Summary
66.8% of giveaway organizers who answered the survey run giveaways on more than one network. 45.5% use Facebook and Instagram to an equal extent. This is the clearest trend that we saw in the results of the 2018 survey.
The study also asked about the frequency of giveaways, and the increasingly common practice of combining multiple networks in a single giveaway. 55.82% of brands surveyed run simultaneous
giveaways across social networks. The most common reason is to keep all the brand’s communities happy (41.6%), followed by convenience in designing and organizing the giveaway (30.4%).
Finally, we asked brands how they use ads to publicize giveaways on social media. 50% of brands invest in ads to share giveaways with their target audience, and 33.9% spend more than 50€ per giveaway.
Social media giveaways as a marketing tool
Where do brands run social media giveaways?
Facebook giveaways are the most common form of social media contests. 92.6% of respondents organize contests on Facebook. Instagram is the second most popular social network for running giveaways, used by 67.5% of respondents.
The majority use more than one social network to organize giveaways.
The most common strategy is to run giveaways on both Facebook and Instagram. 45.5% of brands organize giveaways on these two networks. On the other hand, some organizers prefer to use a single network: 25.7% run giveaways on Facebook exclusively, and 6.1% on Instagram exclusively.
45.5% of brands use Facebook and Instagram to an equal extent.
Other brands use Twitter, Pinterest, or YouTube only for social media giveaways, although this is very unusual (1.1%). In these cases, the brand usually has active profiles on other, larger networks too.
How many brands run multi-network giveaways?
55.82% of brands surveyed run simultaneous giveaways on multiple social networks, mostly combining Facebook and Instagram (43.12%). 10.9% run giveaways to unite their communities across Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, and 4.7% combine Twitter and Instagram.
Many brands use one or a variation of these strategies. However, we can’t overlook the 44.2% who never run simultaneous giveaways across social media channels.
Why do brands run multi-network giveaways?
Combining different social networks in a single giveaway is now a popular strategy for brands. At Easypromos, we have seen a new demand from giveaway organizers, especially social media managers and marketing strategists. In fact, this survey was created to examine the demand further.
When we asked organizers why they run simultaneous giveaways across social networks (or wish to do so), the most common reason was to satisfy all their online communities (41.6%). Making the giveaway easy to design and plan was also a strong incentive.
How often do brands run social media giveaways?
32,5% of brands organize one giveaway a month on average. Almost as many (28.6%) organize less than one giveaway a month, but run several contests throughout the year. 16.1% of brands organize two or three giveaways a month, while at the other extreme, 15.9% only manage one social media giveaway a year.
Everyone loves prizes, and everyone is on social media.
“The use of regular giveaways depends on the level of maturity in the brand’s social media strategy, the product or service that they sell, and how much incentive they can offer to users,” explains Carles Bonfill, CEO of Easypromos. “Everyone loves prizes, and everyone is on social media. That creates an opportunity for brands to run regular giveaways, to keep their online communities active and engaged.”
Top benefits of social media giveaways
Until November 2014, Facebook allowed brands to ask users to like their Page, in return for an incentive such as a promotion, coupon, or gated content. Most promotions and giveaways up until that time were designed to increase the brand’s followers on Facebook.
Although Facebook no longer allows contests based on likes (there is no tool to confirm whether users follow a given page), increasing followers is still one of the main motivations for organizing giveaways. 64.8% of survey respondents list it as one of the greatest benefit of social media giveaways. The other most popular benefits are increasing brand visibility (62.2%) and increasing social media engagement (58.7%).
Promoting social media giveaways with ads
As we have seen, one of the main benefits of social media giveaways is increased brand reach and awareness. A previous study by Easypromos found that giveaways posts achieved more engagement on Facebook than any other type of content, and were therefore invaluable in improving organic reach.
With that said, the visibility and engagement of branded content on Facebook has decreased in recent years. It is now virtually essential to pay to boost content on Facebook, even giveaway posts.
Half of the brands surveyed regularly invest in publicity for their giveaways. 33.9% will invest more than 50€ per giveaway. Another 16.9% will pay to promote every giveaway, but spend less. 35.2% of giveaway organizers only invest in publicity sometimes, while 14% will not pay to promote giveaways at all.
This survey was carried out by Easypromos in order to monitor trends and help our users create even more effective giveaways. More than 1 million giveaways, contests and online promotions have been created with our platform. We’re always at the cutting edge of developments in social media, helping our users find new ways to engage with their communities online.
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