Advertising sweepstakes giveaways.

by mimart
3 replies
Hello folks,

I'm pretty much a newbie here, so I hope I'm allowed a little leeway to ask "dumb" questions. I think my question qualifies for this forum. I posted the same question in the "Social Media" forum, but am getting no responses. Here's a little background before I ask it:

I'm a knife seller; at least that's what I aspire to be. But I'm not having much luck getting orders since launching my website. I have cart saver software installed on my site to try and capture the occasional abandoned cart. No luck so far.

I have a Facebook and an Instagram page where I post product images/descriptions everyday. I'm up to about 55 posts so far. I've garnered about 72 page likes on FB and 45 followers on IG.

I'm considering doing a sweepstakes giveaway of a collectible knife on Facebook or Instagram, or both. My ultimate goal is to get more people to my website. My secondary goal is to broaden my Facebook/Instagram audience. Because of the product I sell, I can't use paid advertising on Facebook or Instagram. I also can't use Google Ads because of the types of knives I sell; a situation I've discussed in a previous WF post. I can use Bing Ads and have done a campaign previously for Search to get people to my website. My impressions ranged from 200 to 1000 daily, but no conversions after a 3 week run.

Here's my question: Is it wise to use Bing Ads to drive folks to my website by advertising my product and a social media giveaway in the same ad?
My idea is to use a special landing page for the Bing Ad destination URL where I advertise my products and the social media giveaway. Entry to the Giveaway requires going to the FB or IG page, via a link on the landing page, "LIKING" the page to gain access to the entry form and supplying Name and Email address to enter.

I'm not sure what to do. I want to maximize the value of my ad dollars by combining the website and giveaway ad into one campaign. But I don't want visitors to my site to leave prematurely to enter the giveaway on social media. I'd appreciate some feedback from you folks with much more experience than me.

It was suggested to me in reply to an earlier question for the forum that my business venture would most likely fail. The reason being, I needed to provide extra value to my prospective customers other than just a knife. I don't really understand how a physical product retailer can provide extra value when my product is as basic as a knife?

Anyway, maybe that's a question for another post. I'm open to all suggestions. Thanks in advance for your help.

Mimart
#advertising #giveaways #sweepstakes
  • Profile picture of the author steveIS
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  • Profile picture of the author writeaway
    If I were you, I would try to keep your message simple and clear.

    Try to stick to one issue at a time.

    Trying to mix Instagram promotions with your Bing promotions can lead to a lot of confusion.

    It's much better to actually drive the traffic to a piece of content that would really play up the value of your sweepstakes while at the same time, planting a cookie or retargeting a pixel on the traffic that you get.

    This way, you can then use Facebook's robust retargeting system to get people to go your sweepstakes page.

    I've seen campaigns produce better results pairing high-value content with inner page or retargeting compared to simply just promoting the same page or combining two different campaigns.
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    • Profile picture of the author mimart
      Originally Posted by writeaway View Post

      If I were you, I would try to keep your message simple and clear.

      Try to stick to one issue at a time.

      Trying to mix Instagram promotions with your Bing promotions can lead to a lot of confusion.

      It's much better to actually drive the traffic to a piece of content that would really play up the value of your sweepstakes while at the same time, planting a cookie or retargeting a pixel on the traffic that you get.

      This way, you can then use Facebook's robust retargeting system to get people to go your sweepstakes page.

      I've seen campaigns produce better results pairing high-value content with inner page or retargeting compared to simply just promoting the same page or combining two different campaigns.
      Thanks for your insightful reply. I do have misgivings about combining the Bing Ad campaign messages. My reason being, if I do that, I'm encouraging searchers to leave my website store to go to Facebook. But, still, I want the chance to expand my Facebook following.

      I don't really understand what you mean by "planting a cookie or retargeting a pixel on the traffic that you get". How does Facebook's retargeting system work? When you speak of high-value content, are you referring to text copy or advertising copy? Can you elaborate on what you're suggesting? You're reply has really piqued my interest. Thanks for taking the time.
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  • Profile picture of the author 100PctCoupons
    Hello mimart, Like you I'm also new on WF...I've just launched my firs WSO and I need traffic to it and my website. I'm starting a Giveaway as I believe it is a great way to get exposure and FREE shares. What I'm doing is tying in my product and services as prizes of the Giveaway. I'm going the social media route instead of using a search engine promotion. Here are my suggestions:

    1. Get a twitter account - Better options to connect and form relationships with "like" individuals and companies

    2. Check out Rafflecopter - FREE and great tool for running the giveaway

    3. Social Media/Social Reach

    a. CoPromote.com - Ties into your twitter account. Members share advertisements on various social media accounts for FREE

    4. Headtalker.com - Get the message out with a mass group blast on a specified date (select 25 as your goal) for FREE

    Also, I'm running the Giveaway on my website so it will drive traffic directly to it.
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