Promote your YouTube channel’s memberships program

Once you’ve created your memberships offer, you’re ready to promote your channel membership program to viewers. To promote your memberships program you can add /join to the end of your channel URL to link directly to your membership window.

You can add this link:

To your video description.
On cards and end screens in your videos.
In a community post.
On your other social media channels.

To tell viewers more about your program and get them excited about your perks, add an intro video that will surface in your membership window. You and your channel members can also gift memberships to let non-members access the perks of membership for 1 month.

Set and manage your intro video

You can create a video that will be viewable by anyone who clicks the Join button. You can use this intro video to get your viewers excited about joining your channel and tell them more about your memberships program.

Intro Videos

Here are a few rules that you should know about intro videos before you add one to your memberships window:

Ads will not run on intro videos
Your intro video must follow YouTube’s Community Guidelines
Your intro video can’t have 3rd party copyright claims
Your intro video can’t have music claims against it
Your intro video can’t be set as made for kids
If you want to mention specific prices of your levels, be mindful that prices can vary depending on platform and country/region

Add or edit an intro video

Create your intro video and make sure you publish as Unlisted.
Use a computer to sign in to YouTube Studio.
In the left menu, select Earn Memberships.
1. To add a new video: Under “Your memberships offer,” next to “Intro video,” click ADD.
2. To edit or delete an existing intro video: Under “Your memberships offer,” next to “Intro video,” click Edit .

Gift a membership

During live streams or Premieres, you or your viewers can buy the opportunity for other viewers to access the perks of a channel membership for one month.

Once you or a channel member gifts a membership, a countdown ticker will highlight the purchase in live chat for a limited amount of time. The amount of time depends on the purchase amount. If the live chat or live stream ends before the gift is announced, it will still be distributed to viewers. A gift membership purchase is considered fulfilled once YouTube distributes the first gift membership to a viewer.

Memberships Gifting

How viewers get gift memberships

Viewers must opt in to be eligible for gift memberships. Once a viewer opts-in to allow gift memberships on your channel, they’re eligible for any current or future memberships gifted on your channel.

You can encourage viewers to opt in for gifts by sharing your unique opt-in URL across your channel and content:

youtube.com/channel/{external_channel_id}/allow_gifts, OR
youtube.com/channel/{channel_name}/allow_gifts

You can find your unique external channel ID here.

Promotional gift memberships

If you have a membership tier below $5, we may give you promotional gift memberships to distribute to viewers each month. Promotional gift memberships are not charged to you or viewers, and you don’t earn revenue on these gift memberships. Promotional gift memberships are available on the first of each month, and do not carry over month to month.

You have to gift the promotional memberships you’re given before you can buy any for your viewers. You can gift the promotional memberships, in sets of 5, the same way you gift memberships you buy during live streams or Premieres.

To view and gift your promotional memberships, go to a live stream or Premiere’s live chat and select

Membership gifting

Gift 5 now.

Note: Promotional gift memberships are not currently available for brand accounts. We’re working to expand availability.

FAQs for promoting your memberships program

Why doesn’t the "Join" button show up for my viewers?

There could be various reasons, including, but not limited to:

You haven’t turned on memberships for your channel.
Your viewer isn’t in a country/region where memberships are available.
Your video is set as made for kids.
The "Join" button isn’t available on all platforms yet. The "Join" button only appears on eligible watch pages. For example, watch pages of videos claimed by certain music partners are not eligible.

Here are some possible solutions if the issue is platform-related:

Viewers can click the Join button on your channel homepage.
Viewers can add /join to the end of your channel URL to link directly to your membership window.
You can also add to your /join link to your video descriptions.
Viewers can join your channel using a computer, and will still have access to perks on all available platforms.

What analytics are available for my memberships program?

Learn what analytics are available in YouTube Studio.

Was this helpful?

How can we improve it?