 2021, there will be 28 million British people using Instagram each month, i.e. 39% of users. This places the United Kingdom 9th in the world regarding the number of Instagram followers. The top of the ranking is held by the United States, India, and Brazil.

So, with such a large user base, your target audience is surely on Instagram.

A high engagement rate

The average engagement rate on Instagram is 2.84%. This number is correlated to the number of followers. Indeed, if we relate the rate of likes and comments to the number of followers, we understand that the larger the community of a user is, the more engagement decreases.

According to a study by the app Tailwind, Instagram accounts that run regular giveaways increase their followers 70% faster than those that don't. This study also tells us that contests and giveaways on Instagram receive 3.5 times more "likes" and 64 more comments than an average post.

So, if you're looking to increase your engagement rate, creating a contest on Instagram is the perfect solution!

The giveaway mechanics

There are many ways to do giveaways on Instagram and you will surely find one that suits you.

The classic "Follow, Like, Comment".

You've probably already been tagged by your friend, colleague, or aunt to win a weekend in Sweden or a Thermomix... Don't worry, we're also spammed by those around us. 🙃 The reason behind all these notifications? The famous "Follow + Like + Comment" sequence, a must, for Instagram giveaways.

The "follow" allows you to grow your community, the "like" allows you to create a spike in engagement on a post and the "comment" has a double function as it allows you to increase your reach and also contribute to your engagement rate.

The brand "Boho Green" in partnership with "Prêt à Pousser" launched a competition to win a connected garden and a selection of beauty products. To participate, players had to follow both accounts, like the post, and comment on it.

Encourage sharing

Stories are another channel for publishing content on Instagram and their visibility is greater than posts.

There are two possibilities here. Some contests are based on the "follow + like + comment" mechanism and will ask participants to share the post in their story in order to increase their chances of winning. Others will only be based on a "follow + like + share" mechanism.

In both cases, this procedure is quite beneficial with the new Instagram algorithm. Where before, comments and likes had the highest added value, today things have changed. It is the registration in the comments and the sharing that predominate. Checking in is significant because it means that your content is interesting enough to want to be reviewed later. Sharing is also significant because if your content is shared, Instagram understands that it is relevant enough and your account can be highlighted.

Here, the hotel "Les Bords de Mer" offered to win two nights in their establishment. To play they asked to follow, like, and identify two people in comments. To double your chances, you could share this post in a story.

Challenge your community

Another type of giveaway on Instagram is the photo contest. Here, the brand challenges its followers and asks them to post or create a story featuring the brand's products. Many brands offer this contest all year round and select one winner per month.

This mechanism allows the brand to benefit from User Generated Content (UGC) and has many advantages:

• Your followers members become ambassadors
• You generate a high level of engagement with your followers
• You benefit from free branded content
• You increase your visibility and your reach

The French flower shop "Bergamotte", takes the stories published by their customers and integrates them on their account in Featured Stories. The winner is chosen by the team and announced on the same front-page story.

Partner with an influencer

Partnering with an influencer can be a beneficial marketing strategy for your brand. According to a Klear study, influencer marketing on Instagram has increased by more than 48% in 2019. In 2021, 14.5 million posts were actually published with the hashtag #ad on Instagram.

There are actually 4 types of influencers, defined by the size of their community:

• Nano influencers: less than 10K followers.
• Micro-influencers: between 10K and 100K followers.
• Macro-influencers: between 100K and 1 million followers.
• Mega-influencers: more than 1 million followers.

Depending on the profile selected, the approach will not be quite the same. A nano-influencer has "only" 10K followers and will bring you less visibility compared to a micro-influencer. However, their engagement rate is much higher. In most cases, it is not necessary to pay them, sending free products is enough.

On the other hand, if you choose a mega-influencer, your brand will enjoy unparalleled visibility and you will benefit from high-quality content. However, these influencers come at a cost, sometimes very high. We are talking about thousands of pounds for one or two sponsored posts. Also, you have to be careful with the engagement rate of these mega-influencers, which is not necessarily optimal.

Offer a mobile-first experience

The idea is to create a microsite through a quiz platform and offer a fully immersive experience designed for mobile.

You can invite your community to play a mini-game - a quiz, a racing game, a throwing game, a memory game,... - and then answer a few questions in a conversational bot to validate their participation in the game and qualify them.

This campaign was realized on Fastory for the Accor Hotel Arena. They offered participants the chance to win tickets for the Dj Snake concert. The experience consisted of a video quiz and a conversational bot. This quiz engaged their community and collected opt-ins. If you want to see more examples, you can visit our gallery.

This type of experience can be integrated with a link in your bio and/or shared by swiping up in your stories.

How to do a giveaway on Instagram properly

Running a giveaway can be very time-consuming if you don't know how to do it. But don't worry, we're here to give you our best advice ✨

1. Define your objectives and target audience
2. Determine the prize(s) to be won
3. Define the way to choose the winner(s): a draw? a voting system by your community?
4. Choose the time of your competition
5. Write your rules
6. Create a unique hashtag for your campaign
7. Relay your competition to your other social networks to generate traffic
8. After the campaign is over, measure and analyze the results (gain more followers, grow the email marketing database, etc.)

And that's it, you are ready to do your giveaway on Instagram! If you'd like to know more about creating an immersive mobile-first experience, don't hesitate to contact us. 📞