10 Instagram Giveaway Ideas to Increase Follower Growth

If you are frequently on Instagram and follow a variety of different brands, chance are that you have either seen or participated in an Instagram giveaway.

What Is an Instagram Giveaway?

And how, exactly, can giving something away help your brand?

Instagram giveaways are a great way to increase your follower growth. The more followers you have, the more engagement you can expect.

If your followers are engaged they’ll be more likely to purchase from your business especially if you are interacting with them.

These giveaways allow you to build relationships and trust with your potential customers.

These people can become ambassadors for your brand so make sure they have a positive view of your business.

Instagram giveaways are also perfect for brand visibility. You want people to recognize your brand, your logo, your style.

If they can make that connection, you have just earned yourself a lifelong customer.

We use social media ads and posts that addressed the pain points of The Cord Wrapper’s target audience.

Why Post an Instagram Giveaway?

People love free stuff and they love winning.

Put those two together and you have a recipe for success. Your social media status depends on your followers.

You want them to be tuned in to your brand so that they can spread the word. Sure, posting regularly will do this.

But doing a giveaway, even if it’s small, will help you increase follower growth and create hype around your products.

Find out how giving away free stuff can help increase online sales for your business.

We generated Facebook Fans: 49,377 and People Engaged: 303,378 in just 4 months.

How to Do an Instagram Giveaway

There are several ways to get followers to participate in your giveaways and increase your follower growth.

Most Instagram giveaways have instructions to either like the post or tag friends in order to enter the giveaway.

It is so important to have your followers tag other people that may not know of your brand yet.

These people will become followers and if you continue to have a strong presence after this giveaway.

These new followers have the potential to become lifelong customers.

Consider teaming up with an influencer or another business.

If you announce an Instagram giveaway with an already popular business or influencer in your industry.

You capture their followers as well as anyone that they tag to win your contest.

Tell your followers to share a photo in order to enter.

The reach from this tactic is unbelievable! By doing this it is like free advertising to your follower’s followers.

This does involve some effort on the user’s end so be careful when asking your followers to do something like this.

Use an innovative and fun hashtag!

Come up with a hashtag that is just for your giveaway. This will make it easier on your end to see who has entered and strengthened your brand name.

If you use your hashtag along with other popular hashtags it will make your contest even more powerful!

People searching those popular hashtags will be able to see your post as well.

Celebrate your business’s “birthday” with an Instagram giveaway.

Celebrate your businesses birthday by celebrating your customers and giving them a chance to win some cool products.

Make it an annual giveaway for even more exposure.

We generated 111 Purchases at $13.19 Cost Per Purchase on client social media ads campaign.

Ready for some inspiration? Check out these 10 examples of awesome Instagram giveaways!

10 Instagram Giveaway Ideas to Increase Follower Growth

1. Dominos Pizza

The popular pizza chain, Dominos Pizza created an Instagram giveaway called Piece of the Pie Contest.

They asked fans to do one simple task; take a photo proving that you are a super fan.

These photos ranged from Dominos pizza box castles to pizza proposals.

In the end fans posted over 1,000 photos with the hashtag #pieceofthepiecontest.

So what were they giving away? A pretty hefty prize of $10,000.

Although their contest was not confined to Instagram this post got many enthusiastic fans involved. The video they posted received 24,955 views.

This post works for several reasons. The caption is short and sweet and followers can easily follow the guidelines for the contest.

By having their followers post photos it allows them to reach a huge audience.

They also ask people to follow them in hopes that they will capture a bunch of new followers. With prize money like this who wouldn’t post a picture?

Why would a brand that already has a huge following be doing an Instagram giveaway?

They still have competitors and need to keep the loyal customers that they have.

This shows that no matter what the size of your company, you can always benefit from Instagram giveaways.

Client Satisfaction

2. Atlanta Bucket List

ATL Bucket List quickly became one of Atlanta’s best food Instagrams.

They work with restaurants and other influencers in the industry to put together tons of Instagram giveaways!

Working with other people is a great way to elevate your brand.

If you help them, they will help you and in the long run you will build an awesome community within your industry.

This post has a great photo paired with an excellent caption. The first word is “giveaway” which makes it very clear that this is an Instagram giveaway.

There are also several other businesses tagged and clear guidelines on how to enter. This caption is a bit longer, but it’s needed to explain the contest.

This post is one of many giveaways that ATL Bucket List has done, and it received over 2,000 likes and over 900 comments.

3. Foundwildproject – Drone Giveaway

This Instagram giveaway involves several brands and a high dollar product.

Found Wild Project is giving away $300 in eyewear plus a drone valued at around $800.

This is a huge giveaway but is worth their time and money for the followers and brand recognition that the company will gain.

