Do Giveaways Work? 24 Statistics on Giveaways and Contests [2024]
Online giveaways and contests are a fun and effective marketing strategy companies use to engage with their audience.
They can create buzz around your company, help customers feel valued, and increase brand loyalty.
In this article, we will go through 24 statistics that show how giveaways and contests can be an effective marketing tool for your company.
General Giveaway and Contest Statistics
Although giveaways and contests differ slightly (giveaways being all about chance and contests revolving more around a skill rather than just a random chance to win), the statistics around both cover the same topics.
Here are some general statistics about giveaways and contests.
1. An estimated 132,200 people search for “giveaways” each month on Google.
Here’s a breakdown of the estimated search volume for specific giveaway-related terms:
- 7,300 people search for “Instagram giveaways” each month
- 1,100 people search for “Facebook giveaways” each month
- 500 people search for “social media giveaways” each month
- 200 people search for “TikTok giveaways” each month
2. 60,000 people search for “contests” each month on Google, as estimated by Semrush.
Here are the stats broken down by platform:
- 1,100 people search for “Instagram contests” each month
- 1,700 people search for “Facebook contests” each month
- 1,800 people search for “social media contests” each month
- 110 people search for “TikTok contests” each month
3. Over 800 million searches on Google are related to “giveaway”.
Contest-related searches are even more popular – there are over 2 trillion searches related to “contest.”
4. The top 5 countries searching for giveaways are Indonesia, Mexico, India, the United States, and Germany.
Email Marketing Giveaway and Contest Statistics
Next, let’s look at a few email statistics and whether you can use them to advertise giveaways and contests.
5. The 2024 email marketing market is valued at over $12 billion globally.
This reflects a significant increase from $7.5 billion in 2020, and it’s expected to continue growing. In fact, it’s estimated to reach $17.9 billion by 2027. This growth presents a golden opportunity for companies to use email marketing to promote their giveaways and contests.
6. Contest emails have an average open rate of 45%, higher than any other email campaign.
7. The average conversion rate for contest emails is 5.52%, which is more than double the 2.54% average for all email types.
8. 99% of email users check their inbox every day, and some do so as many as 20 times.
And since 58% of all users check their email first thing in the morning, it’s a prime time to schedule your giveaway and contest emails for maximum engagement.
9. 60% of companies prefer email marketing for promoting contest landing pages.
This is because email marketing makes it easy to conduct A/B testing of different versions and offers an impressive return on investment ($36 ROI for every $1 spent).
When you lead users to your contest landing page, keeping them engaged is essential to boost contest participation. For this, you can use an interactive landing page quiz. A quiz can increase engagement and collect valuable data that you can use in the future for targeted marketing and even improve your products or services.
Social Media Giveaway and Contest Statistics
Social media is one of the most popular places for companies to drive traffic to giveaways and contests. Let’s start with some general statistics and then move on to more specific social platforms.
10. The social commerce market is forecast to grow to $8.5 trillion by 2030 (from $1.2 trillion in 2023).
Although the main goal of giveaways and contests isn’t to directly boost sales, the projected growth in social commerce suggests a rising trust in brands among consumers, who are increasingly making purchases. This means that giveaways and contests on social media could be even more effective for engagement.
11. 38% of Gen Z unfollow brands that share boring posts.
The main reason why young consumers unfollow brands is that their timelines become flooded with uninteresting posts. Humor is key – 91% of people want brands to be funny, and 72% would choose a funny brand over competitors. Giveaways and contests are a playful way to break up the monotony of boring timelines, and incorporating quizzes can add an extra layer of fun and engagement.
Instagram Giveaway and Contest Statistics
Next, let’s focus on more platform-specific statistics.
12. Instagram is the 4th most visited website globally.
The huge popularity of Instagram makes it an excellent platform to advertise your giveaways and contests, and since many companies aren’t doing it, it’s easier to stand out.
13. 90% of Instagram users follow at least one business.
In fact, the majority of Instagram users use the app primarily for the purpose of receiving updates and engaging with businesses.
A great way to engage your followers is by holding a contest with a fun poll. You can do this with a native Instagram poll in Stories, but it does have limitations: you can’t export data to your customer relationship management (CRM) system, there’s a limit of four answer options, and polls last only 24 hours. For advanced features like data collection, more answer options, and extended voting, you need to use a tool like Opinion Stage to create your Instagram poll.
14. Instagram is the most popular social media platform for hosting giveaways.
The hashtags “giveaway” and “giveaways” account for over 53 million posts on Instagram.
Since 2019, Instagram giveaways have had the most Google searches of all popular social media platforms.
15. Contests receive 3.5 times as many likes and 64 times as many comments as regular posts.
16. 91% of posts with over 1,000 comments were giveaways.
Giveaway posts tend to have high engagement, and engagement is a crucial ranking factor on Instagram. Likes, comments, and shares all get factored into the algorithm’s calculations. Since giveaways naturally spark a flurry of comments, they essentially give your posts a powerful boost.
17. Accounts grow +70% faster when they hold contests.
18. Only 2% of Instagram marketers run contests or giveaways.
Also, only 0.56% of Instagram posts are contests, proving the massive opportunity for companies to capitalize on Instagram.
Facebook Giveaway and Contest Statistics
19. Facebook is the 2nd most searched platform for giveaways.
Although Instagram now holds the top spot, Facebook was the most searched platform for giveaways between 2010 and 2017.
20. Facebook has over 25 million giveaway or contest-related posts.
There are over 10 million giveaway or contest-related Facebook groups, although most of them are inactive. You can run contests in groups using Facebook’s native poll features, but this feature lacks the detailed analytics needed for precise results. Plus, you can’t create polls for personal or company pages. A workaround for these Facebook limitations is to use a tool like Opinion Stage to create advanced Facebook polls you can embed anywhere.
21. Facebook image posts have the highest interaction rate at 0.12%.
Use this to your advantage by designing eye-catching graphics that showcase your giveaway. Write a catchy caption that sparks curiosity, and consider adding an attractive Facebook quiz to boost engagement and entries.
TikTok Giveaway and Contest Statistics
22. There are 3.1 million posts with the hashtag “giveaway” on TikTok.
23. 73% of consumers prefer to watch short videos to get a better understanding of a product or service.
Plus, 94% of marketers agree that video helps their customers understand products or services better. And since short-form content is so effective, that makes TikTok the ideal place for marketers promoting giveaways and contests.
Influencer Marketing Giveaway and Contest Statistics
24. 81% of marketers believe user-generated content resonates with customers more than professional photos or influencer content.
87% of marketers also believe that user-generated content is a more authentic way to ensure content diversity. If you’re planning to use influencer marketing to launch your contests or giveaways, this is something to keep in mind.
Are Giveaways an Effective Marketing Strategy?
With over 5 billion active social media users (and growing year after year), companies are looking for ways to stand out, and one approach is through giveaways and contests.
So, do giveaways work? The data says yes.
Even though they’re a powerful marketing tool, the secret sauce is creating an effective giveaway and contest strategy. For example, you can host fun quiz competitions. They give participants a chance to show off their knowledge and skills and foster a sense of community – just what you need to make your brand memorable.
And that’s exactly what consumers are looking for in 2024.
