Looking for live stream giveaway ideas? Not only are giveaways fun and interactive, but they also work great as an engagement tool to keep viewers active during your stream.

But hosting a live giveaway isn't always easy. You can spend a lot of time during your stream collecting names and choosing a random audience member. There are certainly many moving parts involved – especially if you don't have the right tool in your live streaming setup.

Then there's the all-important prize, what should you give away?

And don't forget to factor in your budget. What can you give away that won't break the bank but also aligns with the overall objectives of your live streams?

As you can see, there is a lot to think about.

In this guide, we'll discuss several live stream giveaway ideas – and even show you an easy way to run your own giveaways, to ensure they run smoothly in your live streams.

Live Stream Giveaway Ideas – Why Do They Matter?

You may already know who your audience is. You may also know what your viewers love, when they are most likely to be active on different platforms, and so on. Maybe, you've been doing everything to be regular with your live streams and promote them well.

But when it comes to engaging your audience better, something might be missing.

Enter giveaways - a powerful way to help you engage and grow your live streaming audience.

Learning about multiple live stream giveaway ideas can further enhance your interactions with viewers. This takes us to another question - why do you need to run giveaways anyway?

Why Run Live Stream Giveaways?

The success of your live stream hinges on the quality of your content. So, where does running a live stream giveaway fit into the picture? Well, here's a list of practical uses of live giveaways and why you must consider rolling them out:

  • Bring in more views – A live giveaway helps bring more views. People love gifts. So, they will tune in when they know there are high chances of winning one. Thus, if you want to increase your live stream viewership, hosting a giveaway is a great idea.
  • Break up a live broadcast – Every live stream needs to be broken into different sections for the audience to grab the content easily. Adding a giveaway midstream helps you break up a live stream. Even if you put it towards the end of the broadcast, it acts as a great sign-off, leaving your viewers on a happy note.
  • Lower the dropout rate – Introducing a giveaway and repeatedly reminding your viewers about it can lower the dropout rate at the beginning of the broadcast and even midstream. You can also run multiple giveaways throughout the broadcast to keep viewers watching for longer periods of time.
  • Drive your CTA – Ending your live streams with a simple CTA can result in hard selling, and no creator wants that. However, when you run a giveaway, you can drive actions easily by incentivizing using a prize -- that could lead back to other products, goods and services you offer. In turn, it's more organic and conversational.
  • Build a community – Another reason to add giveaways to your live video strategy is that they can help build a community by bringing like-minded individuals together. For example, if you're a life coach and have a live stream on different life coaching techniques, you can give away free one-on-one sessions and build a community of people interested in getting life coaching, or even starting their own business.

What Should You Give Away During Your Stream?

Imagine if you could be live on video and randomly select one of your viewers to give things away to. Of course, many ideas are friendlier on the budget, while others could involve money. But these should be strategic enough to help your audience make the most of your brand.

Let's take a look at some of the best live stream giveaway ideas:

Good Ideas For Live Stream Giveaways

There are so many different ways you can launch giveaways and contests, here are a few ideas for giveaways that won't cost you money.

Free Live Stream Giveaway Ideas

1. Gift Your Time

This can be utilized in a lot of different ways. Depending on what you do, you can spend your time offering some service, guidance, or help. For example, it could be a 30-minute coaching session or a two-hour assessment that helps someone get started.

It could also look like an audit of some sort. Let's say you're a marketing person. In this case, you can do a social media audit. This is an excellent way for them to get a sample of what it's like to work with you from a service standpoint and lead to future business opportunities and work with clients.

Now, here's the deal. It doesn't really cost you anything except your time.

So again, this is a terrific way for you to give something away that's related to what you do and doesn't cost you any money.

2. A Free Product (Physical Or Digital)

This live stream giveaway idea is actually free but kind of not free. When it comes to giving a free product, it could be anything from an online course, a downloadable PDF, to an actual physical product that you have already made and are ready to ship out.

Typically, these items are already produced or sitting on the shelf, virtually or physically. And the cost to you is pretty minimal. So, again, this is a great thing you can give out. It's a sample of your work and has an immense perceived value. So, if you already have something on the shelf, this is a superb idea for you to try.

Check out how Gibson Reports gives away a customized 3D printed drill bit to their giveaway winner in this live stream.

On the other hand, if you have peers, partners, or affiliates that you work with, you could give away one of their items. A lot of times, you can do an exchange with your peers, partners, or collaborators. For example, you can say, "Hey, I have an online course. How about I give you one of these, and you can give it to your audience. In exchange, if you give me one of yours, I'll give it away to my audience."

Thus, look at your peers and see if they have something that they are willing to offer as well. Perhaps, it could be a little bit of their free time too.

