An Influencer Giveaway To Skyrocket Your Brand’s Growth

An Influencer giveaway is not just a trendy campaign. An influencer giveaway is a game-changing strategy that will amplify your brand’s reach, build trust, and connect with an engaged audience. 

Influencer giveaways are very similar to any other giveaway. The main defining factor of an influencer giveaway is the participation of an influencer brand that has direct access to a target audience. This means that your giveaway can instantly reach thousands of users when an influencer shares your giveaway on their timeline. 

There is, however, much to consider when hosting an influencer giveaway. We will walk you through a step-by-step guide on hosting an influencer giveaway. We cover the process of selecting an influencer and prize, as well as structuring your campaign to improve ROI. 

Ready to rapidly grow your brand online and turn leads into loyal customers? Let’s dive in!

1. Why Influencer Giveaways Work

Giveaways are viral campaigns that quickly generate leads. Users find them exciting, and they quickly submit their entries for fear of missing out (FOMO) on an opportunity to win. 

Any brand can find success with a giveaway. However, some users might be reluctant to enter if they have only just discovered your brand. In general, people prefer to enter giveaways hosted by brands they trust.

Influencers already have trusted followers. An influencer on a platform like Instagram can motivate users to establish trust with your brand faster. This will certainly boost your campaign results.

Niche Followers

Influencers already have a niche following. Simply posting content can give your brand access to the influencer’s followers. So, if an influencer’s niche following matches your brand and its target audience, you can collaborate with that influencer to gain access to their audience.

This is the biggest reason brands collaborate with influencers to host giveaways. The brand sponsors the prize, and the influencer promotes the giveaway to their audience. 

Influencers come in all shapes and sizes. Or all niches and audiences. Big-time influencers with massive followings will cost more than smaller influencers, known as micro-influencers.

Giveaways work with all types of influencers. Just ensure that your brand selects an influencer that is the right fit for your brand. We will talk about this more in the sections below. 

To Sum Up: Access an influencer’s audience with a giveaway that motivates them to exchange their emails for a chance to win a prize.

2. Choosing the Right Influencer

As previously mentioned above, collaborating with an influencer will allow your brand to access their audience. However, you should not partner with just any influencer. Work with someone who aligns with your brand. 

Here are a few tips on finding a suitable influencer:

Aligns With Your Brand

We are certainly spoilt for choice when it comes to influencers. They really do come in all sizes and shapes. Oh, and don’t forget personalities and attitudes!

Find an influencer who suits your brand image. A bad boy influencer would suit your image if your brand is not shy about controversy. 

On the other hand, if your brand plays it safe and sticks to the rules, a controversial influencer will be a bad look. Pick someone responsible and wholesome. 

Linus Tech Tips (LTT) is a YouTube channel that creates content about tech, computers, and more. The crew is quirky and humorous in their video presentations. Dbrand, a mobile accessory brand, is also quirky and funny in its marketing approach. 

These two brands align in their image and have been in a long-term partnership for years.

A brand voice is essential nowadays, so finding the right influencer to represent your brand is crucial. Dbrand succeeded with LTT because of its similarly aligned brand image and its audience of tech enthusiasts interested in what Dbrand offers (protection for tech products). 

Their Audience Matches Yours

We simply cannot stress enough how crucial it is for your influencer’s audience to match your target audience. Partnering with an influencer with many followers who are not interested in what you offer can be a serious waste of time and resources. 

This is why an influencer’s many followers should not too entice you. Rather than the quality of their followers. You can determine this by looking into their interests. 

As mentioned earlier, Dbrand chose to partner with LTT because the people who watch LTT have an affinity for tech and gadgets. Dbrand sees these people as their target audience because people who love their gadgets want to protect their investments with a Dbrand skin or case. 

Hello Fresh is a wholesome food brand that regularly collaborates with influencers. They collaborated with actor Mandy Moore, who posted content for Hello Fresh on her Instagram.

