Is it worth running sweepstakes on Facebook in 2024?

Sweepstakes are a vertical of free gift giveaways. The tool is older than the Internet itself. In many cases, just an email address, age, and region of residence are enough. Participation in the lottery requires minimal effort from the user, so the vertical is considered easy for beginners to master. Today we’ll talk about sweepstakes, their types, sources, which offers are more profitable, how sweeps are arranged, and why they are becoming less popular.

Types of sweepstakes:

• SOI (single opt-in) — here it’s easy to get a conversion, the lead just needs to fill out a small form with their details and the conversion will be counted. Examples of such offers include a giveaway of a box of Milka chocolates or a giveaway of a refrigerator with an energy drink, and so on.
• DOI (double opt-in) — here you also need to fill out a small form, indicate your email address at the end, and confirm registration by email (click on the email that will be sent).
• PIN Submit — to participate in the giveaway, you need to provide your phone number and subscribe to services using SMS confirmation.
• CC (Credit Card) Submit — to participate in the giveaway, you need to provide credit card details, subscribe to a free trial, and when the trial ends, a certain amount of money starts to be automatically debited from the card.

Examples of the questionnaire form

Examples of the questionnaire form

What is the purpose of Sweepstakes for advertisers?

Sweepstakes in advertising help promotion organizers (advertisers) to acquire a user base for further actions. Typically, in promotions using sweepstakes, there is a small questionnaire where users provide information about themselves: age, gender, address, habits, and sometimes even information about internet service providers.

Advertisers not only collect a database of email addresses of potential customers but also gather information that may be useful to them in the future. For example, in Europe, there are many providers of household utility services. It’s important for them to know who is currently serving the customer with electricity and whether the customer is satisfied with the quality of services.

Sweepstakes help large companies obtain data and use it for sending advertising offers or developing marketing strategies. Some advertisers may also earn money by selling data that has already been used.

Traffic sources for sweepstakes: Facebook

Lead generation through Facebook is a common method of affiliate marketing, especially for SOI/DOI sweepstakes offers. Unlike CC Submit, social media moderation regarding offers with payment for registration is usually more lenient, although accounts may sometimes be blocked due to such advertising.

• Pop-up — these are banners that appear on the website, which, according to research, have relatively easy moderation. It's difficult to target the right audience, and a conversion rate is around 4%.
• Native advertising — this is organic advertising integrated into the website, for example, a giveaway of an Android device on a site with Samsung product reviews.
• Teaser advertising — usually used in Tier 3 countries, it’s becoming less relevant for advertising.
• Email newsletters — a way to warm up and use an old customer base, but the conversion rate here is usually low. The downsides also include the difficulty of finding a good email list and a complex method of sending SMS to avoid being flagged as spam.

What is more profitable: CC Submit or SOI/DOI?

When working with CC Submit offers, you can achieve higher results because of higher payouts, but you need a specific audience and GEO. Developed countries in Europe and America are more suitable for such offers. HOWEVER, SOI/DOI offers can also be effective, for example, when driving traffic to poorer countries, or if you are driving traffic from push notifications/email newsletters, where people have less trust in the website.

What to show on the creatives?

Below are examples of creatives for a giveaway, as you may have guessed, for a PS5.

In general, there are over 100500 sweepstakes offers, there are default ones like chocolate giveaways or refrigerators with energy drinks, and so on, and there are custom offers where earnings are much higher. Regarding creatives, as always, you need to show human emotions on the creatives to encourage the future lead to convert.

Conclusion

I'll write down my thoughts, someone may disagree with them. There aren't many teams that run sweepstakes because payouts for regular offers where you don't have to enter a card are minimal, around 50 cents and up to a couple of bucks, maximum $2. And running offers where people have to enter their card details — many don't want to because it's likely to be expensive European GEO and the lead price can reach $10-13 + on top of that, people are more cautious about offers where they have to enter their card details.

Above, I wrote about custom offers, and they still exist because giveaways like Milka/Coca-Cola/PS5/iPhone and so on have become tedious for the audience. Custom offers are purely your imagination, what you come up with. Before New Year's, someone comes up with a giveaway of a Christmas tree or a New Year's home product, and people click on such things with great enthusiasm rather than on worn-out old offers. In the end, it really depends on what you come up with.

Creating landing pages is very easy even for beginners. You just need to find any affiliate program that accepts sweepstakes or find a sweepstakes landing page online, and with the Sublime Text program, you can easily replace the images with ones you prefer, change the text with reviews and product descriptions, and even modify the moment when the customer clicks on the prize boxes on the landing page and their coveted iPhone or Christmas tree pops up.

There are very few affiliate programs that accept sweepstakes, and some have stopped accepting them because it's simply not profitable for webmasters, often due to the low payouts offered by affiliate networks. Sometimes, the cost per click for webmasters is equal to or even higher than their payout, and a click doesn't guarantee a lead... Of course, there are occasional successful moments where one can make a profit, but they are becoming increasingly rare. In my opinion, it's better to drive traffic to sweepstakes using popunder, where the ads pop up while you're on a website. While it's difficult to target the right audience, the advertising costs are low, and you can choose the cost per click that you're willing to pay.

Most of the guys I've met who run sweepstakes are usually those who don't work with affiliate networks. They find advertisers or clients who need a specific audience, for example, women/girls from Germany aged 20 to 50. They set up ads on platforms like Facebook targeting these criteria and choose a suitable offer (spoiler: women in Germany really like various kitchenware), so they can create a giveaway of pans, pots, and so on. When you find such advertisers or clients who need a specific audience, they are willing to pay around 50-80 cents per lead, up to $4-5. Of course, the payout in sweepstakes also depends directly on how much information the person provides, such as phone number, email, whether they have pets, children, and so on. Such advertisers then resell the databases with information to various companies, including those producing products for children or dogs, thus building a customer base.

So, to sum it up briefly — if you're a beginner, you can give sweepstakes a try just for fun, maybe something will click. However, it's better to look for advertisers who are willing to pay more or to promote offers with $15-20 payouts for CC Submit.