How to Run a Successful Snapchat Giveaway in 10 Steps

Although Snapchat is considered to be the social media platform for teenagers and Gen Z, its fast-paced, disappearing content makes it a goldmine for brand engagement across all demographics. Giveaways on Snapchat are, in fact, a powerful way for brands, solopreneurs, and content creators to boost followers, drive interaction, and build a loyal community that actually sticks around.

In this guide, we’ll break down exactly how to run a Snapchat giveaway in 10 simple steps – from setting clear goals and choosing the right tools to executing your campaign and measuring its success – so that you can boost your follower count and create an engaged community around your brand.

10 Steps to Run a Successful Snapchat Giveaway

A Snapchat giveaway without a plan is a recipe for disaster. If you genuinely want your Snapchat giveaway to boost your follower count and create a more tight-knit community around your brand, you absolutely must have a solid plan to follow. These ten steps on how to run a successful giveaway on Snapchat will take you from “cool idea” to “epic results.”

Step 1: Define Your Objectives

Before you dive into filters and hashtags, get crystal clear on what you want from your Snapchat giveaway. Are you after more followers, higher story views, quality leads, or just more visibility for your brand? Put your aim into a SMART goal: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. For example, “increase Snapchat followers by 20% within two weeks” is far more actionable than just “get more followers.”

When setting your goals, you must keep in mind Snapchat's nature. Remember that the platform is built for quick, visual storytelling that sticks in the moment. Your goal should match the platform’s strengths so your campaign feels native to Snapchat and what its users are used to interacting with.

Step 2: Understand Snapchat’s Rules & Legal Basics

Before you start handing out prizes, make sure your giveaway plays by Snapchat's rules. Snapchat requires that promotions be fair, transparent, and free to enter (no purchase necessary). You’ll also need clear, easy-to-find Terms & Conditions that spell out eligibility, deadlines, and how winners will be chosen (Socialman can help you with that).

Don’t skip the legal fine print! It's important that you comply with local laws in every region you target, protect participant privacy by handling data responsibly, and include official disclaimers that remove Snapchat from any liability. In other words, cover your legal bases now so that you can focus on creativity later.

Step 3: Choose Your Prize Strategically

Your prize is the most crucial element of your giveaway. When choosing your Snapchat giveaway prize, the key to success is to offer something that your audience truly cares about.

Remember: it's not about how expensive the prize is, but rather, how much value it has for your people. For instance, a new iPad might get thousands of entries, but if your target audience is skincare lovers, you’ll end up with a list full of people who don’t care about your brand.

So, pick something hyper-relevant: a product bundle, an exclusive service, or early access to your next launch. The right prize attracts the right crowd. For extra reach, consider teaming up with an influencer your audience already trusts or offering a joint experience they can’t buy anywhere else. Relevance over popularity wins every time.

Step 4: Design Entry Mechanics

The best giveaways make participation feel fun. So, yes, keep your entry mechanics clear, but don't make the rules feel like complying with a boring wall of T&Cs. Think verified actions like following your account, viewing a story, or submitting a screenshot/Snap using your branded lens or filter. With Socialman, you can track and verify these actions automatically.

You can also try creative games for giveaways like Snapchat scavenger hunts, quirky Snap challenges, or UGC-driven competitions that get your audience creating and sharing. These are a fun way to boost engagement and spread the word about your brand. The more fun your competition is, the more people will feel motivated to join!

Step 5: Leverage Third‑Party Tools

If you’ve ever tried to manage a giveaway by hand, you know it’s about as fun as alphabetizing a phone book. That’s where third-party giveaway tools like Socialman come in.

They handle the nitty-gritty of your giveaway mechanics, such as entry collection and random winner selection. You also get extra perks like entry verification (so you know winners actually followed the rules), live tracking, and automatic T&Cs generation (goodbye legal headaches).

Although we want you to try Socialman (it's free!), there are plenty of other platforms out there for you to test, such as Rafflecopter or Gleam. But the point is, let tech do the heavy lifting so you can focus on the fun parts of running your giveaway.