Mandy is a wholesome actor and singer known as the mom from This Is Us. Her fantastic image is the reason Hello Fresh chose to work with her. Hello Fresh could have chosen a fitness influencer, but they went with a regular mom actor to appeal to other moms. 

Key Considerations

Here are a few crucial factors to consider when researching an influencer and their audience:

Interests: 

What interests do the influencer’s followers have? Do these interests align with your brand and products? 

For example, a makeup influencer will have an audience interested in items like lip gloss, foundation, etc. A gaming influencer will have an audience interested in games, gaming consoles, peripherals, etc. 

The same goes for fashion, tech, music, entertainment, and every other niche. Determine your target audience’s interests and determine whether the influencer’s audience is similar to yours. 

Demographic:

Be careful with this one. Some influencers have millions of younger followers. This disadvantages brands looking for a mature audience with disposable income. 

When it comes to demographics, micro-influencers are great. They have a small following made up of similar users located in a specific region. Your brand can target a specific region by collaborating with a micro-influencer from that region.

Past Collaborations and Giveaway Performance:

Research the influencer’s history. Find out the following:

• What campaigns have they hosted in the past?
• How many successful brand collaborations have they completed?
• Do they have experience hosting giveaways on their platform? And have those giveaways been successful?
• Has there been any controversies worth noting?

An experienced and professional influencer will be easier to work with and can fine-tune the campaign for better results. However, you may have to pay extra for their services. 

Figure out how capable an influencer is in promoting your brand and giveaway by scanning their past campaigns. There is nothing wrong with paying less for an influencer with reach and no experience. You may have to do most of the promotional work on your own. 

Here is an excellent infographic with tips on choosing an influencer to work with:

Now that you know how to find the right influencer for your brand, let’s get into structuring your giveaway and influencer for maximum results.

3. Structuring the Perfect Influencer Giveaway

Once you have found an influencer that suits your brand and has a relevant audience, you can start preparing for the giveaway. As with any marketing campaign, a planning process is essential. 

When structuring your giveaway, you must consider the following:

• Prize
• Entry
• Rules

Let’s quickly review these crucial elements that will make up your influencer giveaway.

Select a Relevant Prize

The giveaway prize is the most enticing part of the campaign and will capture the entrants’ attention. Choose a prize relevant to your influencer and their fans. 

Hosting a makeup giveaway would not make sense for a tech influencer. Their fans would be confused, which could hurt the brand and the influencer’s reputation. 

You made a mistake if you are a makeup brand looking to host a giveaway with a tech influencer. This is why the influencer selection process is critical and can heavily influence the outcome of the giveaway.

The VYPER Blog is filled with giveaway prize ideas. 

Click here for our guide on selecting giveaway prizes. 

We also have giveaway prize ideas exclusive for X giveaways (Twitter).

Click here for our guide on Twitter Giveaway Prize ideas.

Choose an Entry Method

Before you decide on an entry method, set clear goals for your giveaway. Are you looking to build your audience, generate more email leads, or increase sign-ups? 

Select an entry method that will surely achieve your goals. Here are a few examples:

• Comment, like, tag, and follow to enter: This entry method will help increase your audience and engagement. Asking entrants to tag other users will encourage referral entries. This works perfectly on social media platforms.
• Submit your email to enter: Build your email list with this entry method. 
• Create a new account with us to enter: Online stores can use this entry method to increase signups and new account users. 
• Create something with our app: Increases app downloads. Give entrants free trials of your app so they can use it to create something and submit it for entry. For example, a photo editing app maker can ask entrants to edit a specific picture to enter. The best edit wins.

Your entry method should also suit the influencer’s requirements or goals. Are they looking to grow their audience through the giveaway? Are they looking to promote their merchandise or brand through the giveaway?

Consider the above when creating your entry method, and you will surely achieve better results for your brand and the influencer you partner with.

Play a Game to Enter

Sean McLoughlin, known as Jacksepticeye, is a famous YouTuber with over 30 million subscribers. He recently hosted a fascinating giveaway with an anusual entry method.

