YouTube giveaways 2024
YouTube giveaways are a great way to boost the growth of your channel, drive traffic to your websites and increase your subscriber numbers on the platform.
For giveaway fans, YouTube giveaways are a great way to win free stuff from brands you love.
This guide will outline how you can run a successful YouTube giveaway or successfully win more giveaways on YouTube!
Whether you’re a beginner on YouTube or searching for new ways to get the most out of the platform, keep reading for everything you need to know about YouTube giveaways in April 2024!
YouTube giveaway types
Here’s the outline of our YouTube giveaway guide, which will serve two groups. We will help those who want to run giveaways and participants who wish to enter them!
If you just started a new YouTube channel and didn’t know how to do a YouTube giveaway or if you don’t know how to enter any, this guide is for you!
1. Giveaway organizers: The first portion of the guide is for influencers, businesses, and giveaway organizers who want to run giveaways on YouTube. We will help you use the platform to host impressive giveaways and make them a success!
2. Giveaway entrants: The second portion of the guide is for participants who want to enter giveaways on YouTube and maximize their chances of winning a prize! We will examine optimal ways to use the platform to find giveaways.
Run giveaways on YouTube
There are numerous ways to engage your YouTube subscribers and attract new ones. One way to engage people is to add YouTube (YT, for short) contests (AKA giveaways) to your business marketing strategy.
If your YT channel is growing slower than you hoped it would, then a giveaway could be the boost you need! This guide will examine creative ideas and methods to run an effective YT giveaway.
This aim is not only to increase your engagement rates on YouTube but also to increase your subscriber numbers.
To begin, we will cover what you need to do before starting your first YouTube giveaway. We’ll then share tips for making your giveaway as successful as possible.
What are YouTube giveaways?
Various businesses hold YouTube giveaways to encourage user engagement and give something back to their audience.
Successful YouTube channels regularly host giveaways for their subscribers and draw in new ones.
The reason for running these giveaways is clear – YouTube channel giveaways can help to build views, followers, and subscribers on the platform. Not to mention, they can help to drive traffic to your other sites. Whether you’re an influencer, online shop, or blogger, there is potential to grow your business.
So, how exactly do they work? A YouTube giveaway is a type of contest to win something in exchange for an action. For example, watching a video, subscribing, and leaving a comment to enter the giveaway.
Summary of YouTube giveaways
- A YouTube giveaway is a contest hosted on YouTube.
- YouTubers give away a prize to their subscribers who win YouTube giveaways.
- Any type of channel can host giveaways to help promote and grow the channel.
- A YouTube giveaway is a contest that people enter by completing specific action steps.
- YouTube giveaways help to increase subscriber numbers and video view count.
- YouTube giveaways are an excellent way for businesses to promote their products or services.
Now, let’s talk about the rules behind YouTube giveaways.
Are giveaways allowed on YouTube?
In short, giveaways are allowed on YouTube, but you must follow their guidelines.
To run a YT giveaway, you must abide by their privacy policy, community guidelines, and terms of service.
YouTube has strict policies around contests and giveaways on the platform. In summary, here is what you need to know.
- Your YouTube giveaway must be open to the public and free to enter.
- You must provide the entrants with clear rules and ensure that the rules align with the platform’s policies.
- You must confirm your giveaway meets local laws and does not involve criminal activity.
- Your giveaway should not infringe upon or encourage the copyright of third-party users.
For the complete policy list, visit YouTube’s context policies and guidelines.
How does a YouTube giveaway work?
If you want to do a giveaway on YouTube, you need to know how they work. But running a YouTube giveaway is no small feat, and it’s difficult to start when you’re still learning the ropes.
We know YouTube giveaways can dramatically drive sales, leads, and engagement, so we will show you how to do a giveaway on YouTube in the easiest way to get started.
When getting to know how Youtube giveaways work, it’s important to note there are different types to understand. Here are 3 YouTube contest ideas and examples.
1. Standard giveaway
Giveaways are easy to organize and great for engaging your subscribers. You should aim to attract your target audience with an irresistible contest prize.
You can run two types of giveaways: ‘winner takes all’ and ‘random draw.’ With both types, you draw winners from your list of subscribers.
Here is an example of a random draw giveaway on YouTube by Unspeakable.
He says, “Today we have a bunch of really expensive items like an iPhone, a TV, a lawnmower, a car, and we’re gonna spin this magical wheel, and it’s going to decide whether we’re going to keep that item destroy that item or give it away to somebody.”
