Mid-Year Check: How to Tell if Your Last Giveaway Was Worth It
We're past the halfway point of the year, which makes now a good time to look back at the giveaways you've run since January. Not to grade yourself harshly, but to answer one practical question: which ones should you run again?
You don't need a dashboard or a marketing team. You need your past posts, your platform's built-in insights, and about half an hour.
Start by writing down what you wanted
A giveaway can only be "worth it" relative to what you were trying to do. Look at each one and jot down its main goal. Common ones:
- Reach new people who hadn't heard of you.
- Reward existing customers and keep them engaged.
- Launch or promote a product.
- Get people talking: comments, answers, ideas.
- Drive sales, directly or through a follow-up offer.
If you can't remember the goal, that's useful information too. Next time, decide before you post.
Gather the numbers you already have
For each giveaway, collect what's available from your own accounts. You're comparing your giveaways with each other, not with anyone else's.
- Comments and entries on the giveaway post. Look beyond the raw comment count: a quick scroll shows how many came from the same people commenting again and again, so you get a feel for how many unique entrants you really had.
- Follower count before the giveaway and a couple of weeks after it ended. The "after" number matters more than the peak.
- Reach or views from your platform's insights.
- Saves, shares and profile visits, if available.
- Sales signals: use of a discount code shared with entrants, website visits, or orders mentioning the giveaway.
- Cost: the prize, shipping, any paid promotion, and the value of your time.
Ask five honest questions
1. Did the right people enter?
Scroll through the comments. Are entrants people who'd plausibly buy from you, or mostly accounts that enter every giveaway they see? A smaller pool of genuine, local or interested people is usually worth more than a big pool of prize hunters.
2. Did new followers stick around?
If your follower count jumped and then fell back within a couple of weeks, the giveaway attracted people who wanted the prize, not you. That often points to a prize that was too general. A prize tied to your own product tends to attract people who actually like it.
3. Did people engage with what came after?
Look at your next few posts. Did they get more comments or views than usual? That's a sign the giveaway grew your active audience, not just your follower number.
4. Was it smooth to run?
Think back to the admin. Did the winner reply quickly? Were there complaints about rules? Did you have to redraw? Friction is a cost too, and it's often fixable with clearer rules and backup winners.
5. Would you be happy to run it again exactly as it was?
Your gut feeling counts. If a giveaway felt stressful or the comments felt hollow, that's worth noting even if the numbers looked fine.
Sort them into three piles
| Pile | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Repeat | Met its goal at a cost you're happy with. | Put a similar one in the calendar for the second half of the year. |
| Tweak | Promising, but something held it back. | Change one thing: the prize, the entry prompt, the platform or the length. |
| Drop | Didn't meet its goal, or cost more than it returned. | Don't repeat it as-is. Note why, so you don't drift back. |
Common fixes for the "tweak" pile
- Lots of entries, few lasting followers? Make the prize more specific to your business.
- Too few entries? Simplify the entry method to a single comment, and post reminders.
- Messy comments with spam and duplicates? Use the duplicate filter, a hashtag filter, and a block list for known problem accounts.
- Winner went quiet? Add a claim deadline to your rules and pick substitutes at the draw.
- Audience split across platforms? Consider one multi-network giveaway instead of several small ones.
- Announcement got little attention? Try a countdown reveal or a recorded draw video.
Check you're on the right plan
While you're reviewing, look at how many comments your giveaways actually received. If you've been hitting the Free plan's 600-comment limit, Silver loads up to 2,000 and Gold up to 5,000. If your giveaways are small and simple, Free may be all you need. The pricing page has the full comparison.
Plan the second half
With your three piles sorted, sketch out the giveaways you want to run before the end of the year, keeping the busy fall and holiday season in mind. When the next one is ready, pick your winner on the RaffleSelect home page.