Small businesses need to find ways to engage with their audience without breaking the bank. We believe that giveaways (and having the right budget-friendly giveaway ideas) are the way to go.
These campaigns are proven to boost engagement, attract attention, and grow your brand online. Simply scan our blog for endless case studies and giveaway examples to see for yourself.
The best part about giveaways? Giveaways can be effective even on a tight budget. You will, however, need to find a suitable giveaway idea that will generate the leads and results you want.
This guide unveils nine creative and budget-friendly giveaway ideas to capture your audience’s imagination while driving exceptional results. We scanned campaigns like social media contests and charity giveaways to find inspiration for our giveaway ideas. We did the research, so you don’t have to!
Our giveaway ideas are free to use. Please feel free to use them or modify them as you see fit. We hope this guide inspires your next campaign and delivers excellent results.
Let’s dive in!
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1. Social Media Comment-to-Win Contest
- Easy entry: Let users leave a comment to enter.
- Entry method example: “Leave a comment below to enter.” Or “Tag a friend that inspires you.”
- Benefits: Organically increases engagement and reach.
One of the quickest ways to host a giveaway is to request that users comment to enter. There is minimal setup involved. Select a relevant prize and ask people to leave a comment to enter.
People who discover the giveaway post can simply leave a comment. This is an easy entry method for most people and can lead to more entries/leads.
A comment-to-win giveaway works best on social media. Choose a platform that hosts your target audience, create a giveaway post, and watch people enter by leaving comments.
Star Wars Book Reviews hosted their giveaway on Instagram. Instagram users had to comment, like, and follow to enter.
The Star Wars giveaway above helped the brand boost engagement and increase its audience.
The prize being a “Star Wars book” is relevant and can help bring forward an ideal audience for the brand. An audience that is interested in Star Wars books.
Comment-to-Win Contest Tips
- Wholesome comments are great on social media. Ask entrants to share wholesome news that will spark more comments and likes.
- Users should tag other users in the comments. This action helps refer more users to the giveaway. Referred users will, in turn, refer more users, creating a viral burst of entries and leads.
Comment-to-Win Contest Ideas
- “Tell us your favorite…” contest. This can be a book, movie, song of the year, etc.
- Tag your friend to enter a referral giveaway.
- Answer [this question] in the comments below.
2. Brand Partner Giveaway
- Better results: Two or more brands can help each other host a massive giveaway that generates more leads.
- Example: A bookstore can partner with a coffee shop to host a giveaway.
- Benefits: Bigger giveaways with better results.
A brand that sponsors a small prize can host a giveaway to increase leads, site traffic, sales, and more. One way to increase the chances of better results is to invest in a more significant prize while investing more time and resources into marketing the giveaway.
A larger prize will attract more entrants to the giveaway. Putting in a significant effort to promote the giveaway on other platforms like email, podcasts, etc., will also help find more entrants.
However, it can be challenging for a brand to have to do all this on its own.
Partnering with another brand can help your brand achieve its goals. Both brands can contribute financially towards a larger prize, driving more traffic towards the giveaway. This is one of those budget-friendly giveaway ideas that work for brands willing to share the costs of the giveaway with another brand or two.
The brand you partner with can also help share the giveaway across their socials and marketing platforms. Two brands promoting a single giveaway will certainly improve the campaign results.
Better results mean that both brands will walk away with more leads. This makes it worthwhile for both brands to promote the giveaway seriously.
Waiakea Partner Giveaway Case Study
Waiakea teamed up with multiple brand partners to host a very successful giveaway. Their campaign generated over 124k followers, 60k new emails, and massive web traffic.
We have a complete case study on this giveaway. We broke down every aspect of the campaign to learn how Waiakea found success with their partner giveaway.
Click here for our Waiakea Partner Giveaway Case Study.
Brand Partner Giveaway Tips
- Team up with brands that complement your brand. For example, a sock brand is co-hosting a sneaker giveaway.
- Try not to team up with competitors. It can be a serious conflict of interest. Especially if you intend to keep all the leads from the campaign.
- You can partner with brands outside your niche and share the expenses. However, a giveaway should attract a specific audience within a niche and not audiences from different niches or industries.
Brand Partner Giveaway Ideas
- Photography giveaway hosted by three brands, each sponsoring their product as a prize. E.g. Camera bag, drone, and photo software.