3. Bring An Audience Member To Your Live Stream As A Guest

This idea is a lot of fun, but you may need to get creative. So, if you have a live show and host guests, it would be a fun way to pick somebody that will be showcased in your content.

You can use StreamYard's Giveaway Tool to randomly select one of your viewers to be scheduled for an upcoming show. So, randomly pick that person and then send them a private message to schedule a time to have them be a guest on your show. They will then be able to join you backstage and come on live.

4. Gift Cards

You can look at some low-budget items like gift cards. Some local businesses in your area might be open to partnering with you. You may even get donations from some companies.

If you decide to work with local businesses, you may find that many are willing to do this to help spread the word about their brands. So, don't be afraid to build relationships in your community, and don't be scared to ask.

5. Discount Codes, Coupons, and Vouchers

While you can always give away vouchers and gift cards from other brands, make it a little more personal and give away discount codes, coupons, or vouchers for your product or service. Not only is this a simple and highly effective idea, but it also helps you promote your business and convert those cooler leads.

Paid Live Stream Giveaway Ideas

If you have the budget, here are some paid live stream giveaway ideas to consider.

Remember, you can often generate large amounts of engagement with free and inexpensive items, so don't think you have to spend a lot.

1. Big-Ticket Items

Big-ticket items might be expensive, but these are highly desirable and bring in many viewers if introduced correctly. Note that giving big-ticket items shouldn't come across as boastful. Instead, you need to let your audience know how it can benefit them.

For example, if most of your live stream viewers are vloggers, and you want to give away a relevant item, consider the Sony ZV-E10. You can then highlight why this may be the camera you use, and how it can help them.

If you decide to give away big-ticket items, you may not want this to be a regular occurrence, as it could get expensive. Rather, you could give one away when you reach certain milestones, such as reaching 10,000 or 20,000 subscribers on your YouTube channel.

2. Branded Merchandise

Humanize your live streaming brand with branded merchandise like t-shirts, coffee mugs, cushions, etc. Apart from building a stronger connection with your audience, these giveaways also work great for cross-promotion or word-of-mouth marketing.

So, if your live broadcasts focus on the health and yoga industry, consider giving away customized yoga mats with your brand's logo. You can also gift duffle bags or tank tops with your brand's name printed to get the word out about your brand. The key remains the same – give your viewers something they will appreciate.

For example, in this video, Spill It gifts a branded beanie to the winner.

Pro Tip: Include a note, along with a relevant branded hashtag, in the package that you send out, to encourage winners to share their prize with their network on social media.

3. Sponsor A Getaway

Live streaming burnout is real. So, if your audience comprises content creators, entrepreneurs, and live streamers, it would be a fantastic idea to sponsor a getaway. While this could be a pretty expensive giveaway, it will add immense value to your viewers' lives. But, it will also help you bring more views to your future live streams if that's one of your biggest goals.

You don't have to sponsor a $10,000 trip to Las Vegas. Even a nearby getaway costing around $1,000 can be one of the most interesting live streaming giveaway ideas you'd ever host.

Alternatively, you could build relationships with other companies who might be interested in gifting a trip, in exchange for getting in front of your audience. All you have to do is ask.

4. Ticket To An Event

Giving a ticket to your audience to an upcoming event is another interesting live stream giveaway idea to try. It could be an offline, virtual, or even a hybrid event. You can even ask fans to join the event with you and give your giveaway a more significant boost.

Companies can also give away tickets to major upcoming industry-specific events and workshops.

Here’s an example of a live video from Piedmont Health Services & Sickle Cell Agency where the winner gets tickets to an event.

5. Pick A Prize

If you want to increase your live stream giveaway participation, then this idea might be the one. Give your winner the option to pick a prize of their choice from your products or services. Besides giving them what they want, it is a great way to host a fun and engaging giveaway experience for all the viewers. It will also provide information about your viewers' likes and dislikes and helps you gain insights into your most-loved products or services. You might even get some ideas for new products that you should create.

Bad Ideas For Live Stream Giveaways

Now that you have seen some good live stream giveaway ideas, let's discuss ideas that you should refrain from giving away

1. Expensive Tech

Be it the latest iPad, iPhone, MacBook, or big screen TV, unless you are an affiliate or the brand's rep, try and avoid giving these products to your audience just to grab eyeballs. Remember, the entire idea of hosting a giveaway is to form a stronger, healthier connection with your target audience.

Often, when you offer expensive tech, such as Apple products or gear for gaming, you tend to get entries from people who don't belong to your target market. They simply come for the giveaway, with no intention of ever coming back.

So while giving away the latest smartphone, tablet or laptop may seem enticing, you may not achieve the results you were looking for on your live stream.

