9 Tips for Running a Successful Facebook Competition

Select A Perfect Giveaway Prize

Choosing the right prize for your Facebook competition is really going to set the tone for success or failure. For example, if you have a niche business with a few hundred likes, giving away a car definitely isn’t worth it. But a $100 voucher would be as your expenses are greatly reduced.

Consider how the prize reflects your business or page, too. Gift vouchers, coupons or actual items are perfect when your business involves things like beauty, arts and craft or clothing. For example, you could giveaway extra stock or a service that will likely entice a customer to spend more money.

But if you just want page likes and increased reach, think bigger. You need a brand name product that the general public will love, and would like a random page for. Headphones, smart devices, brand name clothing – they’re all options if you want to see serious Facebook growth. Just be careful, you might attract followers who aren’t actually going to engage with your page or business in the long run. Is it really worth it, then?

Create Your Goals

It’s important to set your goals ahead of time so you can truly benchmark your expectations. You don’t have to be too specific for your first Facebook giveaway, though. For example, don’t worry about reaching X number of likes and shares by day X. 

Instead, for your early competitions, go for some blanket goals, such as: 

• More Facebook page likes and social media followers
• Increased page interaction and engagement
• Mailing list collection via email sign ups
• Increased brand awareness
• More product/service sales
• Increased Website traffic

One of the most helpful tools will be Facebook’s own inbuilt analytic platforms. Facebook Insights, Facebook Business Studio and Creator Studio will all help you understand the current audience you have, and where improvement is needed.

You can track things such as post reach and engagement, and then set a goal that could be 10x the current number. Or if you want to increase page likes, perhaps you want to see a dramatic improvement and boost it by 50%. Your inbuilt Facebook analytics will give you a great platform to understand where to start.

Pick Your Entry Rules

Your entry rules should reflect your competition goals. They have to be simple. You want no confusion and you certainly don’t want to see people fall short of reaching your goals. 

Often the best competitions are also known as a game of chance, where the winner is randomly selected. 

You can ask entrants to like a page, tag a friend (or 2) and share a post, before using a random name generator to pick a lucky winner. This not only drives up your page likes and followers, but it increases brand awareness. Avoid complicated entry rules. Other options include asking for comments, like 25 words or less or a caption competition, or even sharing an image are creative choices. 

Alternatively, a game of skill relies on some type of judging to select a winner. A talent based competition could include asking entrants to create something, such as artwork, to win a prize.

Also take into consideration if you’re planning to boost the competition with money. Facebook does not like pages boosting posts, or creating ads, that clearly ask for page likes. These ads will quickly be rejected by Facebook. Ads that are sneaky in asking for likes, such as using metaphors or puns, are a good way to create a competition. Otherwise, you will need to work hard to create and drive organic reach by sharing the Facebook competition on prize websites or competition pages. 

Choosing Another Platform to Host the Giveaway

Another great option is to have a submission form or third-party website to drive leads and data collection. This is where you can collect names and email addresses for marketing purposes. You can also take advantage of additional steps which ask entrants to share posts on social media for additional entries. If you do want to do that, you have to choose the right place to host a giveaway that still works with Facebook.

There are plenty of tools like Gleam, SweepWidget and Shortstack that provide all-in-one social media competition services. They work with all major platforms; Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and many more. You can sign-up and use their resources to create a unique landing page, or just embed a widget on your own website. Additionally, they’re all mobile friendly, which makes for a user-friendly experience.

And don’t worry, if this all sounds a bit technical, there are plenty of intuitive tools to help any competition novice. Even experienced social media hands will find something to learn.

Write the Terms & Conditions/Check Legal Requirements

It’s essential that you have clear and thorough terms and conditions for any competition. Otherwise you could be at fault if anything goes wrong or if there is any debate surrounding the winner and prize.

