Guide
How to run a Discord giveaway: prize, timing and handover
A giveaway is started quickly and fizzles out just as quickly. Whether it helps your server depends on three decisions made before the command: which prize suits you, when the draw lands and how the winner actually receives it.
No Administrator permission required. Set it up in the web dashboard.
Why this goes wrong
The appeal of a giveaway is that the numbers rise immediately. That is exactly where most of them fail. A prize everybody wants attracts people who are only looking for the button: they join, click, stay silent and are gone two days later. What remains is a member count that looks bigger than it is, and a channel where nobody talks. The second kind of damage is quieter. If nowhere states how the draw works, how long the winner has and who is paying for the whole thing, every result sounds arranged, especially when the winner is a familiar name. You cannot talk that suspicion away afterwards. And third: a prize that was too big the first time sets the bar for everything that follows. The next giveaway then feels like a step backwards, even though it costs you the same as before.
What to decide first
Decide first who you actually want to reach, and choose the prize to match. Something that only has value inside your topic (a seat in a round, a rank for a while, a key for exactly your game) filters by itself: anyone who has no use for it does not enter, and that is the point. Then the time of day. It is not the start that counts but the end, because that is when attention peaks. Put it on an evening when your voice channel is busy anyway and calculate the runtime backwards from there. If your members sit in several time zones, the earlier evening wins: it is not night yet in the east and already after work in the west. Finally, write down beforehand how long a winner has to come forward and who hands the prize over. Two sentences in the announcement save you the entire argument afterwards.
Step by step
- Set the goal first (more joins, more talking, or a thank-you to the regulars) and pick the prize from there.
- Fix the end time first and work backwards to see how long the giveaway needs to run.
- Announce a day ahead what is being given away, when it is drawn and by when the winner has to come forward.
- Check who can even see the post. The channel decides who takes part, because the bot asks for no conditions.
- After the draw, message the winner, confirm the handover in the same channel, and only then think about drawing again.
The mistakes almost everyone makes
The most common mistake is timing: the start and the announcement fall together. Anyone who was not online that evening only hears about the giveaway once it is over. The second: an ending in the middle of the night, because somebody typed “1w” in the afternoon without doing the arithmetic. The third: mentioning every member on every single run. After the third time people mute the channel, and from then on your important announcements do not arrive either. The fourth concerns second accounts. The bot checks nothing of the sort, and a disqualification cannot be justified afterwards if nowhere said beforehand that one account per person applies. Write the rule before the start, not after it. And the fifth: prizes that require a minimum age, or cash. On a server with young members that brings you trouble no giveaway is worth.
Frequently asked questions
Long enough for two evenings to fall inside it, short enough that it is not forgotten; for most servers that is two to three days. A week only pays off if you genuinely remind people in between. Under a day you reach only those who happen to be online anyway.
You cannot prevent them, but you can make them harder. Put the post in a channel that is only reachable after verification or after a while on the server, so a freshly created account never gets to the button in the first place. And before you hand anything over, look at how old the winner’s account is; that costs ten seconds and settles most cases.
The prize precisely enough that nobody has to ask, and the deadline right behind it, for example “rank for 30 days, claim within 48 hours”. You have 256 characters for that text, which is enough for both. Everything else belongs in the announcement, not in the line.
Wait out the deadline you announced, and message the person once visibly in the channel during that time. If it runs out, say briefly in the same channel that you are drawing again before you do it, otherwise the second name appears out of nowhere. By the way, the same person can be drawn again, so plan for having to repeat the step.
How long should a giveaway run?
Long enough for two evenings to fall inside it, short enough that it is not forgotten; for most servers that is two to three days. A week only pays off if you genuinely remind people in between. Under a day you reach only those who happen to be online anyway.
How do I deal with second accounts?
You cannot prevent them, but you can make them harder. Put the post in a channel that is only reachable after verification or after a while on the server, so a freshly created account never gets to the button in the first place. And before you hand anything over, look at how old the winner’s account is; that costs ten seconds and settles most cases.
What do I write in the prize line?
The prize precisely enough that nobody has to ask, and the deadline right behind it, for example “rank for 30 days, claim within 48 hours”. You have 256 characters for that text, which is enough for both. Everything else belongs in the announcement, not in the line.
The winner does not come forward. What now?
Wait out the deadline you announced, and message the person once visibly in the channel during that time. If it runs out, say briefly in the same channel that you are drawing again before you do it, otherwise the second name appears out of nowhere. By the way, the same person can be drawn again, so plan for having to repeat the step.