2. Clickbait Items

Adding on to the point mentioned above, never host a giveaway only for the sake of engagement. Many live streamers host giveaways to attract likes and shares; when people win, they never return. Avoid falling into this category and never sell clickbait items to generate brand awareness, as it can do more harm than good for your brand. When you run contests just for clicks, people will eventually lose interest, and you'll lose credibility.

3. Undesirable/Cheap Items

While you can offer gifts that don't cost you a penny, they should be meaningful to your audience. The caveat here is to provide something that's value-added, not cheap. Giving away items that have become obsolete or outdated, is a big no!

Instead, you can always go free, but don't go cheap.

4. Irrelevant Items

Keep your giveaways relatable and choose an appropriate gift. For example, you don't want to be giving away makeup kits to an audience that loves gaming.

Instead, you could give away a brand new Elgato Stream Deck or a Shure SM7B to an audience of content creators and live streamers. Just pick a prize that pairs nicely with your industry.

5. Cash

Similar to Apple products, cash is welcomed by all and sundry. So, as long as your ideal giveaway participant isn't "everyone", avoid giving cash prizes. If you do, chances are – you'd invite people who don't even know what your brand does. All they'd be interested in is winning the cash prize.

Rather than giving away cash, use it to buy something that your niche would value. Remember that hosting successful giveaways depends on how you portray your brand. And you'd never want to show it in a bad light just to get some hype.

How To Use StreamYard For Your Live Stream Giveaways

When it comes to using live stream giveaway ideas, half the battle is actually a method to pick a live giveaway participant randomly. At StreamYard, we understand how powerful giveaways, contests, and engaging content are.

For that reason, we have an exclusive StreamYard Giveaway Tool available for free for all StreamYard users.

It makes live giveaways super fun and very engaging for your audience. This is how:

Step 1 – Log In And Begin Your Live Broadcast

Log into your StreamYard account, create a broadcast and start live streaming.

Step 2 – Go To The StreamYard Giveaway Tool

In a separate browser tab, go to streamyard.com/giveaway, and choose your "Broadcast" in which you want to host your live giveaway. Then, type in the prompt for your audience in the "Match text" box.

You can choose to use a hashtag, leave the box blank to collect entries from all users who comment, or simply use a keyword.

Once done, click "Start collecting comments".

Pro Tip: Be sure to leave the giveaway tool open during your live streams, so that it can collect entries.

Step 3: Draw A Winner

In the giveaway tool, once you've received a good number of entries, draw the winner by hitting the "Draw" tab button.

And, in no time, you'll have the winner on the screen.

Pro Tip: The StreamYard Giveaway Tool will randomly pick a winner for you from the social media destinations you have connected. Make sure you're sharing the giveaway tool screen during this process to help your audience see how you pick the winner.

Here's a video you can check out to know more about live stream giveaway ideas and using StreamYard for your giveaways:

FAQs

What Is the StreamYard Giveaway Tool?

It's a free tool that allows you to select a random member of your live audience for a giveaway or drawing.

Can I Run A Giveaway During My Live Stream?

Yes, you can. Use StreamYard Giveaway Tool to draw a winner in your live stream giveaway easily.

Can I Run Multiple Giveaways During My Live Stream?

Yes, you can. If you want to run three giveaways at the same time, simply open the StreamYard Giveaway Tool three times and start the giveaways so that they run in the background.

For example, you could run one giveaway for all comments, another using a hashtag, and a third using a specific keyword.

Pro Tip: Hashtags and keywords are not case-sensitive.

I Live Stream On Multiple Destinations. Can The StreamYard Giveaway Tool Draw Entries From All The Destinations?

Yes, this StreamYard tool includes comments from all live streaming destinations you have selected, that allow for comments inside of your Studio.

How Do I Access the Giveaway Tool?

To access the giveaway tool, simply go to streamyard.com/giveaway.

When Is the Best Time To Host A Live Stream?

It's always a good idea to include the giveaway towards the end of the stream. Anything too early may result in viewer dropouts once the giveaway is over. Here's a helpful video if you are trying to figure out the best time for launching giveaways for your live audience:

Final Words

Well, there you have it. These ideas will help you create remarkable live streams. But remember, if you're doing a giveaway, make sure you do some planning. For example, if you are going to offer somebody a free consultation, you might want to use a tool like Calendly or Acuity Scheduling, It will help the winner pick and schedule that free consultation.

If you need to get in touch with the winner, you can add a banner and have the winner email you. We suggest setting up an address specifically for your giveaway, such as giveaways@yourbusiness, or having the winner private message you through their social media accounts.

Finally, always follow all the compliance standards with any social media platform when you're running a giveaway. Those are easy to find. You can look at each platform to see what they are.

With that in mind, we're sure you're ready to rock and roll with your live stream giveaways

Start creating with StreamYard today

Get started - it's free!