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Every day, you see a business or a creator running a TikTok giveaway.
And these giveaways attract loads of engagement.
You want in on these giveaways to boost your account engagement and achieve other goals.
But how do you run a giveaway on TikTok, beyond just using a fancy prize?
This guide will take you through all you need to keep in mind to run a giveaway that’s useful to both your audience and your business.
How to do a giveaway on TikTok
1. Set a TikTok giveaway goal
Whenever you put up a prize, people are ready to rush in for a chance to win it.
Ordinarily, the buzz can get you excited and forget that giveaways are a marketing task.
How can each giveaway benefit your business?
If you can’t answer this question, then I’m sorry, you’re just getting attention for attention’s sake.
Creators and businesses run TikTok giveaways for various reasons, including:
- Increase in TikTok followers
- Increase in TikTok engagement
- Collect user-generated content (UGC)
- Lead generation
- Website traffic
- Sales
Once you have a goal, it will inform how you run your giveaway.
For example, the goal determines your entry criteria, prize, and how long your giveaway will run.
To set a goal, use the SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time-bound) framework.
So, a goal may be to acquire 500 more TikTok followers in the 2 weeks of running a giveaway.
Once you set a goal, you now have a focus for the rest of your giveaway campaign.
2. Use entry requirements that align with your goal
Before people can enter your giveaway, they must complete a task.
Some of these tasks include:
- Follow and comment
- Hashtag contest
- Photo upload
- Video upload
- Survey
This is a short list, but I created a longer list of TikTok giveaway ideas that you can use for inspiration.
But before you decide on entry requirements, you must consider how they align with your goals.
That means a follow and comment giveaway will work if your goal is to increase followers and engagement. Meanwhile, photo uploads will work better to collect user-generated content on TikTok.
For example, here’s a photo upload contest by Jackery:
This giveaway will deliver UGC, which the company can use for future marketing campaigns.
When planning your giveaway, use the best entry requirements to help achieve your goal.
3. Pick a compelling and strategic giveaway prize
Whether people are writing comments, submitting their email addresses, or creating a video, their main target is your prize.
But you don’t want your prize to attract everyone.
After all, not everyone is your potential customer. So, attracting one potential customer is better than attracting five people who will never buy your products.
With that in mind, what’s the best prize for your next TikTok giveaway?
I’d say you can’t go wrong with your products and services.
Using your product as the prize will attract people who need your product. And these people are more likely to buy after the giveaway.
Beyond that, maintain a balance between the value of your gift and the entry requirements for your giveaway.
For example, many people can follow and comment for a $30 gift but won’t create a video for it. So, pick your prize with that in mind.
See this giveaway by ghd:
The brand used its products as the giveaway prize. And if you check the comments, you’ll see that the participants are people who can become the company’s customers in the future.
Pick a prize that will make your giveaway irresistible to your ideal audience.
4. Create TikTok contest rules
Contest rules guide your contest before, during, and after the campaign.
This makes your contest legal on TikTok and in your location. Contest rules also keep you away from legal problems.
Of course, not everyone creates official contest rules for their giveaways.
Many small and personal accounts don’t use it during their giveaways. They include their rules in the giveaway announcement post.
However, if you run a business, contest rules can help reduce your legal liability to the minimum.
How do you create contest rules?
Unless you’re a lawyer, you’ll need some help.
One option is to engage an attorney to draft the rules for you.
But if you’re working with a tight budget, you can use contest rule templates online.
In fact, some giveaway tools help you generate the rules. So, all you have to do is enter information about your business and giveaway.
After creating the rules, you can have them on your website or the contest landing page.
5. Create a TikTok giveaway post
Your TikTok giveaway post shares information about your giveaway prize, entry criteria, and more with participants.
And you can share this information in both your video and caption.
Through the post, participants want to know:
- Giveaway prize
- Entry criteria
- Duration of giveaway
- The number of winners
- How winners will be picked
- Locations eligible
Because this is the official giveaway announcement, you want to make the post as enticing as possible.
This starts with showing the prize in your video and sharing the necessary details.
Then, write a detailed caption repeating the information so that nobody misses it.
Another thing is creating an attractive video thumbnail that includes the word “giveaway.”
Using an attractive video cover can attract more clicks on your profile and TikTok search.
See this TikTok giveaway post by 4 Feet Shoes:
The video provides clear instructions on how participants can enter. The caption also explains the location eligible and how winners will be picked.
This giveaway post leaves participants in no doubt about what’s needed to win the prize.
6. Use the right TikTok giveaway tool
With a TikTok giveaway tool, you can create a giveaway landing page, set up entry methods, manage participants, and pick winners.
While some TikTok giveaways can work without a tool, a tool makes managing them much easier.
But beyond that, giveaway tools give you access to many more entry requirements on multiple social networks.
For example, you can have entry methods for TikTok, Instagram, and Twitter.
Also, giveaway tools let you run giveaways, such as photo uploads, surveys, galleries, etc.
To find the right tool, explore a few options with your needs in mind.
Here are two robust giveaway tools I’ve tested:
- SweepWidget: SweepWidget is arguably the best giveaway tool I’ve used. It’s easy to use, packed with features, and affordable. With it, you have 60+ entry methods, AI creation tools, and security features. I wrote a SweepWidget review where I explored my experience.
- Shortstack: With Shortstack, you can create giveaways and landing pages. You get 70+ templates and a robust editor to create a giveaway landing page that fits your needs. Read my Shortstack review to see my experience using it.