While it’s true that the more valuable your prize is, the higher the engagement will be.

Your Instagram giveaway does not have to cost you an arm and a leg. Start small and work your way up to a bigger prize.

It can be simple like a new product you are testing or one of your lower end products. The goal is to get people talking about your brand.

In order to enter this giveaway, they ask for people to follow the two brands who are involved in the giveaway.

They also ask for a like and for people to tag three friends. For additional entries people can tag more friends in the post.

There is a clear date when they will announce the winner. This is key to any Instagram giveaway.

You must announce a winner, or your future Instagram giveaways will lose participation if people don’t think you actually picked a winner.

4. Sunny Co Clothing – The Viral Red Bathing Suit

Sunny Co Clothing went viral for giving away a free red bathing suit to every person who reposted their photo and tagged them.

This was a $65 value and all users had to do was pay shipping.

This offer might seem extreme but Sunny Co quickly gained popularity through this Instagram giveaway and grew their fan base.

They have done this giveaway two times! The first time their photo went viral with 341,042 likes and 121k comments.

The second time they received 56,549 and 11.4k comments.

Since they have done this two years in a row, customers have likely spread the word and people will be on the lookout next year for the same giveaway.

The followers who received their red bathing suit become ambassadors for Sunny Co without even knowing it.

They tell their friends and families about the brand and they have already advertised on their personal Instagrams.

With giveaways like these you are funneling money into advertising.

5. Real Caboodles

Real Caboodles is a company that sells cases to organize makeup or other products.

They decided to be trendy and do a vintage giveaway. It’s so important that your company stays up with the current style or trends.

Clearly vintage is back in style so their giveaway is very relevant. You also need to keep in mind who your target customers are.

You can’t give away just any product. Think about what your potential customers would like to win in an Instagram giveaway.

If you give away prizes they actually want, you will be able to generate better results.

If you’re not sure, ask them. Yes, ask your customers what product they would like to see in a giveaway.

This way you are interacting with them by involving them in the process as well as getting their feedback and engagement.

This phrase “You won’t find this ANYWHERE else” is a winner. It creates hype around this specific product and makes it desirable.

Another phrase we love is “limited edition” which is a sure way to get your followers and potential customers excited about your giveaway.

Since this giveaway has expired, they have updated their post to say that it is closed but not to worry because they will have more giveaways in the future.

6. Smoke Perfume Co.

You don’t have to be a huge company to do an Instagram giveaway. Smoke Perfume is a small, all natural perfume company based in Louisiana.

Their giveaway is comprised of a number of fun self-care products from different brands.

They also give a short description of what each product is along with tagging the brands they are working with.

If you are giving away other products or working with other brands, tag them in your caption and in your photo!

This is a huge shout out to them and will strengthen their relationship with these other brands.

Instagram giveaways like these are like free advertising for the brands that are working together.

They ask users to tag two friends and to write an intention for the summer but only if people feel moved to do so.

This gives them a chance to interact with their followers but doesn’t force followers to comment.

They still received 89 comments on their photo and 300 likes.

This is great for a smaller brand that is slowly working its way to the top! Giveaways get people interested in your brand.

And the winner or winners may have never tried your products before, so this is the perfect way to give them a sample.

7. Fabletics

Fabletics is a huge brand dedicated to workout type clothing and accessories.

They use celebrities as spokespeople for their brand. You can do this for your brand as well.

If you are a smaller brand, you may not be able to work with big celebrities, but you can definitely make connections with influencers in your industry.

Build a relationship with them and then send them some free products.

If your products are in the hands of someone with a hefty following this can do great things for your small brand.

With this Instagram giveaway, Fabletics is encouraging their followers to follow their brand as well as a brand called My Tagalongs in order to win $400 in products.

So what are they doing really well?

For starters the photo of their products is great! It’s simple and shows a handful of products without looking too busy.

They also have a fun caption that mentions that the winner and their bestie will win some cool clothing and accessories.

There are clear entry rules and if you follow both brands you can “increase your chances of winning.”

This phrase can help boost the number of people who participate.

By giving Instagrammers a way to enter multiple times, most of the time they will do everything on the list in order to increase their chances of winning.

If you are a small business trying to brainstorm an Instagram giveaway, take a look at bigger brands.

Look at their photos, who they’re working with, what their captions say.

You can learn so much from them and be on your way to crafting your perfect giveaway.

8. Knockaround Sunglasses

This sunglasses company based in California, has partnered with a ton of other brands to do a huge Instagram giveaway.

The big prize is a stand up paddle board along with Knockaround sunglasses and prizes from all of the other brands that they are partnered with.

Since this giveaway is so big, they are giving users a month to participate. This is key. The bigger the giveaway the longer you should give people to enter.