To enter, participants have to comment to enter the random draw.
2. Comment to win
Another way to engage your subscribers in a giveaway is to ask for comments on a specific video. You can ask them to “comment below” your video to enter the giveaway.
Bonus tip: You can drive comments by sharing the video on your other social media channels. To do this, include a clear call to action in the description of your YouTube video to make it easy for entrants to know what they need to do.
Most importantly, discuss the giveaway in your video. That way, there are many clear instructions for the entrants to follow, and they won’t miss them.
Then, when the time comes, draw winners from the comments and announce them in a follow-up video or on your other social media.
Here is an example of a “comment to win” giveaway on YouTube by DieselpunkRo.
He says, “Hi, everyone, my name is Tony, and today I’ll tell you how you can get this beautiful bag for free. I’m gonna give this out as soon as we hit 60,000 subscribers on YouTube. I’m gonna run through the comments you have to leave below, pick the best one, and send you the bag just like that. You can say anything you want, and the best comment wins…”
To enter, participants have to comment and subscribe.
3. Talent contest
Another popular giveaway entry method involves skill or talent! You can ask your fans to submit videos to enter the giveaway. The content of the video could be anything related to your business. For example, suppose you’re an artist. You could ask your audience to share a video compilation of their favorite artwork of yours or of them creating artwork.
Bonus tip: Create an official hashtag for the giveaway so you can track submissions and ask participants to use it. You can then post the fan-submitted videos to your YouTube channel.
Here is an example of a talent contest giveaway on YouTube by Ice Poseidon.
He says, “Greetings this Saturday at 3:00 p.m. at the address in the description or on the video. Right here, we are going to be doing a viewer talent show, it’s gonna be scary. There’s gonna be a lot of stage fright, there’s gonna be three hardcore judges that are gonna judge your every
move, and if you come out on top in front of the other contestants, you will win a brand new iPhone eight just came out…”
To enter, participants have to create a video entry (user-generated content).
Now, let’s evaluate some of the benefits of hosting your own giveaway on YouTube!
The benefits of YouTube giveaways
Giveaways extend beyond a quick method to get new subscribers – they can help to increase your loyal fans. If you’re just starting out, YouTube giveaways can help you to build brand awareness.
Whatever stage of experience your business is in, to summarize – your giveaways can serve the following benefits.
- Get more subscribers and views. Suppose you ask people to subscribe to your channel and watch a video to enter the giveaway. You will gain views and subscribers throughout your giveaway.
- Brand awareness. You will reach new audiences. You could ask subscribers to share the giveaway with their friends to win the giveaway prize.
- Fan loyalty. You can gain more loyal fans even after the giveaway has ended, especially if they have a good experience.
- User engagement. Naturally, people will engage with your other videos on YouTube if they enter your giveaway.
Following these benefits, we’ve compiled a list of more Youtube giveaway tips in the next section!
Host a YouTube giveaway 2024 in 7 steps
Here are 7 steps to get your YouTube giveaway off the ground and tips to make it a success!
1. Set SMART goals
Step number one involves setting goals and making them “smart.” You want to be clear and specific during this step about what you want your YouTube giveaway to achieve.
Ensure you set a start and end date, then identify your desired outcome before the beginning of the giveaway. You should consider the purpose of running it.
SMART goals are
S – specific
M – measurable
A – achievable
R – relevant
T – time-bound
Using the smart system – if you want to increase your following – add to that by aiming to grow your following by X amount.
Whatever number of followers you choose, make it SMART. Consider each of the points of the smart system and how that could apply to your giveaway goals.
2. Choose a great prize
Make your prize worth competing for. It should check the following boxes:
- An appealing prize aimed at your target audience
- A new product or service you are offering to build interest
- Something affordable for you to give away for free
- A prize that can be delivered digitally is a good idea if you offer gift cards or discounts (this saves on shipping costs)
- If you offer a physical prize, make sure it isn’t too difficult to deliver.
Bonus tip: Choose a valuable prize that your winner will love to use. Practical prizes are often irresistible.
3. Design your giveaway
For this step of the process, you need to pick a giveaway type and design it to life! There are many ways to host a video giveaway, as we touched upon earlier.
Depending on your marketing goals, pick a giveaway type that works best for your business. In summary, the most common giveaway types are.
