Private Domain Traffic This concept originated from Taobao. Private domain traffic means that the traffic is your own, can be reused, is free, and directly reaches users. Each traffic unit is a user, accumulated on platforms such as WeChat official accounts, WeChat groups, personal WeChat accounts, Weibo, Xiaohongshu, Toutiao, and Douyin. In contrast to private domain traffic pools are public domain traffic platforms, such as Baidu, Taobao, and JD.com, where all traffic must be purchased, and it is becoming increasingly expensive. For example: Public domain traffic is like the ocean. In the beginning, there are many fish and few fishermen. Even if your skills are average, you might still catch something. As more fishermen arrive, the cost of catching fish rises. So many people start building their own fish ponds to raise fish, lowering the cost and making it easier to catch fish. The self-built fish pond is what we call private domain traffic. Misconceptions about Private Domain Traffic 1. Private Domain Traffic = WeChat Business (Weishang)? Many people think that building a private domain traffic pool means maintaining WeChat accounts, cultivating each account to have 5,000 friends, and posting ads on Moments to attract friends. Or it means pulling groups and doing fission to bring in people. Indeed, establishing and maintaining your own WeChat groups is a very effective private domain traffic method. Many groups working together can achieve good order conversion results. This is the prototype of WeChat business, but private domain traffic is not equal to WeChat business. Nowadays, many people equate private domain traffic with WeChat business. If you still have this mindset, even if you want to do it, you definitely won't do it well. The Essential Difference Between Private Domain Traffic and WeChat Business The essence of WeChat business is selling the dream of making money to everyone. Through agents and recruiting people, high-margin products circulate, with most products stocked at various levels of agents. Moments are flooded with ads, and the number of recruited downlines often exceeds the number of consumers. Products must be high-margin, high-frequency, and mass-market, such as face masks and weight-loss pills. The core of private domain traffic is operation and providing consumer value, bringing the brand closer to consumers. If you rush to harvest, unless your customer acquisition ability is very strong, such private domain traffic is meaningless. What everyone lacks now is not the method to build groups, but the method to keep groups active. Dead groups have no value. 2. Products with High Average Order Value and Low Repurchase Rate Are Not Suitable for Private Domain Traffic? People with this idea still have a mindset stuck in WeChat business selling, lacking operational thinking. I know a guy who sells jewelry. Jewelry is a product with genuinely high average order value and low repurchase rate. But he managed to make money by attracting fans through his official account, gathering fans in WeChat groups, and sharing on Moments. He does online, and his wife does offline. The offline store business is average, but online is thriving. Now he has even developed a paid group where fans pay to join his group to buy his products. That's where his operational excellence lies. (Of course, I can't share his methods, haha.) It's not that it can't be done; many people just haven't found the right method. Why Is Private Domain Traffic Powerful? 1. Increase Consumer Favorability and Loyalty Toward the Brand, and Improve Sales Conversion On e-commerce platforms, merchants and consumers can only complete one transaction. Once the transaction ends, the connection with the consumer ends. When you circle consumers, whether as a brand or an individual, you are not a cold account. Nowadays, everyone talks about persona, which is actually about using persona to build trust with consumers. Without trust, there is no business transaction. There are many operational methods to increase trust; flooding with ads is the worst strategy. 2. Word-of-Mouth Communication, Low-Cost Referral of New Customers The traffic gathered through various channels is actually a group of consumers who recognize the brand. Each person has their own social circle. So private domain traffic should consider word-of-mouth and sharing: Word-of-mouth: Through brand incentives, use consumers' social relationship chains to achieve word-of-mouth communication of the product. Sharing: Each consumer is also a communicator in their circle. In private domain traffic, it's easier to guide consumers to share products through incentives. Take beauty and skincare as an example: Every beauty-loving girl is an expert with hundreds or thousands of friends on Moments, possibly a blogger on Weibo or Xiaohongshu. Through their spontaneous dissemination, they build the brand's voice on self-media platforms. Many emerging brands lack market budgets and worry about finding KOLs for placement, but they overlook their consumers—those who know the brand and actually use the products. How to effectively stimulate consumer self-propagation is what brands should consider when doing private domain traffic. 3. Optimize Products and Provide Product Suggestions Often, when launching new products, brands conduct research through research agencies. They spend money, but the results may not represent real consumers. Now, through private domain traffic, brands can directly survey their consumer groups and feed back to the supply chain and products. It's efficient, effective, and saves research costs. 