20 Successful Instagram Giveaway Ideas You Can Use (+ Examples)

Looking for Instagram giveaway ideas? I’ve got you covered.

In this post, I’ll share 20 creative ideas that you can use for inspiration for your next giveaway on Instagram.

Plus, I’ll show you examples of brands and influencers who have used each of these ideas to great success, so you can see what they might look like in practice.

Note: I’d recommend using SweepWidget to set up and manage your Instagram giveaway. It supports dozens of entry methods and is super easy to use.

#1 – The ‘like to enter’ giveaway

This is the most common giveaway you see on Instagram and it still works a treat. Create a post to promote your giveaway and ask users to like the post to enter.

All those likes that you get will serve as powerful engagement signals, which should give the post a boost in the algorithm and extend its reach, giving more people the chance to see it and enter.

Tip: Why stop at likes? Offer additional entries to users who complete extra engagement actions. For example, you could ask them to leave a comment or save the post for an extra chance to win.

Example

Here’s an example of a ‘like to enter’ giveaway from @jomajewellery.

They offered users the chance to enter the giveaway for a chance to win a package of summer treats. The first entry requirement was to like the post, and there were a bunch of subsequent requirements to squeeze more value out of the Instagram contest. They’ve already racked up over 7k likes, so it’s been super successful.

#2 – The ‘follow to enter’ giveaway

If the goal of your Instagram giveaway is to get more followers, then it makes sense to require users to follow your profile to enter.

If you’re lucky enough to have your giveaway post go viral, this could bag you thousands of new followers overnight and significantly boost your organic reach.

Tip: It’s easy to run ‘follow to enter’ Instagram giveaways with SweepWidget. Just choose Entry Methods > Instagram > Follow Profile when setting it up.

Example

Check out this example of a follow-to-enter giveaway from the dedicated giveaway page @withlovegiveaways.

They recently launched a giveaway of an Apple iPad and Airpods and required entrants to follow both their own page as well as all of the account’s that they’re following. This is a great way to get entrants to follow your partner brands without having to list all their profiles in your caption.

#3 – The ‘tag a friend’ giveaway

This is another popular Instagram giveaway format that you see all the time. It’s super straightforward: Just ask users to tag their friends in the comments to be entered into the draw. If you want, you could award extra entries to people who tag more of their friends.

The idea with this format is that your giveaway entrants do your promotional work for you. If one person tags two friends, and each of those two friends tags two friends, then you’ve increased your reach from one person to seven people already, without having to pay for any ads.

Example

Here’s an example of a tag-a-friend giveaway from @justinduancejewellery.

They asked entrants to tag a friend that they’d like to bring along to see them at the local craft festival for a chance to win two tickets and a voucher.

#4 – The ‘nominate a friend’ giveaway

Instead of asking users to tag their friends to enter themselves in the draw, invite them to nominate a friend that they’d like to enter.

For example, let’s say you’re a company that sells homeware products like furniture and household decorations. For your giveaway, you could ask users to nominate someone they know who has just moved home to give them a chance to win a package of your best sellers.

Example

In this Mother’s Day giveaway from @balistonfootwear, entrants were asked to nominate a special mom in their life.

The winner would get two pairs of shoes for both themselves and the person they nominated. As you’d expect, lots of people jumped at the chance to show their appreciation for the women who raised them.

#5 – The photo contest

Instagram is the number one social network for sharing photos and selfies. So naturally, one of the best giveaway formats for the platform is a photo contest.

Ask users to share a relevant photo (e.g. a selfie of them using your product) to their Instagram Stories or pages using a campaign hashtag to enter the contest. Alternatively, you could require them to upload the photo to your website instead.

You could promise to pick the best submission as the winner of the giveaway prize or draw a winner at random from the pool of entrants. It’s up to you.

Tip: Photo Instagram contests are great for collecting user-generated content, which you can then use as social proof in your wider marketing campaigns.

Example

Check out this Instagram photo contest from salon and spa @pinklimevc

They asked entrants to post a snap of their current hairstyle with the hashtag #pinklimelooks on Instagram for a chance to win a $500 hairstyle and makeup makeover.

#6 – The video contest

This is like the photo contest but instead of asking users to share a selfie, you ask them to share a video to enter.

As with the photo contest, it’s up to you whether you want to give the prize to the best submission or pick a winner at random.

You can use videos to promote your giveaway too. For example, introduce the giveaway in a Reel, and announce the winners in an Instagram Live broadcast.

Tip: Making a video is more work than sharing a photo, so the prize for this one has to be good if you want people to enter. Consider offering multiple prizes: one for first place, second place, third place, etc. People are more likely to enter if they have a realistic chance of winning.

