Running Competitions on Facebook

Eager to run a competition on Facebook, but don't know where to start? Never fear, our easy guide will help you get up and running quickly.

Are you allowed to run competitions on Facebook?

Yes, absolutely - it's free advertising for your business. You should be aware that you need to be careful not to violate the terms of service. For example, if your goal is to offer prizes, you will need to determine whether they are permissible by the social network.

It depends on what type of competition you’ve got going on. You will likely not face any issues if it is just a simple “Like this photo” or user-generated content type competitions. If you want to run a contest where people enter and win a prize, then you will need to follow Facebook’s Page Promotion Terms.

Facebook has specific terms related to:

• Communicating a Promotion
• Required Content
• Administration of a Promotion
• Assisting Promotions

It's worthwhile to read Facebook's Terms and Policies to understand how they approach competitions on their Platform. Their contest rules are clear, simple, and easy to follow.

How do I run a successful competition on Facebook?

You should not ask people to pay money to participate in your competition. This will likely result a lot of complaints from entrants who feel they‘ve been tricked into entering and that they were promised free entry. Lean on features from social channels instead - like user-generated content - to guarantee additional entries and meet your contest goals.

The first step is to set up a page for your business. This will allow you to invite people to join and share your competition. It's fast, easy, and free to set up a Facebook page.

Next, you need to promote it by sharing it across social media platforms. Social media competitions are perfect for sharing!  Tools like Hootsuite and Buffer can help you schedule content and links to your competition, and many tools provide social plugins and a giveaway or contest widget to reach your target audience faster.

If you can, spend some money on Facebook Ads to amplify the reach of your competition and increase engagement. Don't forget to write and share blog posts and promote the competition to your email subscribers.

Finally, you need set out some competition rules and start to collect competition entries. 

There are plenty of great tools available to help with this, like:

• Typeform
• Woobox
• Wishpond
• Shortstack

Most include text areas to surface competition rules to entrants, confirm start and end dates, and email addresses for support and questions. Some even include the ability to pick a random winner end ensure contest rules have been followed.

Last, but not least...

Don't forget to share your competition on WinCompetitions.ie! Our thousands of eager compers would love to learn more about your business and be in with a chance to win your amazing prizes.

We hope you run a successful Facebook competition. Good luck!