Instagram giveaways are a proven way to get more followers and expand your reach fast. But there’s a problem: creative ideas are hard to make up on your own.
We’re going to help you break through the “idea block” and get the ball rolling on some of the best Instagram giveaway ideas for 2024 – and beyond.
1. The Classic “Like, Comment and/or Share” to Enter
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Want to boost your engagement, reach and follower count with a single Instagram post? Create a giveaway with the rules being that for people to enter, they have to do one or all of three things:
- Like your post
- Share your post
- Comment on the post
This classic giveaway idea works every time, and you can even see it with Zoe. Zoe gave away dozens of subscriptions to people who liked and tagged their giveaway posts.
2. Giveaway a New Product
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New products are always massive follower generators. If you own a business, give away your newest or unreleased product. Giveaways that give away something new could also be third-party items.
Over the years, I’ve seen accounts I follow give away:
- iPhones
- Sneakers
- PS5s
- Concert tickets
If you can get your hands on items that are in extreme demand, you can give them away and get a ton of followers in the process.
3. Tag a Friend
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What’s better than a giveaway? Helping your friends get free stuff, too. Your main goal is to get more followers from your giveaway, so ask people to tag their friends. Take this one step further by making the requirements that participants must:
- Already follow your account on Instagram
- Tag three friends
Over the years, tagging has become less popular in contests because of strict requirements. If you find that your audience doesn’t respond well to this type of post, drop the requirement that they need to follow your account.
But if you don’t mind slightly lower participation in exchange for a cheat code to giveaway success, you can require participants to tag their friends and follow your account.
Since the people who are tagged will receive a notification, it’s almost impossible for them to miss your giveaway.
4. The Follower Milestone Giveaway
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Hitting a new follower milestone is a huge achievement, but it’s also a great excuse to celebrate by hosting a giveaway.
You can celebrate hitting any follower milestone you want: 10k, 20k, 100k, the list goes on.
Headwestprints, an art prints store in Texas, gave away three awesome pieces of art when they hit 100k followers. It was a huge success, attracting more than 2,600 likes.
Because you’re celebrating a personal achievement, it’s important to make sure that your prize is really on-brand. For example, if you’re a beauty influencer, you could give away a makeup bag filled with your favorite products.
Get creative, and you’ll be sure to get plenty of entries.
5. Have a Seasonal Giveaway
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A new season, a new giveaway. Seasonal giveaways are always a great way to start off a new year or celebrate a holiday. You can do this in a few ways:
- Offer a season-related item, such as a bathing suit for summer.
- Create season-specific holiday giveaways, such as a stuffed teddy bear in February to celebrate Valentine’s Day.
- For winter, offer people tickets to the movies or a Christmas-themed prize.
If you want to take this idea to the next level, you can ask users to dress up for a holiday event and tag your account in the picture. By doing this, you’ll encourage user-generated content and all of the participants’ followers will see their posts, too.
Of course, you’ll need to budget accordingly for this giveaway and spend time coming up with ideas of what you plan on offering as a prize.
6. Branded Hashtag Challenge
If your goal is to build awareness and brand identity, host a branded hashtag challenge. Create a unique, branded hashtag for your giveaway, and ask people to use that hashtag in a post or comment to enter.
Make sure that you’re promoting your giveaway announcement post to get as much exposure as possible.
If enough people enter, you may even see your hashtag start trending on Instagram.
7. Comment to Win
If you’re looking for a simple giveaway idea, try a “comment to win” contest. With this type of giveaway, you’ll boost your engagement and brand awareness.
To enter, users only have to comment on your post. You could add other rules if you want. Some brands require you to also follow their account and share and like the post.
But if you want to keep it simple, you can just ask people to comment and then select a winner at random. Don’t forget to put a deadline on your “comment to win” contest.
8. The Caption Contest
Want to skyrocket your engagement? Have a caption contest.
These types of giveaways are so fun because they encourage creativity and get people actively involved in your contest.
And it’s so easy to run a giveaway like this. All you have to do is share a photo and ask everyone to caption it in the comments. Anyone who leaves a caption is automatically entered into the contest. Select a random winner, and send them your prize.
You can set some ground rules for language if you feel it’s necessary, but generally, these contests are designed to be easy to enter.
9. Joint or Collaborative Giveaways
If you’re a brand looking to boost awareness and exposure, a joint or collaborative giveaway is a great idea. Reach out to other brands that have similar or complementary products and host a giveaway together.
You can create a collaborative post to announce the giveaway, which will be posted to both of your feeds.
Collaborative giveaways can generate a lot of buzz and excitement.
Instagram giveaways can help you boost your engagement and get more followers. Experiment with these ideas to see which ones get the most attention from your audience.
