How to Increase YouTube Views with Giveaways and Contests

Corinna Keefe
Corinna Keefe
Want to grow your YouTube channel or get more views on your latest video? It's tough to get noticed without a big audience. Here's how to reach more subscribers - and increase YouTube views - with easy giveaway apps, contests and games.

If you create video content or manage a YouTube channel, you know that the biggest challenge is: How can I increase Youtube views and grow my channel… without working myself into the ground?

Producing videos already takes a lot of time, skill, and dedication. So when that video is posted online, you’re probably hoping that all the hard work is over. Soon you’ll be rewarded with more video views, channel subscribers, and engagement.

But unfortunately… it doesn’t always work that way. However great your videos are, they still need all the promotion they can get to succeed on YouTube. An estimated 720,000 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube each day! So you have to work pretty hard to make your videos stand out.

Luckily, there are fun, easy and effective ways to increase YouTube views. We’ve collected some ideas for giveaways, games and contests that will keep viewers coming back for more. Did someone say “Diamond Creator Award”?

Voting Contest

Increase YouTube views with giveaways

Giveaways are a very effective way to increase YouTube views and channel subscribers. Why? Because people love freebies! It couldn’t be easier for people to take part – or for you to reap the benefits.

Use an Entry Form Giveaway app to choose one or more winners from the viewers of your video. You’ll need to ask people to head to the video description for the access link. Users then fill out the registration form and… that’s!

registration form

This kind of giveaway brings you a certain perk: lead generation.

And if you want to make sure that only those that really watched your video can participate in your YouTube giveaway, here’s an idea; add a question to the registration form and hide the answer in the video! This way all participants will have to go through the whole clip to be able to answer your question!

Entry Form giveaway for YouTube Giveaway.

Are you interested in running an Entry Form Giveaway for your YouTube subscribers? We’ve prepared a customizable template for your YouTube giveaway.

Contests based on videos to increase views of your YouTube channel

Another way to increase YouTube views is to use videos in online contests and promotions.

You can embed a YouTube video in an online contest, and make viewing it an essential part of participating in the promotion. For example, you could build a quiz about the video, or ask people to vote for their favorite video clip.

Here’s another example to inspire you: a promotion that could be launched by any brand. In this case, the coffee brand is looking to boost views of a video explaining different types of coffees. The participants must watch the whole video, without the possibility to skip it, before they can enter their contact details for their chance to win.

participation requirement

Want to play the game yourself? Try this video quiz demo – then copy the template to start creating your own YouTube video contest!

Engage your YouTube viewers with a fun game and giveaway

Online audiences love mini-games! They provide entertainment and give a chance to win, so what’s to not love about gamification? Make sure you engage your audience and give a new experience to your viewers: invite them to play a game, the way Incapto did.

The coffee brand looked to promote their new coffee machine – as well, as collect leads and create some new customer relationships. They decided to give visibility to their YouTube channel by organizing a gamified promotion for their viewers.

incapto puzzle announcement

The company introduce a link to their Puzzle game in the video description, so that interested participants could access it easily.

incapto game increase youtube views

All participants had a chance to win a coffee machine valued at 379€! What a great way to organize a YouTube giveaway, right?!

The finishing touch: more ways to increase YouTube views

Giveaways and contests are great at reaching new viewers. But how do you keep those new subscribers engaged?

Here are a few extra tips to keep your channel growing:

  • Update your YouTube profile regularly so that the information is accurate and search-friendly.
  • Pick an exciting thumbnail for each video so that more people are tempted to click through and watch.
  • Write detailed video titles, tags and descriptions so that your posts are easy to find on YouTube. Include key words like “giveaway” and “prize” to get more attention!
  • Choose giveaway prizes that match your audience. Show that you understand your subscribers and want to offer them lots of added value with carefully-selected competition prizes.

Any questions? Still searching for inspiration? Chat live with our support team for technical help, ideas and advice!