How to Use Giveaways in Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketers have extraordinary skills. They can convert website traffic into cash! This is a rare gift that is only obtained after years of practice and hustle. And we all know the hardest part of the hustle is keeping that website traffic flowing.

If you can increase website traffic, you can surely increase cash flow. A popular method of boosting website traffic is with an online giveaway. Big-name brands and websites are using giveaways to boost traffic, social media followers, and email lists. This guide will go over the basics of hosting your own giveaway and how it can help you growth hack your business.

Ready to get started? Let’s Go!

What Are Giveaways?

Giveaways are viral campaigns that brands use to achieve specific marketing goals.

Some of the most common marketing goals include:

• Building an email list
• Growing social media followers
• Increasing website traffic

To host a giveaway, a brand will have to sponsor a prize so people can place their entries for a chance to win that prize.

You can use various entry methods that require users to submit their email address or follow you on social media.

If you are looking to build your email list, then you can request that users supply an email address to enter. You can then market your brand to your new email list after the giveaway is over.

Similarly, if you are looking to grow your social media profiles, ask people to follow you to enter. Then what about website traffic?

How Giveaways Can Boost Website Traffic

Having a decent email list and social media following can definitely be beneficial to affiliate marketers. 

Almost as beneficial as using a giveaway to boost website traffic. Increasing high-quality traffic to an affiliate website can certainly lead to more sales and commission.

There’s a couple of ways you can boost website traffic with a giveaway. These methods include:

• Using bonus actions
• Hosting a giveaway on your website

Bonus Actions

Coconut Bowls, an e-commerce Shopify store, were able to boost their website page views to over 222k during their social media giveaway.

Their giveaway was hosted on Instagram and required users to submit their email address to enter. 

If a user wanted to gain additional entries to improve their chances of winning, they had the option to complete bonus actions.

These bonus actions are:

• Follow us on Facebook 
• Visit our website

Host a Giveaway on your Website

If you decide to host a giveaway on your website, then people will have to visit your website to enter. A great idea for affiliate marketers would be to host a giveaway on a post that needs a boost in traffic. Just imaging thousands of giveaway entrants visiting your latest post that’s filled with affiliate links. If your giveaway is set up properly, it can definitely attract high-quality traffic to your website. 

How to Setup a Giveaway

Giveaways are as simple as sponsoring a prize and watching tons of people enter to win, right? While the concept of a giveaway is straightforward, you will have to carefully plan and execute your giveaway if you want the best results

Heres 4 steps you can follow to set up your giveaway:

1. Choose a goal
2. Pick a prize
3. Set Rules
4. Launch and Promote

Choose a Goal

Your sole intention can be to drastically boost website traffic with your giveaway. As mentioned earlier, you could host your giveaway on your website. However, collecting and organizing emails and managing your giveaway manually by yourself can be time-consuming. It’s recommended that you use giveaway management software like VYPER or Gleam. These services are built to manage your giveaway entries, bonus actions, and other crucial giveaway tasks.

Giveaway services allow you to create giveaways on their platform while also giving you the option to embed an entry form on your website. This is an ideal method to host a giveaway on your website while allowing a third-party service to manage the giveaway for you

Pick a Prize

The giveaway prize is the most enticing part of any giveaway. Brands use their giveaway prize as leverage in their mission to generate the most leads.

As an affiliate marketer, you can use your giveaway prize to generate traffic on a blog post. 

Eg. you can host a ‘Pro Photographer Giveaway’ within a blog post that features your roundup of the best cameras. The prize can be a photographer’s kit that includes tripods, a camera bag, and software. Photographers will be attracted to this prize and will have to visit the blog post to enter.

Once they have submitted their entry, they will be curious about your list of best cameras. If they find a camera that they like, then they can click on your affiliate link. Choosing one of your best cameras as a giveaway prize seems like a good idea. However, those photographers that enter your giveaway will be hesitant to click on your affiliate link to purchase a camera. They would probably wait to see if they win first before they can make a purchase. Because of this, it’s best to select a prize that compliments the products that you are marketing. Or a prize that will encourage people to click your affiliate links. 

Set the Rules

Every giveaway has to have a clear set of rules in place. Your giveaway rules will ensure that your giveaway is kept under control. If an issue arises and you have no rules to support your decisions, then that issue can impact negatively on your brand.

Some examples of giveaway rules are:

• Start and end date of the giveaway
• Age and region restrictions
• The date the winner will be announced
• Date and prize delivery method

It’s also crucial that your rules adhere to your country’s laws. Eg. in the US, you cannot accept cash as entry into a giveaway (no purchase necessary law). Seek local legal advice if you are unsure about the laws of your country.

Launch and Promote

As an affiliate, you will most likely have established marketing channels. You can launch and promote your giveaway on these platforms.

Some popular giveaway marketing channels include:

• Email
• Social media
• Website or blogs
• Podcast
• Traditional print media

Promote your giveaway the same way you would promote a major marketing campaign.

Get the news out as quickly and efficiently as possible. Email your subscribers and create a post on social media for your followers.

This will increase your chances of driving traffic from email and social media to your website or blog post. Also, you can make a chatbot that will automatically inform all website visitors about your giveaway. Giveaways can generate plenty of viral traffic on their own. However, I have seen plenty of giveaway results that could have been drastically improved with basic marketing. Try to include a ‘refer a friend’ option in your giveaway. This way, you can effectively market your giveaway to your audience and watch them refer new leads to your giveaway.

Giveaway Ideas for Affiliate Marketers

The photographer giveaway example used above (under the ‘Pick a Prize section) is a great example for affiliate marketers. If you have a website that reviews and promotes products, then you can follow a similar model.

Giveaway ideas for affiliate websites (based on this model):

• Smartphone blog – A giveaway with a prize that includes smartphone accessories or Google Play and Apple App Store vouchers. Entrants can submit a selfie to enter.
• Makeup blog – A makeup contest that requires users to submit a short video clip. Winners will receive a free makeup course. 
• Affiliate/Marketing course website – Offer a massive discount on one of your courses as the giveaway prize. To enter, users can create an account on your website and complete one of your free courses. 
• Software website – Giveaway the activation key for your software. Users must download and install your demo software to enter. The winner gets the activation key that converts the demo version to the full version.

TL;DR

There is so much potential for affiliate marketers that host giveaways on their websites. They can use a single massive giveaway to boost traffic, email leads, and social media followers. Those who are skeptical (or do not have the resources to host a massive giveaway), can alternatively host a small giveaway on a monthly basis.You can give away one of the products you review, or a discount for one of your courses. There’s also nothing wrong with partnering up with another brand when hosting a giveaway. Getting a company (one of the brands that you review) to sponsor a prize is an excellent idea. If you are an affiliate marketer that knows how to convert traffic, email addresses, and social media followers into income, then it’s surely worth hosting a giveaway on your website. Have you ever hosted a giveaway before? Let us know how it went in the comments below.

Jack Paxton