Step 6: Create Engaging Visual Content

If your giveaway visuals look like an afterthought, your entries will be too. Snapchat is a scroll-fast, tap-faster platform, so your Stories need to pop. Think bold colors, movement, and a lens or filter that screams, “this is worth stopping for.” Use short, punchy captions that tell people exactly what to do.

Since Snapchat is a fast-paced platform, urgency is what gets people to act before they forget. You can use giveaway templates like the ones you'll find in Socialman's template library to redirect your potential participants to a landing page where they can track their entries, rack up points, and obsess over the leaderboard.

Step 7: Promote Your Snapchat Giveaway

The harsh truth is that many people fail with their Snapchat giveaways because they just "post and ghost." If you post once and hope for the best, you'll end up with nothing. To get the results you want, you must promote your giveaway both on and off the platform.

Inside Snapchat, use countdown Stories, run a few eye-catching Snap Ads, and team up with influencers who can drop your giveaway into their Snaps. Outside of Snapchat, spread the word on other platforms where you’ve already built an audience, like Instagram or TikTok. If you have an email list, send a special giveaway countdown campaign. The point is to make it stupid-easy for people to join your giveaway!

Step 8: Engage During the Giveaway

A giveaway isn’t a “set it and forget it” kind of thing. It’s a live event, and you’re the host. If you disappear after launch, so will the excitement (and the entries). Keep the momentum rolling with regular Story updates, fun teasers of the prize, and interactive polls or Q&As that keep people tapping.

This not only reminds followers that the giveaway’s still on, but also draws in anyone who missed the first announcement. And don’t forget to spotlight user-generated entries. Seeing others participate sparks FOMO, builds community, and keeps the buzz alive until the final day.

In other words, treat your giveaway like it’s a party you actually want people to stay at. Keep the excitement going, the conversation flowing, and make sure no one forgets why they showed up in the first place.

Step 9: Choose and Announce the Winner

The big reveal is just as crucial as the giveaway itself. A well-handled winner announcement not only wraps up your giveaway with integrity, but it also builds trust for your next one.

To keep things fair and credible, use a random draw tool or a transparent judging process, whichever aligns with your giveaway rules. When it’s time to announce the winner, do it where the action started: on Snapchat. You can also share the winner reveal across other platforms to maximize reach and show you’re true to your word.

One important thing to remember is to protect the winner’s privacy. Use first name, username, or initials, rather than their full name and other personal details. Also, don't forget to give them clear instructions for claiming their prize. For you, it may be obvious, but to them it isn't.

Step 10: Analyze & Learn Post‑Campaign

The giveaway might be over, but the work isn’t. The post-giveaway stage is where you dig into the numbers and figure out what moved the needle. This is where you need to check and analyze key metrics like follower growth, story views, entries, shares, and those all-important conversion actions.

Why? Because by analyzing how your last giveaway on Snapchat went, you can make sure the next one is even more successful. And if your last Snapchat contest was a flop, then at least you’ll learn why and be able to correct your mistakes next time.

The key to drawing as many valuable conclusions from your giveaway is to look for patterns. Did a specific type of story get way more engagement? Did a simple entry mechanic outperform the more complicated ones? Did your prize actually excite people, or was it just…meh? Use these insights to fine-tune your next giveaway so it’s even smoother, sharper, and more effective.

Ready to Run Your Next Snapchat Giveaway?

A successful Snapchat giveaway is about building momentum, sparking genuine engagement, and leaving your audience wanting more. From planning and promotion to winner selection and post-campaign analysis, every step you take feeds into the next.

The best campaigns are never one-and-done. Each giveaway is an experiment: test new entry methods, try different prize types, and refine your promotion strategy. Over time, you’ll learn exactly what your audience responds to, and your results will keep climbing.

With Socialman, you can streamline the entire Snapchat giveaway process. From tracking entries to automating random draws, from integrating cross-platform actions to keeping everything secure, Socialman gives you the tools to run giveaways that work (and save you hours in the process). Give Socialman a try for free!