Users must play a fan-made coffee game on the hardest level. The person with the fastest time wins. Entrants must record their gameplay to submit their entry. 

This entry method pushed users towards trying out the fan-made game, giving the game and its creator valuable exposure. The giveaway attracted gamers, a target audience for the game maker, and Jacksepticeye (who has his own coffee brand). 

We like this entry method as it enables fans to try out a brands product while having fun in the process. The influencer will rally together their fans to encourage them to take part in this community giveaway. 

It goes to show that entry methods can be fun and creative. Find an entry method that suits your brand and properly engages your audience. 

Rules and Guidelines

Rules are essential for any giveaway because they keep participants in line and keep your brand safe from any potential issue or controversy. Big brands like Ridge Wallet post extensive rules on their giveaways that amount to 6k words.

It’s advisable to cover all avenues like Ridge Wallet and include every rule, law, or guideline for your giveaway. Have a dedicated page for this. However, the extent of your rules is optional, and a basic set of rules can still be used. Especially for smaller giveaways.

Here are some rules you can include in your influencer giveaway:

• Eligibility: Who is allowed to enter? This can be age or location-based. 
• Entry method: Clearly state the exact entry method and warn users that they can be disqualified if they abuse the entry method.
• Campaign duration: The exact dates the giveaway will run. 
• Winner selection: How you will select the winner. A random draw or based on merit.
• Winner notification: How the winner will be announced and contacted.
• Prize details: Include specifications and retail value. 
• Prize delivery: How and when you will deliver the prize to the winner. 

Follow the Law of Your Region

It is also crucial to include laws specific to your state or country. Research the laws regarding giveaways in your area and highlight some of them in your giveaway rules. 

For example, your giveaway must be open to the public. You cannot charge participants or ask them to buy your product to enter, as this may be illegal in your region.

The giveaway should also comply with the platform on which you intend to host it. When compiling your giveaway rules, look up the rules regarding giveaways on platforms like Instagram and X.

Passing your rules over to the influencer for feedback before you launch the giveaway is essential. They may want to include some of their own rules to suit their brand. 

Giveaway and Contest Rules should be taken seriously. Which is why we have multiple blog posts on this topic. 

Click the links below to learn more about creating rules for your campaigns.

4. Crafting Compelling Content for an Influencer Giveaway

Launch your influencer giveaway with a perfectly timed, excellently designed giveaway post. Let your influencer publish the content on their timeline and tag your brand in the post. 

My Nguyen is an exceptional food influencer with millions of followers. She partnered with a few food brands to host a giveaway on her channel.

This is a simple cookbook referral giveaway meant to increase engagement and refer new users to My Healthy Dish (My’s Instagram). My sweetened the deal by adding more products to the giveaway to create a larger prize bundle. 

The additional products she included in her prize bundle are from food brands that are currently collaborating with her. My chose to go with a video post to explain the entry method better and to show off the actual prize. She also made sure to tag every brand featured in the giveaway. 

You don’t have to use video. Images work fine. However, brands often use video because it is quick and cheap to produce, and you can explain the rules of the giveaway easily. 

Influencer Giveaway Post Tips

Here are a few elements of a high-performing giveaway post:

• Eye-catching visuals: A viral post on any social platform is a design that is meant to capture a person’s attention and imagination. Go bold, wild, and crazy with colors and designs. Or, be chick and elegant and minimal with an aesthetic that is pleasing. Whatever suits your brands. 
• Clear instructions: The giveaway post should have clear and concise instructions. A bold and wild design might draw a giveaway entrant’s attention, but users may abandon the giveaway if the instructions are confusing. 
• Instill urgency: Run the giveaway for a short period so people are motivated to act instantly. “You have 3 days left to enter!”

5. Amplifying Reach Beyond the Influencer’s Audience

Now that your giveaway is live, the leads should be pouring in. Right?

Any giveaway can go viral, especially on a social network. However, there’s a huge chance many people will never discover your giveaway. 

