How can you effectively measure the success of your social media contests and giveaways?

1 Define your goals and KPIs

Before you launch your social media contest or giveaway, you need to have a clear idea of what you want to achieve and how you will measure it. Do you want to increase your followers, generate leads, drive traffic, or raise awareness? Depending on your goals, you will need to define different key performance indicators (KPIs) that reflect your progress. For example, if your goal is to increase your followers, you might use KPIs such as new followers, follower growth rate, or follower retention. If your goal is to generate leads, you might use KPIs such as email subscribers, conversions, or cost per lead.

2 Choose the right platform and format

The next step is to choose the best platform and format for your social media contest or giveaway. You need to consider where your target audience is most active, what type of content they prefer, and what are the rules and best practices of each platform. For example, if you want to reach a younger and more visual audience, you might opt for Instagram or TikTok. If you want to encourage user-generated content, you might choose a photo or video contest. If you want to simplify the entry process, you might use a hashtag or a comment contest.

3 Use tools and analytics

Once you have set up your social media contest or giveaway, you need to use tools and analytics to track and measure your performance. There are different types of tools and analytics that can help you with this task. For example, you can use native platform analytics, such as Facebook Insights or Instagram Insights, to monitor your reach, impressions, engagement, and demographics. You can also use third-party tools, such as Gleam or Rafflecopter, to manage your entries, winners, and prizes. Additionally, you can use Google Analytics or UTM parameters to track your traffic, referrals, and conversions from your social media contest or giveaway.

4 Compare and benchmark

Another way to measure the success of your social media contest or giveaway is to compare and benchmark your results with your previous or similar campaigns. This can help you identify what worked well and what can be improved. For example, you can compare your contest performance with your average or baseline performance on the same platform. You can also compare your contest performance with your competitors or industry standards. This can help you gain insights into your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.

5 Collect feedback and testimonials

Finally, you can measure the success of your social media contest or giveaway by collecting feedback and testimonials from your participants and winners. This can help you understand how your audience perceived your contest or giveaway, what they liked or disliked, and what they learned or gained from it. Feedback and testimonials can also help you build trust, credibility, and loyalty with your audience. You can collect feedback and testimonials by using surveys, polls, reviews, ratings, or direct messages. You can also showcase your feedback and testimonials on your website, social media, or email marketing.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?