How Do You Run a Giveaway from Instagram Comments?

How Does Simpliers Work?

To pick the winner fairly among the comments made on your post, every comment has to be retrieved. Simpliers retrieves all the comments on your giveaway post and lets you pick the winner according to the rules you set.

The winner is picked after all the comments are retrieved, independently of the server, on your own screen. This way the first and the last person to comment have equal odds, and until you see the winner on your screen nobody can know the result. The winners can be verified by anyone with the giveaway code on the result page.

How Is a Giveaway Run Step by Step?

1. Paste the post link

   Copy the link of your giveaway post on Instagram and paste it into the screen you see below.

   

2. Set the rules

   Add rules to your giveaway by filling in fields such as Number Of Winners, Number Of Substitutes, Minimum Tags and Must Include Phrases.

   

3. Collect the comments

   Retrieving the comments can take a short or a long time depending on the comment count on the post. Your post has to be open to comments for all of them to be retrieved properly.

   

4. Start the draw

   You can change the countdown to raise the excitement while the winner is picked. Press the "Start Giveaway" button to start the giveaway.

   

5. Announce the winner

   Share the result page link, the certificate in Instagram Story format and the winner video with your followers.

   

You can try the same steps with your own post.

Which Comments Count as Valid?

The fields on the rules screen decide which comments are eliminated.

• Get Unique Users: However many comments a user makes, they enter the giveaway once. Nobody gains an advantage by posting comment after comment.
• Minimum Tags: You set the minimum number of people that have to be tagged in a comment. If you set this field to 2, only comments tagging 2 or more people in the same comment count as valid. A user tagging 2 people in total across different comments does not count as valid.
• Must Include Phrases: You add the words a comment has to include. If you add more than one word, comments containing any of them count as valid.
• Advanced Rules: Rules such as follower check, minimum posts and minimum followers are checked after the winners are picked. When a winner does not meet these rules, you can pick a new winner instead or pass their right to the substitutes.

If you also want to download the comment list, you can export it with the Comment Export Tool.

How Do You Prove the Result?

You pick the winners and the substitutes on the result page. You can create the giveaway certificate and the winner video from the same page as well.

• Result page: The page showing the winners, the entry count and the giveaway code. Your followers can visit this page and verify your result transparently.
• Giveaway certificate: A document you download in Instagram Story format, showing the rules of the giveaway, the winners and that every comment was retrieved.
• Winner video: A short video showing the moment the winner comes out, ready for your story.

Common Mistakes

Almost all complaints after a giveaway come from rules left incomplete at the start, not from the winner pick. The pick side is secured by Simpliers, the rules side is yours.

• Setting too many conditions: When items such as follow, like, tag three people and share in your story pile up, entries drop and invalid comments rise.
• Running the giveaway before time is up: People who comment in the final hours never make the list and the result draws complaints. Run the giveaway after the time is up. For the comments that arrive after the entry period has ended, you can enter the Last Participation Date in the Set a Date Limit field.
• Setting no backup winner: When you cannot reach the winner there is nobody to hand the prize to. Setting Number Of Substitutes to one or two is enough.