9 Best Instagram Giveaway Tools to Run Viral Promotions (2024)

You’ve prepared your gift, sent out a few Instagram posts about your giveaway, and imagined all the followers you’ll gain from your campaign.

Or maybe you’ve tried running a giveaway and got overwhelmed managing participants manually.

A robust Instagram giveaway tool can increase the chances of your giveaway going according to plan.

And that means going viral, gaining followers, and generating leads.

I’ll go through the 10 best Instagram giveaway tools that can help you run the type of giveaway you have in mind.

You’ll see their features, pros, cons, and why each tool is worthy of consideration.

But before you go into that;

What are the benefits of running Instagram giveaways or contests?

Running Instagram giveaways have benefits that can depend on why you set up the campaign.

For instance, some common benefits your business stands to gain through giveaways include:

• Better page engagement
• Increase in the number of followers
• Increase in sales
• A higher rank on Instagram search

According to Tailwind, Instagram accounts that hold contests or giveaways acquire followers 70% faster over 3 months than those that don’t.

Moreso, Instagram contests get 64 times more comments and 3.5 times more likes than average Instagram posts.

Without a doubt, increasing engagement is vital to running a successful Instagram business account.

However, to run these giveaways successfully, you need the right tools. These tools allow you to run various types of contests and pick the winners effectively.

If you want to run Facebook giveaways, you can also check my list of the best Facebook giveaway tools to consider.

Now, let’s go into the list.

Best Instagram Giveaway Tools

Here are the 10 best Instagram giveaway tools to run viral contests in 2023, in no order:

1. You to Gift

Running an Instagram giveaway with You to Gift is as simple as creating your giveaway post and picking winners.

So, if you hate the technical side of managing giveaways but still want to run promotions, You to Gift is a tool to consider.

This Instagram giveaway tool lets you pick winners from Instagram likes, comments, and followers. To use You to Gift, all you have to do is enter your Instagram username or page link on their page.

Then, you can use the random number or name generator to pick a winner.

Beyond that, You to Gift lets you export data of followers, post likes, or post comments in CSV or Excel files. If you want to view all the comments in your contest to pick a winner, just go through the CSV file.

To improve transparency, You to Gift provides a link to display giveaway results after your campaigns.

Now, the good news is that You to Gift is free for up to 300 comments. So, you can try it out for a small campaign to see how the tool works.

And with Android and iOS apps, your smartphone is enough to run these giveaways.

For more details about its capabilities, check out my You to Gift review.

You to Gift key features

• Instagram and YouTube giveaways
• Random winner picker
• Giveaway results display
• Export participant data into Excel or CSV file
• Android and iOS apps

You to Gift pros

• Easy to use
• Has a free plan
• Export data into CSV and Excel files

You to Gift cons

• No hashtag contests
• No giveaway statistics

2. SweepWidget

Among the numerous giveaways you can run on SweepWidget, you’ll find Instagram giveaways valuable to your campaigns. First of all, this tool is easy to use, even if you’re creating a giveaway for the first time.

You can easily add essential elements to your giveaway landing page. Beyond this, you have 6 entry methods and can add all of them if you want.

For each entry method, you can indicate the number of entries it’s worth. For instance, a follow could be worth 3 entries while a post visit will be worth 1. After creating your giveaway, you have the option to test it before publishing on your website and promoting it.

If you’re running giveaways for your customers in a particular location, SweepWidget allows you to restrict entries to that location. Once your giveaway is live, you have access to statistics such as participants, actions, entries, and more.

Furthermore, you can pick winners from entries or choose randomly. Suppose you’ve collected emails in your giveaway. In that case, you can effectively integrate with your email marketing platform using one of over 25 SweepWidget’s integrations.

No matter the number or complexity of your giveaway campaigns, SweepWidget’s pricing plans provide great value for every marketer.

Finally, you have access to support through the “Support” button at the bottom right corner of your dashboard, documentation, and giveaway examples.

Visit SweepWidget’s website to learn more about how the tool can help you run successful giveaways.

Otherwise, you can read my detailed SweepWidget review to get more information about the tool.

SweepWidget key features

• Drag-and-drop editor
• Instant coupon and rewards
• Referrals
• Schedule giveaway
• Contest leaderboard
• Contest management
• Fraud prevention
• Random winner picker
• Multilingual giveaways with support for over 100 languages
• Over 30 integrations

SweepWidget pros

• Easy to use
• Generous free plan
• Over 30 social platforms supported
• Unlimited campaigns
• Unlimited user entries
• Over 90 entry methods
• Excellent customer service

SweepWidget con

• SweepWidget branding on the low-tier plans

3. Shortstack

Even though Shortstack is more popular for Facebook, it provides robust features that help to organize your Instagram giveaways. With Shortstack, you can run comment-to-enter, hashtag, and mention giveaways.

For comment giveaways, you can import all comments for a giveaway into Shortstack. These include the commenter’s name, comment, and URL.

The random entry selector on this tool allows you to pick winners among the comments. Also, you can remove duplicate comments to prevent users who might try to rig the process with multiple comments.

Organizing a hashtag or mention giveaway is easy for Instagram users. All a user has to do is mention your business or include a hashtag in their update.

