How to find low-entry competitions
Low-entry competitions. We talk about them all the time, and occasionally we even win them. But they’re rare, and finding them is a tricky task. Here are a few pointers!
What exactly is a low-entry competition?
Who decides what ‘low-entry’ means? There’s no exact figure I’m afraid – it depends on the prize value, the type of competition and the number of prizes! For example, a prize draw to win a car with 500 entries might be considered by many to be ‘low-entry’ due to the large prize value. For a smaller value prize – say, a £30 voucher for a local restaurant on Facebook, most of us would consider 20 or less comments to be ‘low entry’. I won a McDonalds Retweet comp with 500 entries – but I would actually consider this to be low-entry, because there were fifty prizes of a £10 iTunes voucher, so a 1-in-10 chance of a win. Believe it or not it is possible to find the ultimate low-entry comp though – with just one or two participants!
How can I tell if it’s a low-entry competition?
If the entry method is via social media, a blog or a giveaway widget then you have the advantage of seeing how many entries a competition or prize draw has.
- On Twitter, check the number of retweets or likes (hearts). Click the ‘timestamp’ of a competition tweet to see the number of direct replies it has for a rough idea of entry numbers.
- On Twitter or Instagram , click the competition’s unique hashtag to see how many results you get – on Twitter, click LATEST to see all tweets – or PHOTOS to see entries for a photo comp. Be warned – Twitter search is unreliable and you may not see all hashtagged entries on a search!
- On Facebook, check the number of likes, comments or shares for an idea of the competition’s popularity.
- With Rafflecopter and Gleam, the total number of entries usually appears at the top of the widget. Check how many entries you can earn though – in some cases the total entries is ten or twenty times the amount of individual entrants, especially with a daily tweet or bonus entry option!
- On websites or Facebook apps there may be a gallery option, where you can see how many people have taken part.
It’s better to check all this close to the end date of the competition – after all, every competition will appear to be low entry just after it’s launched!
For web and email entry promotions it’s much harder to guess entry numbers – but if you’ve not spotted the comp on MoneySavingExpert or PrizeFinder, it may well be low entry as it will be off the radar of many compers!
How to find low-entry competitions
- ‘Effort’ competitions are generally low-entry – do a Twitter or Google search for terms like ‘win photo’, ‘win recipe’ ‘reply to win’, ‘Pinterest competition’, ‘Instagram competition’ and more. Search the MSE competition board for the word ‘effort’ and check the PrizeFinder’s creative categories. Don’t be put off by photo comps – lots of them are random rather than judged, so everyone is in with a chance!
- Competitions open for a short length of time won’t get many entries. The best place to find these is Twitter. There are many short-lived competitions that last less than a day – sometimes they can even last just ten minutes! Add companies to Twitter lists and check your feed whenever you get a spare moment.
- Get clever with your search terms – on Google search and Twitter search, try looking for combinations of terms like: ‘comment to win’, ‘most creative wins’, ‘reply with your’ – anything that’s not ‘RT to win’ or ‘Share to win’! You can even search Twitter for bloggers or promoters grumbling that their giveaways have ‘not many entries’ or are ‘low entry’!
- Instagram is very hard to search, but that means you may find a few low-entry gems – do a little searching on hashtags like #win, #competition and #giveaway. Check they’re open to UK entrants though!
- Local competitions are low entry – search on Twitter for ‘win’ plus your local town, city or county name – or use the Advanced search to search near a specific location. Join your local Facebook comping group. If you’re stuck somewhere with time to kill, make a list of all the local businesses, shops, restaurants, radio stations, magazines, and newspapers you like – then when you get chance, find them all online, add them to Facebook and Twitter lists and check their social media pages for comps!
- Any promotion where a purchase is required to enter an instant win draw will usually be low entry, especially if promotional packs are scarce! An exception is where a promotion is widely advertised – if the general public know about it, there may be thousands (even millions!) of entries! Keep an ear to the ground, if you hear other compers are finding it hard to track down a certain product then have a good look for it yourself. If you find it, enter your pack code online as soon as you can to try and catch a ‘winning moment’ (read my tips here).
- If it’s a promotion where a receipt is required, that will reduce entry numbers. An expensive qualifying purchase means fewer entries – you may be able to sell the product on or give as a present to a friend. To find ‘purchase necessary’ promotions, again experiment with Google search terms (try ‘purchase win receipt’ or a similar combo) or get yourself a Compers News subscription.
- If you’re a member of a forum such as Compers News Chatterbox or Loquax, look out for U2U (user-to-user) giveaways offered by members – these are super low entry and you can even run one yourself and gain some comping karma!
