In this article, we’ll be discussing Instagram giveaways- more specifically, Instagram giveaway ideas. Once you’ve finished this article, you’ll have a thorough understanding of the different types of giveaways you can do on Instagram, why you should do them, and how to pick them.

What’s an Instagram giveaway?

An Instagram giveaway is a giveaway hosted on Instagram, sometimes selling big prizes, but other times selling things like shares. In this article, we’ll be discussing the best, most prominent Instagram giveaway ideas. Most Instagram giveaways you’ve seen will fall under at least one of the giveaway ideas we’ve listed below, and having a thorough understanding of Instagram giveaways will give you a lot of power on the platform.

Why should I do one?

Before looking at Instagram giveaway ideas, it’s important to understand why you should want to do giveaways on Instagram to begin with. The main benefit of giveaways on Instagram is to quickly expand your sphere of influence by encouraging people to share/like your content/follow you for a chance at winning the prize. Depending on how enticing the prize is, growth from these giveaways can be marginal or exponential. Look at it this way: say you have one hundred followers, and they themselves have 50 followers each. If your followers all participate in the giveaway and even half of their followers do too, you could end the giveaway with up to 2500 brand new followers! Of course,  it’s also important that your Instagram itself is good. Many people will unfollow after they’ve entered a giveaway and its ended. However, the giveaway itself is typically enough to catch people’s attention…and that’s your chance to get a new, loyal follower.

Instagram Giveaway Ideas

Challenge Giveaways

One common form of giveaway is the challenge giveaway. Challenge giveaways give participants a challenge to fill out, such as taking a picture of a particular object or recording themselves doing something difficult, like a walking handstand. The challenges vary, but this is a very effective way to do a giveaway, especially if the challenge is something funny to watch!

For-Follow Giveways

These are the simplest form of Instagram giveaway ideas- simply giving away things to your followers. While this is fine on its own for keeping your audience engaged, you’ll want to mix it up with another idea on this list so you can also grow your following in the process of running the giveaway.

Product-Feature Giveaways

These are also a prominent form of giveaway, but are typically done by either brand-hosted Instagrams or brand-sponsored Instagrams. To do this, you’ll want a sponsorship deal- and for it to be effective, the prize needs to be desireable, since people don’t typically like to advertise for free.

Caption Contests

Caption contests are simple and often humorous, serving as a great way for your followers to interact with you. Running it is also simple- just post a photo, ask your followers to caption it in return for a prize, and sit back and watch the flood of responses that come in. If nothing else, you’ll get a few laughs out of the proceedings.

Scheduled Giveaways

Scheduled giveaways are like follower giveaways, except they happen on a set schedule. These are common for larger Instagrams. Scheduled giveaways typically work by giving away smaller prizes once every week/two weeks to random followers, then showcasing those followers when they win. This is a great way to encourage people to stay loyal to your Instagram page, since very time they see someone win they’ll know there’s a chance, however slim, that the next one could be them.

Scenery Photography Contests

This is a great contest for truly photography-focused Instagrams: encourage your followers to take pictures of great scenery! Often-times, these contests follow a particular theme- for instance, city at night, or beach photos- but you can choose whether or not to have a strict theme. Ultiumately, the goal here is to get your followers engaged by encouraging them to go out and take great photos of the world around them- even if they don’t win, chances are they’ll be proud of the submissions they made and associate that positivity with you.

Selfie Contests

Ah, the selfie. The selfie is a cornerstone of modern culture, and therefore also a cornerstone of Instagram giveaway ideas. By encouraging people to take unique or themed selfies for the sake of a contest, you can quickly and easily get tons of engagement, especially if the prize is rewarding enough to justify the effort of the entrants.

Art Contests

Art contests will test the artists who follow you. Run an art contest with certain rules/restrictions on Instagram to see what people can come up with.

Loop Giveaways

Loop giveaways are a group effort, but they are fairly effective. In short, loop giveaways can be used to encourage your users to follow a long chain, or loop, of the people running the giveaway for a grand prize. For more information on loop giveaways, click here.

How should I choose?

Choosing what giveaway idea is best for you and your page might be tough, but ultimately it just depends on what page you’re running. If you run a fashion Instagram, for instance, perhaps selfie, follow and loop giveaways will be the most enticing for you. Meanwhile, challenge and caption contests may be interesting for comedy-centric Instagram pages. Ultimately, what works for you is up to you. Just take a close look at these ideas, your own page, and your followers, before running a giveaway!

Learning More

We’re Grin, and we’re dedicated to helping you grow as a content creator, whether you’re on Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube or Twitch. To learn more about growing on these platforms, stick around our site and read our blog for the latest and greatest tips on growing as a creator. We also offer the Grin Platform, a powerful storefront run by creators, for creators. Using the Platform, you can buy and sell shoutouts, shares, collaborators and more for your Instagram page.