Facebook Contests: 10 Types and 9 Tips for Their Effectiveness

Facebook is a platform that brings together more than 2.5 billion users from hundreds of countries around the world, on every continent.

The network is used by:

• 36% of people aged 12-24;
• 44% of people aged 25-34;
• 43% of people aged 35-64.

This social network has people of different ages with different interests.

Those who buy clothes and shoes, order bouquets and food delivery.

Those who eagerly buy jewelry, bags, perfume.

Those who purchase non-metallic materials, and those who frequently change cars.

All categories of the platform's users are united by a readiness to communicate.

This is exactly what we propose to take advantage of: to start running contests on the Facebook social network that engage the audience and promote the brand.

Why contests? It's an effective marketing tool that lets you quickly grow your group's membership, capture the attention of potential buyers, and increase sales.

Contests help entertain and delight followers, with a nice profit for the company that has its own Facebook group.

There's no point in neglecting such an opportunity!

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What a Facebook contest is, and the requirements for running one

Are "contest" and "promo campaign" the same format, or different ones?

How do you run a contest without falling foul of Facebook's penalties?

What's forbidden and what's allowed when running contests on this platform?

Let's discuss.

Facebook calls contests promotions; this is stated in the rules for pages, groups, and events.

The definition of a promotion covers an event in which only people registered on the social network can participate, where there's an element of chance and a prize.

At the same time, it's important that Facebook requires organizers of a contest to confirm (for example, by mentioning it in the post) that the contest is not sponsored, endorsed, or in any way associated with the social network's administration.

The legality and the rules for running it also remain the organizers' responsibility.

Facebook has repeatedly changed the rules for running contests, at times prohibiting and at times permitting various manipulations.

Today, for instance, you're allowed to collect entries for a contest via posts, messages, likes, and comments, and to announce the winners of promotions on the company's page.

A few years ago this was prohibited.

On the other hand, it's now prohibited to encourage followers to share the post on their own timeline or on friends' timelines, as well as to tag friends under a call-to-action post as a condition for being admitted to the contest.

There are also general human requirements: do not run contests that advertise/promote alcohol, tobacco products, gambling, lotteries, medical drugs, dietary supplements, and food additives.

Contests are run on brand pages or in brand groups, without using any specialized apps, which was mandatory a few years ago.

For contest organizers, this is a significant saving.

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Important questions before you start developing a contest

Five questions it's important to answer before launching a new contest.

We define the goals, budget, and audience.

We ensure the contest is legal.

We think about how the winner will be chosen.

And only then do we start acting!

Every contest is run with some specific goal; a budget is allocated for it, prizes are set aside, and possibly a person is assigned (often a group administrator or moderator) who will handle preparation and execution.

Answer a few questions for yourself at the planning stage, before the work begins.

What is the goal of the contest?

• Growing the number of followers by 1,000-2,000-5,000 people?
• Increasing brand awareness?
• Collecting a database of followers' email addresses?
• Collecting content (stories, pictures, narratives) created by users?
• Increasing audience engagement?
• Drawing attention to a new product in the range, to a new item?
• Growing sales?

The answers to these questions will help you set KPIs appropriate to the tasks, so that you can later analyze the effectiveness of the event.

Is the legality of running the contest ensured?

To ensure it, you need to prepare and publish — either on the group's page or on a third-party resource (with a link to it on Facebook):

• the rules for running the contest;
• the rules of participation;
• the dates during which the event takes place;
• the mechanism for choosing the winner;
• the company organizing the contest.

The target audience of the contest — who is it?

Knowing your target audience will help solve two tasks.

First, hitting the audience's interests — not offering young mothers participation in a "Guess the motorcycle brand" contest, or fishing enthusiasts a "Best cross-stitched avatar" contest.

And second, it will help promote the contest using targeted advertising.

What contest budget are you aiming for?

You can spend the entire budget on prizes and promote the contest using free methods.

Or you can set aside part of the funds for paid promotion — and gather more participants.

How will you determine the contest winner?

The simplest way is a random winner selection using a random number generator.