- Enter to win prizes that don’t have wide appeal – for example horsey, sporty or football prizes are ignored by many compers! If you have a hobby – particularly an unusual one! – look for prizes connected to it.
- If you need to use a mobile app, that will restrict entry numbers as people still haven’t quite got used to apps!
Generally though – finding low entry comps is about using your initiative, not just entering the comps that can easily be found on listings websites or forums! Play around with different search terms, browse for favourite places and who knows what delights you might stumble across? One more tip – be careful who you share your special low-entry comp with (if you decide to share it at all!), because if you do, it might quickly become a high-entry comp!
If you find and enter a low-entry comp, I recommend you bookmark the link to it so you can check back for details of the winner. Some promoters might decide to extend the closing date or not award a prize if there aren’t many entries – neither of which are allowed under the CAP Code!
Have you won a prize in a low-entry competition? How many entries did it have? Leave a comment to let me know!
If you found this post useful, why not grab yourself a copy of my book SuperLucky Secrets, with lots more tips on finding and winning competitions?
I know this is a long shot Di but I was regular finding low entry comps on Facebook, but my search is only showing me 30-40 post which are all America, any ideas if this affecting others or is something up with my account. I’ve tried reporting it but no joy
Laura, do you have a screenshot or can show me the search terms & filters you’re using? I can do the same search and compare the results! Send through to di@superlucky.me
I won tickets to a drive in movie with a local radio stations charity facebook page. There were only two entries and all we had to do was like the page. I also commented and then emailed to ask when the prize draw was taking place as it didnt state it on the post. I’m only 2 months into comping, so this was a lucky find at the right time.
I’m (a) extremely new to this and (b) uber social media adverse…. I notice from the comments that it seems you need a Twitter, Facebook, Pictionary etc. account, especially when it comes to the low-entry and local comps. Do people have ‘any’ success outside this type of comp? I would consider G+ (because I have a Google account anyway) but you hear some real horror stories surrounding privacy, trolling and scams connected these sites….. Any tips?
Steve, Twitter is a good place to start because you don’t need to use your real name or indeed a photo of yourself on your profile (Facebook terms do state you need to use your real name!). Purchase comps don’t usually require social media, and you can still find a lot of good comps on the web via Google searches. I would start by joining Twitter and looking for some local companies to follow, searching for keywords like WIN, COMPETITION and your town/county name!
Many thanks for the pointers Di, you have no idea how relieved I am not to have to join the Facebook generation 🙂
I won £500 on twitter with a como that only had 3 enteries! Had to dress up as a super hero and only had an age 5-6 iron man outfit to squeeze into but i won!
Brilliant story Zoe – would love to see that photo!!!
Really helpful as always Di!
I am havin’ fun reading all these comments 😛 interesting hehehe
I won a Facebook competition run by Currys PC World in August – you had to comment with your idea of a perfect feast to win tickets to the Big Feastival – there were a few sets of tickets and one pair with VIP passes. There were about 60 entries – I love food and drink so I thought I would give it a go. I got a message a couple of days later to say that I had won and to send my details etc. When I replied they told me I’d won the VIP passes…yay! Mr C and I had a great day 🙂 Thanks for all of your tips, Di – I’m going to defo put them into practice!
Only just started comping. Bit bamboozled with all the comp sites. They all have the same comps. Can I enter same comps on all the comp sites or will I be disqualified. Sorry to sound a bit thick but don’t want to miss out on good prizes.
If you want to use competition listings sites, just stick to one site, then you’re unlikely to enter the same comp twice. Have you read through my et Started guide? http://superlucky.me/getting-started/
Is gleam.io a legit site. Its used to do giveaways and I’m not sure about it. I’ve checked some reviews and they say its fine but I’m worried these may have been set up to verify scam sites
Yes, Gleam is great. A very efficient and fair way to conduct a random draw, and the data they collect is stored using SSL – https://gleam.io/privacy
Di i started seriously comping on jan 1st this year and my enthusiasm is seriously flagging. I have yet to win anything
Sorry to hear this Jacqueline! Have you tried the Soup Mugs promotion and the Walkers promotion? I’ve yet to hear of a non winner for those two! Just small prizes but those little wins keep you going. Are you actively looking for local comps on Facebook, Google and Twitter?
I am using comp forums, twitter and facebook but no luck. Tried the soup and didnt win! I hope some of your luck rubs off, your prize list is very inspiring! I will keep on and fingers crossed its my turn soon
Hi Jacqueline, do you use Prizefinder ? Also, Di’s Book is very good. Also, look in local magazines and newspapers for low entry comps. Good luck, and let me know if you win anything ! x
Hi Lucy I use Mse comping forum. I must be entering about 40 comps minimum daily. I will let you know when i win I will shout it from the rooftops lol.
