How to Promote Your YouTube Contest

Running a YouTube contest is a fun and highly effective way to engage your viewers, promote your channel and grow your audience.

To get as much value as you can from your YouTube contests you need to make sure you're making a conscious effort to get out their and promote your contest as much as you can.

To help you drive more entries and maximise the value you're getting from your contests we've put together some of our favourite tips for promoting YouTube contests, enjoy!

We know this one seems obvious, but it's also incredibly important.

There's no better way to announce your contest and drive entries from your viewers than promoting it inside your YouTube videos.

It's generally a good idea to start with a video that's dedicated to your contest or giveaway.

Explain the contest, show off the prize, provide clear instructions on how to enter and most importantly get your audience excited. These videos can pull in huge amounts of view, so make it count.

As well as releasing a video dedicated to your contest, it's also a good idea to continue to mention it in every video you put out for the duration of your contest. Different people will be tuning into each of your videos, so make sure you're casting as wide of a net as possible.

You can even post regular update videos that let viewers know how long they have left to enter, as well as how many entries you've gotten so far. This a great way to build urgency, encourage people to enter, and even get previous entrants to come back to complete more entries and bump up their chances of winning.

Anytime you put out a video that promotes your contest remember to give viewers a clear call-to-action and share a link to your campaign in the description as well as inside the video itself. There's no point promoting your contest if you don't make it actionable.

Every time someone lands on your YouTube channel the first thing they will see is your featured video. Why not use it to promote your contest?

Making your contest announcement your featured video is an awesome way to convert curious visitors into contest entrants (and loyal viewers).

Promoting your contest in every new video is great, but what about your old videos that are still pulling in viewers?

This evergreen videos can be a powerful promotional tool that shouldn't be ignored, and all you need to do to capitalise on them is add cards to your old videos.

Just make sure you're keeping track of which videos you've added cards to so you can easily remove them once your contest is over.

You want as many people as possible to know about your contest, which makes it important to share it on as many platforms as possible.

You should be regularly posting about your campaign on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and any other social networks you have a presence on. Be sure to put the prize front and centre, give clear instructions on how to enter and provide a link to your contest.

When you promote your YouTube contest on social media you want to connect with new users and potential fans as well as your existing following. A great way to do this is by encouraging people to like, comment, share or retweet your post. This is an awesome way to get your contest shared around people's timeline and put in front of highly relevant new users.

If you've got a mailing list you should be sure to reach out to them on day 1. These users a likely to be some of your biggest fans an most loyal followers who are very likely to be interested in any contest or giveaway you're running.

Try to send a dedicated announcement email for your contest, and be sure to include it in any regular newsletters you send out.

When you run your YouTube contest with Gleam you can turn your campaign into a perpetual promotion machine with our powerful Viral Share action.

With Viral Shares you can award extra entries to users who successfully refer friends and get them to enter the contest. This is a brilliant way to encourage your fans and followers to share your contest with their friends, who share it with their friends and so on.

All you need to do is add this one simple action to your campaign and you can be on your way to a huge new cohort of entrants, viewers and fans.

Another great way to reach beyond your existing audience and attract brand new users is by partnering up with a sponsor, or another YouTube creator, to run a partner giveaway.

When you run a partner contest you will be able to tap into your partners own online following which allows you to put your channel in front of new users which is an outstanding way to extend your reach and find new viewers.

When it comes to partnering up the fit is everything, so make sure you're trying to connect with brands and creators whose audience aligns with your own.

Promoting your YouTube contest is an ongoing process that helps your YouTube channel grow beyond a single YouTube video.

Mix up your content by creating a short video or even a live stream to announce the giveaway prize, explain how entering the giveaway works, and generate excitement among your loyal fans.

Share your campaign across every social media platform you use, and keep mentioning it on your social media channels to reach new audiences while reminding existing viewers to take part.

Always check YouTube’s Terms of Service and Community Guidelines before you run a contest, to make sure your promotion stays compliant and professional.

Use your Gleam landing page to make entering easy and track participation throughout your campaign.

When you promote your YouTube giveaway consistently and keep your messaging clear, it becomes a win win, your viewers get the chance to win something exciting, and you build lasting engagement from a successful YouTube contest.

If you’re planning to run a YouTube giveaway or write a blog post to share your results, remember that thoughtful promotion is what turns a one-off campaign into sustainable audience growth.

More Tips On Promoting Your Contest

Check out our in depth guide for all the information you need on promoting your contest.