- Standard giveaways
- Comment to win
- Talent contest
- Collaboration videos
- User-generated videos
- Polls and surveys
Pro tip: Comment to win giveaways are a little tricky to manage on YouTube because you have to manually find the comments that qualify. You also have to ensure that the comments comply with YouTube’s guidelines, and you will also have to sift through any spam and fake entries.
We recommend using a top-tier WordPress giveaway plugin such as RafflePress to host your giveaway to ease this process.
4. Follow the rules
As noted earlier, YouTube has strict rules about what types of giveaways you can create and the prizes you can offer.
So before you create a giveaway on YouTube, check out YouTube’s contest policies and guidelines.
In summary, you must adhere to the following main rules:
- You must commit to and abide by all of YouTube’s guidelines.
- Don’t infringe upon or encourage users’ copyright or third-party rights.
- Your giveaway must be free to enter, and you must check your local area lottery laws.
- Do not state your giveaway is affiliated with or endorsed by YouTube if it’s not.
- The entrant’s video entry does not belong to you, and you can’t ask for the rights to the video.
- You and any third party may not manipulate metrics on YouTube to misrepresent genuine viewer engagement with the YouTube service.
5. Entice people to enter
The next crucial step is to make a video about your giveaway and share that on YouTube! You want to spread the word once you have created your giveaway.
Be sure to post the link on all your social media platforms, and email it to your subscription email list if you have one. This step will help you target those who might have missed the announcement on your channel.
With this step, you should also include the details on how they can enter your giveaway. Your video description should entice your audience and include a compelling reason as to why they should enter!
It’s essential to properly include your contest’s rules in the description. Make it easy for people to enter your YouTube giveaway by providing clear instructions.
The instructions should include the rules and any information that discusses what types of submissions will be accepted.
Bonus tip: announce your giveaway in advance, especially if you are running a talent contest.
You should give your audience time to create their talent contest submissions – around 3-4 weeks for these giveaways works well, and around 1-3 weeks for a standard giveaway is a reasonable time frame.
6. Collaborate with others
This step is optional, but it may be something you want to try out. Working with an influencer or social media celebrity can help promote your giveaway and help it go viral.
You will naturally gain more views as the collaborator’s followers will see the contest and may also encourage them to participate!
You could also partner up with other brands for your giveaway. You can use this as an excellent opportunity to promote your work and collaborate on a valuable prize to gift your fans or a prize bundle.
7. Be creative
To make your YouTube giveaway stand out from the crowd, be creative and colorful to get people interested in participating.
For example, video thumbnails are often mistakenly missed out on YouTube marketing. Ask yourself, how can you jazz up your video thumbnails to capture a YouTube user’s attention?
Let’s give you an example. Suppose you want to do a t-shirt giveaway. If someone were searching for t-shirt giveaways on YouTube, which search result would grab their attention first?
One that says “T-SHIRT GIVEAWAY” in caps will likely draw their attention. Alongside the eye-catching title, the thumbnail will be on display and attract attention, so you want to make that attractive and upload a relevant image.
Final tip: if you would like to streamline and host your giveaway on Gleam, have a look at this informative site all about using Gleam to host giveaways on Youtube.
Do YouTube giveaways increase followers?
Yes, running a giveaway can help you increase your following and YouTube subscribers. They can also help you increase customer retention (or grow loyal followers).
Increasing followers is one of the leading marketing goals people aim for with their YouTube giveaways, and it works.
To increase your follower list, you can ask participants to subscribe to your channel and leave a comment to enter the giveaway. But remember, to keep track of certain giveaway actions, the help of a third-party app like Rafflecoptor will be indispensable.
You can also grow your email list with YouTube channel giveaways and boost other marketing goals alongside your main goal of increasing followers.
Here’s another question to consider. How do you retain followers after a giveaway? Let’s face it, many people subscribe simply for a giveaway and may unfollow you right after it’s ended.
Your business is bound to attract new followers because people love free stuff – gaining them is easy, but retaining them is tricky.
Here are six easy steps to prevent people from unfollowing you shortly after the giveaway has ended.
1. Attract the Right Audience
Giveaways will help you get new followers, but you want to attract the right audience! This step is especially important to keep the followers once the giveaway is over.
We recommend you keep your giveaway relevant to your business for this effect.
2. Post often
Running a successful YouTube giveaway and building excitement requires posting regularly. This step is helpful after a giveaway to assure your new followers that you’re an active account.
It’s worth mentioning that there is such a thing as over-posting! Too many notifications at once have the potential to annoy and drive people away.