Example

Here’s a fun example of a video contest from @gunjguglani in partnership with @goproindia.

They challenged users to download some footage, edit it to showcase their editing skills and post their edits to their Instagram page with a branded hashtag for a chance to win a GoProHERO11.

#7 – The voting contest

In voting contests, the winner of the giveaway is the entrant who receives the most votes. These types of giveaways are super engaging as they have that extra element of competition that gets people invested.

One way to set this up is to ask Instagram users to share a photo/video/story and tag your profile in the caption, or use a specific campaign hashtag, to enter.

Then, ask your Instagram followers to search for that hashtag and vote for their favorite. The Instagram post with the most votes is the winner!

Tip: It’s possible for users to ‘bot’ likes so when possible, it’s better to use a contest tool that has anti-fraud features to prevent this.

Example

The #publiclandsproud Instagram giveaway contest from @troutunlimited is a good example of a successful voting contest.

Entrants were asked to post a picture on Instagram of America’s public lands with the campaign hashtag alongside a story of why public lands are important to them. The photo-story that got the most likes would win a guided fishing day or fly rod and weel outfit.

#8 – The caption contest

Caption contests are a super fun way to run an Instagram giveaway.

All you have to do is share a photo on Instagram and ask users to suggest a caption for it in the comments.

Anyone who leaves a comment with a suggested caption is entered into the competition. You can then select a winner at random from the pool of entrants, or award the prize to your favorite caption.

Example

Fitness page @athleanx recently ran a caption contest in which entrants were asked to provide the caption to a funny/weird photo of a staredown between a man and a skeleton.

The comment with the most votes would win access to one of ATHLEAN-X’s 90-day programs. As you’d expect, there were a lot of funny entries.

#9 – The repost competition

In a repost competition, you require users to repost one of your own Instagram posts to their Story in order to enter.

This can work super well as every time someone reposts your content, it can potentially get seen by hundreds of their followers. Any one of those followers could then join the giveaway and repost it to their Story too, and this can create a snowball effect.

Before you know it, your giveaway could have reached hundreds of thousands of people and gathered thousands of entrants.

Tip: SweepWidget makes it easy to run a repost contest. Just create a new giveaway and then go to Entry Methods > Instagram > Repost to set it up.

Example

Here’s an example of a repost contest from @offshore.surf.co. They asked users to repost their giveaway post to their story and tag them to enter for a chance to win.

The repost competition - offshore.surf.co

#10 – The lead generation giveaway

Instagram giveaways can also be used to generate a ton of new leads for your business.

For example, you could set it up so that users have to subscribe to your mailing list in order to enter. Then, send out a sequence of lead nurturing emails to all the new subscribers you get to turn them into paying customers.

You’ll need to set up an opt-in form for this. Add a link in your Instagram bio to your email opt-in page, and make a post promoting your giveaway. In the rules, explain that users must click the link in your bio and join your mailing list to be automatically entered for a chance to win.

Example

@helloseoulofficial used a giveaway to help build their mailing list.

They required users to subscribe to their newsletter and follow their Instagram account to be in with a chance to win their products. There were 7 products up for grabs, so lots of opportunities to win.

#11 – The Story giveaway

Announce a flash 24-hour giveaway in your Instagram Story. Once the Story disappears the following day, the giveaway will end and a winner will be selected.

Making your giveaway last just 24 hours helps to incentivize more users to join in for two reasons.

First off, people naturally have a fear of missing out (FOMO), and making your giveaway only last for a very short time helps to capitalize on this.

Secondly, shorter giveaways are more exciting as people know they won’t have to wait days, weeks, or even months to find out whether or not they’ve won. They’ll find out the very next day.

#12 – The challenge giveaway

If you feel like getting a little more creative, consider gamifying your giveaway by adding a challenge.

For example, share a riddle and ask users to solve it—correct answers are entered for a chance to win.

Or what about this: Hide a secret code somewhere on your website (e.g. in the footer or background image) and tell users they have to tell you the secret code to enter. This is a great way to drive traffic to your site and make your giveaway more engaging at the same time.

#13 – The ‘choose your own prize’ giveaway

The prize is the most important part of your giveaway. Users are only going to enter if the prize is something they want—but everyone wants different things.

So to maximize your giveaway’s appeal, why not let them choose their own prize? For example, you could let the winner select any three products from your catalog up to $100 in value.

Example

@thefreebieguy opted to let users pick their own prize in this giveaway. Winners would be able to choose between a Nintendo Switch, a KitchenAid Mixer, an iPad, an Apple Watch 3, or a pair of Apple AirPods.

The great thing about this prize pool is there’s something to suit every demographic, so the Freebie Guy didn’t limit his audience. That’s no doubt part of the reason his giveaways have racked up so many followers.