If you expect hundreds of participants in your giveaways and run giveaways regularly, using a tool becomes a necessity rather than a luxury.
7. Promote your TikTok giveaway
Even if your giveaway prize is a Malibu mansion and a Rolls-Royce, only people who know about it will participate.
So, even if your prize is enticing, you still have to promote your TikTok giveaway to get it in front of more people.
Driving more participants to your giveaways makes your goals easier to achieve.
To promote your giveaway, take some of these steps:
- Promotional entry criteria: Some entry criteria (like sharing your giveaway post and tagging friends) help you reach a wider audience and attract more participants.
- Emails: You can send emails to your subscribers before and during giveaways to encourage them to participate.
- Promotional posts on social media: Before and during your giveaways, you can publish posts on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and other platforms to create awareness.
- Collaboration with other brands: You can collaborate with complementary brands. This means your giveaway will reach both your and their audiences. You can also use products of both brands as the prize.
- Collaboration with influencers: Influencers have built trust with their followers over the years. So, find influencers in your industry and collaborate with them to promote your giveaway. This way, many of their followers will enter your giveaway.
To see more ways to promote your contests, read my guide on contest promotion.
See this collaborative TikTok giveaway by Bubble and Scrub Daddy:
This giveaway will reach the audiences of both businesses, which means more entries.
It’s best to start promoting your giveaway before launching it to build anticipation.
8. Pick and announce giveaway winners
Participants have trooped into your giveaway, and now the end date is here.
What’s next?
You need to pick a winner and announce it to your audience.
Just like you announced the commencement of your giveaway, it’s important to announce its end.
This will assure your audience that you’ve run a real giveaway. You don’t want participants thinking you’ve done engagement farming.
To pick a winner, you have to go through your entries. For entries like comments, you can go through comments on your TikTok post.
With a giveaway tool, this is easier.
A giveaway tool will provide each participant’s details and their entries. You can also use the random winner picker to pick a winner.
However, if you’re running a contest, you’ll have to judge the entries.
Once you pick a winner, reach out to the winner on TikTok or through email.
You’ll inform them of their win and discuss how to get the prize across to them.
Also, encourage the winner to create a video with their prize and publish it on TikTok.
After doing this, you’ve brought your giveaway to an end on the side of participants.
But for you, there’s more.
9. Analyze your TikTok giveaway results
After your TikTok giveaway, one question is still hanging over your head: did the giveaway achieve your goals, or you created buzz for little?
The only way to answer this question is to compare relevant metrics with your goals.
Apart from understanding how your giveaway performed, you also get insights to improve future giveaways.
But to find metrics, you need a tool to measure and report them.
For example, if your goal is to increase followers, you can use TikTok Studio to track the increase in followers during your giveaway.
Beyond TikTok, giveaway tools offer more metrics for your campaign.
If your goal is related to actions on your website, Google Analytics can track the numbers.
So, define the metrics and see if your TikTok giveaway has really helped your business.
Run a TikTok Live giveaway
TikTok Live is a popular content type for many because it attracts high engagement.
But a TikTok Live giveaway lets you push the engagement numbers even further.
When viewers know there’s a giveaway at the end of your TikTok Live, they’ll likely stick around until the end.
That said, you need to operate a TikTok shop to do a TikTok Live giveaway. Another option is to be invited to a TikTok Live giveaway as a creator.
To create a TikTok Live giveaway, go through the process of starting a Live session.
Among the options, you’ll see Live giveaway.
Source: TikTok
Click on it and select a product from your TikTok shop as the giveaway prize.
Then, complete the setup and go live.
TikTok will randomly pick your giveaway winner after the Live session or when your countdown ends. Keep in mind that you’re responsible for shipping the prize to the winners.
You can read TikTok’s guide for more details about how to do a TikTok Live giveaway.
Apart from using TikTok’s tools, you can also run giveaways during Live sessions with giveaway tools. Then, pick a winner towards the end.
Conclusion
Armed with the information in this guide, you can start planning your next TikTok giveaway.
Once you do that, you’re ready to launch your giveaway.
TikTok giveaways give you the best chance to create a buzz among your audience and achieve your marketing goals at the same time.
Frequently asked questions (FAQs) about running a TikTok giveaway
What’s the best time to run a TikTok giveaway?
Since you can run TikTok giveaways for various seasons, any time of the year is good for a giveaway. Once you have a reason to run a TikTok giveaway, go for it.
What’s the best prize for a giveaway on TikTok?
The best prize for your TikTok giveaway is usually a product or service you sell. With such a prize, you can attract people interested in your product. These are people who can buy your products even after the giveaway.
How long should my TikTok giveaway run?
Most giveaways run between 2 and 3 weeks. But your giveaway can be shorter or longer. The most important factor in determining the duration of your giveaway should be how long you think you can achieve your goals.
What’s the best tool to run my TikTok giveaway?
SweepWidget and Shortstack are two excellent options for running giveaways on TikTok and other platforms. They are easy to use, offer extensive features, and are affordable for most people.
How do I pick a winner for my TikTok giveaway?
How you pick a winner depends on your entry criteria. For TikTok giveaways, you can pick a winner randomly from participants. However, for a contest, you have to judge the entries based on the expertise of participants in following your instructions.
Samuel is a freelance SaaS writer. He has written for top SaaS websites like GetResponse, SweepWidget, and Hopper HQ to raise awareness, attract users, and drive monthly recurring revenue (MRR). Get in touch with him to rev up your content engine.