20 Instagram Giveaway Ideas for your Business

César Rodríguez
César Rodríguez
You don’t have to be a big brand to generate engagement, interaction and increase sales among your online community. Once users discover a brand on Instagram, it’s easy to turn them into followers provided that the brand offers them an interesting product and valuable information. A good way to promote your brand’s Instagram profile is to constantly launch giveaways. This will draw new followers and clients and show them what your brand has to offer. Keep on reading to discover up to 20 practical ideas that will give you the perfect excuse to carry out Instagram giveaways and grow your audience.

One of the biggest benefits of this kind of giveaway is that you only have to give away one, or a couple, of your products, but in turn, there are many people who want it and sign up to participate. And here’s the catch, some of the participants will be so eager to get your product that they will contact you or access your online shop to purchase it if they don’t win the giveaway. This is way it’s so important to plan and regularly carry out giveaways to keep your audience engaged, and promote your Instagram profile and products.

Here are 20 real examples of Instagram giveaways to help you achieve these objectives.

Instagram Giveaway to celebrate your brand’s anniversary

Brands celebrate anniversaries as people celebrate birthdays. They are the perfect opportunity to look back at its history and celebrate achievements. Share the celebration with your community with a giveaway on Instagram. What’s more, it will let your audience know that your business is growing and send a positive message. Twenty years is an important milestone and Canadien business consultant and trader TEC Okanagan celebrated it treating the winners of their giveaway with a luscious weekend getaway.

Instagram Giveaway Ideas Brand Anniversary

Instagram Giveaway for seasonal products

Summer is the time of year most associated with holidays and when the vast majority of people go on vacation. The beach is one of the most popular summer destinations and anybody going to the beach will need a swimsuit. Kandishop Bikinis know that it doesn’t get more seasonal than bikinis, so an Instagram giveaway is the perfect strategy to get their spring-summer campaign going. The winners of the giveaway get to choose a bikini from those available on their website. The brand benefits twofold from this giveaway. On the one hand, they increase their follower base. On the other hand, they draw traffic to their online shop, which in turn, will most likely increase sales as their products get exposure.

Instagram Giveaway Ideas Seasonal Products

Do you want to launch your Instagram giveaway with a head start? Check out our Instagram Giveaway templates, there are over 50 template ideas available for you.

Promote new products with an Instagram Giveaway

An Instagram Giveaway is ideal to promote a new product or service in your catalog. Twigley Farm is an Australian slow-life Bed & Breakfast holiday retreat that included a Glamping experience in their offering. In order to promote their new product, they carried out an Instagram Giveaway in which the winners got a 2-day romantic glamping getaway with a fully stocked fridge to make the experience unforgettable for the lucky winning couple.

Run a collaborative giveaway

Run a collaborative giveaway with a partner brand and share the benefits. In this example the Australian household products online shop, partnered with the kitchenware brand Baccarat to run an Easter-based giveaway. Collaborative giveaways offer the added benefit of generating engagement in both brands’ communities. As a result, users that follow one account may very well end up following the other brand’s account too. Hence, both brands benefit from a single action

Instagram Giveaway Ideas Collaborative

Partner up with a supplier

Partnering with a supplier or sponsor is the ideal opportunity to run a giveaway for influencers or service providers. Take a look at the giveaway that DIY blogger and influencer Monica Chavez ran on her Instagram account. As a brand ambassador for Home Depot, Monica ran a comment based Instagram Giveaway where 4 lucky winners got a $2,500 gift card to spend at the DIY shop. Giveaways like this one benefit both the Influencers and the brand supporting them as they provide exposure and promote brand awareness.

Instagram Giveaway Ideas Collaborate with suppliers

Do you have a good relationship with collaborating brands or suppliers? Run a collaborative giveaway with them, it’s a win-win!

Celebrate an international themed day that is relevant to your target audience

International themed days offer opportunities to connect with your audience and share values and interests. In the following example jewelry maker Anueva Jewelry ran an Instagram Giveaway to celebrate international women’s day. As their brand focuses mostly on jewelry aimed at women, International Women’s day was the perfect opportunity to engage with their audience and generate interactions. An attractive prize, a $1,000 store credit voucher in this case, will draw more participants and therefore have a greater reach.

