Guide

How to run a YouTube comment giveaway

A YouTube comment giveaway is six steps: publish the rules, tell people exactly what counts as an entry, close entries at the time you announced, draw a winner with a random picker, verify and contact them, then publish the result. Setup takes about ten minutes and the draw itself takes two.

The step creators get wrong is the last one. “The winner is probably the creator’s friend” is the single most common complaint under giveaway announcements, and a screenshot of a spinning wheel does not answer it — a screenshot is exactly what someone would fake. A link entrants can open and check for themselves does.

Before you post: what YouTube requires

YouTube’s contest policies set two conditions that shape everything else. You must publish your contest rules, and you must not run a contest that encourages artificial or fake engagement — so no “like this comment 20 times to enter”, no entry mechanics built on inflating metrics. Read YouTube’s contest policies and guidelines in full before you announce anything.

Prize promotions are also regulated by local law, and the rules differ a lot between countries — on eligibility, age limits, and whether entrants can be required to buy anything. YouTube’s policy is the floor, not the whole picture. This guide is not legal advice.

The six steps

  1. 1

    Write the rules and publish them before entries open

    State the prize, who is eligible, when entries close (give a date and a time zone), how the winner is chosen, and how and when you will announce and contact them. Put this in the video description or a pinned comment, not only spoken aloud in the video — entrants need something they can re-read, and YouTube expects rules to be published.

  2. 2

    Define one clear entry action

    Ask for something specific and identifiable: a set phrase, or an answer to a question you asked. A required phrase makes entries easy to separate from ordinary comments later. Say explicitly whether extra comments count as extra entries — “one entry per person” is the fair default and the one people expect.

  3. 3

    Let entries come in, then close on time

    Close when you said you would. Extending a deadline after seeing the entries, or changing the rules mid-way, is the fastest way to lose the audience’s trust — even when your reason is innocent.

  4. 4

    Draw the winner with a random picker

    Paste the video URL into the Hadzy giveaway pickerand run the draw. Hadzy loads the video’s full comment thread through the official YouTube Data API, so every entry is in the pool, not just the first page of comments. The single-winner draw is free and needs no account.

    Supporterscan run a batch draw for up to 10 winners at once and filter the pool first: require your entry keyword, set a minimum word count to drop “first” and emoji-only comments, and switch on unique authors so a person who commented thirty times gets one chance rather than thirty.

  5. 5

    Verify the winner, then contact them

    Check the winning comment actually meets your published rules before you announce it — posted before the deadline, contains the entry phrase, eligible under whatever conditions you set. If it does not, draw again and say that you did. Then contact the winner through the channel you named in the rules, and give a deadline for them to reply.

  6. 6

    Publish the result with proof

    Announce the winner where the entrants are: a pinned comment on the giveaway video, a community post, or the next upload. Include the proof page link so anyone can check the draw themselves.

Making the draw verifiable

Every Hadzy draw produces a public proof page at a permanent link of the form hadzy.com/g/proofId. You paste that link into your announcement, and entrants open it and see the result for themselves. There is nothing to take on faith and nothing you could have cropped out of a screenshot.

It costs you nothing and it changes the tone of the comment section under the announcement. If you take one thing from this guide, take this: publish the link, not a picture.

Common mistakes

  • Rules only in the video. Spoken rules cannot be re-read or checked. Write them down.
  • No stated deadline. Without a closing time, every late entrant has a grievance.
  • Ignoring duplicate entries. If you promised one entry per person, enforce it at draw time with a unique-authors filter.
  • Drawing from the first hundred comments. If your picker only reads part of the thread, most entrants were never really in the draw.
  • Announcing with a screenshot. It proves nothing. Link the proof page instead.
  • Entry mechanics that inflate metrics.YouTube’s policies prohibit contests that encourage fake engagement.

What it costs

Running the draw on Hadzy is free: paste a video URL, draw one random comment, share the proof page. No account, no ads, no affiliate links. The free tier also gives you comment search on the video and a CSV export if you want a record of the entries — both capped at 250 rows, and the export respects whatever search or author filter you have applied, so you can pull exactly the entries containing your keyword.

The supporter tier is $5 a month through Patreon and adds what a bigger giveaway needs: batch draws of up to 10 winners, keyword, minimum-word-count, and unique-author entry filters, CSV and JSON export of up to 500,000 rows, date filters, deep pagination, and a statistics pack.

Frequently asked questions

How do I pick a random comment winner on a YouTube video?

Paste the video URL into Hadzy’s giveaway picker and run the draw. It selects a random comment from the video’s comment thread and produces a shareable proof page you can link in your announcement. The single-winner draw is free and needs no account.

How do I stop one person entering fifty times?

Say “one entry per person” in your published rules, then enforce it at draw time. Hadzy’s supporter batch draws include a unique-authors filter, so someone who commented thirty times counts once rather than getting thirty chances. You can also require a keyword so only real entries are in the pool.

Can I pick more than one winner at a time?

The free draw picks one winner per run. Supporters can run a batch draw for up to 10 winners at once, with entry filters for a required keyword, a minimum word count, and unique authors.

Does YouTube allow comment giveaways?

Yes, within its contest policies. YouTube requires that contest rules are published and prohibits contests that encourage artificial or fake engagement. Read the policy at support.google.com/youtube/answer/1620498 before you post, and remember that prize promotions are also regulated by local law.

How do entrants know the draw was actually fair?

Give them something they can check themselves. Hadzy publishes a public proof page for a draw at hadzy.com/g/{proofId}: anyone with the link can open it and see the result, rather than taking a screenshot on faith. Distrust of the draw is the most common complaint about creator giveaways, and a verifiable link is the cheapest fix.

Start your draw

Paste your giveaway video’s URL on the Hadzy home page or go straight to the giveaway picker.