What is the Best Duration to Run a Competition?

Run it for as long as you can keep promoting it. Entries come when people hear about it, so a giveaway nobody's reminded about goes quiet. For most sweepstakes we'd start at one to two weeks.

Three things should set your length:

• Effort to enter. A sweepstakes takes seconds. A photo, video or essay contest needs longer, so people can make something good
• Your audience. A big list or following fills a short giveaway fast. Starting small, you'll need longer, but only if you can keep posting about it
• Your promotion plan. Count the posts and emails you can schedule: launch, prize posts through the middle, then reminders a week, three days and a day before it ends. When you run out, end the giveaway

Reminders are also the place to fix common slips, like entrants missing a step:

Running longer than a few weeks? Draw daily or weekly winners from the Winners tab and announce each one, so people have a reason to come back. New prizes or new ways to enter mid-way give you something fresh to post, like this:

Set the dates with Starts and Ends on the Setup tab. Then note each campaign's length and results, so the next one's based on your own numbers.