As with any newly published marketing campaign, you must promote the campaign to improve its results. Promoting your giveaway effectively will ensure the campaign finds more leads and produces better results. 

Don’t just rely on the influencer to promote the giveaway. Do some promotion of your own. Leverage the popularity of the influencer when promoting the campaign. This is exactly what Clutch Chairz did.

Clutch Chairz collaborated with Pewdiepie to giveaway 12 of their chairs. They made sure to leverage his name by mentioning him in their X giveaway post. 

Pewdiepie hosted the giveaway on his YouTube channel. However, Clutch Chairz Did cross-promote the campaign on X and other platforms (on their own channels/social profiles). Your brand should also cross-promote in this manner, be it on socials or email. 

Influencer Giveaways Promotion Tips

Here are some tips to promote your influencer giveaway:

• Cross-promotion: Your giveaway will certainly flourish on social media with an influencer attached. But it doesn’t have to end there. Send an email to your followers to inform them about your giveaway. Share your Instagram giveaway on X or other platforms you have an account with. 
• Referral giveaway:  Ask entrants to tag or share the giveaway with friends. Offer an incentive for those who prefer more entrants to the giveaway. Referred entrants will refer more new entrants, which will quickly boost the campaign results.  
• Use paid Ads: Boost your giveaway post on launch to quickly amass engagement and reach. This can be just what the campaign needs to go viral early on. 
• Podcasts and other media: Get your influencer to keep talking about the campaign. Help get them booked onto podcasts so they can mention the campaign. Or sponsor live streams and other content and let them announce or explain more about the giveaway there.

6. Measuring the ROI of an Influencer Giveaway

Always carefully measure your campaigns once they are over. This data will determine the campaign’s success while also providing helpful feedback and learnings that you can use to tweak your next giveaway for better results. 

You also must provide the campaign results to the influencer you partnered with. The data is crucial to influencers with data-driven services or if you agreed on a bonus for them if they achieved specific results. 

Here are a few examples of metrics you can track:

• Entries: The total number of people that entered. Offer an incentive to your influencer if they deliver more entries. 
• Pageviews: The amount page visits generated by the giveaway. This can also be website visits. 
• Conversion rate: This is the total number of entries divided by the total number of page views. It’s to measure how well the giveaway landing page performed. 
• Referrals: The number of people referred to the giveaway by other entrants. More referrals will increase the virality score of the campaign. 

These are the most essential analytics you should measure once your giveaway has concluded. You can consider other data related to your and your influencer’s goals for the giveaway. 

Goal Orientated Data

If we consider the goals above in section 3 (under “Choose an Entry Method”), the data we should chase are as follows:

• Engagement: Count each interaction that users made with your giveaway. This can be likes, comments, tags, shares, etc.
• Followers: Consider how many followers your brand (and influencer) built up during the course of the giveaway. Or the number of new followers referred directly from the giveaway.
• New emails: The amount of new email addresses collected from the giveaway.
• New accounts: The number of people that signed up for your service or platform. For example, a giveaway created new free accounts in an online store. 
• App downloads: The number of app or software downloads produced by the giveaway.

Testbook hosted a referral giveaway to increase their leads and online presence. They tracked metrics like email addresses, app downloads, and social media engagement. 

Learn more about how Testbook determined the metrics to track and how it influenced the way they structured their campaign in our full Testbook Referral Contest case study. 

Link to Testbook Referral Contest case study.

More examples of giveaway metrics to track:

• Social media actions (e.g., like this post or watch this video).
• Impressions. The number of people who saw your giveaway.
• Sales. Increase in product or store sales during the giveaway period. Or sales due to the giveaway.
• SMS contacts.
• New trial accounts.
• Subscribers on platforms like YouTube, Twitch, or Patreon.

7. Post-Giveaway Strategy

In this last step of our influencer giveaway, we will announce the winner, contact our new leads, and create insights for future reference. 

