New Update: Boost Social Proof with Reviews & Automation
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New Update: Boost Social Proof with Reviews & Automation
Stacey Corrin
Stacey Corrin
John Turner
John Turner
My first YouTube giveaway taught me a simple truth: what looks easy on paper can be tricky in practice. I thought it would be easy. Announce a prize, collect entries, pick a winner. Simple, right? Well, not exactly.
Without clear rules, I faced a ton of questions from confused viewers. Entry verification took way longer than expected, and international shipping was an unexpected puzzle. But each challenge came with a lesson, and now I’m here to share what I learned.
If you’re planning your first YouTube giveaway for your small business, this guide will help you avoid common pitfalls while staying within YouTube giveaway rules.
A YouTube giveaway is when creators give prizes to their audience. Viewers usually enter by liking, commenting, subscribing, or sharing. Giveaways help creators get more subscribers, views, and loyal fans.
While it may make sense to run your giveaway directly on YouTube, there are some drawbacks.
You’re limited by how people can enter your giveaway, and have less control over how it looks. More importantly, it’s much harder to keep tabs on who enters, while avoiding spam entries.
That’s why I always recommend hosting a YouTube giveaway or contest on your website. You’ll have much more control over the finer details, and can meet other marketing goals like:
Don’t worry if you don’t know how to do this. I’ll walk you through which tools to use and how to set them up later in this guide.
Let’s go through the main steps to run a successful YouTube giveaway:
Table of Contents
Before you start your YouTube giveaway, it’s important to figure out what you want to achieve.
Are you running a giveaway for YouTube subscribers? Are you working with other YouTubers? Do you want to sell more of a product? Do you want to increase views?
Knowing the goal for your giveaway will help you plan and run your contest better. It will also make it easier to see if your giveaway was successful when it’s over.
To set good goals, use the SMART method:
Many YouTubers are so excited to grow their channels that they forget about YouTube’s official rules for contests. It’s important to know what you can and can’t do.
For example, YouTube Giveaway rules say that using copyrighted content in your giveaway can get your video taken down. In serious cases, YouTube might even stop you from making money on your videos.
Let’s look at YouTube’s main rules for contests:
Also, remember that you cannot ask participants for likes, shares, or subscriptions under YouTube’s fake engagement policy. For instance, if you use a giveaway plugin, you can’t use it to ask viewers to subscribe, comment, like, or view your video.
You can, however, ask them to visit your YouTube channel.
For instance, you can feature a video on your channel and use it to ask for likes, shares, and subscribers as long as you don’t make it a rule for entering the giveaway.
Make sure you read and the YouTube giveaway policy before you start your campaign.
Picking a prize is the fun part of any successful YouTube contest. But don’t get too excited – you need to make sure people actually want the prize you choose. If the prize isn’t good, not many people will join your giveaway.
Big YouTube channels with lots of money might give away things like:
Smaller channels might offer popular products or gift cards worth a good amount.
If you have a small channel or not much money to spend, you could offer:
Whatever prize you pick, make sure it’s something your audience would really like to win. Think about who watches your videos and what they’d enjoy. For even more inspiration, see these contest prize ideas and giveaway ideas.
The type of giveaway you decide will affect how many people join, who joins, and how successful your giveaway is. Let’s look at some common types and some creative ideas:
| Giveaway Type | Description | Pros | Cons |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sweepstakes | Simple entry (subscribe, comment) | Easy setup, attracts many | Attracts prize-focused viewers |
| Partner Giveaways | Collab with others | Reaches new viewers, increases trust | More planning, might cost more |
| User-Generated Content | Viewers create content (videos, pictures) | Highly engaging, creates channel content | More effort for viewers, judging is time-consuming |
| Video Voting | Viewers vote on favorite video | Creates excitement, promotes video watching | Harder to set up |
Creative YouTube Giveaway Ideas
Choosing the right type of giveaway can make your contest more fun and successful for your YouTube channel. You can also see these live stream giveaway ideas for inspiration.
It’s tempting to skip over making rules for your giveaway, but it’s vital. Good rules protect you and your viewers from misunderstandings.
First, check the contest laws for your country. In the USA, for example, you can’t make people buy something to enter your giveaway. It’s against the law.
Once you’ve checked the laws, write down your contest information, like:
For help with this step, see our complete guide on how to write giveaway rules.
As I mentioned earlier, there are many tools that help you run and manage giveaways. For instance, web-based platforms like Rafflecopter and Gleam are popular choices.
But for WordPress websites, my top recommendation is to use a WordPress giveaway plugin like RafflePress. It lets you set up your giveaway on your WordPress website. Then, you just put the link in your YouTube video description.
Plus, it offers 1-click entry options that help you grow your email list, website traffic, and YouTube channel quickly.
To learn how to do this, first, grab a copy of RafflePress.
Then, download and install the plugin to your WordPress website. For help installing WordPress plugins, follow these instructions.
After installing and activating RafflePress, hover over the RafflePress icon and click Add New to create a giveaway.
After clicking Add New, RafflePress will take you to a new screen where you’ll name your giveaway and choose a template for your contest.
As you can see, RafflePress offers templates that center around giveaway goals, such as Grow Your Twitter Following or Grow Your Email List. The templates add giveaway actions relevant to your goals automatically.
So if your goal is to grow on YouTube, click the Grow Your YouTube Channel template.
After selecting the YouTube template, you’ll go to the RafflePress giveaway builder. The first step to building your YouTube giveaway is to set the giveaway prize details.
First, click on the pencil icon under the Giveaway Prize Details section.