You want to capture as many entries and followers as possible to make it worth your while.

Knockaround has utilized Instagram feature that allows users to upload multiple photos at once and for their followers to scroll through them.

Since they are working with so many different brands, this is a great way to show off what each brand is giving away.

They use high quality photos along with each brands logo which is great for the other companies as they will have increased brand recognition.

9. Hydro Flask

This company likes keeping their drinks cold with insulated and reusable water bottles.

They also love Instagram giveaways and have several each month!

Having multiple Instagram giveaways a month or even a year will further increase your following and spread the word about your brand.

It will keep engagement levels up and followers will come to expect a giveaway every so often.

Even if they don’t win they may still be enticed to buy your product that was in one of your giveaways if you can create enough hype.

What better way to celebrate your followers than with a giveaway! This is an ever popular theme to Instagram giveaways and for good reason.

Followers feel like they are getting something in return just for following your brand on social media.

91% of posts that have 1,000 or more comments are Instagram giveaways.

Hydro Flask received over 8,000 comments on this post compared to their non giveaway posts which have an average of about 50 comments per post.

Can you guess which one of these photos is a giveaway just by looking at the number of comments?

If you picked the middle photo you were correct! This post is a giveaway that received an abnormal amount of engagement.

This confirms that giveaway posts receive more engagement and comments than regular posts do.

10. Plated

Plated is a meal delivery service that send you a weekly box of ingredients to cook delicious meals.

They have collaborated with another larger brand to bring the winner some great prizes for Mother’s Day!

Using special days or holidays is another great way to elevate your Instagram giveaways.

Plated uses an already popular day to capture even more engagement. They have hashtagged Mother’s Day as well.

It is crucial that you do some research on using hashtags on Instagram before you post to make sure that your hashtags are relevant!

This post received 414 comments and over 600 likes.

Most of these giveaways have a few things in common.

They announce that this post is a giveaway post right off the bat so their followers know to keep reading.

They also use enticing photos of the products that people can win. Take the time to choose a compelling photo that is high quality and interesting.

There are always clear giveaway instructions for people to follow that aren’t too wordy or difficult to read.

All of these brands include a timeline so that followers will know when to expect them to announce a winner.

Now that you have seen some awesome examples of Instagram giveaways, you’re almost ready to set up your own!

Here are some quick tips to setting up your first Instagram giveaway.

Decide what you are giving away. It does not have to be a high dollar prize.

You can decide how much or how little you want your winner to have.

Determine how followers should interact with your giveaway – do you want them to like your picture, comment, follow you, tag their friends or all of the above?

Whatever you choose, make sure it’s clear and that there aren’t too many rules people have to follow.

If you feel like you need to further explain your contest you can put a link in your bio for more information.

Be sure to say in your caption that there is a link in your bio with more info!

• Put a timeline on your giveaway and let people know when you will be selecting a winner.

  Encourage people to act fast so they don’t forget to enter!

• Remind your followers to enter your Instagram giveaway with an additional post or countdown posts.

• Once your winner has been selected, make a post congratulating them!

  By publicly announcing your winner, you can build trust with your followers.

  It is also a good idea to update your post and say that your giveaway is closed.

What can you can do alongside your Instagram giveaways to further increase engagement?

• Reply to comments.

If you ask your followers to comment on your post or answer a question, try to respond to most of them if you can.

This can mean the world to your potential customers and show them that there is a person on the other side of your brand.

• Follow influencers that participated in your giveaway.

This can help you build a relationship with them and ask them for future help in your other giveaways.

You may even be able to ask them to review your product and encourage their fans to try it out.

• Make sure you have good engaging photos of what you are giving away.

Whether it’s a product, service or getaway you will need a high-quality photo that shows exactly what your followers could win.

• Keep your captions short.
  

If you have long, tedious captions your customers could lose interest or they might not know how to enter your giveaway.

• Get sponsored by brands that are bigger than you!

This is a great way to generate even more traffic.

Work your way up through influencers and you might just be able to land a big sponsorship.

ATL Bucket List is a prime example of getting sponsored by larger brands.

The Instagram that began as a passion project quickly blossomed into a major food-focused account.

Several years later the owner of the account regularly lands sponsorships from big brands.

In only 1 month, our client was able to see a lift of $3,426.62 in online sales (from zero before).

 

The social media advertisements generated over 10,000 views and each page view cost only $0.12.

Your Turn

Now you have all the tools you need to successfully run your first Instagram giveaway.

If executed properly Instagram giveaways can skyrocket your business and make your small brand known to the world.

This does take time and effort and your first giveaway may not be successful. Do you have questions about running an Instagram giveaway?

Let the professionals at LYFE help you set up your campaign. Contact us today for all of your social media or digital marketing questions!