Build awareness of your business with contests on Facebook

Facebook contests are a brilliant strategy if you want exposure, shares and awareness of your business. However, it is important to take into account some prerequisites before you can create a good and successful competition. For example, you must comply with the Danish marketing law and Facebook's competition rules - both for legal reasons but also to maintain a positive image of your business. However, it's not easy, as the competition rules can be a bit of a jungle to navigate.

To give you the best conditions for creating a successful competition on Facebook, we've put together a few tips and tricks on how to get the competition off the ground - without breaking any guidelines or rules.

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Make sure you're aware of Facebook's contest rules

As mentioned, it is quite important that you comply with the Danish marketing law and Facebook's competition rules. If you don't do this, you risk being fined or having your Facebook page shut down. It doesn't take more than one complaint from a user for the Consumer Ombudsman to look into the matter.

The Danish Marketing Practices Act on Social Media
According to the Danish Marketing Practices Act, it is important that competition terms and conditions are clearly stated to the participants in the post. This means that your post must be clearly marked:

  • Any age or geographical restrictions.
  • Value of the award.
  • The number of prizes.
  • How and when the winner will be drawn.
  • Where and when the winner will be announced.
  • Conditions for delivery, collection and premium expiry.

Read more about the Danish marketing law here.

Facebook competition rules

Facebook has also set up a number of rules that they point out are there to create a good experience for both you and the participants of the competition. Their own rules emphasize what you can and cannot demand from the participants.

When you run a competition on Facebook, you can't require participants to..:

  • Sharing your page or post on their own page.
  • Share your post on their friends' wall.
  • 'Like' your page to join.
  • Tag one or more friends.

It's worth mentioning that participants can of course tag, share and like your posts on their own initiative - it just shouldn't be a requirement to enter the competition.

When you run a competition on Facebook, you can require participants to..:

  • 'Like' your post to participate.
  • Comment on the post.
  • Make their own post on your page to participate.
  • Sends a direct message to your business page.

You can read more about the official guidelines here.

Tips for a successful Facebook contest

Before you launch your competition, it's a good idea to think about what you want to get out of it. First and foremost, you should set some specific goals, such as getting more likes on your Facebook page, more newsletter sign-ups or increased reach. However, you should focus on one objective in your competition rather than going all-in on all of them.

Once you've determined the purpose of your competition, it's a good idea to consider your target audience and what prize they might be interested in winning.

The prize

In order to generate interest among potential participants, it's essential that you pick a good prize. It's no use raffling off the latest iPhone if your company sells keychains or gardening services on subscription - the prize needs to be relevant to your business so that participants can learn more about what you offer.

If you have launched a new product or service, a competition is the perfect way to raise awareness. For example, the competition could involve the participant answering how they perceive the product or how it works. This way, they have to familiarize themselves with the product before they can participate. Even if they don't win, they now know about the product - and may buy it at a later date.

It's also a good idea to raffle off something that you yourself would be interested in winning. For example, it doesn't matter to give away a 200,- gift card if your products have an average price of 1000,-.

Sponsored vs. organic content on Facebook

Once you've decided on a goal and a prize, it's relevant to consider how Facebook ads and organic content work on Facebook.

Organic content on Facebook

If you choose to run your competition organically on Facebook, it's important that you know their algorithm. After a major update in 2018, Facebook is now trying to present their users with relevant content. Therefore, it's a good idea to shape your competition so that it creates signals to Facebook's algorithm. These signals can mean higher interaction and engagement, which can lead to a higher reach. It's a good idea to try to arouse curiosity in your users so that they want to 'read more...', as this will increase time spent and most likely engagement on the post, which Facebook will eventually reward with a higher reach.

Facebook advertising

If you don't have a large following on Facebook, you can run your post as a Facebook ad. Targeted Facebook advertising helps your post reach potentially interested users rather than just followers and their friends interacting and sharing the post. For marketing on Facebook, you can use Facebook Business Manager, which is a brilliant tool that brings together all your activities including pages, ad accounts, Instagram, etc.

For example, Facebook Business Manager allows you to create a campaign set up with several different target groups so you can split the post. This way, you can explore where you get the best results depending on the purpose of the competition. However, Facebook Business Manager is not for the technically minded, as it requires a little extra time to familiarize yourself with. In the meantime, you can read our post on using Facebook Business Manager.

Want us to help you with your social media strategy?

Does it seem overwhelming to dive into the deep end that is Facebook Business Manager? Don't worry - there's no need to spend long nights watching 'How To' YouTube videos or laborious guides. At Amplify, we're experts in Facebook Business Manager and Facebook marketing.

Contact me or one of my colleagues at Amplify on tel. +45 70 60 50 28 or via email at info@amplify.dk.

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