How To Legally Run a Giveaway or Contest on YouTube

If you want to run a contest on your channel or do a giveaway to promote your channel, YouTube has some requirements and policies you must follow in order to avoid running into trouble. You can do a sweepstakes competition as long as you follow YouTube's guidelines to do so. What is that policy and what does it mean? In this podcast episode I interview Jonathan Katz, a YouTube lawyer, about YouTube's rule for running a contest on their platform and what the legal terms mean so you don't get your channel intro trouble and, most importantly, give your YouTube viewers a positive experience with your giveaway.

LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE
- Is Your Contest Illegal?

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[JaredOwen]

I don't plan on running any contests on my youtube channel but this was great food for thought. Thanks Tim

[StudioPashnada]

I almost can't believe how timely this video is! A group of youtubers was discussing contests on Facebook last nite! Some of us were saying you can't have a drawing just for the people who donate your channel. Thanks!

[RayStein]

Thanks so much for doing this video! Those of us with small channels greatly appreciate your videos and insight. With all of the work we put in it's important to work together and to understand the ever changing environment. Thanks again for all the help!

[gloryb-tv]

Thanks for making this video! I've been doing Giveaways about every 4 to 6 weeks for a while now. It's been a great way to connect with my viewers. The winners have been thrilled. Your video and the links helped me to know more about text I should include in the description box.

[LilyGia]

What if we redirect them to another site so that the contest is officially on another site but announced only on YT?

[McCannDogs]

This is really helpful. The legality of running a contest on YouTube has discouraged us in the past. this clears a lot of things up for us. Thanks, Tim!

[LivingFree]

I've been waiting for you to make this video. I haven't done a giveaway because I don't want to get a community strike for something I didn't know about. I wish YouTube would just have all that they want written for us so we can copy/paste the "correct rules" so there is no mistake in what they want us to do.... :) Excellent video!

[FunWithTheBugs]

What a great topic! It's so vague reading the guidlines and you really need to have knowledge of your state and country laws as well. Great info in this vid, really appreciate it!

Some questions I had:
- So it's okay to have ads turned on for giveaways?
- Is it okay to limit your giveaway to only subscribers of your channel?
- Can you run a giveaway and say it will take place once the video hits a certain number of likes?

[Acerthorn]

Wait a minute ... so we aren't allowed to hold contests in order to boost watch time?

[TheFeelButton]

You really put out some great info here. Seems like contests and giveaways are definitely for the more experienced creators and less for starting up. Thank you for this video!

[RealMacJones]

When it comes to patreon it would come down to why the people are donating. Tim touched on it in the video when he said " join my $10.00 tier to enter a giveaway." that would technically be a lottery or sweepstakes and that could get you in to trouble. but if they are donating for other reasons, and you are giving a giveaway as like a bonus. that's okay. It's really all about the perception, the wording, and the intent.

[salahudin]

There was a competition on a channel a few days ago. The first correct answer wins the prize. I was the first to answer correct. The channel owner replied to my answer around 4-5 hours later in the comments section. Asking if I was from his country.
Later that day I went and checked if I had won. I saw his comment re if I was from his country to which I replied yes. I did find the comment weird as he could have just clicked on my channel to check where I was from.
However a few comments down another person had answered correctly but a few hours after my correct answer. The channel owner immediately had responded to his comment and said he was the winner and to send address details. He didnt ask him if he was from the same country as him. I found this to be extremely unfair and I replied to his comment advising that what he did was unfair and was not honuring a fair competition policy. He didn't even bother replying back to me. Instead he listed the other guy as the winner.

[sabrinae]

Is it okay to monetize your giveaway video?

[CoreyFiasco]

So - if I disclose all my giveaway rules - entry is completely free - I put all the information in my description explaining I am responsible for the giveaway and will choose 1 subscriber randomly - and am just giving away collectible figures - that should be all gravy ?

[LastElf]

Is it OK, if I ask viewers to write a comment to enter the giveaway and then pick random comment to win? I was told it is manipulating the metrics, but then how I can get a set of people to pick from?

[abby.hollyn]

Thank you for sharing all this information! I'm a new Youtuber a grand total of 29 subscribers haha ( which i am still so excited about and thankful for!) but I recently filmed a "giveaway" video and had the after thought to see "how to do a giveaway" I had no idea there was so much to it. Everyone else makes it look so simple. Although there are a lot of details i think the example you used of Darrel ( sorry if i spelled his name wrong...) was good because it showed how easy it can be to like Jonathan said, "take the responsibility off the creators shoulders and shifts it to those entering the giveaway." Thanks again for bringing clarity!

[jackbattle]

Can a YouTuber do a giveaway and ask you to pay for the shipping fee?

[leosketches]

Great video, please invite Jonathan again

[alantuttphotography]

The unfortunate languaging of the policies confuses the issue more than needed. Legally, a "contest" requires the winner to be selected according to the quality of their entry, and in this case, an entry fee is allowable. What isn't allowable is an entry fee on any game in which the winner is chosen by chance, AND in which a prize of some value may be won.

The point about not forcing contest entries to sign over their rights is more for those companies who try to con their audience to freely create jingles, graphic design, or other valuable items they would otherwise have to pay for. Kind of like how Facebook tries to claim copyright on any images uploaded to their servers. Not legal in the US.

[SolowSports]

You mention at the end "must be 18". What would that qualification benefit or restrict in theory for a giveaway?