YouTube’s looking to help creators boost their channel subscriber counts for the holidays, with a new program that will enable creators to gift 10 subscriptions per month to their audience, free of charge.
creators, it’s gifting season ???? now gift memberships free of charge
— TeamYouTube (@TeamYouTube) December 12, 2023
every month eligible creators can gift 10 memberships to give viewers access to channel membership perks like custom emoji & much more ????
start gifting in live chat w/ steps here: https://t.co/hgmGjIMQdE pic.twitter.com/TESfqn20HP
Which, ideally, will see at least some of these test subscribers go on to become fully-fledged paying members, with this initial offer designed to help give them a taste of what they can expect from a paid membership to your content.
As explained by YouTube:
“Starting today, if you’re an eligible creator with channel memberships enabled on your channel, you now get memberships at the start of every month that you can gift to your viewers totally free of charge! This makes it easier for you to drive awareness of your channel memberships perks and give your top fans 1-month of access to things like custom emojis, members-only content, & much more.”
So it’s only a one-month membership, not an annual subscription, but again, the idea is that this will act as enough of an enticement to get these viewers to pay for your channel, kick-starting the member process.
The option is only available to channels that offer a membership tier below $5, so again, it’s really aimed at lower-end, starting out channels, as a means to spark more interest.
But it could be a good way to showcase what you offer, and with the right planning and incentives, it could help to drive a lot more paying members.
Eligible creators can gift their 10 free memberships per month during a live stream or Premiere:
- Click the "$” icon within the live chat
- Select “Membership gifting”
- Click “Gift 5 Now”
YouTube says that creators can distribute gift memberships in bundles of 5, twice a month.
“This can either be on the same stream or on streams throughout the month. Undistributed gift memberships don’t roll over to the following month and reset on the 1st of every month.”
It’s a good enticement, and as we head into the season of giving it could be a valuable offering to boost your channel members.
You can read more about YouTube’s membership gifting option here.