Hi Jacqueline, try Prizefinder – I’ve won quite a lot on there ! yes, let me know x
Thanks I will have a look fingers crossed!
Have you won anything ? x
I have downloaded WAMO and am off to fathom it out. Thank you x
Good luck Judy!
Really informative guess it’s time to buy Di.book.
I don’t have pay pall what other methods of payments are there.
Ellen, you can pay by debit/credit card here at http://superlucky.me/books/ – or if you prefer, via Amazon.co.uk. You can always post a cheque to me too – get in touch via the CONTACT page and I can sort that out!
Great advice thank you
My daughter won a a Name Train from a Big Jigs advent competition. You had to print off a colouring sheet, colour in and then upload. She was the only entrant……
I won an iPad Air from a low entry blog comp – 64 entrants incl myself!
I won a competition with 294 entrants through Facebook. It was part of a 12 page giveaway.
I had a once-in-a-lifetime experience last summer. No one but me seemed to understand the rules of a Columbia Sportswear Promotion and I was able to win the weekly Grand Prize THREE times! I won a pontoon boat and a pair of high quality binoculars, then passed the details on to a neighbor and he won a kayak boat.
Wow!!!
It was Sophie la giraffes birthday a couple month ago and I hadn’t gotten round to buying my little girl one yet so I searched specifically for comps relating to her. I entered quite a few across several platforms but actually managed to win one on a low entry fb page where you had to wish Sophie a happy birthday. I made up a happy birthday rhyme and was 1 of 10 winners with only 30 entries. Been comping on and off for 3 years and never won anything until the last few month and finally had 5 small wins now I’m being more selective. Thanks for all the tips xx
I did a google search a few weeks ago for “win comic books” because I love comics but they can be quite expensive. Found a competition held by a small radio station in America to write a superhero-themed haiku and win a set of comic books worth over £50. I didnt know if it was open to countries outside of the US, but figured I should give it a go anyway and emailed in my entry just an hour or two before the deadline. Turns out there were only five entrants and I was the winner! They were more than happy to ship to the UK and my comics are fantastic!!
If you’re curious my haiku was as follows:
“Cloaked or masked or caped
The costume hides a hero;
Secret’s safe with me.”
Always worth looking for specific prizes, especially if they’re a niche interest like comic books. I’ve also had some success searching for particular brands of cosmetics such as LUSH or Asian brands to find comps that can get lost in the huge pool of beauty giveaways going on each day! Goodreads is also great for quick-to-enter low-entry book giveaways. If you set your search for UK-only, many of the giveaways run by publishers will have around 100 entries, often for 20 copies of a particular book. I’ve won 26 books through Goodreads so far this year (joined in January) and almost all of them have been giveaways like these.
Thanks for the post as always Di! xxx
I won a hooded towel as one of two entrants on Instagram. Finding local competitions on Google is a bit tricky because I live near Reading. So I often end up finding results dealing with books instead of the location.
I won £200 of history books and I was the only entrant. You had to send a photo on twitter to them of yourself stood outside a historic monument and holding up their history magazine. Their magazine was expensive at £7 and not easy to find. I won with them again the following month when there were about 5 entries. This time, you had to hold up the magazine and take a selfie outside Sainburys. For that one, I won a parrot drone.
Hi Di!
I entered a photo comp on my employers own internal version of Twitter/Facebook which had less than 40 entries!
Won an iPad Air 2 so can’t complain! It was very low entry as not many people knew (or still know) about the site – great news for me!
I’ll have to keep an eye on it for more comps… 😉
HI
I can remember winning 2 low entry comps; one was years ago when a (very) local magazine was introduced for our estate; you had to draw a Hallowe’en picture. No great artist but I drew a witch, my brother and sister entered also and we all won our age groups – as we were the only entrants! Giant tubes of smarties won there. Unfortunately the next issue they asked you to submit a photograph; it was years ago, no internet then, we lived in the back of beyond and developing photos – or even having a camera – was beyond our budget. No entries at all; no more magazine. (Boo).
The other time was a few years ago that I just happened to read to the end of the free metro paper on my way home from work on the Friday of the early May Bank holiday weekend and found a comp to win a trip to Glasgow that had to be entered that day, so I entered and won, they told me on the Tuesday. We stayed in Citizen M, the hotel that thinks it’s IKEA.
