My Competition Has Finished, What Happens Next?

When your Competition ends, there's a clear sequence to follow: draw your winner, verify them, contact them, fulfil the prize, then tidy up your data and plan what's next. Most of this is your work — Gleam doesn't notify winners or ship prizes for you, but the tools to do each step are in your dashboard.

We recommend completing the winner draw within 7 days of your end date — this matches Gleam's default Terms & Conditions template.

1. Draw your winner

Use Gleam's winner draw tool to pick a random valid entrant. Full instructions are in our drawing winners documentation. Multiple draws, weighted draws, and filtering by entry method are all supported.

2. Verify the winner

Before announcing anything publicly, confirm the winner actually completed the required actions. For email signups and website visits, Gleam verifies these automatically. For follows on X (Twitter), Instagram, TikTok, and Threads — check manually that the winner's social handle followed you on the platform. See What Are Verified Actions in Rewards for the full breakdown. If the winner doesn't pass, redraw and check again.

3. Contact your winner

Gleam doesn't email winners — that's your job. The winner's email and any captured social handles are visible in your dashboard. Reach out directly with prize details, a claim deadline, and anything you need from them (shipping address, etc.). A 7-day grace period is standard. If the winner doesn't respond, re-pick a new winner. UK prize promotion law requires reasonable attempts to contact a winner before re-picking — one email isn't typically considered sufficient.

4. Fulfil the prize

Prize delivery is your responsibility. Many operators ship via Amazon where applicable for reliability. Keep records of receipts, shipment confirmations, and any correspondence — useful if questions come up later.

5. Announce the winner publicly

Once the winner has accepted, post the announcement on social, your campaign page, or to your email list. Tag the winner only with their consent — this should also be covered in your Terms & Conditions.

6. Re-engage non-winners

Winner announcement emails get unusually high open rates because every entrant is checking to see if they won. Use this attention with a 'Better Luck Next Time' offer — a discount code, an early-access invite, or a smaller secondary prize. Many operators see this as the most underrated step in the post-campaign workflow.

7. Measure what worked

Open your reporting tab and review:

• Conversion rate — entrants divided by impressions. Tells you how well the prize matched your audience.
• Cost per action / cost per user — total prize cost (plus marketing and fulfilment) divided by actions or entrants.
• Action breakdown — which entry methods converted best, which dropped off.
• Referrers (Business plan and above) — which sources drove the most valuable traffic.

Ready for the next campaign?

The hardest work in growth marketing is reactivating attention you already earned. Many of Gleam's most successful operators run campaigns on a regular cadence — quarterly giveaways, seasonal Rewards programs, ongoing referral loops.

Replicate what worked. If your last campaign performed well, the easiest way to start your next one is to clone it — refresh the dates, update the prize, tweak the copy based on what your reporting showed, and relaunch. Successful patterns are worth repeating: if it worked once with your audience, it's likely to work again.

For the full promotion playbook to use on your next one, see How to Promote Your Competition After it Goes Live.