How Do Amazon Giveaways Work? (and How to Get It Right)

In this post, I answer the question: how do Amazon giveaways work. I will explain everything I know about the process and how you can use it to your advantage.

Giveaways are a fun way to get shoppers to interact with your brand whilst driving additional traffic & sales to your product listings.

If you have an Amazon store, you have the option to create a giveaway as part of your overall marketing strategy.

How Do Amazon Giveaways Work?

In this article, we will be talking specifically about Amazon Giveaways within Seller Central since this is a promotion they offer. However, many new sellers don’t realize that some sellers use this phrase differently.

When some talk about Amazon giveaways, they are talking about off Amazon promotions, the process of giving away products with heavy or full discounts to generate sales and rank your units at the top of the Amazon search engine.

A lot of sellers used to use services like Jumpsend; when Amazon changed their TOS, a lot of sellers got scared of doing things like this.

Within this article, we’ll stick to the Amazon promotion side of things; if you’d like me to write another article on the other side of things, just let me know in the comments.

Let’s get to it.

Amazon giveaways are designed to help sellers increase product awareness and sales, and they’re straightforward to set up.

Here is how they work:

• Running an Amazon giveaway requires you to purchase your own product at full price, which will serve as your prize.
• You can decide whether you want to give away one prize or several; it depends on the type of product you’re selling and how the cost of the prize/s would affect your budget.
• You will also need to decide how many entries you want to accept before closing off the giveaway.
• For entrants who don’t win a prize, there’s the option of offering them an exclusive discount that they can use to purchase your product.
• Amazon takes care of most of the logistics of the giveaway for you and, depending on the type of giveaway, will select the winners for you.

Source: CNET

Can Amazon Giveaways Increase Sales?

Amazon giveaways do have the potential to increase sales, but sellers need to be proactive.

Two elements matter when it comes to making an Amazon giveaway work for both you and potential customers.

1. Get them to take action. A giveaway aims to educate customers on your product and encourage them to make a purchase. Instead of just running a straightforward giveaway that involves completing a form, ask potential customers to take action. This could be watching a video or joining your social media following in exchange for a discount.
2. Offer an attractive discount. The prize should be just one reason to enter your giveaway. Non-winners should also receive a discount that they can use to purchase your product at a reduced rate. It’s essential to make this a decent discount too – at least 20% or more. Naturally, you will need to consider your profit margin but aim to offer as big a discount as your budget will allow.

Once you have the specifics set up, you need to promote your giveaway. Create some hype around it in the days leading up to the launch. This keeps your brand top of mind and ensures you receive more entries. It also helps add a sense of urgency to your giveaway, particularly towards the end date.

Some of the best ways to promote your Amazon giveaway include email, social media, and influencer marketing. Plus, once you have an email database, you can use it for future promotions too.

How to Create an Amazon Giveaway

If you are ready to create your Amazon giveaway, here are the steps you would follow:

1. log in to Seller Central and click on Advertising > Promotions > Giveaway.

2. Once you click on Create, you will be asked to select a product to giveaway. You may need to wait several minutes for this page to populate, especially if this is your first giveaway.

3. You can now choose between 4 different types of contests, including sweepstakes, random instant win, lucky number instant win, and first-come, first-served. The random instant win is generally the best option. This means you get to select the chances of winning a prize, and Amazon randomly selects the winners.

4. Next, you need to select the giveaway requirements. What do entrants need to do to stand a chance of winning? If you require people to watch a video, make sure you’ve developed a high-quality product video. It’s important to make this engagement work for your brand.

5. Now for that all-important discount. I highly recommend you create a discount under the Promotions tab in Seller Central if you want your giveaway to be effective.

6. The final step involves purchasing your prizes at full price. The good news is that this money will be credited back to you minus any Amazon fees.

Bottom Line

Currently, I believe the Amazon giveaway feature is only available for Sellers in the US Amazon marketplaces.

You came here with the question, How do Amazon Giveaways Work? Hopefully, I’ve answered this and given you some useful, additional information.

Are Amazon Giveaways worth it? I would say Yes! provided they are implemented correctly; Amazon giveaways have a lot of potential.

You can use them to generate awareness of new products and to revive stale products. Since there is a cost involved in purchasing the prizes, it helps to calculate the potential ROI before you pursue this marketing tactic.

If you have any further questions regarding giveaways, leave me a comment below.