The Instagram Giveaway app enables you to import all the comments on an Instagram post and run a pick-a-winner contest for all the users who comment. You'll then be able to publish the winners on a customized page, and display a Certificate of Validity to show that your Instagram giveaway is transparent and trustworthy.

What you need to know before you start:

• The first Instagram comments giveaway is free.
• From the second giveaway onward it is necessary to purchase a Basic plan or higher. Check our comparative table of prices to know all the details of the prices and the characteristics of the plans for the Instagram comments giveaway.
• Following the recent changes applied to the Instagram API on April 4, 2018, the "Instagram Comments Giveaway" application is only available for business Instagram accounts. It is not available for personal profiles. You can read the notification sent by Instagram, and see the changes that affect our platform in detail, in this article.
• The "Instagram Giveaway" application is available for the following two types of giveaways:
  • Giveaway on a post: It allows to run a giveaway for users that comment on one or various posts on your feed, photos, or videos.
  • Giveaway on Reels: It allows to run a giveaway for Instagram users that leave a comment on one or various Reels published on your profile.
• Detection of hashtags used by users in comments is limited to giveaways with a maximum of 10,000 comments.

Note: We recommend that you take the step of importing the comments from a laptop computer instead of a mobile device, and make sure that you don't lose connection and you don't close the browser.

Videotutorial

In the following video we explain all the steps to carry out an Instagram giveaway:

Summary of the Instagram Giveaway Tutorial

Below you'll find a step-by-step guide to setting up and launching your Instagram contest:

• Step 1. Create and publish a post on Instagram

• Step 2. Access the Control Panel

• Step 3. Import your post from Instagram

• Step 4. Update the list of participants

• Step 5. Review the list of finalists and apply exclusions

• Step 6. Define the number of winners and alternates

• Step 7. Test your giveaway and activate it

• Step 8. Prepare to announce the winners

• Step 9. Announce the winners

• Step 10. Manage winners and alternates

Step 1. Create and publish a post on Instagram

The first step is to publish a post announcing the contest on Instagram. Write and publish it just as you would with any other post.

Haven’t you created the post yet? Check out our ready-made templates with text and images for the giveaway post and publish your giveaway in just two clicks.

Step 2. Access the Control Panel

Access the Easypromos Control Panel from this link. If you're not an Easypromos user, create an account and sign in to the control panel to create and manage your promotions.

Step 3. Import your post from Instagram

The next important step is to select the Instagram post that you've just published.

To do this, follow these steps:

1. Click "Create New Promotion" to start setting up the giveaway.

2. Select "Instagram Giveaway".

3. You will be presented with the giveaway setup screen. As a first step, you should select or create an organizing brand for your giveaway. This organizing brand is independent of any social network and works as a folder within your Easypromos account, in order to help organize the promotions that you create.

4. Once you have selected the organizing brand of the giveaway, you will be requested to connect with the Facebook User with which you administer the Facebook page which linked to the Instagram account:

Note: Business profiles use the new Facebook API for Instagram to import all the comments on the posts. It's necessary to accept the Facebook permissions that authorize Easypromos to read the posts and comments on an Instagram profile. 

5. After logging in, select the Business Instagram account where you published the post announcing your pick-a-winner contest:

6 Your next step should be to select the post you've just published on Instagram – the one you want to use for the giveaway:

7. If you require it, you can select several posts from the list to import the comments of several publications as finalists of the giveaway:

Note: The possibility of selecting more than one post for the same giveaway is not available for the first free giveaway. Accounts with the Basic plan have the possibility of selecting a maximum of 10 posts for the same giveaway. In addition, with the "Multi-Network Giveaway" application you can accumulate up to a maximum of 25 posts for the same giveaway.

8. In the upper right corner of the screen you can check the posts you have included for the giveaway. When you have selected all the posts you want, you must click on the "Continue" button:

9. By clicking on the "Continue" button, the import of the comments of the posts we have selected will begin.

Note: Do you want to run a giveaway combining different social networks? With our application “Multi-Network Giveaway” you can carry out a prize draw including users who participate on posts from Facebook and Instagram. See how it works!

Have you promoted the post with advertising?

When you promote an Instagram post, the Facebook Ads manager duplicates that post (as if it were a 'dark post') and spreads it to the audience that you've defined for the ad. That is, there are actually two independent posts: the post published on your Instagram business profile, and the duplicate post created for advertising.

So when you're collecting comments for an Instagram giveaway, if some of the comments are linked to a promoted post, you'll need to include the duplicate post that Facebook Ads created. Adding the duplicate post to your giveaway means we can collect all the comments, from both the original post and the advertising duplicate.

In order to add the promoted post to the giveaway you must use the "Multi-network giveaway" app, which will allow you, once you have imported the original post, to use the option "Add promoted post" to find the duplicate post and add all the comments linked to the advertising duplicate.

Note: The "Multi-network giveaway" app is available for accounts with a BASIC PRO plan (49€ / $49USD per month) or higher.

Learn step by step how to add a promoted post to the giveaway.

Step 4. Update the list of participants

If you imported the giveaway publication to your dashboard days ago, the new comments that the users have left in the publication will not be automatically imported into your dashboard. In order for these new comments to be counted, you must update the list of participants as a step prior to finalizing the draw.