Instagram Giveaway Ideas Women's Day

Holiday based giveaways

Same as with an International themed day, traditional holidays offer a good opportunity to run a giveaway. From Valentine’s to Christmas, the calendar offers multiple opportunities to run a successful giveaway. Thinking outside the box is always an option. Take the example of Tellingtails, an Australian manufacturer of dog accessories. Knowing that their audience are dog lovers, they organized a dog centered Valentine’s giveaway. Rather than going for the stereotypical couple’s Valentine’s promotion, the brand decided to celebrate the love that owners have for their dogs. Quite an original idea!

Instagram Giveaway Ideas Valentine's

Instagram Spring giveaway

Spring and summer are the seasons that spark the most joy and positive attitude in people, and that spills over in promotional actions as well. Spring Instagram giveaways blossom like flowers in this season, they’re everywhere! It’s one of the simplest and most joyful reasons to celebrate a giveaway.

In the following example, 4 local businesses got together to run a giveaway celebrating the arrival of spring and offering a prize consisting of a bundle of their products. Collaborative giveaways like this one benefit all participating businesses as they promote each other among their followers.

Instagram Giveaway Ideas Collaborative

Promote your service offer with an Instagram Giveaway

When your business sells products, choosing a prize and organizing a giveaway is pretty straight forward. However, when your Instagram profile is advertising a service that takes place in a very specific environment, it might seem harder to engage the community and prompt a response. The following example shows that Instagram does not only show what your business does, but that it can actually attract potential clients, even for a service provided at a specific location.

Forma ceramics is a ceramics and potter’s wheel school located in Barcelona and it has been running since 1970. As much as it may seem and old-fashioned and very niche trade, the company has been able to transform and adapt along its history, and currently offers courses and workshops. The youngest generation of this family owned business started an Instagram profile and to celebrate their 30,000 followers milestone, they organized a giveaway offering a potter’s wheel workshop for four people. The giveaway post got 700 comments and over 600 likes. As the prize was a workshop for four people, participants had to mention 3 friends in their comment, which gave the post a wide reach. This is an advantage of having a brick-and-mortar shop; users that sign up for the giveaway are also potential clients.

Instagram giveaway as part of an advertising campaign

An Instagram giveaway is a good complement to an advertising campaign. Such is the case with Strandha’s Whiskey ski season advertising campaign. To promote their product as part of the Apres Ski experience, they launched their “Last Run. First Round” advertising campaign and complemented it with a giveaway. The prize consisted of a Ski Weekend in Aspen Co. and, not surprisingly, the giveaway post got over 1,000 likes

Ad Campaign Giveaway

A giveaway as a means to start a conversation with your community

Another interesting reason to organize a giveaway on your business’s Instagram profile is to collect comments and feedback from your followers. Naturvital is a natural cosmetics brand with over 3,000 followers and as many as 10%interacted with the brand during the giveaway. Not bad at all! In the giveaway post, the brand asked its followers to share their ideas on how the brand could become more sustainable. The very essence of the brand already appeals to clients who worry about sustainability and environmentally friendly products. Hence, the giveaway sparked an interesting conversation between the brand and its followers. Furthermore, the ideas put forward by the participants provided the brand with possible future paths toward sustainability. In conclusion, if you ask your followers for feedback on a topic they are interested in, you will get a response. ?

Feedback giveaway

A giveaway to celebrate the opening of a new shop

A company’s growth is always a reason to celebrate. Whether it is opening a new brick-and-mortar shop or expanding from online to physical, announcing it and making sure your followers know about it is paramount. This said, celebrating this growth with an Instagram giveaway is a must as part of your promotional plan. It’s important to use the right kind of hashtags regarding the location of the new shop in order to draw traffic from that specific area and reach potential customers.

Shop opening giveaway

When Australian blogger and online travel guide Baxterbackpack expanded into an online shop, organizing an Instagram giveaway to promote her products was the way to go. The giveaway post got an average of twice as many interactions than the ordinary posts. Not bad at all!

Launching an online shop? Celebrate it with an Instagram giveaway!

Sometimes, what started as a simple Instagram profile grows to the point that it turns into a business. As popularity and the number of followers reach a critical mass, the switch from a simple social network account into a profitable business becomes a reality and a giveaway is a great way to celebrate it. 