Even more, it’s an easy way to collect user-generated content (UGC) for future use. Its random entry selector also helps to pick the winners of the giveaway.

Furthermore, Shortstack allows you to export these entries in CSV and ZIP files to have a permanent copy. In addition, Shortstack provides analytics that help track different metrics of your campaign performance.

Shortstack allows you to run giveaways on Instagram and helps to pick winners automatically.

Visit the Shortstack website to check out their features for your next Instagram giveaway.

If you want to have more information about its contest and landing page creation capabilities, read my detailed Shortstack review.

Shortstack key features

• Drag-and-drop editor
• Contest templates
• Landing pages and forms
• Contest administration
• Email marketingCampaign analytics
• Team collaboration
• Custom services

Shortstack pros

• Mobile-friendly contests
• Extensive contest campaign types
• Email autoresponders for giveaway participants
• Professional templates
• Has a free plan
• Robust contest management tools
• White labeling option for agencies

Shortstack cons

• Expensive for freelancers and solopreneurs
• Steep learning curve for beginners
• Shortstack branding on business plan
• Low number of views and entries on low-tier plan

4. Easypromos

This tool allows you to run comment-to-enter, mention, and hashtag giveaways on Instagram. For the comment-to-enter giveaways, Easypromos allows you to use its Instagram comment picker app to select winners.

Furthermore, you can filter these comments by hashtag, date, or number of mentions. This might be necessary if you’ve instructed participants to use a hashtag or tag their friends.

In many cases, you’ll set a deadline for your giveaways. With the date filter, Easypromos will exclude the comments after the deadline while picking the winner.

Also, you can run giveaways on Instagram sponsored posts. The mention and hashtag giveaways, apart from increasing brand awareness, also help to acquire user-generated content.

Whenever your brand is mentioned or the giveaway hashtag is used, Easypromos will import the image or video into their app. This helps to organize all the entries in one place.

To design your giveaways, Easypromos provides a drag-and-drop interface to make it easy.

After your campaign, you get analytics to track your performance. The tool also determines the ROI of your campaign to see how the campaign has contributed to your business bottom line.

Check out the Easypromos’ website to see its features in detail. For more information on running Instagram giveaways and other types of promotions, read my detailed Easypromos review.

Easypromos key features

• Over 300 contest templates
• Random winner picker
• Email autoresponder
• Team and agents
• Integration
• Contest statistics

Easypromos pros

• Excellent customer support
• Easy to use
• Support for unlimited social media profiles
• Extensive number of contest campaign types
• White labeling for agencies

Easypromos cons

• Easypromos branding on the premium plan
• Pricing is complicated

5. Woobox

This is one of the most popular giveaway apps, and with good reasons. Using Woobox, you can organize comment-to-enter and hashtag contests on Instagram.

The beauty of hashtag contests is that you have the option to collect comments, images, or videos. Woobox helps to collect these media files.

Moreso, you have the option to moderate entries manually or auto-approve them. To create a beautiful display of your entries, there’s an option to collect these images into a gallery on your website.

Also, website visitors can vote for giveaway entrants to settle on a winner. If you’re running a comment-to-enter giveaway, the Instagram comment picker helps to select a random comment as your winner.

Before the announcement, you’ll review the winner to ensure they’ve met all Instagram contest guidelines. If the winner has violated the guidelines, Woobox will pick another winner.

Another option you can exploit is to host the giveaway on your website and reward visitors for actions they take on Instagram. In a case that you captured leads during your giveaway, Woobox allows you to integrate with tools to process your leads.

Visit Woobox to learn more about the tool and organizing your next Instagram giveaway.

Woobox key features

• Hashtag contests
• Coupon codes
• Templates
• Email autoresponders
• Contest galleries
• Landing pages
• Winner picker tool
• Team members

Woobox pros

• Easy to use
• Unlimited campaigns
• Customizable forms
• Great customer support

Woobox cons

• Very limited free plan
• 1,000 participants for the lowest paid plan
• Limited number of templates
• No free trial

In terms of running giveaways with Gleam, you get a lot of flexibility. For instance, you can organize your giveaways both on Instagram and through your website.

On Instagram, you have options such as like/comment-to-enter, hashtag, and mention giveaways which are easier for users. If you’re running a contest on your website, you can specify that visitors take some actions on Instagram to qualify for your giveaway.

Here’s an example of an Instagram giveaway you can run on your website:

Looking at this, Gleam gives you so many options on the actions participants can take to enter the giveaway. When users sign up for your giveaway, Gleam tracks them to ensure that they’ve taken the necessary steps on Instagram.

With this, you can identify qualified entrants easily. Also, you get access to the competitions app, which imports entries to Gleam.

Another option you’ll like is the ability to collect photos from photo contests and display them in a gallery on your website. This will encourage more of your visitors to enter the giveaway. And thus, more publicity.

Beyond this, you can select your giveaway winners automatically. Apart from Gleam apps, you have access to over 100 integrations that will allow you to organize a successful giveaway.

Visit Gleam to learn more about using the tool to run your Instagram giveaways.

