In this article we want to delve deeper into social media giveaways and their profitability. They are a big part of the strategic marketing plan of brands thanks to their low cost and ability to significantly increase metrics such as reach and engagement.
If you’d like to find out why making your giveaways go viral can be profitable for your brand, and which digital marketing tools you can use to viralize content, read on!
Is it profitable for brands to make their giveaways go viral?
Let’s start by understanding why it’s so vital to make your giveaway go viral on Instagram or any other social network. The reality is that behind every giveaway is a lot of hard work. It’s not simply a case of developing a contest dynamic and then posting it online. If you don’t prepare properly, you could be throwing money away.
Launching giveaways and contests has become a profitable alternative that allows you to attract followers, obtain data from potential customers, and gather information about the interests of participants. Therefore, skimping on the hard work required could be counterproductive for your giveaways and for your online strategy in general.
In comparison with other types of investments (such as television, radio, or other traditional media), launching a giveaway is more profitable and, above all, more measurable. Giveaways can help you significantly reduce the cost of acquiring new followers, as well as boosting engagement and reach.
The overall cost of a giveaway obviously depends on the prize you choose and the geographical boundaries you establish, but it’s a relatively affordable action for most brands.
Let’s take a look at a simple example:
Imagine that World Reading Day is coming up and that you decide to raffle a book and a diary on Instagram. You also decide to put some actions in place to dynamize the initiative and achieve higher levels of diffusion, such as investing in ads to promote the post announcing the giveaway. The approximate cost of the sweepstakes would be €121, distributed as follows:
- Prize: €50
- Social Ads: €30
- Shipping costs: €12
Tool for picking the winner: €29
Now let’s suppose that thanks to the giveaway you obtain 150 new followers and 42,564 impressions. I.e. the number of times your post was shown to users. You also receive a total of 3,980 interactions. The ROI of the giveaway would therefore translate into the following results:
- CPM (Cost per thousand impressions): €0.28
- CTR (Click Through Rate): €9.35
Cost of new follower acquisition: €0.80
Tools for making your giveaway content go viral
There are lots of options when it comes to actions for dynamizing a giveaway and making it go viral. Here are some that Easypromos recommends:
- Use your other online and offline channels to promote your giveaway. These could include newsletters, webpages, blogs, and signage at the point of sale if you have a store or physical space.
- Design an effective hashtag strategy. Hashtags work as links that enable users to quickly find posts related to topics that they are interested in.
- Take advantage of your Instagram bio to spread the word about your giveaway. You can also add a link with the Terms and Conditions.
- Use Instagram stories to generate noise. This format generates far more views than a post in your feed, so make the most of its potential.
- Consider a co-branding action. Launching a collaborative giveaway with a brand that shares your values could help you reach new audiences and exponentially increase the reach of your giveaway. It is, without a doubt, one of the most powerful tools for making content and giveaways go viral out there.
- Invest in social ads. Adding online advertising to your sweepstakes post can boost visibility, reach and interaction. In fact, launching a giveaway and adding advertising to it allows you to increase your community of followers in a short time and at a reasonable cost.
Are you ready to launch your next sweepstakes? Dedicate time to designing an effective strategy and you’ll soon see positive results. If you need any help creating your first free giveaway, get in touch with the Easypromos team!