It works in cases where the prize is given simply for the fact of participating in the contest, for example, for posting a comment.

But if it's about the best photo or the best funny story/narrative/poem, then the winner can be chosen by a committee — for example, the group administrator and moderators, or 2-3 representatives of the organizing company.

No one forbids choosing the winner by the number of likes either.

Once you've answered the preliminary questions, you can move on.

Recommended reading:

1. Facebook Targeting: a step-by-step scheme + 5 life hacks
2. Types of promotions on Facebook and social media and 10 tips for increasing audience reach

10 types of contests suitable for Fb

From a prize for a comment to slogan and photo contests.

Let's talk about the main types of contests that companies can use to promote a brand on Facebook, and a bit about their specifics.

On Facebook you can run a variety of contests — it makes sense for organizers to turn their imagination up to full power.

The most popular types of contests include:

• A photo contest (simpler) or video contest (harder)

In this case, participants publish their own photo or video materials, and visitors rate them.

Contests for photos of kittens, children, families, weddings, and travel go over well.

You can also run a contest for the best photo featuring your company's products.

• An ideas contest

How can you sell… candy in an unexpected way? Or bicycles? Or mattresses?

Users participating in the contest can generate dozens of ideas, among which there will be some that will later help the business grow.

• A contest for the best comment

In this case, participants comment on the starter post, and the best, most popular comment is determined by the number of likes.

• A contest for the most creative caption for a photo

You can come up with an unexpected caption for any photograph.

Run a contest and see for yourself.

• A contest for the best slogan

Developing a slogan is no easy task. One way to solve it is to launch a themed contest on Facebook.

The power of the internet will work for you, suggesting slogan ideas for a promotion, product, service, company, or new line of business.

Contest participants will eagerly advertise it themselves and attract a new audience.

• A "solve the riddle / crack the puzzle" contest

Rebuses and riddles are eagerly solved not only by children but also by adults.

Contests of this type can gather a large number of participants.

• A contest for the most creative review of the company

Here it's important to state in the event rules that only those who have actually used the company's services may participate.

Otherwise, Facebook may consider the reviews false, accuse you of violating the platform's rules, and ban you — if not forever, then for a long time.

• A prize draw among all the group's/page's followers

This option will help quickly increase the number of followers, which is especially important if the group/page has only just started being promoted and reach is needed.

At the same time, no reposts that clutter friends' feeds are needed — it's enough to simply follow the contest organizer's group/page.

Going forward, everyone who has subscribed will see the page's updates, which is usually the goal of the contest.

• A contest for the best continuation of a well-known proverb or line from a song

Such contests activate the creative part of your followers.

It makes sense to run them when you've already gathered a large loyal audience — otherwise the organizer risks that this activity simply goes unnoticed.

• A contest for the best user-generated content

This format is very good for product manufacturers, for example, of canned vegetables and fruit, frozen goods, flour, sauces.

If your company is among them — run a contest for the best recipe using your brand's products.

The content, of which there probably won't be very much, will be strictly on-theme — you can use it on your website or blog, crediting the authors and additionally drawing attention to the products.

Life hack: You can also peek at ideas from competitors using the Serpstat service. Analyze what activities they ran — it might spark a fresh idea.

How to make a Facebook contest successful

There are examples on Facebook where contests went unnoticed, gathering just 2-5-7 likes.

That's definitely not part of your plans if you're investing effort, time, and money into launching a contest.

Our tips will help make contests more effective and more noticeable.

Tip 1. Choose a prize that's on-theme and appealing to the audience

For example, for lovers of purebred dogs it could be a leash for showing the pet in the ring; for women — a set of cosmetics or beauty accessories; for moms — children's books or educational games.

Before the holidays, gift sets and, surprisingly, food products work great.

For example, the red fish supplier "Svoya Rybka," by running a draw for a basket of red fish on New Year's Eve, got very good results — 1,100 comments.

Whatever the prize is, it should carry value for the recipient and promote the brand.

So it's optimal to give away something from your company's product line, rather than knick-knacks and no-name souvenirs.

And certainly not competitors' products!