Gleam key features

• Instant rewards
• Competition
• Galleries
• Fraud filter
• Email autoresponders and promotion emails
• Opt-in forms
• Pixel tracking

Gleam pros

• Easy to use
• Extensive number of social platforms

Gleam cons

• Underwhelming campaign analytics
• Limited design and customization tools

7. Vyper

This is a popular tool that allows you to create giveaways and build referral marketing programs. Fortunately, Instagram is one of the social media networks supported by Vyper.

This tool allows Instagram users to qualify for your giveaway by taking actions such as:

• Follow on Instagram
• Like a photo on Instagram
• Post photo on Instagram
• Repost on Instagram

Added to this, Vyper provides a simple landing page builder that helps to create an Instagram contest landing page on your website. To make this easier, you can use any of their templates.

By promoting Instagram giveaways on your website, you have the opportunity to capture emails. In addition to increasing reach on Instagram, capturing more leads will result in more customers.

To understand how well your campaign is doing, Vyper provides analytics such as conversion rates, virality score, and social engagement and revenue.

With these details, you can track your campaign performance and update your strategy.

Visit Vyper to begin creating your Instagram giveaways.

Vyper key features

• Contest templates
• Drag-and-drop campaign builder
• Contest gamification
• Referral/reward program
• Email autoresponder
• Campaign management
• Campaign analytics

Vyper pros

• Easy to use
• Easy to setup
• Detailed campaign analytics and reporting

Vyper con

• Can be costly for a small business

8. Heyo

Heyo allows you to run hashtag contests on Instagram. This way, you have the option to collect comments, images, or videos.

To promote the Instagram giveaway on your website, Heyo provides a simple drag-and-drop editor that helps you build the campaign page without stress.

Moreso, Heyo collects these entries and allows you to display them in a gallery on your website. Here, website visitors can vote to pick a winner.

Also, you have control of entrants featured in the gallery. You can moderate entrants manually or automatically.

If one of the requirements for your giveaway is leaving an email address, you can process these leads by connecting to your marketing tools through the available integrations.

How successful is your campaign? Heyo provides analytics that gives you a clear view of your results. Due to this, you can see whether you’ve met your campaign goals and also update your strategy.

Navigate to the Heyo website to check out the tool’s features in detail.

Heyo key features

• Templates
• Drag-and-drop builder
• Hashtag contests
• Multi-format contest
• Multi-language support
• Campaign analytics
• Sign-up forms
• White labeling option
• Winner picker
• Integrations

Heyo pros

• Easy to use
• Mobile-optimized campaigns
• Detailed campaign analytics

Heyo con

• Limited number of templates

9. Woorise

Woorise is a tool that allows you to organize your giveaways on both your website and Instagram. Its drag-and-drop builder will enable you to create pages on your website to promote your giveaways.

Likewise, you can specify actions users can take and how many entries they get. These include sharing the giveaway on Instagram, following your Instagram account, or even submitting their email addresses.

It also comes with fraud detection capabilities that ensure you identify cheaters in your giveaway. To process captured leads during your campaign, you have access to integrations with your favorite marketing tools.

Meanwhile, you have the option to export user data collected during the campaign.

The analytics feature allows you to track your giveaway performance. Thus, you can compare performance to your goals and improve strategy.

Check out Woorise for their Instagram giveaway features.

Woorise key features

• Drag-and-drop-campaign builder
• Referrals
• Multilingual campaigns
• Contest management
• Email autoresponder
• Winner picker
• Fraud detection
• Campaign analytics
• Team members
• Integrations

Woorise pros

• Mobile-responsive contests
• Free plan available
• Vast number of languages for an international audience
• Great customer support

Woorise cons

• CSS customization is only available in the pro plan
• Facebook integration can be tricky
• Customization of campaigns is limited

Types of Instagram giveaways

Having gone through these tools, what are the types of Instagram giveaways you can run with them?

• Like/comment to enter: for contestants to qualify, they’ll have to like and/or comment on a particular post.
• Hashtag: if you’re promoting a product, users can feature this hashtag in their Instagram posts to enter this giveaway.
• Polls: do you have an interesting poll about your business or industry? To get as many voters as possible, you can attach a chance to win a prize for voters.
• Follow: this type of giveaway will help you increase your Instagram followers as they need to follow your account before entering the contest.
• Trivia: how much do your followers know about your business or industry? A trivia combined with a giveaway is a great way to get more people to answer the questions.
• Tag a friend: for participants to qualify for this giveaway, they’ll have to tag a friend in their Instagram post about your company. This will help to increase reach.
• Caption: having fun is part of the Instagram experience. And when you have a funny image, you can tell your audience to caption it. With the additional chance of a giveaway, you’ll get more people to respond.

Now, you can look into these Instagram giveaway types the next time you’re planning to run a giveaway.

Conclusion

Running giveaways on Instagram is a no-brainer if you’re trying to build brand awareness, increase following, or capture leads.

First of all, you need to follow the Instagram promotion guidelines while organizing your giveaway. Then, you can use any of the 10 tools featured here to build a successful campaign.

Are you planning to organize an Instagram giveaway soon? Let me know in the comments.

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