To do this, before advancing to the next step and finalizing the draw, click on the "Update now" button that you will find right next to the number of participants in your giveaway.

When you click the button, you will see that the system will import all the new comments that the users have left in the Instagram publication and will add them as participants of the giveaway.

Note: The "Refresh" function is only available for giveaways with a maximum of 20,000 comments. For giveaways with a higher number of comments, we recommend importing the post on the day that the winners need to be selected. In this way, the system will import all the participants at once.

Step 5. Review the list of finalists and apply exclusions

You're on the giveaway page. Beneath the title you'll find the number of participants and options for viewing their data. In this section, you'll also find various tools for filtering and excluding users from entering the giveaway.

These tools enable you to establish the following rules:

• Requiring users to include up to five mentions in a comment, in order to enter the giveaway.
• Filtering the finalists according to the hashtags they use in their comments. This option is limited to giveaways with a maximum of 10,000 comments. More information.

Discover all the options for filtering and excluding users available in your Instagram giveaway.

Step 6. Define the number of winners and alternates

Next, indicate how many winners and alternate winners you need. We recommend always requesting alternate winners, because it makes awarding the prizes easier and more efficient. 

Click "Continue" and you'll be taken to the Test Page. Here you'll be able to carry out a test to see how the giveaway will work, and how the winners will be displayed.

Do you want to give away different prizes?

With the option "Customize the prizes" you can create all the prizes you want to give away, and for each prize, you can define the number of winners you want to obtain. For example, you can have a first prize to give away some movie tickets with 2 winners, and a second prize of tickets for a concert with 2 other winners. Being two different prizes, this option will allow you to manage the number of winners you want to obtain for each type of prize, and at the time of publishing the winners, these will also be presented separately.

To manage the different prizes of your draw, click on "Customize the prizes". A pop-up will open where you can define the name and number of winners of each of the prizes:

Step 7. Test your giveaway and activate it

Before you run the random giveaway, you have the chance to carry out a number of tests to see how the tool works and check it's functioning properly.

Note: The test feature is not available in the "free first promotion" offer.

When you are ready to pick a winner, the system will allow you to finalize the giveaway and see the winners and alternates. If you don’t have an active Basic plan, the system will offer you the chance to purchase it.

Once you have an active Basic plan, and you're ready to pick your winners, click the "Ready! Pick the winners” button and winners will be picked randomly. Once the giveaway has been finalized, it can’t be repeated.

Finally, a window will open with a summary of the configuration of your giveaway, which you must confirm in order to continue with the process. In addition, you have the possibility to activate the option "View the random draw as an animated presentation", which will allow you to visualise the process of selection of winners and alternates in the form of an animated presentation, more visual and graphic. See examples.

Step 8. Prepare to announce the winners

Congratulations! The giveaway has been carried out and the results will be displayed. You can now think about announcing the winners and awarding the prizes.

A. "Winners and Alternates" section:

Here you'll see the list of winners and alternates. From this section you will also be able to do the following actions:

• Send a notification to the winner by clicking on the envelope icon. This option allows you to send a response to the comment of the user that has been selected to inform the user that he is the winner of the giveaway.

• Manage the winners to change them if necessary. If for any reason the user who has been the winner cannot receive the prize, by clicking on the "Manage" button you can make a substitution for one of the alternates.

B. "Publication of winners" Section:

When you run the giveaway, the tool will generate two important web addresses that you need to know about:

• Certificate of Validity. The Certificate of Validity confirms that the giveaway has been run once only and completely at random. This certificate identifies the giveaway and it can't be modified. Share the URL with winners so that participants can see that your giveaway was run fairly and transparently.
• Winners Page. This is a microsite where the names of the winners and the alternate winners are displayed. This way, communicating the results will be easier. You'll be able to customize this page to adapt it to your brand and needs.
• Show mode. This option allows you to present the results of a giveaway in an animated format to show the winners in a more fun way and add a point of surprise and fun to your draws. This option is only available with the Basic PRO plan or higher.

Click on "Edit" to customize the Winners Page and customize it to fit your needs:

These are the elements that you can customize:

C. "Claim your prize" section:

Do you want the winners to be able to confirm their details and claim their prize? You can set up and activate this section to aid in the prize-awarding process. This way, users who visit the Winners Page will be able to claim the prize on their screens, verifying their details and confirming that they're interested in receiving their reward.

To enable it, click on the "Enable" button and follow the steps indicated in this tutorial to customize all module options.

Step 9. Contact the winners

When the Winners Page is ready, share it on social media. You can use the "Share" button or copy and share the URL of the Winners Page directly.

Tip: If you'd like to announce the winners on Instagram, we recommend the three following actions:

1. Publish a link to the Winners Page in the Bio of the organizing brand's Instagram account.
2. Publish a post or a story where the results of the giveaway are announced, so that viewers can find the link in the Bio.
3. Use your social media channels to share the link to the Winners Page.

Keep in mind that links in Instagram comments and photo descriptions are not active, and can't be clicked on.

Step 10. Manage winners and alternates

From the 'Winners and alternates' section you can:

• See whether winners have claimed their prize, and review the details they've provided.
• Manage the prizewinners and change them if necessary.
• Download all the information provided by prizewinners in a file.