How to Pick a Random Winner From Quiz or Form Entries

You ran a giveaway quiz, the entries came in, and now you need to pick a random winner. For most small businesses that means exporting a list, scrolling through rows, removing the people who entered three times and hoping nobody asks how the winner was chosen. Then you still have to email the winner and, ideally, everyone who didn’t win.

This guide shows a simpler way: drawing the winner straight from the leads your quiz or form collected, with duplicates removed, optional conditions, a scheduled draw and automatic emails to the winner and everyone else. It works on Qzzr’s free plan, with no time limit.

The short answer

• Collect an email address with a form in your quiz, so every entry is a lead you can contact.
• Use the built-in raffle. In Qzzr, Publish > Pick a winner (Raffle) draws a random winner from your collected leads.
• Switch on Exclude duplicates so each email address counts only once.
• Schedule the draw for the date your giveaway ends, and set up automated emails for the winner and for everyone else.

Why the spreadsheet method causes trouble

Exporting the entries and picking one by hand works for a small draw. It gets harder as the giveaway grows:

• Duplicates. Some people enter more than once to improve their odds. You have to find and remove them before the draw, or the draw isn’t fair.
• Timing. The giveaway ends on Friday night, but you only get to the spreadsheet on Monday. Entrants wait, and late entries sneak in.
• Silence for everyone else. The winner gets an email. The other entrants usually hear nothing, which is a missed chance to thank them and keep them interested.
• Copies of personal data. Every export is another file with names and email addresses sitting on someone’s laptop.

A raffle inside the tool that collected the entries avoids most of this. The entries never leave the tool, the draw uses the same lead list you already have, and the follow-up emails can go out on their own.

What a good random winner tool should do

Whatever tool you use, check it against these points before you announce the giveaway:

Requirement	Why it matters	How Qzzr handles it
Draws from the real entries	No copy and paste, no chance of picking from an old list.	The raffle draws from the leads your Q collected.
Removes duplicates	One person, one chance.	Optional Exclude duplicates counts each email address once.
Filters entrants	Some giveaways have entry rules.	Add as many conditions as you need; only matching leads are drawn.
Draws on schedule	The winner is picked when the giveaway ends, not when you find time.	Pick a winner automatically by date and time.
Notifies everyone	The winner hears first, the others still get a thank-you.	Automated emails on Raffle finished (Winner) and Raffle finished (Losers).
Keeps entries real	Fake addresses can’t claim a prize.	Double opt-in by email, OTP or SMS OTP.

How to pick a random winner in Qzzr, step by step

Here is the full setup, from the quiz to the winner email. If you already have a quiz with a form, skip to step 2.

1. Add a form to your quiz

The raffle draws from leads, so your quiz, poll or personality quiz needs a form block that asks for an email address. The winner is shown by email, which is also how you’ll reach them. If you want to be sure every address is real, turn on double opt-in. Qzzr supports confirmation by email, OTP or SMS OTP.

New to quizzes as a lead tool? Our guide on capturing leads without the hard sell covers where to place the form and what to ask.

2. Open the raffle and exclude duplicates

Go to Publish and click Pick a winner (Raffle). Switch on Exclude duplicates so that an email address appearing more than once in your leads is only counted once. It’s optional, but for almost every giveaway it’s the fair choice.

3. Add conditions (optional)

If only some entrants should be eligible, click ADD CONDITION and build a rule from the dropdowns, or type a value into the field. Add as many conditions as you need, then click UPDATE CONDITIONS. The draw then only picks from leads that match.

4. Draw now, or schedule the draw

To draw right away, click DRAW WINNER. The winner’s email appears above the button.

To let the giveaway close on its own, use Pick a winner automatically by date. Set the date and time, click CONFIGURE RAFFLE to save, and the winner is drawn automatically at that moment from the leads that match your conditions. Nobody has to log in on a Friday night to pick a random winner.

5. Email the winner and everyone else

Under Publish, go to Email automation. Each automated email has a Send email on event trigger. Next to the default, User has finished Q, there are two raffle events:

• Raffle finished (Winner) goes to the person who was drawn.
• Raffle finished (Losers) goes to everyone who entered but didn’t win.

Both fire right after the winner is drawn, whether you clicked DRAW WINNER yourself or the scheduled draw ran. Combine a scheduled draw with these two emails and the giveaway runs hands-off from start to finish. The emails can be personalized, and automated result emails are included on the free plan too. For ideas on what to say to the people who didn’t win, see how to grow your email list with quizzes.

Giveaway ideas that work well with a quiz

• Product finder plus prize. A personality quiz recommends a product, and everyone who finishes enters the draw for it.
• Event or trade show draw. Show a QR code at your stand. Every published quiz gets its own landing page you can share by link or QR code, so you don’t need a website. If the quiz is only for one event, read our post on a quiz maker for a one-time event.
• Newsletter feedback poll. Ask subscribers a few questions and draw one respondent for a voucher.
• Knowledge quiz for a course or webinar. Use conditions to keep the draw limited to the entrants who meet your rules.

Whatever the format, write down your giveaway rules before you launch: who can enter, the closing date and how the winner is chosen. A scheduled draw makes the last two easy to keep.

The honest limits

• No email, no draw. The raffle picks from leads and shows the winner by email, so your form needs an email field.
• Completions add up. The free plan includes 300 completions in total, not per month. A popular giveaway can use them quickly. When they run out, your content is paused, not deleted. Pro gives you 1,000 completions per month for $9/month, billed monthly, and you can cancel anytime. You can add more completions to your account any time for $5 per extra 1.000 completions/month
• Branding stays. You can add your own logo and footer text, but the Qzzr branding can’t be removed on any plan.

If you need a fully white-labeled giveaway for a large brand, Riddle, the enterprise quiz maker from the team behind Qzzr, lets you remove its branding on all plans.

Send entrants to your email tool

A giveaway is a good way to grow your list, as long as people agreed to hear from you. Qzzr sends leads natively to Mailchimp, ActiveCampaign, AWeber, Brevo and Google Drive, and connects to Zapier, n8n, Make and other tools via webhook. You can also build the giveaway quiz by chatting with Claude or ChatGPT through Qzzr’s MCP connector, then add the raffle under Publish.

FAQ

Ready for your next giveaway? Build the quiz on the free plan, add the raffle, schedule the draw and let the emails do the rest.