3. Make it relatable
The giveaway attracted people to your account, and the content you post when it’s over will make them stay. You should post relevant content to them and their interests now that you have new followers.
Suppose you’re a beauty brand. You could post tutorials or photos of influencers using your beauty products to catch attention and make sales.
4. Engage new followers
Engagement is key to building positive connections between you and your followers. Your followers are less likely to hit that unfollow button if they can interact with your brand through other social media.
People appreciate businesses they can be a part of, so keep the conversation going and integrate your new followers into your other social media channels.
5. Run more giveaways
A giveaway is what gained you new followers, so why not do more of the same? Although it’s unnecessary to hold a giveaway every day, frequently running giveaways will help retain your followers and attract new ones!
Sharing the word of promised giveaways will build your audience’s excitement and promote your values of giving back as a business.
6. Work with Influencers
Last tip, if you didn’t work with influencers for your giveaway, now’s the perfect time to start! Influencer marketing shows your brand in a positive light and showcases your product or service.
Repurposing user-generated content on your page will be great for marketing your products and services while showing your new followers you mean business.
YouTube giveaway 2024 FAQ
Here’s one standalone question that always pops up when people consider running or entering YouTube giveaways.
Are YouTube giveaways free?
It’s always free to enter a YouTube giveaway for one reason: they must always be free of charge (according to rules and regulations).
As a giveaway holder, you must not charge anyone to enter the giveaway or for the prizes you offer!
Final thoughts
So, that’s it for our guide to running giveaways on YouTube. Congratulations! You now know how to start, so what are you waiting for? Go ahead and launch your own YouTube giveaway.
We hope this guide helps boost your marketing strategies and increase your channel’s engagement. And while you’re at it, why not look at some of our other giveaway guides on GiveawayListing.com?
We’re not on YouTube yet, but you can find us on Facebook and Twitter for more helpful guides and loads of giveaway listings.
So without further ado, here comes our guide to entering YouTube giveaways. Stick around – you might learn something new.
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Enter YouTube giveaways
Not only can you find awesome content on YouTube, but you can also find pretty awesome giveaways! You just need to know how to find these giveaways.
If you’re looking for giveaways on YouTube, you’re in the right place. Whether you’re a YouTube veteran or just starting out on the platform, read on for some valuable insights!
Where can I find YouTube giveaways?
You can find YouTube giveaways in various places, but your main bet is by searching straight on the platform.
Use the search bar on YouTube to search for any kind of giveaway you like!
You can also use the live stream section to search for giveaway hashtags. Use generic phrases such as #giveaway2024, or #sneakergiveaway, for example.
You will find standard giveaway videos, and you will also find “shorts” that are alike stories on other social media channels.
You can get creative with your search terms and look for giveaways specifically related to you and your interests. Why not search for your favorite brands and influencers on YouTube to check if they are running giveaways?
More than searching for giveaways on the platform, you could try searching on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Just use hashtags and search terms such as #YouTubegiveaway2024, #YouTubesneakergiveaway, #YouTubesweepstakes, and #YouTubewincompetition, for example.
How do you win YouTube giveaways?
Winning YouTube giveaways isn’t as straightforward as entering them! So, we will reveal tips to win giveaways on YouTube without further ado.
Fair giveaways should not be biased, so you mostly have to rely on luck to win. However, some very important details will increase the likelihood of winning.
The exception to winning by luck is if you enter talent contests (when your user-generated content entry will compete with others).
You will find an array of giveaways requiring you to create original content and more accessible prize draws (such as following a channel and commenting on a video to win).
Here are a handful of ways you can optimize your chances of winning a giveaway.
1. Narrow your search
We recommend filtering the giveaways you want to enter and choosing the ones that interest you! If you register for every single giveaway you find, you might end up with disappointing results. So don’t overdo it and focus on what you want.
2. Optimize your profile
To do this, you want to give your account a makeover. If you enter a talent contest giveaway, the judge might view your profile before deciding if you’re a winner, so make it look good!
Make sure you have a nice profile photo, and it’s worth having a cover photo to go with it. Write a fun bio to go that extra mile and make your profile stand out.
3. Be an active fan
If you’re following a YouTube channel that regularly posts giveaways, we recommend you regularly engage with them.
By interacting with them, they’ll know you’re a fan, and when you enter their giveaways, your account name will already be familiar to them.
4. Follow local channels
Search for local channels you know and love in your area. Find your favorite local businesses on YouTube and those that do regular giveaways!