That was precisely the case of  CorgiKawalli. They evolved from an Instagram profile to share their love for this breed, into an online shop. And to celebrate it, they organized an Instagram giveaway. This action not only works to share the news with their followers and potential customers, but also as a way to promote the products available in their shop.

Opening e-shop Giveaway

Connect with the community and raffle game tickets to support a local sports team

Whether it is sponsoring a team or simply being a fan of it, it is common for local businesses to give away game tickets for local sports teams. In this example, the local Volkswagen dealership at the Canary Islands organized a giveaway to support the Union Deportiva Las Palmas football team and raffled game tickets for two. This car dealership organizes Instagram giveaways periodically to support Canarian teams, not only in Las Palmas, but also in Tenerife.

Support Sports Club Giveaway

Promote tourism and visits to local festivities with a giveaway

These kinds of giveaways don’t have to be limited to sporting events. Cultural and local celebrations also allow to reinforce the relationship between a brand and the local community. What’s more, they can also be used by cities’ tourist boards to promote events and draw visitors.

In the following example the Laredo Tx. tourism board entrances to the Jalapeño Festival taking place in the city.

Local Festival Giveaway

Reward customer and followers’ loyalty with an Instagram giveaway

Sometimes, a simple “Thank you for your support” giveaway will go a long way among your followers. Not only will it generate interactions, but it will also create a positive brand image and greater awareness among your followers. Just like travel influencer and blogger Destinationfab did in the following example.

Followers Appreciation Giveaway

Monthly or periodical giveaways

Recurring giveaways is a good way to stay top-of-mind among your followers and potential customers. Celebrating monthly giveaways or choosing a monthly theme for them e.g. Easter, Summer, Holiday Season, etc. will help keep your audience engaged. 

This is the case of Secret Stork Ultrasound. They organize regular monthly giveaways as part of their social network marketing plan to keep their audience engaged. As well as a means of reaching potential new customers.

Periodical Giveaways

An Instagram Giveaway to celebrate a milestone in your followers count

The following example makes a good case study: a small business with outstanding management of its social networks. The business in question is a small local bakery with one single shop in Badalona, Spain. They decided to organize an Instagram Giveaway to celebrate that they had reached 10,000 followers. The giveaway post had a total of 2,440 comments, approximately 25% of their followers, and local area influence. A very impressive figure! Furthermore, they offered a prize that appealed to their followers: a loaf of bread, a daily special bread, and a sweet bread every day for 5 days. Hence, only customers or potential customers were drawn to the promotion as they had to visit the shop in person in case they won.

Followers Milestone Giveaway

Giveaways to celebrate reaching 1,000, 10,000, and 20,000 followers are customary on Instagram. They represent milestones in the evolution of the brand in the social network and help with brand awareness. These giveaways are a must for any business with an Instagram account!

An Instagram Giveaway for your employees

If your business is big enough, or has enough employees, an internal Instagram giveaway is a good employee engagement idea. Recognizing and rewarding your employees’ hard work will always pay off. In the following example, Texas based clinical research center DM Clinical Research, organized an Instagram giveaway as part of their employee appreciation week.

Employee Engagement Giveaway

Launch an express Instagram Giveaway

We are down to our last example! Express giveaways may use the sense of urgency to nudge users into participating. Hence, when time is of the essence, or when the prize has to be delivered or consumed quickly, or when the organizer needs to maximize a very specific time or day, an express giveaway might be the way to go. An express giveaway is exactly the same as a conventional giveaway. The only difference is that participation time is shorter, usually one or two days. As opposed to up to two weeks for a traditional giveaway. 

In the following example, popsicle brand DeeBee’s Organic took advantage of “Compliment Day” to launch an express giveaway that lasted only a couple of days. These kinds of very specific dates can give users a sense of “urgency” to participate. The downside, however, is that given the short participation period, the amount of users participating might not be that high.

Express Giveaway

And so, we have reached the end of our 20 Instagram giveaway examples for your business. As you can see, there are plenty of opportunities to celebrate with your audience and increase engagement. We hope you found them useful and inspiring for your next Instagram giveaway.