Tip 2. Work hard on the text of the contest post

Be sure to specify:

• when the draw will take place;
• what the prize will be (with a short, appealing description);
• what to do to get the prize;
• how many winners there will be;
• when and exactly how the organizers will reach the winner;
• restrictions for participation.

The last point is most often used to filter out professional "prize hunters" — for example, you can restrict access to the contest for those whose profiles are full of promotional reposts.

Or profiles without a real first and last name.

Or exclude profiles without photos, with bunnies, kitties, and flowers as avatars.

Additionally, note that each participant grants the organizers the right to use their name in the contest post when announcing the winner.

Tip 3. Use a high-quality, bright image so the post stands out in the feed

Make sure there isn't too much text on the picture — otherwise Facebook will mechanically reduce reach and show the post to fewer people.

You can check the picture for the amount of text in the platform's special service.

It's optimal if text occupies up to 15% of the picture's area.

Tip 4. Don't drag it out

If the contest runs for a month, the post will either get lost in the feed (if you don't pin it at the top of the business page), or become so much of an eyesore that it starts triggering a rejection reaction.

It's preferable for the contest duration to be 7-10-14 days.

This will be enough to gather participants — provided the theme, goal, and audience of the contest are defined correctly — without tiring everyone who sees the contest post in their feed.

Tip 5. Use hashtags

The standard #contest_name or hashtags suitable for your topic, for example, #kareliantrout or #favorites.

This makes it easier for an interested person to find information about the contest.

Tip 6. Account for the technical features of the social network

For example, there's no point in encouraging Facebook users and contest participants to publish photos or content in stories.

The favorite format of Instagram isn't popular on this platform.

Tip 7. Use free promotion

Announce the contest on the company website (with a link to the Facebook group), on other social networks, primarily on Instagram, which is friendly toward Facebook.

Tell people about the contest in free-classifieds groups, as well as in themed Facebook groups — for example, groups of animal lovers or veterinarians for a contest with pet photos.

Or groups of a specific city, if the contest is local in nature.

Post reminders across all platforms about how many people are already participating in the draw, how many days are left until the contest ends; remind people about the prizes — such posts, catching the eye of potential participants, will help sustain interest in the event.

And don't forget to generously reward participants with discounts on your company's products; this stimulates sales growth.

Tip 8. Use paid promotion — primarily targeted advertising

In this case, it's very important to know your target audience precisely.

An interesting case was shared by the head of the SMM agency Madwins, Volodymyr Kazakov.

While organizing a contest for a food manufacturer, he segmented the target audience very narrowly to understand which group the contest post was best aimed at.

It turned out that the audience consisted more of active women aged 20-35 interested in shopping and fashion.

This was shown by launching test ads, each composed for a separate group of the target audience.

At an average cost per target action (like, comment) of about 12 UAH, in this group the cost turned out to be twice as low — about 6.5 UAH.

To track the effectiveness of the advertising campaign, use the Ads Manager service on Facebook.

And one more life hack based on this case: if you ask participants to tag a friend they're willing to share the prize with (for example, a restaurant outing or a free portion of a product), then the post's audience grows essentially twofold, since their friends will see the contest post in their feed.

Tip 9. Make sure the contest participation rules include a "Permission to use the participant's content" clause

State that the texts, photos, or videos entered in the contest may be used on the company's pages/resources and in other advertising materials.

This way you protect yourself from claims by the authors regarding the use of contest materials — and theoretically the possibility of such claims exists.

Drawing conclusions

Three conditions that determine a contest's success.

What a contest should be like so that it gets noticed, appreciated, and shared.

Let's sum up together.

A contest is a working marketing tool that helps solve several tasks at once, from gathering an audience of followers for a company's new group/page, to boosting sales by offering discounts to participants.

For a contest not to go unnoticed, three conditions must be met:

• Hitting the audience's interests.
• The contest's virality / interest / fun factor / social significance. It shouldn't be boring, trite, or made without heart.
• Effective promotion of the contest.

When these three conditions are met, the effect of running a contest on Facebook will surely follow. And it will be positive.