A Guide to Measuring the Success of Your Sweepstakes

Some of the most common goals for sweepstakes are:

1. To generate revenue.
2. To build your database.
3. To grow your social following.
4. To reach a wide audience.
5. To collect leads for your advertiser.
6. To boost your pageviews.

If these are the objectives you hope to achieve, start by asking yourself:

1. How much revenue would you like to bring in?
2. How many opt-ins do you hope to receive?
3. How many new Facebook Likes are you looking to grow?
4. How many entries would you like to receive?
5. How many leads do you want to be able to deliver to your advertiser?
6. What is your target number of pageviews?

When you are coming up with the numbers, here are a few things to keep in mind:

• Value. How much is an email address worth to you? How valuable is an individual Facebook Like? Assign a dollar amount to each.
• Mass Appeal. Consider how much mass appeal your prize has. Is it a really targeted giveaway designed to yield quality leads, or is the goal to reach as many people as possible? Also, how valuable is your prize? A more valuable prize will yield a higher number of entries.
• Promotion. Consider how much promotion you will putting into the sweepstakes and how many people will be exposed to that advertising. Put a value on that level of promotion.
• Current Database. Consider how many email addresses and Facebook Likes you and your advertiser already have at the start of the promotion. Since email is the #1 driver of digital conversations, a larger database will result in a larger number of entrants.

Above all, remember that the goals you set are subjective and should be more guidelines for what you hope to achieve rather than firm requirements for success. The most important thing is that you and your advertiser are happy with the results.