- Workout giveaway. Prizes include a set of dumbbells, kettlebells, Yoga mats, and water bottles.
- Office giveaway. A prize bundle made up of office stationary like pens, planners, notebooks, etc.
3. Limited-Time Discounts for All Participants
- Online store giveaway: A giveaway to grow the customer base of your online store.
- Example: 10% coupon to everyone that enters.
- Benefits: Drive traffic to your site and create exposure for your products.
Online stores and giveaways are just made for each other. Host a giveaway on your online store and watch your traffic and sales increase!
FOMO (fear of missing out) is a crucial element of any online store. Giveaways that run for a limited time are the ultimate FOMO experience. When users discover a giveaway, they act immediately before entries close.
Rewarding all entrants with coupons to your store is another excellent way to encourage people to enter. Entrants with coupons will also be enticed to make purchases to redeem their coupons. This is an ideal method for using a giveaway to drive sales and sign-ups.
We always recommend hosting a gift card giveaway. Especially online stores that are willing to give away gift cards to their own store.
Gift cards and coupon giveaways are low-cost campaigns that effectively drive traffic and sales and create new accounts. Online stores that host smaller giveaways monthly will consistently grow their audience.
Limited-Time Discounts Tips:
- Giveaway coupons, vouchers, or gift cards to your store. Entrants will eagerly scan your site upon entry to see what products they can purchase with the coupons they will win.
- Use FOMO to push users to take action faster. Host campaigns over a weekend, a week, or even a day.
Limited-Time Discounts Ideas:
- Gift card giveaway
- Shopping spree giveaway
- 10% coupon to all who enter
- Payday giveaway
4. User-Generated Content Contest
- Branded content: Encourage customers to create content for your brand.
- An example of an entry method is “Submit a selfie of you using our product.”
- Benefits: A campaign that produces free content and social proof.
User-generated content is the ultimate social proof (being influenced by other customers). Users who see customers using your product will immediately be intrigued by what you offer.
While the concept is straightforward, finding customers willing to dish out branded content for you is challenging. Campaigns like UGC contests are designed to entice customers to produce content that features your brand or products.
For example, your brand can host a Selfie Contest. Users must submit a picture of themselves using your product. Dove hosted a similar campaign called #RealBeauty.
Dove users were required to submit selfies of themselves using Dove products. The campaign produced tons of online branded content for Dove.
Whitecup Contest
Another famous UGC contest is the Starbucks White Cup Contest. Contest entrants had to doodle on a Starbucks coffee cup. The best designer won and had their designs printed on future cups.
What we liked about the Starbucks campaign is that entrants had to do the following to enter:
- Step into a Starbucks
- Order a coffee
- Drink it
- Doodle it
- Take a pic
- Submit their entry
The bar for entry might be high and intricate. However, this entry method drove sales as people had to purchase drinks to access the empty coffee cups.
Sales were likely not limited to coffee, as users may have purchased snacks and other foods at the store. Entrants may have also taken friends along that would have ordered something for themselves.
We also like how every entry would have featured Starbucks branded content, such as their cups with logos on them. This was a gem of a UGC campaign and one we would like other brands to try out.
UGC Contest Tips:
- Reward customers for providing branded content. Offer coupons, gifts, etc.
- Request that entrants use hashtags when submitting content on social media. This will help grow hashtags related to your brand.
- Choose a platform that suits your brand. If your core audience is on Facebook, then host the contest there to acquire those users.
UGC Contest Ideas:
- Review our product giveaway
- In-store selfie contest. Take a picture with our friendly staff in the store, and you could win.
- Tell us what you think about our new sweet/chips flavor.
- Show us how you use our product. Or send us the artwork you make using our products.
5. Guess and Win Challenge
- Engagement boost: A fun and engaging campaign to share with your customers.
- Entry method example: “How many sweets are in the jar?”
- Benefits: A highly engaging campaign that is easy to set up and fun for participants.
Ask your audience to “take a guess” at something in the comments section of your giveaway post. Users flooding the comments with guesses can certainly boost engagement and reach.
Don’t make things too hard. It’s only a little challenging, like guessing the amount of sweets in a jar. This requires some skill and a bit of luck to win!
Go even easier and better the odds by asking users to guess who will win tonight’s game.
This is an easy way for your brand to leverage a massive event to promote itself. Starlink accomplished this by hosting giveaways during the World Cup. They used the popularity of the event and its games to promote themselves.
