More entries come from two places: bringing more people to your competition, and converting more of the people who arrive. Most operators obsess over the first and ignore the second — which is a mistake, because conversion fixes are cheaper and faster. Here are ten tactics that move both numbers.
1. Add real urgency
A visible countdown to the closing date, plus a "tickets remaining" or "% sold" bar, creates genuine urgency and reassures entrants the draw is real. Urgency is the most reliable lever on competition conversion — use it honestly.
2. Sell bundles, not just single tickets
Offer 1 / 5 / 10 / 25-ticket bundles with a gentle per-ticket discount and a "most popular" anchor. This lifts average order value and gives instant-win players more reveals per order. (More in our ticket pricing guide.)
3. Make the reveal worth showing up for
The single most under-used growth tactic in instant win: a great reveal. When entering is fun, people enter again and tell others. Replace the flat result with an interactive scratch, spin or slot and you turn a transaction into an experience worth sharing — which feeds tactics #4 and #5.
4. Turn winners into content
Every win is marketing. Encourage customers to screen-record their reveal, and reshare the best ones. Real reactions to a fun reveal are more persuasive than any ad you could write — and they cost nothing.
5. Add a referral incentive
Give entrants a reason to bring friends — a bonus entry or a small site credit for each referral that buys. Word of mouth is the cheapest acquisition channel a competition site has, and competitions are inherently shareable.
6. Use site credit and free entries as instant prizes
Loop revenue back in. Site credit and free-entry instant wins feel great to the customer and pull them straight into another purchase, lifting both entries and lifetime value.
7. Retarget the people who didn't buy
Most visitors leave without entering. A simple Meta/Google retargeting campaign featuring your best reveal video brings warm traffic back cheaply. Pair it with the closing-date urgency for a strong nudge.
8. Win the mobile experience
The majority of entries happen on a phone. A reveal that lags, a checkout that fights thumbs, or text that's too small will quietly kill conversion. Test the whole flow on a real device and fix the friction — every reveal CompKit ships is touch-first for this reason.
9. Protect the surprise (don't let email spoil it)
If your confirmation email reveals the result before the customer plays, you lose the emotional payoff that drives repeat entries. Hold the email until the reveal is done — here's how and why.
10. Build an email/SMS list and announce every draw
Your past entrants are your warmest audience. Capture emails (and SMS where permitted), and announce each new competition the moment it launches. A healthy list of previous players will often power the first wave of sales on every new draw.
Where to start
If you only do three: add urgency, sell bundles, and upgrade your reveal. They're fast to implement, compound together, and hit both traffic and conversion. Then layer in referrals, retargeting and list-building as you grow.
Entries are a system, not a single trick. Tune the experience and the funnel together, measure after every draw, and keep the levers that move your numbers.