I won a hotel stay and high tea up Spinnaker Tower in Portsmouth for myself and my daughter. It was a Facebook baking comp where they asked you to make a Spinnaker Tower inspired cake. I only saw one other entry but I think there may have been another two or three. We went all out for this by learning how to do structural sugar work and making a 60cm tall sugar tower! It’s a long time since I’ve made a big fruit cake and I’m not sure I would have planned it that way if I’d known it was going to cost about £40 in ingredients! There was also a P&O baking comp at the same time so we put some cruise ships round it. Didn’t win that one though – too many good entries.
However much I think I know I still learn more from your posts, thank you 🙂 Most of my wins are from low entry, usually local days out. I had a great win on a local FB page in May, an Xbox! Had around 150 entries which as you say is low for a sought after prize. You had to collect which will obviously put some people off. Stashed away as a surprise for the kids for Christmas 🙂
I’ve managed the opposite just recently, I entered a super low entry (only 9 posts) Facebook competition for £50 of Amazon vouchers, I was the first to reply and one of only two correct answers (being a two part question) and the other correct entry had won £25 voucher on the previous post, so I thought I was a shoo-in for the win. I waited the whole weekend for a notification and checked the page as often as I could, Monday morning, a quick scan through only to find I am not the winner, but one of the entrants who only answered the first part of the question had been named the winner! I did send a very polite message asking, “if possible could you let me know how the winner was chosen so I may be more successful in future”, surprisingly I’ve had no reply 😛 Disappointing after mentally spending the voucher too! 😉 Next time, or the one after that….
Boooooo! How disappointing! Incidentally, did you know you can ‘turn on notifications’ at the top right of an individual Facebook post – or you can click ‘Liked’ and ‘get notifications’ for a Facebook page? It can be handy for those comps where you really MUST know immediately if you’ve won!
I’ve won some on Tumblr that were very low entry (between 3 and 20 reblogs). There are probably others, but those are the ones that come to mind. 🙂
Brilliant! I’ve not quite got my head round Tumblr – how does a competition on there work?
You inspired me to do a quick guide to Tumblr comps for today’s blog post (I foolishly set myself the challenge of blogging every day in 2015…) – http://babiafi.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/tumblr-for-compers.html
Hope it helps 🙂
I recently won a Nikon Coolpix camera with Newburn bakehouse by warburtons on Facebook, you had to submit your breakfast ideas using their Sandwich Thins, I added the product to my shopping and got out my Pancake shape makers and made a ‘Star’ egg and on the other sandwich thin my sauce in a heart shape. There was only about ten photos entered in the end and mines was the winner 🙂 My camera arrived today!
I saw that promoted tweet but kept forgetting to look for the product – what a great win, congrats!
I recently won £75 worth of love2shop Vouchers (they actually sent £80). It was on the wish list so I spent time looking for competitions and came across one Just about to end on Facebook – It was a caption competition which I am pretty terrible at to be honest but there was only around 10 entries and they all sounded to alike so I thought outside the box a little and won! I could not believe it had such a low entry for such a great Prize!! I have to admit I have been winning alot more since taking time to look for Competitions and becoming more organised!
This is fab Di – such an interesting read. Since starting a local comping group for Manchester on Facebook with fellow comper Clare, we have both noticed our wins have gone up considerably. Maybe not the most expensive of prices, but we’ve both had plenty of ticket wins which are fab prizes as they aren’t necessarily things you’d want to pay out for but are really local so a handy and enjoyable prize!. I also recently won a table for 4, 2 x bottle of house wine and prosecco on arrival!. As this was a Twitter comp I was unsure of the ‘full prize’ details as they had to shorter it to fit in the character limit! Turned out to be starter, in and dessert for four, plus the wine and prosecco! Worth £165 – crazy!….As always some fab tips in here, will definitely be having a google/twitter search to see what I can find 🙂 E x
Local comps are excellent, as you say if you work in groups then you get many more comps shared! I won my own pizza in Brighton last week – half to eat at the restaurant and half to bring home! 😀
I won a twitter personalised Snuggle Sac competition. There were two prizes and only two entries. One Friday morning I loaded Twitter and it was the first thing I saw. The competition only ran for a hour so I entered and thought nothing of it until about 10 mins to go. I checked again and I was the only entrant. Just before the end another person entered and we both won. Clearly this was good luck as I didn’t search for it – however it just shows that these competitions are out there. It was a great prize and more importantly something that I was considering buying my son for Christmas for sleepovers.
Recently won a comp with barefoot books for a sing a long book. You had to post a video of your child singing a rhyme. We were the only entrants.
Funnily enough, I got an email from Barefoot yesterday asking us to share photos of kids reading with #BarefootSummerReading to win prizes – I could only see one other photo so got Ryland to get his Barefoot Yoga cards out for a photo!
Yeah it’s been running for a couple of weeks now. Only reason ive not entered is cos of winning the video one.