In this area, you can pick the name of your prize, for example, “iPad Giveaway,” and write a brief description.
You can also upload an image of your prize by clicking the Select Image button below the description box. You can then choose an image from your media library or upload an image from your computer.
When you’re happy with your prize name, description, and image, click on the Done Editing button.
If you have many prizes, you can click the + Add Another Prize button to add more.
You can also set the date, and the time your giveaway will start and end and select your timezone underneath the Start and End Time section.
Click the Save button to save the changes.
RafflePress is one of the best contest apps for learning how to run a giveaway on YouTube because you can give users multiple ways to enter your contest. These actions will also help you reach the goals you set out initially.
For instance, you can allow users to receive 1 contest entry for watching a YouTube video, a 2nd contest entry for visiting your YouTube Channel, a 3rd entry for joining your email list, etc.
Most users will take all the actions they can because it gives them more chances to win.
So, click on the Actions tab to select different ways users can participate in your YouTube giveaway.
Pro Tip: When you use the ‘Watch a YouTube Video’ action, RafflePress will embed the video right inside the giveaway widget. This is a great way to boost video views and keep users engaged with your contest without making them leave your site.
Next, you can customize your giveaway look in the Design tab. You can choose from 2 different layouts (display image, then header, or header, then image) and several fonts and button colors.
And if you prefer, you can also upload an image to use as the background. If you’re happy with your changes, click Save.
There are various sections in the Settings tab: General, Giveaway Rules, Email Verification, Success Tracking, Success Redirect, Social Logins, etc.
One of the most important settings you’ll need to configure is the giveaway rules.
We mentioned earlier that the YouTube rules and guidelines require you to disclose that your competitions aren’t associated with YouTube.
RafflePress makes it easy to get started. You can use the Rules Generator Template to get a head start on creating your YouTube contest rules quickly.
Clicking this button allows you to type in the sponsor name, email, address, eligible locations, the minimum age to enter, etc.
After generating your rules, you can edit them to include a simple disclosure like the one below:
In no way is this giveaway endorsed, associated with, sponsored by, or administered by YouTube or any social media platform it’s promoted on.
Similarly, you need to disclose any 3rd party sponsorships. Here are some ideas on how you can phrase your disclosure:
Disclaimer: This video is sponsored by [Company].
Disclaimer: Some of the products featured in this video were provided by [Company].
Disclaimer: The prize for this contest is sponsored and provided by [Company].
You can check out our documentation for details on all the RafflePress settings.
Once you’re finished configuring your settings, click Save.
When you’re ready to publish your contest, head to Settings » General.
Under the Page Permalink heading, enter the URL parameters you’d like your landing page to have and click Save.
When you visit the URL you chose for the landing page; you’ll see your contest ready and waiting for entrants.
All you need to do now is add it to your video description on YouTube.
If you want to embed your giveaway on your website, you can add the RafflePress widget to a new post or page. Let’s see how to publish one in a blog post.
First, go to Posts » Add New from your WordPress dashboard. Give your post a name and enter the written content along with the giveaway.
Then click the plus icon to add a new content block.
Type RafflePress into the search box to bring up the RafflePress content block, and click it to add it to your post.
Now, choose your YouTube giveaway from the dropdown box.
And Voilà! Your giveaway is automatically inserted into your blog post.
Now, publish the post, add it to your YouTube description, and promote it.
When you run a YouTube giveaway, it’s all too easy to forget how you’re going to promote it. But don’t worry. We’ve got that covered, too.
First off, using RafflePress to run your giveaway is a smart choice because it has viral sharing built right into the WordPress plugin.
Alongside the standard entry actions is the viral refer-a-friend action that encourages natural viral sharing and earns users extra entries.
But to bolster those extraordinary efforts, you can also take some steps for promoting your giveaway:
And to get the most out of your contest, consider posting regular update videos on YouTube. It will keep people engaged and eager to find out the results.
See this article packed full of inspiration for even more contest promotion ideas.
With the YouTube contest over, you need to wrap things up. Pick a winner and announce the winner in a new video, so people know it isn’t running anymore. You can even include details on how many people entered and other results, which we’ll show you how to measure soon.
Refer to this guide to learn how to pick a giveaway winner easily.
When you’ve contacted the winner to deliver the good news, turn your attention to measuring your contest results.
If you recall, this is one of the smart goals you set. It’s how you’ll know if the contest was a success and show you areas where you can improve.
Review your goals and see how well your results align with them.
You can look into your YouTube video analytics and record the number of new views, likes, and subscribers you gained.
But if your goals involve increasing sales of a product, you can track and measure this by using MonterInsights for Google Analytics to check visits to your website and products.
To set up Google Analytics eCommerce tracking, see this guide.
And that’s it! Congratulations!
You now know how to run a giveaway on YouTube. What are you waiting for? Go ahead and launch your own to drive sales, leads, and even more engagement for your channel.
And while you’re at it, why not look at the following tips and tutorials:
Don’t forget to subscribe to our own YouTube Channel. You can also find us on Facebook and Twitter for more helpful guides and tutorials.
Disclosure: Our content is reader-supported. This means if you click on some of our links, then we may earn a commission. We only recommend products that we believe will add value to our readers.
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If you are doing a giveaway to get YouTube subscribers but are not going to publish the giveaway on YouTube, are you subject to the YouTube giveaway rules? Specifically I would like people to click a YT subscribe button on my giveaway page on my blog in order to enter.
Hi Jeff,
You’re likely subject to YouTube’s rules because you’re still asking people to subscribe to your channel. However, since we’re not lawyers, we suggest checking YouTube’s terms of service for specific details or consult a lawyer.