#14 – The ‘follower milestone’ giveaway

Instead of announcing your giveaway randomly, use it to celebrate reaching a follower milestone.

For example, when your brand’s Instagram page reaches 10k followers, share a post saying that you’re running a giveaway to show all your followers how much you appreciate them and give something back. This shows your brand in a positive light and helps to boost loyalty.

Example

Check out this giveaway from @camisophiaaaaa, in partnership with @withintention_.

She launched this giveaway to celebrate reaching 400k followers and thank her audience for all their support, and it was a huge success.

#15 – The holiday giveaway

Another great excuse to run a giveaway is to celebrate a holiday. And that’s easy given that there’s a holiday on pretty much every day in the calendar.

Obviously, there are the big ones like Christmas, New Year, Hanukkah, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, etc.

But there are also a ton of lesser-known holidays that you probably didn’t know even existed. For example, international Bubble Bath Day is a great excuse to launch a giveaway of bath & body products. Likewise, Love Your Pet Day might be the perfect time to run a giveaway of dog/cat toys.

Tip: Don’t forget to use relevant holiday hashtags in your giveaway posts to make them more discoverable and improve reach.

Example

In this post, @mallowandmarsh shared a mouth-watering giveaway that gave users the chance to win all sorts of tasty treats ahead of Pancake Day.

#16 – The leaderboard competition

Everyone loves a competition, which is why another great way to gamify your Instagram giveaway is to add a leaderboard.

For example, if you’re running a photo or video contest, you could place a leaderboard on your site showing the top 10 entrants who currently have the most votes.

This makes your giveaway more engaging and provides a powerful incentive for people to get involved.

#17 – The periodic giveaway

A lot of Instagram users run periodic giveaways at set intervals. For example, on a set date every week, month, season, year, etc.

You could even make it a running theme of your Instagram page. For example, in your bio, let followers know about ‘giveaway Wednesdays’ so they know which day to expect a new contest every week.

The great thing about periodic giveaways is that you’re more likely to get regular entrants that come back time and time again, which guarantees that your giveaway will get an initial boost of engagement and also helps to improve follower retention.

#18 – The countdown giveaway

A countdown giveaway is one that runs over several days in the run-up to something.

For example, you could run a ‘12 days of Christmas’ giveaway series, in which you run one new 24-hour giveaway on each of the days running up to Christmas.

You could do the same sort of thing in the run-up to a new product launch too. For example, one giveaway each week in the two months running up to the launch. And on launch day, promise to do one final giveaway of the new product.

Example

Action cam brand @GoPro ran a countdown giveaway campaign that they called ’12 Days of HERO12′.

In it, they gave away 24 GoPro HERO12 Black bundles. Each day there was a different prize on offer and each giveaway only ran for 24 hours.

For example, on day one, they selected 6 winners and gave away 12 cameras and Max Lens Mod 2.0s.

As you’d expect, this got a lot of people excited. And their very first giveaway post alone racked up over 66,000 likes.

#19 – The partner giveaway

Don’t have anything good to give away as a prize? Partner with a brand and let them provide the prize.

It works the other way too. If you’re a brand with plenty of products to give away but only a small audience, partner with an influencer with a larger following so your giveaway reaches more people.

It’s a win-win situation!

Example

Influencer @shaghnaphillions teamed up with @inthestyle for this huge clothing giveaway, and it was a roaring success.

At the time of writing, it’s already racked up over 171k likes—that’s a lot of engagements and likely much more than In The Style would have been able to achieve had they not partnered with Shaughna.

#20 – The ‘share your…’ giveaway

Ask users to share a story, idea, opinion, review, or anything else to enter your giveaway.

For example, if you’re a pet brand, you could ask users to ‘Tell us your most hilarious pet story. The funniest anecdote will win a pet pamper package. Don’t forget to @ us and use #MyFunnyPetStory.’

To keep track of entrants, set up a branded hashtag and remind users to include it in their posts like the example above.

Example

@Marvel ran a popular giveaway to celebrate its 10-year anniversary, in which they asked users to share their favorite memory of the Black Panther movie in order to enter. The prize up for grabs was a trip to the Avengers Infinity War premiere.

The clever thing about this campaign was that it didn’t just drive engagement and raise awareness of the upcoming movie, but it also gave users a reason to reminisce about other Marvel movies.

Final thoughts

There you have it—20 Instagram giveaway ideas that you might want to try out this year.

Remember, you can create and manage your Instagram giveaway easily using SweepWidget. Alternatively, use any of these social media contest apps.

I’ve got even more giveaway ideas that you might want to check out. Plus, don’t forget to read my roundup of social media post ideas to round out your social media strategy.

Related reading:

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