GroSocial will announce a new option for its Customizer Facebook tab-creation suite today, incorporating the ability to create custom photo and video contests.

Features of the photo- and video-contest option for Customizer will include:

• Requiring Facebook users to like the page before voting
• A simple, intuitive dashboard interface for marketers to create their own contests
• Several options for colors, layouts, and other design components
• Pre-loaded instructions
• The ability for page managers to add official contest rules
• A live countdown showing users how much time is left to enter the contest
• The entire process is kept within the Facebook environment, rather than sending users to external websites

The company’s premium-level subscribers can add the option for $19.95 per month, much cheaper than these types of contests usually cost to develop. GroSocial Chief Executive Officer Zach Mangum explained why the marketing company was able to keep the price point down:

We’ve done so many of these. We’re run 20-plus photo contests in the past 6-12 months that were custom-made for people. We kind of figured out how to do them and make them work really well, figured out how to customize it into a tab, and baked it into Customizer.

The cost lies on the hosting side, which is generally a pretty negligible cost for us. We are going for more of a volume play with something that is just as good as competing products. Small and midsized companies working on budgets can do the same type of work that larger companies can do.

Mangum also pointed out a way that the contest features for Customizer can benefit agencies: They can use the tools to create contests for their clients, and then bill them at market rates, creating a “super-high-margin opportunity” for themselves.

On GroSocial in general, Mangum said the company’s user base more than doubled in the fourth quarter compared with the third quarter, rising by 144 percent, and the number of Facebook tab widgets it offers now totals 29. The company also offers widgets that are compatible with Google Plus and Pinterest.

With more and more marketers realizing that simply having a presence on Facebook isn’t enough, and that they need to give users a reason to keep coming back, contests have become a popular option.

Readers: Do contests entice you to engage with Facebook pages?