Facebook giveaway terms and conditions should include the following key details:

• Name of the promotion and the business/businesses involved
• The start and finish date, plus the announcement date
• Entry restrictions based on location, age, etc.
• Entry requirements/method of entry
• Prize details
• Winner selection and notification process
• Prize claim details (e.g. what happens if the winner never responds)

You can find terms and condition templates online, which can easily be edited to suit your specific giveaway or competition.

While you’re working on the legal side, make sure your competition does not require a permit or state authority. Most states do not require a permit for games of chance or skill, however, some do. Small giveaways are of no concern and you will likely only have to apply for a permit if the prize is more than $5000.

Create Your Content

An essential part of any competition is creative content that catches the eye. You’re advertising to complete strangers and this will be their first glimpse of your page, business or services. You want something that is clear and interesting.

So, utilise high-quality imagery. Create or source professional graphics. Key pieces to include are the prize itself and your logo. However, if the prize is a gift card, go for an image that shows the service or someone celebrating, instead. It helps to keep the writing to a minimum as people can find the details in your actual post text. Facebook also likes to keep ads to a maximum of 25% text and a minimum 75% image.

This content will be required across Facebook, including the original competition post, headers and stories. You will also want to have a banner for your website, and potentially graphics that can be used on Instagram, YouTube or Twitter. Be sure to check out what image size requirements there are.

Keep your giveaway launch simple

Once you have everything ready, it’s time for the competition! But you want to do more than make a Facebook post, leave it alone, and check-in two weeks later to select a winner. You have to promote and engage.

Before your competition actually begins you want to:

• Tease the competition to your current followers
• Create a newsletter/EDM that you can send to any existing email database
• Make sure your landing pages are all ready

Then, when the big day comes you post the giveaway. It’s best to keep things simple by sticking to one competition post where people have to like and tag. You can share the post, and make other reminders, but always direct entrants to the original post.

Other great ways to promote include:

• Sharing the Facebook competition on giveaway directories and forums, plus Facebook competition groups
• Creating Facebook ads
• Sharing the competition on other social media platforms (Instagram, Twitter, TikTok)
• Sending email updates

Essentially, you want to share this wherever you can. The more eyes you can direct to it on your own, the better chances you have in gaining a great amount of organic reach, growth and engagement.

Select and Notify the Winner

Once your competition has reached the end date, it’s time to pick the winner! Whether that’s via a random generator, judge’s choice, or through the competition host platform, it’s still an incredibly exciting moment.

After the lucky person is confirmed, share the details on social media! 

If you have run a Facebook competition, you should be able to message an entrant directly from your business’ page. However, you cannot message someone directly if they commented more than 7 days ago. If that’s the case, respond to their comment and ask them to message you first.

If you collected emails as a part of the entry, then fire away a congratulatory email! And no matter how you get in touch, be sure to collect their full name, address and phone number. You can then organise delivery. 

As a sign of courtesy, let them know when the package is on its way. Provide a tracking number if you can, so you can both be sure that the prize arrives.

Measure Your Success

After the dust has settled, pat yourself on the back for a job well done. Competitions are always a big challenge, regardless of the results.

In terms of success, your first competition is really setting the tone for future ones. It’s the first step towards growing your page and the new benchmark.

But you can still work out whether it was a success, or a failure. Go back to Facebook Insights, Facebook Business Insights or Creator Studio and measure the metrics against the goals you set. Key areas of growth should be seen in page likes, engagement and reach. 

If the giveaway was hosted off of Facebook, you can measure reach and engagement, plus the number of emails collected. All of this information is now part of your database. It’s going to help immensely with future marketing.

One Final Step

With a successful Facebook competition completed, your final step is to… plan the next one! You can utilise all the knowledge and work towards another exciting competition in the near future. 

Giveaways don’t have to be weekly, but you can certainly create a regular schedule so you retain followers. It could well be the perfect way to keep your Facebook page at the forefront of everyone’s newsfeed. If you want to amplify your Facebook Giveaway further, we have open giveaway submissions here.