Facebook Giveaway Rules

When you're running a sweepstakes, you need to make sure you're following all of the rules. You don't want your account banned, your reach restricted, or your competition jeopardised by accidentally violating Facebook's guidelines.

Before diving into Facebook's rules, it's important to understand the differences between sweepstakes, giveaways, contests, lotteries, and raffles when running a promotional campaign.

This is super important... You don't want to accidentally run a lottery and land yourself in a whole load of trouble!

To run a successful and compliant giveaway on Facebook, it’s essential to understand the rules around different types of promotions.

In this post we will cover:

• Are Giveaways Allowed on Facebook?
• General Guidelines for Facebook Giveaways
• Entry Requirements
• Running a Giveaway Directly on Facebook
• Running Your Giveaway Using a 3rd Party Platform
• Setting Up Your Facebook Giveaway
• Facebook Giveaway FAQs

Giveaways are allowed on Facebook if you follow the platform specific rules and guidelines.

You also need to know the differences between giveaways, lotteries, and contests, as they have different laws and regulations.

If you don't know the differences, here’s a breakdown:

These are Allowed

Winners are chosen randomly, and entry is free (or offers a free alternative method of entry, known as AMOE).

Examples: Asking users to like, share, or comment for a chance to win.

These are Allowed

Winners are selected based on skill or merit. Entrants complete free tasks such as submitting a photo or writing a caption, and you choose the winner.

Examples: A photo contest with public voting.

These are Not Allowed

Entry requires a purchase or payment, and winners are chosen randomly. These are generally considered gambling and require specific licences to run.

Examples: Selling tickets for a prize draw.

Any time you run a giveaway on Facebook, you have to make sure you're complying with these guidelines:

• The giveaway must not be gated behind a paywall and must be accessible to all users. For example, you can't limit the giveaway to subscribers or fans.

• You cannot facilitate online gambling, such as raffles. Remember, a sweepstakes without a free method of entry is essentially a lottery.

• Facebook will not assist with your giveaway, and you must acknowledge and take responsibility for all risks involved and make it explicitly clear to entrants.

• You must clearly state that you are entirely responsible for the giveaway, including rules, restrictions (e.g., age, residency), and compliance with all relevant laws.

• The promotion must include a release of Facebook by each entrant and an acknowledgment that it is in no way sponsored, endorsed, or administered by Facebook.

• You must provide notice in your terms and conditions or contest rules to obtain explicit consent if collecting participant data or content.

When running a Facebook giveaway, it’s really important to follow the platform’s rules when you're setting up your campaign.

Take a look below at the types of actions you should encourage and the types of actions you shouldn't:

Encourage actions that promote genuine engagement and are simple for participants to complete, such as:

• Commenting on a post: Answering a question or sharing an opinion.
• Reacting to a post: Using likes or other reactions to show engagement.
• Submitting user-generated content: Uploading a photo, video, or story that follows Facebook’s Community Standards and contest rules.
• Liking your page or post: This can be encouraged but not required as a condition for entry.

Avoid these prohibited entry methods, which violate Facebook’s rules:

• Requiring participants to tag themselves or their friends in a post on their timeline unless them or their friends are directly involved in the content (e.g., featured in a photo or video).
• Making entry dependent on paid actions, such as donations or using paid features (e.g., stars).
• Encouraging spam-like behaviour, including, like asking for repeated comments to improve chances of winning, or requiring excessive tagging of people.

If you run a giveaway directly on Facebook using any of the methods listed below manually, make sure you follow these rules and regulations:

• Participants must only tag themselves in photos where they are actually depicted. So you can't ask people to post a photo of your new product if they aren't in it.

• Avoid requiring participants to tag others in photos as a condition of entry (only if they are in the photo or involved in the situation being shared).

• Clearly explain how the photos will be used (e.g., for promotional purposes on your website).

• Obtain consent from participants before using their photos in things like your advertising or promotional material.

• Set clear guidelines for the contest theme or submission criteria.

• Ensure photo submissions comply with Facebook’s Community Standards (e.g., no offensive or inappropriate content).

Encourage genuine interaction with prompts like:

• “Tell us your favourite product and why!”

• “What’s your favourite thing about our brand?”

Do not allow or require:

• Excessive tagging (e.g., “Tag as many friends as possible”).

• Spam-like commenting (e.g., “Comment 50 times to increase your chances”).

• Ensure the contest prompt encourages meaningful and respectful engagement.

• Moderate comments to make sure you comply with Facebook’s Community Standards.

Using third-party platforms like Gleam allows you to host the giveaway outside Facebook on a dedicated hosting landing page (even if you don't have your own website) while promoting it on Facebook.

This gives you more flexibility in designing entry methods and results in a more powerful campaign as you can track the post-campaign analytics, detect fraudulent entries, and drive traffic elsewhere, like to your website or product pages.