Guess and Win Challenge Tips:
- Allow participants to guess in the comments section, boosting engagement.
- Encourage users to like comments with good guesses to increase engagement further.
- Keep guesses simple so anyone interested in taking part can enter.
Guess and Win Challenge Ideas:
- Guess how many Sweets are in the jar.
- Tell us who will win tonight’s game.
- Guess what will happen in the season finale.
6. Giveaway in Exchange for Reviews
- Review giveaway: A campaign that motivates users to provide feedback.
- Entry method example: “Review your purchase and stand a chance of winning a $100 gift card.”
- Benefits: Build brand and product credibility with reviews.
Reviews are the cornerstone of any online store. Shoppers will base their purchase decisions on online or product page reviews.
People will search for a product on Amazon just for the user review section to determine how legitimate a product is. Having verified reviews on your product pages is an absolute necessity.
One way of getting customers to leave reviews for purchases is to offer them an incentive. This can be coupons, gift cards, or an entry into a giveaway. Review giveaways are one of the best budget-friendly giveaway ideas for building your store reviews and establishing trust with new customers.
Review Your Purchase to Win!
Takealot is an e-commerce brand that does just this. Every customer who leaves a review on the product they purchased from Takealot is automatically entered into a giveaway.
This strategy motivates customers to review the products they purchase. The result? Product pages that are filled with product ratings and reviews from verified customers with real-world usage.
Review Giveaway Tips:
- Use hashtags to build your place within a social platform. Hashtags also make your brand more discoverable.
- Referral giveaways usually have more entrants. Ask entrants to refer more people to enter and review.
- Let the person with the most referrals win to turn the campaign into a contest. People will compete to find you more entries.
Review Giveaway Ideas:
- Review your purchase and stand a chance at winning a gift card.
- Use #BestXReview on X and share your thoughts about our latest update.
- Referral review contest. Ask family and friends to review our latest product. The person with the most referrals wins!
7. Exclusive Access Giveaway
- Promotion Campaign: Promote your product or event by offering users exclusive VIP access.
- Entry method example: “Enter now, and you could win two VIP tickets.”
- Benefits: Build hype for a product launch or event.
Giveaways are excellent for promoting events and product launches. Host a giveaway to promote a concert, music festival, or seminar, with the prize being tickets to the event. Or, host a giveaway to promote the launch of a new product. One lucky person can win the actual product being launched.
To shake things up a bit further, offer exclusive access to your events and product launches. This can be VIP access or backstage passes to events. Offer exclusive pre-order access to a product launch for users who enter your giveaway.
The Concourse Project is a nightclub and music event venue that regularly hosts giveaways to promote its brand and events. They recently gave away VIP tickets to three events hosted over New Year’s Day.
This giveaway instantly boosts engagement on a post meant to promote the three events and the venue. The VIP ticket prize is relevant to clubbers in the area who want to experience those parties.
Exclusive Access Giveaway Tips:
- A referral giveaway is essential in building exposure for an event like a concert, expo, comedy show, or music festival.
- Instead of pre-order discounts (on new products), enter all pre-order accounts into a giveaway. The winner can receive a full refund.
Exclusive Access Giveaway Ideas:
- Enter now for a chance to win first-row tickets and backstage passes.
- The giveaway winner will be the first to try out new players in our eFootball game.
- Pre-order Xbox giveaway. Pre-order the latest game from us and stand a chance to win an Xbox console and a full refund of the game you pre-ordered.
NB. Hosting a giveaway might not be legal, and users must buy your product to enter. You should allow all users to enter for free and pre-orders and an optional bonus entry.
8. Trivia or Quiz-Based Giveaway
- Brand engagement: Host a trivia contest related to your industry or brand.
- Entry method example: “Which year was our product first launched?” Or “Where do we manufacture our shoes?”
- Benefits: Increase product and brand awareness while boosting engagement and educating people about your brand.
Trivia and quizzes are fun and engaging. Brands regularly host quizzes on platforms like Facebook, X, and Instagram.
Engagement is through the roof with these campaigns as users rush to answer questions to prove their knowledge. Answers also receive likes from other users, especially if they are clever or witty responses.
Brands looking to increase social engagement and brand awareness can benefit from social media trivia posts and quizzes. Giveaways are an excellent incentive for people to take part.
People will certainly take part knowing that they could win a prize.
