How Do You Set Instagram Giveaway Rules?

How Should Giveaway Rules Be Set?

When the giveaway rules are written, you decide what the entrants will do and what will count as valid for the giveaway. While writing the rules, make sure your post answers these seven questions:

• Who can enter the giveaway: If there are limits such as age or city, state them clearly. For example: The giveaway is valid for entrants in Bursa aged 18 and over. Not setting your rules upfront makes picking the winner harder and leaves your entrants uncertain.
• How to enter the giveaway: State your requirements such as following, commenting and tagging friends. Explain what you expect from the entrant for this giveaway. For example, tag 2 friends in the comment and follow me.
• How many times can someone enter: Is a single comment enough, or do they need more than one comment and tag? Stating this clearly builds trust with your followers once you finish your giveaway.
• When entries close: Write the last day and time for entering the giveaway together. Writing only the day can create uncertainty.
• How the winner will be picked: Stating the method and the tool the winner will be picked with adds trust to your giveaway. For example: The giveaway will be concluded with Simpliers.
• Which comments count as invalid: You can count comments as invalid if they miss the tag requirement, do not contain the phrase you set, or repeat by tagging the same people.
• What happens if the winner cannot be reached: You can give the winner a window such as 48 hours to reach you after you announce the giveaway. You can state that if they do not reach you in that time, the prize passes to the substitute winner.

Which Entry Requirements Work?

Every extra requirement lowers entries a little. Two or three items work better than a long list.

• Follow requirement: The entrant follows your account. You can verify it with the follow check once the winners are picked, and count on some of them unfollowing after the giveaway.
• Comment requirement: It is in every giveaway. The winner is picked among the comments, so without a comment there is no entry either.
• Tag requirement: The entrant tags a friend in the comment. One person is enough, raise it to three and the comments start looking like spam.
• Word requirement: If you set a phrase you want in the comment, sorting out invalid entries gets easier.
• Story requirement: The entrant shares your post in their story. This requirement cannot be verified automatically, you have to check one by one.

How Do the Rules Look in the Post?

A giveaway post has four parts: the prize, the rules, the date and the result.

• 1. Prize line: This is the line that shows first in the feed, write the prize here.
• 2. Entry rules: As a numbered list, write three items at most.
• 3. Deadline: Write the day and the time together.
• 4. Result line: That the winner will be picked at random, where the result will be announced and how long the winner has to respond.

If you would rather not write these four parts from scratch, try the Caption Generator. Give your prize and entry requirements and it builds the post text in your brand's tone.

How Are the Rules Applied in the Giveaway?

The rules you write in the post do not run on their own. While creating the giveaway you set the same items on the rules screen, and the pick follows those settings.

• Name Of Your Contest: You give your giveaway a name. It shows with this name on your giveaway page, in your past giveaways list and in the winner file you download.

  

• Number Of Winners and Number Of Substitutes: You specify the number of winners and the number of substitutes. If you cannot reach the winners, the prize goes to the substitutes.
• Minimum Tags: You specify the minimum number of tags required in each comment. When you leave it at zero, no tag rule applies (friend tagging rule).

  

• Must Include Phrases: You add the phrases a comment has to include. With more than one phrase added, comments containing any of them count as valid. For example, the winner is picked among the people who write blue in the comment.

  

• Get Unique Users: Counts users with more than one entry only once.

  

• Avoid Duplicate Tags: Counts comments carrying the same tags from a user only once.

  

• Set Fair Participation Limit: You set how many comments from each user count as valid at most.

  

• Set a Date Limit: Only the comments up to the date you select are included in the participation. The time follows your own country's time.

  

• Advanced Rules: Rules such as follow check, minimum posts and minimum followers are checked after the winners are picked. You can edit these rules on your giveaway page as well.

  

Pick the Winner by the Rules

Once your rules are set, every comment on your post is retrieved and entries that miss a rule drop off the list. The winner or winners are picked among the people who follow the rules.

The winners and the substitutes are picked at random. The result page, the certificate and the winner video come ready to share. You can read all of these steps in the comment giveaway guide.

Common Mistakes

Most problems that come up after a giveaway come from rules left incomplete, not from the pick.

• Leaving the prize vague: A surprise prize lowers entries, write clearly what you are giving.
• Not writing the time: When it is unclear whether it is the evening or midnight of the last day, the comments arriving in the final hours are left hanging.
• Stretching the requirement list: The longer the list, the more invalid comments and the fewer entries.
• Not writing where you will announce the result: The entrant cannot tell where to look for the result and the announcement can go unseen.