• Add Extra Powerful Entry Methods: Use third-party tools to allow entries through actions like email sign-ups, visiting a webpage, or following accounts on other platforms, extending beyond Facebook’s restrictions.
• Ease of Compliance: Simplify giveaway management with tools that handle entry validation, winner selection, and data collection while ensuring everything stays legally compliant.
• Generate Clear Rules Instantly: With third-party tools, you can automatically create terms and conditions, saving time and ensuring your giveaway follows all necessary regulations.

• The promotional post itself must follow Facebook’s rules (e.g., avoid tagging people in the post who aren't depicted).
• Include a clear disclaimer that Facebook is not affiliated with or responsible for the giveaway.
• If you are using a third-party platform that isn't Gleam, double check that it complies with relevant laws, especially regarding data collection and age restrictions.

Once you’ve chosen the type of giveaway you want to run, follow these steps to create clear, compliant rules:

You can either automatically generate the terms and conditions with Gleam, or you can copy and paste the below template and fill it in with your information:

1. Eligibility: Specify who can enter (e.g., "Open to US residents aged 18+").

2. Entry: Explain how to participate (e.g., "Comment your favourite product"). Avoid requiring prohibited actions like tagging irrelevant friends.

3. Duration: State start and end dates with time zones (e.g., "Nov 1–Nov 30, 2024").

4. Winner Selection: Describe how winners will be chosen (e.g., "Randomly via comment picker") and notified (e.g., "Via Facebook message within 7 days").

5. Prize: Briefly describe the prize and any restrictions (e.g., "$50 gift card, non-transferable").

6. Disclaimer: Add, "This giveaway is not affiliated with Facebook."

7. Privacy: Mention how participant data will be used (e.g., "Only for contacting winners").

Feeling overwhelmed after reading all the rules? Don’t worry, it’s not as complicated as it seems!

Using a third-party app makes it much easier. We handle all the terms and conditions for you, and our templates are designed to ensure compliance with the rules.

Of course, you don’t have to use Gleam. Check out the answers below to any questions you might have:

You can track metrics like increase in follower count, website traffic, and sales.

Or, for a more in depth view, use Gleam's post-campaign reporting tab.

In your giveaway post, you just need to clearly state your terms and conditions, how the winner will be picked, how to enter, the prize and when it will be drawn.

You also need to make sure to choose an engaging photo that catches people's eye as they scroll past.

For all of our favourite examples, check out The Ultimate List of Facebook Marketing Ideas: 40+ Ideas for Posts, Giveaways & Businesses.

There’s no foolproof set of rules to tell if a giveaway is legitimate, but here are some tell-tale signs to watch out for:

1. Unverified or Suspicious Page: Legitimate giveaways are usually hosted by verified pages with a blue checkmark, not newly created or obscure accounts.
2. Few or No Followers: Fake pages often have very few followers or likes, which is unusual for a brand giving away high-value prizes.
3. Spammy or Giveaway-Only Posts: Pages that only post giveaways with no other meaningful content (like product updates, customer interaction, etc.) are likely fake.
4. Unrealistic or Irrelevant Prizes: Extravagant prizes (e.g., luxury cars, huge cash sums) offered by small or unrelated pages with no explanation are a major red flag.
5. Unclear or Nonexistent Terms and Conditions: Genuine giveaways always provide clear rules, eligibility requirements, and disclaimers (like Facebook’s non-affiliation).
6. Demand for Personal Information or Payment: Fake giveaways often ask for sensitive details like credit card numbers or payment to claim the prize (something legitimate ones never do).
7. No Brand Connection: If the page doesn’t belong to a real, recognisable brand or the prize has no logical connection to the page, it’s likely fraudulent.
8. Unprofessional Presentation: Look for poor spelling, grammar, or low-quality images, these are often signs of a fake promotion.
9. Suspicious URLs or External Links: Be wary of giveaways directing you to click on external links, especially those with strange URLs or ones that lead to non-official websites.

We have loads of Facebook giveaway templates on our website depending on your goals.

If you want to run a photo contest, encourage people to check-in to your venue, or visit your Facebook page, we have you covered.

When you run any type of giveaway, it's so important that you pick the winner fairly and randomly (unless it is skill based).

You can use random comment pickers, or you can run a campaign with Gleam and we will handle the winner selection process for you. You can learn more about how to use Gleam to select winners randomly.

Running a giveaway is an awesome way to get more followers across all of your social media accounts, not only Facebook!

As you know, there are strict rules about false engagement, so check out The Ultimate Guide To Running A Contest On Facebook that covers everything you need to know about running all different types of giveaways.

There's lots of different methods for running a giveaway on Facebook, and it all depends on your goals. To answer this question, we recommend checking out how to run a Facebook contest.

Promoting a Facebook giveaway is so important. You don't want to get your hands on an awesome and valuable prize for your audience and then nobody even sees it to enter!

You can promote your Faceboook giveaway on your other social media platforms, on your website, and on your mailing list. We also have a more through guide below.

You can learn more about our favourite ways to promote your contest on Facebook.

Now you know everything you need to know about running a legal and compliant giveaway!