TikTok Giveaway Rules and Guidelines

Running a TikTok giveaway is an awesome way to boost engagement, grow your following, and generate leads.

This guide provides everything you need to know to run a compliant and successful TikTok giveaway, from setting up TikTok Shop to establishing official rules and best practices.

Plus, we have some tips on how to use Gleam to make your giveaway even more stress free.

First things first...

Yes, giveaways are allowed on TikTok, but only if you follow the platform’s Community Guidelines and Promotions Policies. Running a compliant giveaway ensures your account stays in good standing and avoids penalties like:

• Shadow bans, which reduce your content's visibility.
• Account suspension, which could erase the following you’ve worked hard to build.

There are 3 ways to run a giveaway on TikTok, and each has different guidelines:

• Running Your Giveaway Directly On TikTok
• Running Your Giveaway Via TikTok Shop
• Using a 3rd Party App

Before we dive into the rules, let’s quickly outline what entry requirements and actions you can and can’t incentivise. These guidelines apply to TikTok live giveaways, direct TikTok giveaways, and third-party TikTok giveaways.

Following Your Account:

• Encouraging participants to follow is allowed and helps grow your audience.

Engaging with Content:

• Asking for likes, comments, or shares is fine as long as it’s optional or not the sole method of entry.

User-Generated Content:

• Inviting participants to create videos with a specific hashtag boosts visibility, as long as it aligns with TikTok’s Community Guidelines.

Mandatory Purchases:

• Requiring purchases for entry violates rules and laws. You must always offer a free entry method (AMOE).

Inappropriate Content:

• Promoting content that breaches TikTok’s guidelines (e.g., violent, hateful, or explicit material) is prohibited.

Manipulating Engagement:

• Using bots or deceptive methods, such as asking users to create multiple accounts to follow you, is considered false engagement and violates TikTok’s policies.

The first thing that might come to mind when you think about TikTok giveaways are giveaways run directly on TikTok. A common example of this are comment contests where viewers comment on a video for a chance to win.

When you run this type of giveaway you'll need to manually track entries and draw winners all by yourself, which can be pretty time-consuming work. Especially when you consider that you need to ensure you are accurately tracking all entires and randomly picking winners to avoid penalties like account suspension.

You're giveaway must comply with the following criteria:

• Giveaway must be free to enter
• Giveaway prizes have a maximum value of $20 and cannot be cash or gift card
• Giveaway terms and conditions must be explicitly stated within your content and include:
  • The number of winners to be picked.
  • How people have to enter the giveaway.
  • How winners are chosen

TikTok encourages creators to use TikTok Shop for running giveaways because it has a structured Live Giveaways tool.

It also allows for:

• In-app Transactions: No need for external payment methods or organising via DMs.
• Automated Tools: Countdown timers, winner selection, and prize management.
• Interaction: Engage with followers during live streams while promoting your products.

Once your TikTok Shop account is active, the Live Giveaways tool becomes available for live streams.

This tool supports the following formats:

• Join to Win: Viewers enter by joining the live stream and interacting (e.g., sending emojis).
• Comment to Win: Viewers enter by commenting in the live chat during your stream.

Features:

• Countdown timers.
• Automated random winner selection.
• Prize management tools.

When you run a giveaway with the TikTok Shop's Live Giveaways feature you must adhere to the following rules:

• Free Entry: No purchase can be required to participate.
• Prize Value Limit: Maximum prize value of $500 per giveaway.
• Clear Terms: State entry methods, terms, and prize details upfront.
• Restricted Items: No cash, gift cards, or alcohol as prizes.
• Fair Winner Selection: Ensure random and transparent winner selection methods.
• Prize Fulfilment: Sellers must ship prizes on time, following TikTok’s Service Level Agreement (SLA).

Running a TikTok giveaway manually or through TikTok Shop can be time-consuming and really tricky to make sure you're doing the right thing.

You need to be super thorough with checking you aren't breaking any rules or regulations that could land you in trouble. To simplify the process, many creators turn to third-party platforms like Gleam.

This type of giveaway is hosted on a third-party platform, but you promote it through TikTok. Basically, you announce and promote your giveaway in your TikTok videos, and encourage viewers to follow a link to an external giveaway page. This can be on your own website, or you can use a free landing page that Gleam automatically creates for you.

People can then earn entries by completing various actions like following you on TikTok, joining your email list, referring friends and so much more. Gleam takes care of tasks like selecting random winners, tracking entries and filtering out fraud. Take a look at this easy template to see what your TikTok giveaway could look like:

When you run a giveaway using a 3rd party app, you have to ensure you're complying with the following criteria:

• Giveaway must be free to enter
• Giveaway prizes have a maximum value of $20 and cannot be cash or gift card
• You must comply with TikTok’s policies and the rules of the third-party platform
• Giveaway terms and conditions must be explicitly stated within your content and include:
  • The number of winners to be picked.
  • How people have to enter the giveaway.
  • How winners are chosen

With all of this information in mind you should be ready to go out there and run powerful promotional giveaways that help build engagement on TikTok and help you reach all your marketing goals.