James Scherer — February 24, 2017 
Are you slightly overwhelmed by the number of Facebook giveaway types out there? Are you wondering which one will work best for your business, and how to ensure you get the most out of it you possibly can?
You’re in the right place, then.
This article will break down Wishpond’s most popular contest type, give you 24 case studies of real-world Facebook giveaways and give you the exact reasons why they were successful.
Let’s get into it.
Giveaway Best Practices:
Before we get rolling with examples, let’s just quickly go over a few Facebook giveaway best practices you need to keep in mind (and you’ll see in the real-world Facebook giveaways below):
- Because of the low barrier-of-entry, ensure your prize is directly related to your brand (a product or gift card, for instance). This decreases the number of entrants who are only interested in the prize (increasing the long-time value of those who do enter).
- Focus on visuals – your prize, your brand logo, a random smiling face – it doesn’t matter, so long as your giveaway page is colorful, clean and professional. This will have a huge impact on your number of entrants.
- Consider multiple prizes over multiple days (for multiple winners).
- Coincide your giveaway with a season, holiday or special event. Tap into what people are thinking about.
Now let’s move onto a few examples of real-world giveaways which implement these best practices (and more) to drive some serious engagement and entries…
Real-world Facebook Giveaway Example #1:
The Numbers:
This giveaway received 57,100 views and an impressive 85.94% conversion rate, giving them 49,000 emails for prizes worth about $ 1200.
Why This Facebook Giveaway Was so Successful:
- The date: Running a fitness-related giveaway in February is a recipe for success. People haven’t yet given up on their New Year’s resolutions, and a prize pack of athletic gear and health-bars is a great offer, tapping into exactly what people are thinking about.
- Teaming up for success: Fatherly (the merchant running this giveaway) teamed up with Greatist and SkinnyMom. They’ve agreed to split their leads and promote together. This is a great way to spread the giveaway love (so long as your target market overlaps with theirs).
- The prize: Prize packages are a great way to increase the chance of someone entering your giveaway as even if an entrant doesn’t want one of the prizes they’ll enter for a chance to win another.
- Only Asking for an Email: This is the information these merchants really need, so they don’t ask for more. This will have been a huge part of the reason for their astonishing conversion rate (more than 85%).
Real-world Facebook Giveaway Example #2:
The Numbers:
This giveaway had 24,400 views and a conversion rate of 45.69%, generating 11,200 email addresses for 10 prizes worth about $ 30 each.
Why This Facebook Giveaway Was so Successful:
- Simplicity itself: They’re giving away one mop each day. The terms of the contest are written clearly and in the main body of the contest. This increases trust between entrant and contest host (as there’s no hidden conditions).
- Visuals: They’ve clearly designed two images based on their contest page builder’s template specifications (810px x 300px and 274px x 274px). This is a great idea, as it saves you time in the long run (you don’t have to resize images that look stretched or are too small).
- The visuals are also very professionally put together and grab the eye well with blue and beige and a contrasting red for the headline and the word “giveaway.” If there’s one thing I’d recommend investing on for your contest it’s not the prize itself, but the visuals associated with it (for instance, the prize above is probably worth about $ 30, but drove 11,200 leads.)
Real-world Facebook Giveaway Example #3:
The Numbers:
This Facebook giveaway got 37,100 views and had a 31.20% conversion rate, garnering the merchant 11,600 email addresses for $ 500.
Why This Facebook Giveaway Was so Successful:
- The prize: Featuring the dollar amount in large font and with a slight drop shadow really makes it stand out and grab the eye. Dollar amounts (provided they’re in the form of gift cards or – as in this case – online and store credit) are a great way to capture the attention of your giveaway’s page’s visitors.
- The merchant also included a bit more detail about what they offer (best practice when your prize is a gift card or store credit) which worked to give them an insight into what they could buy with their winnings.
- The two images: These two images were well chosen to show the full breadth of the product’s ability (from beautiful, long extensions to luxurious curls). The images were also very professionally done.
Real-world Facebook Giveaway Example #4:
The Numbers:
This giveaway had 5,103 views and a 64.59% conversion rate, giving the merchant 3,296 new email addresses for a prize worth about $ 200.
Why This Facebook Giveaway Was so Successful:
- Seasonal: Giving away a Christmas ham and all the fixins is a great seasonal prize which taps into what people are thinking about and really making their season a special one. This is the best kind of prize (the kind that really hits people emotionally).
- The Copy: The giveaway’s copy is very focused on the prospective entrant, using “you” five times. This is a solid best practice.
- Template: Though you can’t tell it within this one campaign, all of this merchant’s campaigns are created with the same optimized designs within the same template (see below for their impressive conversion rates). Doing this (provided the design elements are proven) alongside a straightforward giveaway building platform makes it easy to create a lot of consistently successful campaigns.
