Who doesn’t love a giveaway? Sweepstakes and giveaway events are a fun and interactive way to get shoppers to engage with your brand, attract new traffic, and grab the attention of new customers. If your brand is on Amazon, an Amazon-hosted giveaway can be an excellent option.
In this blog post we share what an Amazon giveaway is, why you should consider running one, how it works, and how to set one up through your Seller Central account.
What is an Amazon giveaway?
An Amazon giveaway is a service that helps sellers on the platform raise product awareness and sales using a sweepstakes. And luckily for you, Amazon’s platform does most of the heavy lifting, making giveaways very easy to set up and run. All the giveaway host has to do is decide what your brand would like to give away and choose the entry requirements.
How do Amazon giveaways work?
If you already have an Amazon seller account, running a giveaway is easy. Once you’ve set up your giveaway using Seller Central, Amazon will enforce your set entry requirements, draw the winners, and ship prizes to the winners – making logistics for your giveaway simple. With no extra fees or cost to you besides paying for the giveaway items, it’s a great option to boost customer engagement.
How do I set up a giveaway on Amazon?
As long as you have an Amazon Seller account, setting up a giveaway is simple. Here’s how.
Step 1
Sign into Amazon Seller Central, then click on the “Promotions” tab under Advertising. There, you’ll see the Giveaway area. Click the Create button to get started.
Step 2
Next up, you can decide which product to include in the Amazon Giveaway. You can either search for your product by SKU, ASIN, or name or choose from a list.
Step 3
Once you’ve selected your product for the giveaway, you’ll be prompted to choose one of four options for the type of giveaway. The options are…
Sweepstakes – where a prize is awarded randomly to winners after the giveaway promotion has ended.
Random Instant Win – this option lets you choose the winning odds for your promotion. For example, one in 50 of participants will win a prize. You’ll want to make sure that the chances are good, and this method might take a few tries before you find the odds that work best for your brand.
Lucky Number Instant Win – for this option, you choose a “lucky number”, or multiple lucky numbers (depending on the set number of prizes). Those participating in the giveaway will instantly be notified they won if they choose the lucky number.
First-come, First-served – the last option is pretty clear from its name. This is not the best choice if you are wanting to get lots of exposure with your giveaway, since it will only engage as many participants as there are giveaway items.
Step 4
Next, you’ll be prompted to enter how many prizes you’ll be offering in your giveaway.
Step 5
You’ll then get to choose how participants will enter the giveaway. Amazon gives you plenty of options like requiring entrants to watch a YouTube video, follow your brand on Twitter, tweet a message, or answer a poll.
Step 6
Once you’ve chosen the details for your giveaway, Amazon will ask you how long you want the promotion to run for. To get the most traction and still retain interest, we’d recommend setting it between three to five days.
Step 7
Then, you’ll fill out the details for the giveaway page on Amazon. Here you can enter the title of the giveaway, your brand name, entry and post-entry messages, and also upload images of your giveaway item. Once you’ve submitted this information, you’ll get an email confirmation from Amazon.
Step 8
Once you are finished setting up your giveaway, it’s time to share about it on your brand’s social media, email lists, and other relevant platforms.
Hosting a giveaway on Amazon is an excellent tool to grow awareness & create an interactive experience with your customers, and now you have all the information you need to get started!
