How do I draw and notify giveaway winners?

Q: Can I pick a winner from Instagram comments?

Yes, with the free Instagram comment picker . It draws a random winner from any post's comments.

2-5 minutes
All plans

Quick answer

Open your giveaway and click Draw Winners. In the Audience tab, choose an Ongoing or Final draw, the number of winners and the giveaways to include. In the Design tab, style the full-screen announcement. Run a Test Preview, then click Draw Winners. Winners are picked at random, and more entries mean more chances to win.

How it works

The Draw Winners wizard has two tabs: Audience and Design. In the Audience tab you decide who is eligible. In the Design tab you control how the winner announcement looks. Once both are set, you can preview everything risk-free and then run the real draw.

The design side is flexible. You can upload your own logo and background image, pick custom colors, choose from several countdown effects, add confetti and more. We recommend setting up your design ahead of time and saving it as a template, so it's ready to go when the moment comes.

Ongoing vs final draws

There are two ways to draw winners:

Ongoing: the giveaway stays open after the draw, so you can draw again later. Great for weekly or monthly prizes during a longer campaign.
Final: the giveaway closes after the draw. Use this for the last prize at the end of a campaign.

Example: you're running a 4-week giveaway and want to award one small prize each week plus a grand prize at the end. Use Ongoing draws to pick the weekly winners, then switch to Final for the grand prize. Plan the prize drops ahead with the campaign calendar.

After a Final draw, the giveaway is marked as closed and no further draws are possible, unless you disqualify a winner. That turns the Draw Winners button back on.

Step 1: Set up the audience

Open your giveaway and click the Draw Winners button to open the wizard.

In the Audience tab you'll configure:

Draw Type: choose Ongoing or Final (see above).
Number of Winners: how many winners to pick in this draw.
Select Giveaways: choose which giveaways to include. If you run several giveaways, you can combine their audiences into a single draw. Make sure to disable any expired giveaways you don't want included.

Premium and Ultimate: multi-shop draws. On the Premium and Ultimate plans, the giveaway list includes giveaways from all your connected shops: up to 3 on Premium and up to 5 on Ultimate. This lets you merge audiences across several sites into a single draw, which is perfect for co-branded giveaways run with partner shops. Compare Giveaway Ninja plans.

You also have several filters to fine-tune who's eligible:

Include users with unconfirmed emails: turn this on if your giveaway doesn't require email confirmation. Otherwise those users are excluded.
Include users missing mandatory actions: include participants who haven't completed all required entry actions.
Include previous winners: allow users who already won a previous draw to win again.
Minimum referrals: only include users who have referred at least a set number of friends.

At the bottom of the tab, the Audience Size indicator shows exactly how many users are eligible with your current filters. If it shows zero, double-check your filter settings before you continue.

Step 2: Design the winner screen

Switch to the Design tab to customize the full-screen winner announcement that appears when you draw. Everything here updates in the live preview on the right, so you see your changes as you make them.

Branding

Logo: upload your brand logo (recommended width: 400 px).
Background Image: upload an image that fills the whole screen behind the content. Use a high-resolution image for the best result.

Text and labels

Header: the main title shown before the draw.
Description: a short message below the header.
Pick Winners Button: the label on the button that starts the draw.
Winners Header: the title shown after winners are picked.
Winners Names: choose how winner names are displayed (full name, first name only, masked and so on).
Winners List: optionally show winners as 1st, 2nd, 3rd and so on.
Winners Description: a message below the winners list.

Colors

Background Color: the solid color behind the content, visible if no background image is set.
Text Color: the color of all text on the screen.
Button Color: the background color of the "Pick the Winner" button.
Button Text Color: the text color inside the button.

Font

Pick any Google Font to match your brand. Leave it empty to use the default font.

Effects

Add some flair to the big reveal:

Confetti: choose an explosion burst or a gentle fall from the top, or turn it off.
Typewriter: winners' names are typed out one letter at a time for a dramatic reveal.
Countdown Timer: a countdown runs before each winner is announced. You can set the number of seconds, the animation speed and the effect style: Beat, Slot Machine, Glitch, Blur, 3D Flip or Elastic Bounce.

Custom CSS

For advanced users: write your own CSS to fine-tune any element on the winner screen. Click CSS Reference to see every available selector and what it controls.

Step 3: Save your design as a template

Once you're happy with your design, save it as a template with the Save New button at the top of the Design tab. Give it a descriptive name, such as "Holiday Giveaway" or "Weekly Draw - Dark Theme".

Saved templates remember every setting: logo, background image, colors, fonts, effects and text. Next time you draw winners, click Load, pick your template and everything is applied instantly. No need to set it up again.

Tip: create and configure your design templates well before the actual draw. When it's time to pick winners, you just load the template and you're ready.

You can also Update an existing template after making changes, or Reset all settings to the defaults.

Step 4: Preview and test

Before running the real draw, click Test Preview. This opens the full-screen winner announcement in test mode. A "Testing" ribbon in the corner tells you nothing is being saved.

Click the "Pick the Winner" button in the preview to run through the whole experience: countdown, confetti, typewriter effect and winner display. It uses real audience data, so you can confirm everything looks and works the way you want.

Tip: always run a test preview before the actual draw. Double-check your colors, text and effects on the full screen, especially if you plan to record a video of the draw for social media.

Step 5: Draw winners

When you're ready, click Draw Winners to run the real draw. The full-screen announcement appears with all the effects you set up. Winners are picked at random from the eligible audience.

This is a great moment to record your screen and share it on social media. Here's how to turn the draw into a moment.

Step 6: After the draw

Once the draw is complete, you can review the results:

Go to Logs > Notifications to see the draw history and winner details.
Go to the Users tab and filter by "Winners" to see all winners at a glance.
If needed, you can disqualify a winner and run the draw again to pick a replacement. State how you handle unclaimed prizes in your official rules. The free giveaway rules generator covers it.

How do I notify giveaway winners?

Let your winners know by email. You'll find each winner's details in the Users tab (filter by "Winners") or under Logs > Notifications. Tell them what they won and how to claim it, and give a claim deadline that matches your official rules.

Ran a giveaway in Instagram or TikTok comments instead? Pick a winner with the free Instagram comment picker or the free TikTok comment picker.

Done

You can now notify the winners and get ready to launch your next giveaway!