More to Brag About:
This merchant has an average giveaway conversion rate of 51.59% and they’ve generated a total of 12,081 leads with giveaways alone. Their policy, of coinciding every meat-related event (from national holidays to football events) with a giveaway has proven over and over again to be a successful one. Oh, and their prizes are never valued at more than $ 200.
Check it out:
Real-world Facebook Giveaway Example #5:
The Numbers:
This Facebook giveaway received more than 3,400 entries.
Why This Facebook Giveaway Was so Successful:
- The prize: Who are we kidding, a prize of $ 10,000 cash is going to get buzz no matter what. It’s the #1, 2 and 3 reason people entered.
But think about that number: 3,457 new contacts. That’s 3,457 people to whom this business can market their water park in the future. If entry to their park (for a family) is, say, $ 60, they need only 10% of those contacts to come to their park before they’ve doubled their investment.
That’s right, 345 x $ 60 is $ 20,700.
Not so crazy anymore is it?
Real-world Facebook Giveaway Example #6:
The Numbers:
This Facebook giveaway received more than 350 entries.
Why This Facebook Giveaway Was so Successful:
- Simplicity: It’s summer, you’re a parent, and you see a contest giving away free passes for a water park. All you have to do is put in your email address and you have a chance to win. It’s super easy to enter. The page isn’t overwhelming, all the information is there, and the CTA says “Enter.” What’s the harm?
- The design: This is a bit of an older campaign (from 2014) but the graphics are still professional and fun. These elements can’t be neglected, as the biggest difference between a trustworthy, professional-looking Facebook giveaway page is the images.
Real-world Facebook Giveaway Example #7:
The Numbers:
This Facebook giveaway received 2,126 entries.
Why This Facebook Giveaway Was so Successful:
- Timeliness: This contest was run right before the Superbowl last year. That means the brand’s target market is thinking about this exact theme – always a best practice.
- The images: When people think about “Super Bowl party,” most think chips and salsa. Maybe chili. The images in this Facebook giveaway show sausages, pretzels, jalapenos, ribs, mustard-mayo. It’s a whole other level of Super Bowl. This makes it super appealing.
Real-world Facebook Giveaway Example #8:
The Numbers:
This Facebook giveaway received 233 entries.
Why This Facebook Giveaway Was so Successful:
- Dollar Value: Featuring the dollar value of this 2-night beauty holiday is a super-effective way to express, clearly, what entering can get you. When you’re offering a prize like hotel stay, facial or breakfast (which, depending on where you stay, could be anywhere from $ 200 – $ 2,000) make it very clear what value you’re talking about.
- The colors: The background picture (which is a great one) is gray, as is the text and even the headline. This means that the orange text (the dollar value, primarily) stand out clearly and obviously. There’s two focus-points on this page: the woman’s face (we’re always attracted to people’s faces) and the orange dollar value. This is design best-practice.
Real-world Facebook Giveaway Example #9:
The Numbers:
This Facebook giveaway received almost 100 entries and over 1000 votes.
Why This Facebook Giveaway Was so Successful:
- Simplicity: What I love about this campaign is that it probably took the marketer 10 minutes to make it. Any designer (or design-oriented marketer) could make the header in 10 minutes. Fill in the copy and hit “start.” Boom, 1000+ email addresses Massage Addict can turn into customers in the coming weeks.
- Theme: Mother’s Day is a great holiday on which to base your Facebook giveaway. Gift-based celebrations are perfect for social promotions. Consider Father’s Day, Christmas, Back-to-School and Valentine’s Day when you run your next Facebook Giveaway.
Real-world Facebook Giveaway Example #10:
The Numbers:
This Facebook giveaway received 345 entries.
Why This Facebook Giveaway Was so Successful:
- The Images: The simple images really set this contest apart – and it’s so easy to do! Again, any designer (or Fiverr free-lancer) could put this together in 10 minutes.
- The Theme: Dubai’s Biryani festival isn’t a small thing, and this restaurant didn’t hesitate to tap into the buzz around it to promote their own restaurant.
- The Simplicity: The simplicity of this contest isn’t necessarily in its design or strategy (though that’s simple enough) but in the buzz it would create, so easily. Think about it – it’s the Biryani festival in Dubai. You’re thinking about a place to get food. You type “Biryani Festival” into Facebook and, because of the buzz already floating around this campaign, this page pops up. Even if you don’t enter, Zafran restaurant is in your mind. When you do decide to go, which restaurant are you going to think of?
Real-world Facebook Giveaway Example #11:
The Numbers:
This Facebook giveaway received 468 entries.
