POPSMASH campaigns have high success rates for healthy Instagram audiences, resulting in strong engagement, follower growth, and email opt-in conversion rates above 40%.
But what if you don't have a healthy audience and your engagement is low?
How do you know if you have low Instagram engagement?
The most common way to measure Instagram engagement is the engagement rate, which you can find in the Instagram app.
However, this is not a good indicator of campaign performance with Instagram giveaways. Why? Because likes count as engagement but are a very weak signal.
Comments measure true engagement, but not just any comments. We want authentic comments from followers. Spam comments don't count.
For a successful campaign, you typically want to see at least 2-3 comments on most of your Instagram posts. If you're not reaching this minimum, your campaign results may suffer, resulting in few entries or new email subscribers.
What causes low engagement?
Low engagement comes from a low-quality Instagram following. For example, the Instagram account may not have authentic followers because they were purchased through 3rd party services, gained through follow/unfollow practices or bots, or something similar.
This doesn't always mean your campaign is doomed to fail, but you must do something to ensure your post gets in front of authentic followers, which we cover in the next section.
How can you improve engagement for your campaign?
There are a few things you can do to increase your campaign's engagement, and they generally fall into two categories:
Expose your post to more authentic Instagram users
Ensure those who see your post are more likely to enter
We'll cover each of these below.
Expose your post to more authentic Instagram users
There are two primary ways to expose your Instagram giveaway post to more authentic users:
Boost the post to your target audience
Collab with quality Instagram accounts that overlap with your target audience
Boosting posts is common, and you should boost your Instagram giveaway post (regardless of your engagement) to increase your ROI and improve engagement.
Collaborating with quality Instagram accounts that share your target audience is also a great way to reach new people. You can often offer to cover the cost of the prize to get other accounts onboard. Just ensure the accounts you collab with have a quality audience with decent engagement.
Ensure those who see your post are more likely to enter
Two quick and easy ways to increase entries for your Instagram giveaway campaign are:
Overlay 'GIVEAWAY' on your post image to draw attention
Share Instagram stories throughout the giveaway to spread the word
People scroll through their Instagram feeds fast, so overlaying the text 'GIVEAWAY' or using an obvious giveaway image makes it easier to capture attention and get more entries. See these good examples of Instagram giveaway images if you want some inspiration.
In closing, low engagement impacts the number of entries and subscribers you'll get from your campaign, but there are things you can try to help improve your results.