9 Awesome Instagram Giveaway Ideas You Have to Try

Getting an Instagram giveaway going is one of the top ways you can not only increase traffic to your page but also boost your followers and engagement ratings. If you’re looking to seriously build your brand on social media, a giveaway is a surefire way to get where you need to go in record time.

Instagram giveaway ideas

Choosing the right type of giveaway can be difficult and take up too much time cruising the internet. So we’ve done the work for you! Here are nine awesome ideas for your first (or next!) Instagram giveaway.

1. Like And/Or Comment Instagram Giveaway

The first and most typical Instagram giveaway you’ll see around is the like and/or comment type.

This involves anyone wanting to enter the contest to like your posted photo and comment to enter the giveaway. The comment request can be left open-ended, answering a question, or even just commenting with their favorite emoji.

The route you can take with this one leaves quite a lot of imaginative room, so get creative!

2. Tag a Friend

The next common and successful Instagram giveaway is tagging a friend. You are able to once again leave this open-ended to how many individuals can be tagged and set some parameters on the rules (i.e. no celebrities or double entries).

Most people will count each tag that is left by users as an extra ballot to the draw for the giveaway prize. Though don’t feel constrained to do so if you want to keep it small. You will see more engagement on your page if you create more traffic and buzz around your giveaway.

3. Caption Contest

A caption contest is another great way to increase engagement and see other people’s creativity shine through.

The premise of this contest is to provide a photo for your audience to create a caption for that best fits the picture. Winners are chosen based on creativity, humour, or whichever you think is the best fit.

You may even want to opt for creating a poll of top three captions so that users can engage in voting for their favorites by liking and/or commenting. This will give you double the engagement and creating some healthy competition online.

Selfie frame - Instagram
photo credit: Pinterest

4. User-Generated Content

Getting the creative juices flowing is a great way to boost engagement. After all, Instagram is all about being creative!

Another great option to draw your Instagram giveaway inspiration from is creating a contest that allows users to create their own photos.

For example, allow users to best capture your products or the brand you have in the most creative way in order to win. You’ll even be pleasantly surprised at the amount of great content you can then use to post on your page.

Make sure to ask users to repost their photos on your page and give them credit. You will likely create an envy-inducing trend that gets others to be more competitive in order to be featured on your page. This works well for most brands and gives companies a more ‘human’ look to them.

5. Scavenger Hunt

Veering into the unique world of Instagram giveaway ideas, a scavenger hunt can be a different way to get user engagement going.

Depending on how you want to market your brand, you can either locally do a live scavenger hunt by hiding things around the city to find, or do a digital scavenger hunt instead!

6. Using Instagram Stories

Having users create short Instagram stories by either sharing a certain photo, creating a unique 10-second video, or a photo with the product and hashtag requested can be a great giveaway option.

Most giveaways will have users share a specific photo, but the sky is the limit. Do make sure that you create a hashtag for this giveaway and to instruct users to tag you in the post so that you can keep track of entries and download Instagram pics and videos created.

Holiday giveaway

7. Holiday Giveaway

Everyone loves the holiday seasons and with Christmas fast approaching; a holiday giveaway can be just the thing to get your giveaway off the ground.

Some users create a twelve days of Christmas giveaway with a grand prize on the twelfth day, but it’s really up to you on how you want to use this.

Keep a budget in mind when creating these as a twelve-day giveaway for a small brand can be costly. At the same time, don’t underestimate that a small item like a candle won’t get engagement. People really love free stuff!

8. News-Jacking

A good way to generate some buzz around your brand is to news-jack. This means using something that’s really popular on the news to create a giveaway.

A word of caution around this type of giveaway, you want to make sure you’re being sensitive to the type of news you’re picking. A Coronavirus care package is a good idea; a giveaway of candles created for a California wildfire is probably not such a good idea.

Use your best judgment on this one, and when in doubt, grab a second opinion on thoughts around sensitivity.

9. Milestone Giveaway

An interesting tactic to boost interaction is to create a milestone giveaway. You can go about this in a few ways.

You can either set a goal of a certain about of likes or comments on a particular post or have it based on how many followers you will get.

The other option is the just host a giveaway when you reach a certain number of followers on Instagram and pair it with any of the above-mentioned giveaways. There is no right or wrong way of doing this one.

Instagram filter
photo credit:Ialo Fernandez / Unsplash

Not A One Size Fits All Instagram Giveaway

Let your creativity flow when thinking up Instagram giveaway ideas and don’t feel constrained to using the ideas we’ve provided the same way. The best giveaways have a unique touch to them by the brand or creator so put your own final touches on them!

Like what you’ve read? Be sure to check out the rest of our site for more content!