TikTok giveaways have become an extremely popular marketing tactic for brands and influencers looking to grow their following and engagement on the platform. They involve creators announcing some type of contest or sweepstakes where viewers can enter for a chance to win a prize, typically by performing simple actions like liking, commenting, sharing, or following. According to Statista, there were over 193,000 TikTok influencer giveaway campaigns in 2022 in the US and Canada alone.
Giveaways are attractive to TikTok users because they offer the chance to win anything from gift cards and merchandise to vacations and cars. For creators and brands, they help quickly amass followers, likes, shares, and comments. They essentially trade prizes for visibility. However, giveaways must follow certain rules and regulations to ensure they are fair, compliant, and effective.
Eligibility
When running a TikTok giveaway, it’s important to clearly define who is eligible to enter and win prizes. Common eligibility requirements include:
Geolocation: You can limit giveaway entry to only users in certain countries or regions where your promotion is valid. For example, state “This giveaway is only open to residents of the United States.”
Age: Require participants to be over 18 years old or any other minimum age per your brand guidelines or local laws. For example, “You must be at least 18 years old to enter.”
Follower Count: Some giveaways require entrants to follow the brand’s TikTok account. You can also set a minimum follower threshold, like “Must have at least 1,000 TikTok followers.” However, very high follower requirements may limit entries.
Make sure eligibility terms comply with TikTok’s promotions policy and contest laws for the countries involved. Disclose any other restrictions like excluding your company’s employees or family members.
Entry Mechanics
To enter a TikTok giveaway, participants typically need to meet certain mechanics specified by the host. Common entry mechanics include:
- Liking the giveaway announcement video. This is the easiest and most common mechanic, requiring just a single tap to enter.
- Commenting on the giveaway post with a specific phrase, emoji, or by tagging friends. Comments encourage engagement but require slightly more effort than just liking.
- Sharing or duetting the giveaway video on their own profile. This spreads awareness but has lower engagement than comments.
- Creating and posting an original video submission using a branded hashtag. Video submissions foster creativity and brand exposure.
The more demanding the entry mechanic, the lower the participation rate but the higher the engagement quality. Simpler actions like liking benefit reach while substantive mechanics like video submissions emphasize creativity. TikTok’s contest rules limit each user to a single entry, so hosts should choose just one or two mechanics to prevent duplicate entries.
Random Selection
Using a random name or comment picker is one of the most common and easiest methods for selecting a TikTok giveaway winner. There are many free online tools like TikTok Comment Picker and App Sorteos that allow you to simply enter the URL of your TikTok video and randomly select a winner from the video’s comments.
These pickers remove duplicate comments and filter out irrelevant or bot comments, making it easy to randomly choose a fair winner. The picker will display the winner’s username so you can verify they meet any eligibility requirements you set and contact them if they win.
Using an automated random comment picker removes any human bias or favoritism in selecting a winner. It’s important to record the process of using the picker and take screenshots showing the randomly selected winner for legal compliance and transparency.
Verification
Once the winner has been selected, it’s important to verify that their account is legitimate before awarding the prize. There are a few things to look out for:
Check the winner’s follower count and engagement. If they have a very low number of followers or engagement on their content, their account may be fake or inactive. Aim to select winners who have an established presence on TikTok.
Look out for suspicious usernames like “Prize Winner” or generic profile pictures, which could be signs of a fake account (https://malwaretips.com/blogs/you-selected-as-the-winner-tiktok-scam/).
Review their previous posts and comments to ensure they align with the giveaway’s theme and entry requirements.
You can also ask the winner to provide verification by commenting or direct messaging you within a certain timeframe. This confirms they actively use their account.
Following these steps helps filter out fake accounts and ensures your prize goes to a real participant. Protecting giveaway integrity builds trust with your audience.
Announcing Winners
One of the most exciting parts of running a TikTok giveaway is announcing the winner(s). Here are some best practices for winner announcements:
Create a dedicated winner announcement video. Build up anticipation by reminding viewers of the giveaway prizes first. Then announce the winner(s) and their username(s). Showing their winning video submission or comment can make it more engaging.
