How to operate the CPS project of takeaway coupon public account?

You can often see advertisements like this on the Internet:

"Many netizens said that they didn't order one-yuan takeout by following my method, so I will demonstrate it again today." "The poorer people are, the more expensive takeout they order, and the richer people are, the more they know how to order cheap takeout."

In the video, "insiders" such as the merchant, the delivery guy, the ex-girlfriend of the milk tea shop employee, etc. revealed the loopholes in the takeaway food delivery and taught everyone how to order takeout every day for a month and only spend 300 yuan. Every video ends with the same “standard ending”: follow XX official account, receive a large red envelope and order takeout. The "official account" here refers to the takeaway coupon official account, that is, those official accounts that stimulate users to order takeout and earn commissions by sending Meituan and Ele.me takeaway coupons. According to data from Xinbang Youzhuan, the number of public accounts issuing takeout coupons has been steadily increasing since the first half of 2020.

As of now, there are 65,630 public accounts with words such as "coupon", "save money", "discount on purchases over a certain amount", "takeout", "foodie subsidy ", "takeout loophole", and "discount coupon" in their names or descriptions, including 6,393 subscription accounts and 1,689 service accounts. Today, the public account for takeaway coupons has already become a business. Some people have even achieved a monthly income of one million, and the number of players joining in is increasing day by day.

We are curious about how these takeaway coupons public accounts attract traffic, operate, and then make money? What are the twists and turns of the "business secrets"?

01 How to use a takeaway coupon public account?

By learning from many professionals in the takeaway coupon public account, we got a complete set of operation procedures for the takeaway coupon public account:

1. First, register a service account, successfully authenticate and activate the WeChat payment function. If you already have a subscription account with a fan base, you can also directly access the takeaway coupon link, but it may affect the reading experience of the original fans.

2. Secondly, set up the menu bar, access the takeaway coupon link, and build a jump mini program.

3. Then, it is to attract traffic through channels, increase fans, and encourage fans to place orders through refined operations.

This leads to a key question: where do the takeaway coupons come from?

According to some players of the takeaway coupons public account, these takeaway coupons actually mainly come from official promotion activities of takeaway platforms such as Meituan and Ele.me, and promoters only need to share exclusive promotion links.

For example, Ele.me’s promotional links come from Taobao Alliance App and Ele.me App. Taking Taobao Alliance as an example, after users register and log in, they can find the promotion link in "My-Food, Drink and Fun" and promote according to the requirements. Meituan’s official promotional links come from Meituan Alliance, Meituan Distribution Alliance and the official account “Meituan Waimai Tianzhuan”. One thing that needs to be noted is that Meituan Alliance and Meituan Distribution Alliance must be in a corporate capacity before they can apply for promotion.

In fact, everyone can share these links, "but sharing links through official accounts effectively saves the time of manual sharing and reaches a wider user group," said one participant.

After setting up the takeaway coupons, "traffic diversion" is a very important link.

Information flow ads such as "Revealing the Secret - Large Red Packets - Follow the Official Account - Save Money on Ordering Takeout" are currently the more common way of online traffic generation, which directs traffic to official accounts through multiple platforms such as Zhihu, WeChat, Weibo, Douyin, and Kuaishou. In addition to information flow advertising, there are also ways to follow public accounts for lottery, red envelope covers, and social media advertising. Some people also mentioned a "wild way" - getting free advertising from peers to intercept traffic.

They commented under video ad A: "This is true, I really received a big red envelope from public account B" to grab the traffic. However, this method also carries the risk of being reported and blocked by competitors. There is also public domain traffic from e-commerce platforms such as Taobao, JD.com, and Pinduoduo, which is also a powerful tool for attracting traffic.

These e-commerce platforms have a large number of "takeout monthly card memberships" priced at 0.01 yuan. The introduction says "New store opening, loss-making to increase sales, one cent to buy 5 yuan * 6 no-threshold red packets" and "Large red packets, no limit on cities, you can collect them in the chat window after placing an order." Only after you place an order will a robot customer service representative inform you that the product is a big-ticket takeaway coupon, and that you can get it for free with one purchase, which is more cost-effective than a takeaway membership, and will guide you to follow the official account.

In addition to online, offline is also an important channel for attracting traffic.

Taobao shop owner Zhou Zhou joined the takeaway coupon public account in May this year. In the past four months, the number of fans of the public account has increased by more than 1,900. He adopted the offline customer acquisition method. As a Taobao shop owner with a monthly sales volume of 60,000, Zhou Zhou's shop itself has a certain traffic base. He puts small QR code cards of the official account in express products and sends them out. In the previous month, he sent out 80,000 cards, gained 880 fans, and the conversion rate was about 1.2%.