Why This Facebook Giveaway Was so Successful:
- The Time of Year: For a lot of parents, back-to-school can be a stressful time. Yes, it’s great that your kids are off your hands for 8 hours a day (phew!) but having to buy a new backpack, clothes, school supplies and all the rest isn’t always easy. Imagine this Facebook giveaway popping up on your newsfeed or Shared by your friend right when you’re thinking about all the stuff you have to buy?
- The Image: Again, I highly recommend that Facebook giveaway runners prioritize their images. This page is only successful because of the header image – it shows exactly what people stand to win and also allows the business to have a headline exactly the size they want.
Real-world Facebook Giveaway Example #12:
The Numbers:
This Facebook giveaway received 896 entries.
Why This Facebook Giveaway Was so Successful:
- Multiple Prizes: A daily or weekly prize doesn’t multiplies how likely people think it is that they’ll win (and not thinking you’re going to win is the primary reason people don’t enter). Having one grand prize and a bunch of smaller ones is best practice, as the grand prize is a great way to entice people to click, and the smaller prizes are a great way to convince them they can, at least, win something.
Real-world Facebook Giveaway Example #13:
The Numbers:
This Facebook giveaway received 2,274 entries.
Why This Facebook Giveaway Was so Successful:
- Holiday: If I ran a business I’d run a Facebook giveaway on every holiday, and two on Christmas. A simple contest like the one above, with a prize universally appealing to every adult in the world, is as close to a guaranteed win as we get.
Real-world Facebook Giveaway Example #14:
The Numbers:
This Facebook giveaway received 1,741 entries.
Why This Facebook Giveaway Was so Successful:
- The Prize: London Drugs is a department store which sells everything from makeup and aspirin to pyjamas and cameras. If they’d gone with a product as their prize they would have attracted entrants interested in that prize. By choosing a gift card, they get entrants interested in everything they sell.
Real-world Facebook Giveaway Example #15:
The Numbers:
This Facebook giveaway received 1,134 entries.
Why This Facebook Giveaway Was so Successful:
- Keeping People on Facebook: Alexian Pate followed best practice and kept Facebook users on the Facebook platform, rather than sending them to their website. The best thing to when running a Facebook giveaway is to create one contest page and then embed it both on a tab of your Facebook Page and a page of your website. People on Facebook are more likely to convert on the platform than they are if you send them off it. And the same goes for people on your website. Sending them to Facebook will result in a drop in entrants.
Real-world Facebook Giveaway Example #16:
The Numbers:
This Facebook giveaway received 23,938 entries (yes, you heard that right).
Why This Facebook Giveaway Was so (Ridiculously) Successful:
- The Prize Format: I love the “one for you and one for them” format of O-Cedar’s prize here. People love to win, but they love to win something for a friend just as much (especially at Christmas). I also like “win one of 10,” which subjectively increases the feeling that you have a real shot at winning.
- Advertising and website promotion: I can only imagine that this Facebook giveaway got as much traffic as it did (it converted about 70% of 35,000 visitors) through a combination of advertising and website promotion. If O-Cedar gets significant website traffic they can prompt visitors to convert on this Facebook giveaway, but they’d also need to drive traffic with Ads. Click here for a walkthrough on how you can [Use Facebook Ads to Promote your Facebook Contest(http://blog.wishpond.com/post/112522464490/how-to-ensure-a-successful-online-contest-with).
Real-world Facebook Giveaway Example #17:
The Numbers:
This Facebook giveaway received 5,287 entries.
Why This Facebook Giveaway Was so Successful:
- Share Incentives: The addition of share incentives massively increases the spread of this contest, and takes a lot of the workload off the business. Entrants get more entries if they share with Friends or Like your Facebook Page. They get more chances to win and you get increased engagement. Win/win.
- 25 Winners, 1 Grand Prize: I’ve said before, but it’s worth saying again: multiple prizes equals multiple winners, and multiple winners means the people who enter have a 2500% higher chance of winning. They know that, so they enter more easily.
Real-world Facebook Giveaway Example #18:
The Numbers:
This Facebook giveaway received 5,844 entries.
Why This Facebook Giveaway Was so Successful:
- Partnerships: This is a substantial prize, sure, but it’s less-so when you recognize that the organizer (ShopLatitude) ran it with five other businesses. ShopLatititude themselves gave $ 1,000, but the total prize value is more like $ 4,000 – making it 400% more appealing without them having to invest 400% more money.
- The Design: This page really showcases what you can do with a Wishpond Facebook giveaway template. This page might look like it’s been designed by a professional, but it’s very possible it was done by a total marketing newcomer. The background image can be easily pasted in, and the template itself is already ready to go with headline, subheader, form and footer. I doubt it took more than 20 minutes.
Real-world Facebook Giveaway Example #19:
The Numbers:
This Facebook giveaway received 540 entries.