Time the announcement video strategically. You generally want to allow 48-72 hours between the contest closing and announcing winners. This gives you time to verify entries and create a polished announcement video.
Tag the winner(s) in your announcement post. This spreads the word and gives them bragging rights. Just make sure you have their consent first.
Give the winner(s) up to 1 week to respond and claim their prize before selecting an alternate. Be sure to outline this policy in your initial giveaway rules.
Thank all participants for their entries while highlighting your grand prize winner(s). This shows appreciation for the entire community.
Announce small prizes on a rolling basis for engagement. For giveaways with multiple smaller prizes, consider announcing some winners periodically rather than all at once.
Prizes
The prizes offered on a TikTok giveaway can be a major factor in its success. There are three main types of prizes commonly used:
Physical Prizes: These include tangible items like fashion accessories, tech gadgets, gift cards, and merchandise. Physical prizes tend to attract the most engagement since followers are excited by the prospect of winning something tangible. However, shipping and logistics need to be considered.
Monetary Prizes: Money is always enticing. Cash giveaways draw significant interest, though keep in mind legal requirements around cash prizes. Alternatively, gift cards make great monetary prizes.
Promotional Prizes: These offer non-tangible benefits like free services, VIP access, opportunities to collaborate, and more. For example, a brand could offer a year’s supply of products or a chance to be featured on their channel. These incentivize engagement and brand loyalty.
The key is choosing prizes that appeal to your target demographic and encourage the type of participation you want. Offering multiple prize options can also broaden the giveaway’s appeal.
Legal Compliance
When running a giveaway on TikTok, it’s important to follow all legal guidelines and regulations. According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce (source), you should include a disclaimer that the giveaway is not sponsored, endorsed, administered by, or associated with TikTok. You’ll also need official contest rules that state “no purchase is required to win.”
Your official rules should outline all the key details, including eligibility, how to enter, restrictions, prize details, odds of winning, and release of liability. Make sure the terms and conditions are easy to find and written in clear language. You may need a qualified attorney to review the rules to ensure compliance with state and federal regulations.
Some common requirements include allowing U.S. residents only, requiring entrants to be over 18 or have parental consent if minors, prohibiting employees from entering, and limiting entries to one per person. Be sure to research the latest FTC guidelines for social media contests.
Disclaimers should state that your promotion is not associated with or endorsed by TikTok. Make it clear the social platform does not sponsor or administer the giveaway. You’ll also want to note that any information collected will be subject to your privacy policy.
Analytics
It’s important to track analytics for your TikTok giveaway to understand engagement and optimize your approach. The TikTok Ads Manager provides data on impressions, reach, clicks, etc. across campaigns. You can view performance metrics for individual ads, ad groups, and campaigns to see which messages and creatives are resonating (Source).
When running a giveaway campaign, pay close attention to video views, shares, comments, likes, and other engagement metrics. These signal how well your contest is spreading organically. You may wish to adjust the prize or mechanics if engagement is lower than expected.
Examining demographic data can reveal which audiences are most excited about your giveaway. Use this to refine targeting and capitalize on interest from those high-potential user segments. Analytics provide indispensable insights into optimizing your TikTok promotions for maximum reach and engagement (Source).
Best Practices
There are several strategies to run successful giveaways on TikTok:
Choose prizes that appeal to your target audience. Products from trending brands or experiences like concert tickets tend to generate excitement.
Keep the entry requirements simple, like liking, commenting or sharing. Avoid overly complex mechanics that may frustrate participants.
Promote the giveaway through multiple posts over its duration. Remind viewers of entry deadlines to maximize entries.
Partner with influencers in your niche to co-host giveaways and expand reach. Offer them a share of the prizes to incentivize participation.
Structure smaller giveaways with shorter durations rather than a single grand prize. This increases engagement over time.
Randomly select winners through third-party tools to ensure transparency. Record the process and announce winners publicly.
Follow TikTok’s promotional guidelines. Disclose when incentivizing content and don’t artificially inflate performance.
Analyze giveaway performance through metrics like entries, engagement and follower growth. Apply lessons to future campaigns.