The winner announcement process is a sensitive procedure that requires careful consideration. Entrants who did not win can quickly claim that the giveaway was rigged or that someone cheated, etc. 

There must be full transparency in the winner selection process to build trust with your audience. Even the most remote claim of cheating or favoritism on your part can hurt your brand. 

Here are some tips on selecting a winner:

• Host a live stream with the influencer you partnered with and ask them to pick a winner randomly. This way, the proceedings take place in front of everyone to witness a fairly chosen winner.
• Announce the winner on every platform you choose to promote the giveaway. For example, people who discovered your giveaway by email will also want to be updated by email. 
• Offer consolation prizes to all entrants. No one wants to feel like a loser. Offer coupons, vouchers, or a small gift to all who entered. Digital items that can be claimed online are ideal in this scenario. 
• Ensure you email the winner with instructions on delivering the prize. It’s crucial that you clearly state beforehand that there will be no anonymous winners in your giveaway. 

Visit our contest winner announcement guide to to learn more about emailing your giveaway and contest winners.

Click here for Contest Winner Announcement Templates.

Nurture Your Leads

Start nurturing your new leads within a week after announcing the giveaway winner. Send out a welcome email to begin a sequence of emails aimed at new leads. Include special offers for new members when possible. 

Inform new leads to stay tuned for more giveaways. Ensure mail recipients will be the first to know of any new giveaway. 

Influencer Giveaway Insights

We already spoke about collecting data in the previous section. Now, you can start creating insights for your campaign after announcing a winner and emailing new leads. 

These insights will help determine the campaign’s success and the quality of leads. We can use this analysis to improve future giveaways and the way you work with influencers. 

Consider the following when creating insights from your giveaway:

• What was the influencer’s involvement throughout the campaign? What did they achieve? Did their participation help boost goals?
• What is the quality of leads generated from the campaign? You will learn this after sending out emails to your new leads. Did your prize attract the right kind of leads?
• What is the ROI (return on investment)? 
• Given these insights, should we host another giveaway soon?

In regards to ROI, the output of a giveaway may not carry a monetary value (emails, followers, etc). In this instance, you can add all expenses like the prize, marketing costs, influencer fees, etc. Then, the total cost of the giveaway will equal the total leads generated from the giveaway. 

You could break it down to cost per lead. 

Now, look at other methods you may have tried to generate leads. Were those methods more expensive per lead? How long did these methods take to generate leads, and what was the quality of those leads? 

It’s all about data and insights! So, make sure to record everything and make key adjustments to your campaigns based on your insights and learnings from previous campaigns.

TL;DR: How to Host an Influencer Giveaway  

More brands are teaming up with influencers to expand their reach and connect with a target audience. These brands also go as far as to team up with influencers to host giveaways. 

Here is a summary of influencer giveaways as discussed in this guide:

• Influencers have a niche audience that will quickly take part in their giveaways because the influencer has already gained their trust. Trust is crucial with giveaways, which is why influencer giveaways work and why more brands host them. 
• For best results, work with an influencer that aligns with your brand’s value and image. Their audience must match your target audience and have an interest in your brand and its products. Find influencers that have past experience with giveaways or similar brand collaborations. 
• Select a giveaway prize that the influencer’s followers will appreciate and find enticing. The entry method for the giveaway should align with your brand’s goals (or campaign goals). Having a clear set of rules will ensure that your campaign runs smoothly. 
• Creating eye-catching visuals to grab attention is essential when promoting your giveaway. Have clear instructions on how to participate in the giveaway.
• Dont rely on the influencer to promote the giveaway. Cross-promote the giveaway on other platforms like email, podcasts, and blogs. Share the giveaway on all of your socials.
• Track metrics like engagement, entries, page views, and conversions. Assess the quality of leads generated and calculate the cost per lead. 
• Create insights from the giveaway results and use this information to improve your next campaign. 

We hope you enjoyed this guide on how to host influencer giveaways. Please do not hesitate to get in touch with us in the comments below if you need help with giveaways.