Let entrants know that you will select a winner from the comments section of your trivia post.
Trivia or Quiz-Based Giveaway Tips:
- A quiz based on your brand will encourage users to research your products.
- Choose a fun franchise within your niche. Gaming brands can host a God of War trivia. A sports clothing store can host a football trivia.
Trivia or Quiz-Based Giveaway Ideas:
- Country-based trivia on states, roads, cities, and more.
- Franchise trivia based on TV shows, movies, and books.
- Back-to-school trivia contest with questions on math and other school subjects.
9. Community-Based Giveaways
- Community Building: Encourage your audience to support a cause or charity in which your brand is involved.
- Entry method example: Enter our giveaway now, and we will donate one dollar per entry to [charity name].”
- Benefits: Builds brand loyalty and goodwill.
People love brands that actively put in work towards charity or their audience. It shows people that the brand is willing to be a responsible asset and a vital part of the community.
Brands achieve this by donating money or volunteering for charity. Online communities where brands take care of their customers are another example. This can be through product support, tutorials, motivation, and feedback.
These actions foster brand loyalty. People love to support a brand that cares for their fellow humans. Be it through charity or simply by listening to customer feedback.
An excellent example of getting an audience to join you in your charitable efforts is with a giveaway.
Offer an enticing prize and a dollar to charity for everyone who enters the giveaway. This will certainly create massive exposure for your brand. It will also help build a community around your brand.
Sponsoring Prizes for Charity
Charity and non-profit organizations are also actively trying to grow their presence online. Some organizations, like Future Dreams Charity, host giveaways on Instagram to grow their audience. You can help these non-profit organizations by sponsoring the giveaway prize.
Victoria’s Secret UK sponsored the Future Deams Charity giveaway prize. The prize is a pajamas and a gift set. This prize will help attract an audience of young women, Future Dreams’ target audience.
Community-Based Giveaway Tips:
- If the prize is only for charity, entries might be lower than expected. Offer a separate prize for entrants.
- Encourage users to volunteer for charitable causes by entering all volunteers into a giveaway.
- Grow your online community with giveaways and encourage users to join your philanthropy efforts.
Community-Based Giveaway Ideas:
- UGC Selfie Contest. Show us how you volunteer or give to charity, and you can win a large donation to your charity.
- Community fun run a giveaway. Walk/run for charity, and you can win.
- Monthly online community giveaway. An ongoing small monthly giveaway to anyone who joins our Facebook group/forum or online community.
Q&A: Budget-Friendly Giveaway Ideas
A Comment-to-Win contest is the quickest and easiest way to get started with online giveaways. Select a prize, create a post on your socials, and ask users to leave a comment to enter. You can then scan the comments for a random winner.
No. You can host campaigns on a budget. The 9 giveaways mentioned above are all meant to be cost-effective for smaller businesses or businesses looking to get started with giveaways with minimal investment.
Select a relevant prize that will entice your target audience. Books or a kindle will attract readers. Activewear, dumbbells, and fitness trackers will attract people who work out regularly.
TL;DR: Budget-Friendly Giveaway Ideas
Smaller businesses can boost engagement and brand awareness on a budget using giveaways. Having the right budget-friendly giveaway ideas can help you create your brand’s ideal campaign.
Our free-to-use giveaway ideas are meant to help you create those ideal campaigns that will find the results you seek.
A summary of our giveaway ideas:
- Boost engagement with a social media Comment-to-Win Contest.
- Team up with other brands to host a Brand Partner Giveaway.
- Boost web traffic with a coupon or Gift Card Giveaway.
- Encourage your audience to create branded content with a UGC Contest.
- Have fun and games with your online community with a Guess and Win Challenge.
- Build up your product reviews with a Review Giveaway.
- Hype up your events and product launches with an Exclusive Access Giveaway.
- Fun times with Trivia or Quiz-Based Giveaway.
- Build loyalty and goodwill with Community-Based Giveaways.
We hope you enjoyed our guide of budget-friendly giveaway ideas. Please share some of your own budget-friendly giveaway ideas in the comments.
Jack Paxton is the co-founder of VYPER, a marketing tool that helps brands build email lists, social followings, and revenue using viral giveaways, referral, and reward programs. After millions of dollars spent testing different marketing strategies at his marketing agency. He then also co-founded Hyax a fast, conversion & design-focused course and funnel builder for creators.