You’ll find that giveaways hosted by smaller channels get far less attention than most, so you have a higher chance of winning.
Win YouTube giveaways in 7 steps
Here are 7 tips to ensure you win more YouTube giveaways!
1. Make your subscriptions public
Our first tip is an important one! To be eligible to enter most giveaways on YouTube, you need to be subscribed to the channel organizing it! In other words, the giveaway host needs to know you’re following them.
To ensure you have the chance to win giveaways on YouTube, make your channels public and visible to the public.
2. Enter lots of giveaways
You should enter as many giveaways as humanely possible on YouTube to follow this step! We recommend that you look up giveaway hashtags and any hashtags of relevance, such as #YouTubegiveaways, and #entertowingiveaway.
You can search for these giveaways in the platform’s video and live stream sections.
3. Enter to win
For this step, just make sure you’re entered into the giveaway correctly because if you fail to follow any of the steps, you won’t be eligible to win!
To ensure you’re in with a chance of winning, read all the giveaway rules and follow every rule.
4. Deadline date
For this step, you want to check and see if you’ve won on the deadline when the giveaway closes! It’s possible you might not get notified, so you want to be proactive and check to see if you’ve won anything.
Sometimes it’s up to you to chase the giveaway channel to find out who won, although they may post an announcement on their channel – so stay tuned and subscribed after the giveaway.
5. Follow up
For this step of the process, you want to contact the channel immediately if you find out you’ve won! It sounds like common sense, but you’d be surprised how many people forget about this step, especially if they enter many giveaways at once!
If you’re an “alternate winner” or runner-up, you should also follow up immediately! As a runner-up, you might win if the main winner doesn’t claim the prize.
6. Good connectivity
If you enter a live-stream giveaway on YouTube, make sure you’re actually live! The video stream might be slow if you have a bad internet connection.
If the video is processing slowly and you’re lagging, then you won’t stand a good chance of winning, especially if the winner needs to answer questions as they’re announced.
7. Live chat
When you enter live-stream giveaways, ensure you’re on the live chat function, not the top chat. You need to be viewing “live comments,” so you’re ready to go when the giveaway starts!
You should click on the button at the top of your screen which says live chat.
Pro tip: You also need to type fast to win a live-stream giveaway, and if you don’t know an answer, throw a random guess!
If you’re taking it to the next level, aim to use multiple devices for several live streams simultaneously.
Bonus tip: remember, the smaller the channel is, the better your chances of winning! Rather than entering a giveaway with thousands of subscribers, enter those with hundreds of subscribers instead.
Do YouTubers give away money?
It’s rare, but not impossible to find YouTubers who give away money.
For example, the infamous YouTube star named MrBeast always gives away money on his channel. He’s one of America’s biggest YouTubers and is well known for giving people large sums of money in his videos.
MrBeast, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, recently gave away thousands of dollars to trick-or-treaters on Halloween. The YouTuber said he gave away iPhones and bundles of $10,000!
He’s so generous we have a giveaway guide dedicated to him. Check out the MrBeast giveaway guide to find out more!
Let’s find out what other channels are holding giveaways on YouTube.
YouTube giveaways FAQ
Here are two of your most frequently asked questions about YouTube giveaways!
What YouTube channels do giveaways?
Several YouTube channels run giveaways via their account.
Here are three channels that run giveaways on YouTube.
If you like the look of those YouTube channel giveaways, you should check out our complimentary giveaway guides!
Does YouTube run giveaways for subscribers?
No, YouTube doesn’t run giveaways for its subscribers, but many successful YouTube channels regularly do!
YouTube channels host giveaways to boost subscribers, give back to their audience, increase their views, and more. That’s good news for giveaway lovers, and we’re not complaining!
YouTube giveaways takeaway
YouTube is the world’s second-biggest social media platform, with over 2.5 billion active users (as of 2023). The only platform to have more active users is Facebook (2.9 billion).
There are over 4 billion active social media users worldwide, meaning just over 54% of active social media users worldwide access YouTube! That’s a lot of potential giveaway entrants and many more YouTube giveaways to enter.
If you enjoyed this giveaway guide and looking for more social media giveaways to enter or learn about, you should check out our Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook giveaway guides. We help you run and win more giveaways!
Giveaway Listing has a decade worth of experience featuring top-tier global giveaways. You’re welcome back any time to find the latest and best giveaways around!
Check out our website giveawaylisting.com, for more global giveaways and giveaway guides.
