You can have the slickest competition site on the internet, but if the prize mix is wrong, it won't sell. Prize selection is part marketing, part maths. Get both right and tickets fly; get it wrong and you're left with unsold inventory and a draw you can't run. Here's how the best operators think about it.
1. Lead with a hero prize people screenshot
Every competition needs one headline prize that stops the scroll — the thing people tag their mates in. For most niches that's cash, a car, a luxury watch, the latest tech, or a dream holiday. It doesn't have to be the most expensive thing; it has to be the most desirable to your specific audience. Match the prize to who you're targeting.
2. Layer instant wins so everyone has a shot
The hero prize sells the dream, but the instant wins sell the volume. A spread of smaller instant prizes — cash, site credit, free entries, smaller goods — means every ticket has a realistic chance to win something now. That's what converts a "maybe later" into a "buy now", and it's what brings people back for another go.
3. Use site credit and free entries to recycle revenue
Some of your most powerful instant prizes cost you almost nothing: site credit and free entries. They feel like a win to the customer and they pull that customer straight back into another purchase. A healthy chunk of your instant-win pool should be these "loopback" prizes — they lift repeat entries without denting margins.
4. Get the odds and inventory right
This is where the maths matters. Across your ticket pool you need to define how many of each prize tier exist and what the win rate is. Too generous and you lose money; too stingy and people stop playing. On WooCommerce, Prize Groups in Giveaway for WooCommerce let you set exactly how many of each prize are available and how they're distributed — plan this before you launch, not after.
5. Make the reveal match the prize energy
A great prize deserves a great reveal. Winning £500 should feel like an event, not a line of text. This is where the experience compounds the prize: when a customer plays a scratch card or spin wheel and it lands on a real win, the prize feels bigger than the same result shown as plain text. A weak reveal makes even a good prize feel cheap.
6. Theme prizes to the season and the audience
Timely prizes sell. Tech around launch dates, experiences in summer, hampers and cash at Christmas. Theme the whole competition — prize, branding, and even the reveal game — to the moment. A football reveal for a sports prize or a festive wheel for a Christmas draw makes the campaign feel intentional.
A simple prize-pool template to start
- 1 hero prize — the dream that sells the headline.
- A handful of mid prizes — cash, tech, vouchers — credible "real" wins.
- Plenty of small instant wins — site credit, free entries, small goods.
- The rest "no win" — tuned so the experience still feels rewarding.
Then test and adjust. Watch your sell-through rate and your repeat-entry rate, and rebalance the pool for the next draw. Prizes are a dial you tune, not a decision you make once.
Strong prizes get the click; a strong reveal turns that win into a reason to come back. Nail both and your competitions don't just sell out — they build a habit.