02 What are the ways to make money with the takeaway coupon public account takeaway CPS?

Huang Hai, the founder of Yunzhan Development Platform, started using official accounts to promote takeaway coupons in 2019, and has accumulated more than 2 million fans to date. By March this year, he had achieved a monthly income of more than 1 million yuan through the takeaway coupon public account. Huang Hai’s income all comes from the commissions he gets from sharing coupons.

It is understood that the commission for each order of Ele.me promotion link is 6%, and the commission of Meituan is 3%. This means that if a user orders a takeaway meal worth 30 yuan on Ele.me through the official account recommendation link, the service account owner can earn 1.8 yuan. Zhou Zhou revealed that his average daily income has remained at around 62 yuan recently. Because of this rebate and commission model, people in the industry call the takeaway coupon public account the takeaway CPS (cost per sale) project.

The owner of the account with a wide range of channels has diversified the coupons to include shopping coupons, movie coupons, taxi coupons, 10% off phone recharges, etc., breaking the dependence on "takeaway coupons" and increasing income sources. Some top public accounts will also adopt a tiered rebate model, choosing to give up part of the commission in order to expand traffic. Under this rebate model, the public account owner's final income is approximately 20% of the commission.

Huang Hai believes that this method of rebate distribution can effectively improve user stickiness and save the cost of attracting new customers. On a certain rebate platform, consumers receive income after ordering takeout with coupons. Although each person does not earn much, the top traders can still earn considerable income based on the huge fan base.

Taking a public account that provides takeaway coupons with commission rebates as an example, users can not only receive red envelopes for takeaway coupons, but can also become "group leaders" and earn commissions from promotions by subordinate members. "My Team" has first-level members, second-level members, first-level partners and valid members. For every user promoted to join "My Team", the promoter can receive a referral reward of 0.3 yuan. Ordinary members can collect 35% of the commission from the first-level partner and 15% of the commission from the second-level partner. After upgrading to a platform partner, you can draw an additional 13% commission from the third to unlimited levels on the original basis. However, after the withdrawal reaches 100 yuan, you also need to "pay" 8 yuan to the superior partner. If you become a platform shareholder, there are further commission rules (as shown in the figure below). However, the distribution rebate model is not suitable for everyone. If it cannot attract more people into the system, this model may not work. "If you don't know how to lead a team, you might die at the start."

03 Is the takeaway coupon public account a good long-term business?

The figure of a million per month has made many people jealous and they are rushing to join in. However, as the takeaway coupon public account becomes increasingly popular, the early time bonus is disappearing and the account operating costs are increasing. Among them, the per-person cost of information flow advertising has increased significantly, and the payback period has been continuously lengthened. Currently, the average cost of information flow advertising in various channels is about 8 to 15 yuan per person, which has increased by about 5 times compared with last year, and the payback period has also been extended from the initial average of 3 months to about 8 months. “Unless you have a lot of money, it is not recommended to use this method to quickly increase your followers at this stage.”

Moreover, these fans who are acquired with huge investment may not necessarily be retained. Zhou Zhou mentioned that although his account was growing overall, the phenomenon of losing followers in a single day persisted, and the rate of new users unfollowing was around 20%. Moreover, the push messages of the service account are located in the dialog box. When the push message appears suddenly once a week, it will cause fans to unfollow.

Some accounts will use various operational means to retain these fans and increase the order rate, such as connecting to third-party mini-program services to obtain services such as sending messages to interactive users within 48 hours, customizing message reminders, and automatically sending messages after following. A public account for takeaway coupons has taken operations to the extreme. Users can discuss everything related to food through the "Foodie Radio", record their daily meals through the "Deliciousness Maker", and solve the ultimate question of "what to eat today" on the "What to Eat Gachapon Machine".

In order to increase the user repurchase rate, some account owners directly direct their fans to the corporate WeChat group, and send an "exclusive" link to each fan who joins. Of course, no matter how hard the owners of these takeaway coupon public accounts try, they cannot escape the policy influence of the takeaway platform.

At the beginning of June this year, Meituan’s commission ratio dropped from 6% to 3%, and Meituan’s single commission income was directly cut in half. However, from an overall perspective, the overall revenue did not change much before and after the adjustment. This is because Meituan also changed the commission rules. The 6% commission rate follows the "coupon verification" method, that is, the promoter can only get the commission if the user uses the coupon to place an order. The 3% commission rate applies to "click attribution", that is, the main user clicks on the link and can get the commission regardless of whether a red envelope is used when placing an order.

Policy changes do affect operations and payback periods, but this is force majeure. "Business definitely involves risks," Huang Hai said from a businessman's perspective. Therefore, those who want to join the game should be cautious and not rely on blindly investing large amounts of money to violently increase the number of followers. Instead, you should use the promotion and operation methods that suit you to achieve results.

For the audience of the takeaway coupon public account, getting discounts is naturally a good thing, and every bit of savings counts. However, what everyone is most worried about is whether they will be "cheated" after relying too much on it. After all, many things on the Internet are full of tricks. Who can say for sure what the end of takeaway coupons will be?