Why This Facebook Giveaway Was so Successful:
- The Form: This promotion has substantially more fields than any other Facebook giveaway in this article, and I’d like to address that.
- First: This is going to have dropped their entries by at least 100% – probably halved them.
- Second: That drop in entries is okay. The business (EMG) is far more capable of turning contest entrants into customers if they know phone number and location. They also asked people to opt-in to receive their newsletter. All of this stuff increases their ability to convert entrants.
- Think about it… If EMG is now able to convert 20% of contest entrants into customers, they convert 110 people. If they hadn’t asked for this information, they likely would have gotten at least 1000 entrants, but only been able to convert 5% of them – 50 people. The drop in conversion rate can be worth it in the long run.
- First: This is going to have dropped their entries by at least 100% – probably halved them.
Real-world Facebook Giveaway Example #20:
The Numbers:
This Facebook giveaway received 5,272 entries.
Why This Facebook Giveaway Was so Successful:
- Ease of entry: A vote giveaway is a great way to get a lot of entrants, so long as you don’t care too much about turning them into customers. Polaroid ran this campaign several years ago, and their main goal was to increase their Facebook Fan-base.
Real-world Facebook Giveaway Example #21:
The Numbers:
This Facebook giveaway received more than 15,900 entries.
Why This Facebook Giveaway Was so Successful:
- The Prize: I’ve talked before (in this article) about using a giftcard or multiple product package as your prize, as it’s more appealing to more people. This giveaway’s prize (250 pounds usable in more than 25,000 stores, restaurants and attractions) takes that best practice to a whole new level.
- The Newsletter List: This giveaway is a bit deceitful, as it was created entirely for The People’s Postcode Lottery’s existing email list – people who’s contact information they already had. That’s why there are so many entries. That said, a Facebook giveaway can have multiple objectives. This one was to re-invigorate their email list and engage with their contacts during the holiday season. They used this giveaway to deliver real-world value, and that’s never a bad idea.
Real-world Facebook Giveaway Example #22:
The Numbers:
This Facebook giveaway received more than 12,278 entries.
Why This Facebook Giveaway Was so Successful:
- The Prize: You might look at this giveaway and say, “I can’t afford to give away a prize worth $ 1,700!” but that’s because you haven’t done the math quite yet…
- Consider that Our State Magazine (the business running this giveaway) might send entrants a follow-up discount for the hotel stay they offer. Or perhaps 25% off a massage or limited-time coupon for one of the stores they’re offering in their prize. If 1% of the 12,278 entries converts (which is a bit low, you’ll have to admit) and whatever they buy is worth $ 50, the business makes more than $ 61,000 revenue.
Real-world Facebook Giveaway Example #23:
The Numbers:
This Facebook giveaway received more than 7,680 entries.
Why This Facebook Giveaway Was so Successful:
- The Testimonial: You’re not exactly unbiased when it comes to your own business. Your previous customers are. They have nothing material to gain from a giveaway entry, so they’re way more believable when they say good things about you. This is just as true on a giveaway page as it is on your homepage.
- Multiple Call-to-Action Buttons: This Facebook giveaway page is a bit longer, and the second CTA means that people who scroll down a bit don’t have to scroll all the way up to enter.
- The Design: This is a super-professional and modern-looking Facebook giveaway. It doesn’t get much more visually appealing than this.
Real-world Facebook Giveaway Example #23:
The Numbers:
This Facebook giveaway received more than 2,180 entries.
Why This Facebook Giveaway Was so Successful:
- The Countdown Timer: You can’t see it live in the screenshot (as this giveaway has, of course, ended) but the yellow countdown timer was a major component of this giveaway page. Countdown timers incentivize people to engage now, rather than putting it off.
- The Dollar Value: Front and center, this page makes it extremely clear how much you stand to win.
- The Design: This page is super professionally-done – utilizing the most recent update to Wishpond’s giveaway builder.
Real-world Facebook Giveaway Example #24:
The Numbers:
This Facebook giveaway received more than 7680 entries.
Why This Facebook Giveaway Was so Successful:
- The Countdown Timer: You can’t see it live in the screenshot (as this giveaway has, of course, ended) but the yellow countdown timer was a major component of this giveaway page. Countdown timers incentivize people to engage now, rather than putting it off.
- The Dollar Value: Front and center, this page makes it extremely clear how much you stand to win.
- The Design: This page, like the one above, is really professionally-done – utilizing the most recent update to Wishpond’s giveaway builder.
Conclusion
Hopefully these four examples have given you a bit of inspiration and guidance for starting your own giveaway.
Focus on timely promotions, run based around a theme or event your target market is already thinking about (like getting fit in February and Christmas above) as well as eye-catching visuals. If you have any questions don’t hesitate to reach out in the comment section below.
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