YouTube Giveaway Ideas To Grow Your Channel

Whether you're a budding content creator or using it as a tool to promote your business, having a strong presense on YouTube is incredibly valuable for everyone.

But with so many established channels, new accounts and videos often struggle to get noticed. This is why giveaways are so powerful: they’re a proven way to drive engagement and grow your channel quickly.

With their viral potential, giveaways make your channel stand out and attract more attention in a crowded space. Let's take a look at some of the most effective types of giveaways you can run.

An effective way to run a YouTube giveaway is by encouraging viewers to engage directly on your videos in order to be in for the chance to win a prize.

Ask users to leave a comment on a specific video, and you can either pick a winner at random or choose based on the most insightful, funny, or helpful comment.

This is a fun and easy way to boost engagement and gives you valuable feedback on what resonates with your audience

A sweepstakes is a giveaway where participants complete various actions to earn entries. The more actions they complete, the more chances they have to win.

This is perfect for engaging your audience and encouraging actions that can help grow your YouTube channel, your social media platforms, and your mailing list, plus drive traffic to your website.

With Gleam, it’s easy to set up entry actions like:

• Subscribing to your channel
• Sharing the giveaway with friends
• Liking or commenting on your videos
• Visiting your social media pages
• Unlocking bonus entries for completing all actions

Gleam makes running sweepstakes simple with customisable entry actions, easy to use templates, and automatic verification of all of the entries.

You can focus on engagement while Gleam handles the technical parts.

A fantastic way to boost views and engage both loyal fans and newcomers is with a YouTube Scavenger Hunt.

This template makes it super easy to keep viewers watching closely, as they’ll need to spot secret codes hidden within your videos to enter for a chance to win.

Simply reveal entry codes throughout your content, and viewers can unlock entries by finding and submitting them.

You can even add new codes as you release more videos, keeping fans coming back for more chances to win and creating a super interactive experience.

An awesome way to gather user-generated content and engage your fans is by running an exciting YouTube Video Contest.

This works by inviting them to create unique content for a chance to win a prize.

With this template, it makes it super easy to ask users to make a video about your product, respond or stitch to one of your videos, or complete a themed challenge.

Then, participants just have to upload their creations from YouTube or social media), which is an awesome way to grow and expand your reach and visibility.

A brilliant way to reach a wider audience and build engagement is by running your giveaway on Linktree.

It’s an ideal setup, you just direct people from your YouTube bio or video descriptions straight to your Linktree, making it simple for them to find and enter.

With everything in one place, participants can easily subscribe to your YouTube channel, follow your socials, or visit your blog.

This setup streamlines the entry process and keeps your campaign accessible, user-friendly and engaging.

Have a go at running a trivia giveaway to boost engagement.

Ask a question or include a quick quiz in your video, and viewers who comment with the correct answer are entered into a prize draw.

This fun approach encourages interaction, tests your audience’s knowledge, and creates excitement around your content.

Post a video inviting viewers to ask questions for you to respond to as a video idea in the comments on your YouTube video.

Then, pick some standout questions to feature in a follow-up Q&A video, where you answer them and give shoutouts to those commenters.

This is a great way to freshen up your content so you are only spending time creating content that your audience wants to see.

To make it fun, you could even offer a prize for the top question that gets featured in the video. This is a perfect way to engage fans and create content directly inspired by their interests!

Host a YouTube livestream and get your viewers involved with a live giveaway.

Encourage fans to join the stream and engage by asking questions, sharing comments, or participating in a quick challenge.

Choose a winner live on-air, giving them a shoutout and making the event more interactive and build a sense of urgency to engage with your channel.

You can pick the winner using Gleam quick draws and use the public facing interface.

Another great idea is a brand partner giveaway.

You can collaborate with a sponsoring brand to promote and give away their product, or do a joint giveaway and offer a bundle of products from both you and the sponsor as a prize.

This works perfectly with unboxing, review, or product roundup videos, where you can showcase the brand’s product while encouraging viewers to enter the giveaway.

Partnering with a brand not only gives your audience more exciting content but also lets you offer a more valuable prize.

A monthly giveaway is a fantastic way to maintain ongoing engagement.

By setting up a simple, recurring giveaway with Gleam, you can encourage consistent interaction from your audience while driving valuable actions, like subscribing, following, or sharing.

Running it monthly keeps excitement high and gives your audience a reason to stay connected, knowing there’s always a chance to win something new.

Setting this up is super easy with this template:

While giveaways are a great way to grow your YouTube channel, some types can violate YouTube’s contest policies if not managed carefully. Here are a few to approach with caution:

False Engagement

• Requiring likes, shares, or subscriptions to enter violates YouTube’s policies. When you're running a giveaway, it's best to avoid requiring entrants to subscribe to your channel, or like and share videos.

Prohibited Prizes

• Avoid prizes like alcohol, tobacco, firearms, or anything illegal.

Pay-to-Enter Lotteries

• Lotteries require payment to enter and are heavily regulated. Always offer a free entry method.