4. Clear Inventory and Sell Off-End Stock What do e-commerce businesses fear? Inventory! Inventory in hand is cash flow. Especially for apparel merchants during seasonal changes, looking at a warehouse full of goods is like looking at a pile of unusable cash. Now many big brands use Pinduoduo to sell off-end stock. For many small and medium brands, the amount of end-of-season stock is small, and cash flow is limited. It's not necessary to go on Pinduoduo. Private domain traffic is the best place for them to clear inventory and do group buying. How to Build Private Domain Traffic? Building private domain traffic can be done in several ways: ◢ Fish traffic from public domain traffic into your private domain; ◢ Fish traffic from others' private domains into your own; ◢ Fission within your own private domain to expand the traffic pool; ◢ Make the product self-propagating. For big brands, relying on brand premium has a self-traffic effect. People will directly go to their favorite brand stores to buy products, and they hold relatively abundant budgets, making traffic acquisition easier. If they make a placement mistake, they can fool the boss by saying it was for exposure. For some small and medium merchants, emerging brands, especially DTC brands, brand awareness is low, and the cost of acquiring new customers within Taobao is relatively high. Budgets are tight, and investing in a WeChat KOL might require extensive discussions with peers to ensure effective reach and ROI that meets expectations, then nervously make the placement. WeChat groups, WeChat official accounts, Weibo, Xiaohongshu, apps, etc., can all be understood as "private domain traffic," including various accounts' self-built "private domain traffic." The earliest Taobao influencer stores, like Zhang Dayi, Zhang Mofan, and Xue Li, accumulated fans on Weibo and monetized traffic on Taobao stores. But as Weibo activity declined, monetizing Weibo fans became increasingly difficult. Merchants shifted attention to other apps with longer user engagement. Registering on platforms is free, so "Two Micros, One Douyin + Xiaohongshu" has become standard for every brand. But besides WeChat, other platforms are hard to do well. Brands create content platforms to sell goods. Douyin's decentralization tests creativity, and many brands end up turning into ad posts, so why would consumers follow? Brands that do well on WeChat also have service accounts, posting four times a month, each time with benefits. Brands like Luckin Coffee that build their own app for private domain traffic are rare in the entire internet industry. It's good to have money. How to Drive Traffic Currently, e-commerce brands' external traffic acquisition mainly includes: ◢ Paid placement of marketing products (Guangdiantong, Fenghuo Tong, news app feeds, Dou+, etc.); ◢ KOL placements on various platforms, exposing within others' private domain traffic; ◢ Self-built accounts to create your own private domain traffic. 1. Paid Placement of Marketing Products Placement of various marketing products is mainly based on platform big data, recommending brand content to more precise audiences to acquire potential customers. This is still a public domain traffic approach. As long as there is budget and multiple optimizations, good placement results can be achieved. In the early stages of a platform, as long as you dare to invest, you can easily enjoy the platform's traffic dividend. Many people/institutions invested heavily in Guangdiantong when it first launched to attract fans to official accounts. At that time, the cost per fan was less than 1 yuan, and many big accounts grew during that period. Now, an MCN I know recently placed ads on Guangdiantong, and the cost per fan has exceeded 5 yuan. Many self-media people regret not investing heavily then. Instead of regretting Guangdiantong, it's better to seize opportunities on new platforms. Additionally, brands should always pay attention to emerging public domain traffic platforms, especially vertical platforms. Even if daily active users are only a few million, it's enough for acquiring precise traffic. 2. KOL Placement KOL content placement has become the standard posture for every merchant to acquire traffic and gain brand exposure. Although many bloggers are unwilling to do CPS, the key is that there are many platforms and large pools. Not to mention CPS, even free ones exist! For brands, at this stage, there are too many choices. They want to place ads on every platform and cover every platform, but budgets are limited, so trade-offs are necessary. Live Streaming: Why do I put live streaming first? Because many people still have deep misunderstandings about it. As a side note, a recent hot topic is that WeChat official accounts launched a live streaming feature. The "2018 China WeChat Top 500 Annual Report" shows that in 2018, the average reading count of official accounts was less than 2,000, a year-on-year decrease of 33%; the average reading count of top 500 accounts dropped by 13.8%. The launch of WeChat live streaming has reignited bloggers' confidence in making money in the WeChat ecosystem. With existing Taobao Live, Kuaishou Live, and Douyin Live, the e-commerce live streaming boom is about to arrive. Previously, shopping was a 2D scenario (text, images). Now it's 3D, with interaction, flash sales, discounts, and explanations. It's a huge marketing advancement. A simple example: Previously, when buying local specialties on Taobao, people were afraid they weren't "local" enough, given the prevalence of factory farming. So sellers would show their ID cards to prove they were veterans, increasing trust. Now, through live streaming cameras, you can see at a glance whether it's "local." Is there any other way to do this? Currently, the most effective for driving sales is Taobao Live, which has been around for 3 years, driving 100 billion GMV annually, with a store conversion rate of up to 65%. During last year's Double 11, Taobao anchor Wei Ya created a record of 300 million yuan in sales in one day. Taobao Live is a natural extension of Taobao's business, from "people looking for goods" search e-commerce to "goods looking for people" live e-commerce. Anchors in the live room act as online shopping guides, using interactions like trials, demonstrations, explanations, and Q&A to plant seeds for products, achieve instant conversion, and complete sales tasks. Many people think live streaming equals TV shopping, so I need to explain: Differences Between Live Streaming and TV Shopping ◢ Different audiences: TV shopping mainly targets middle-aged and elderly people, while live streaming mainly targets young women; ◢ Different interaction methods: TV shopping has no interaction, while live streaming has timely interaction, not only with the anchor but also with fans; ◢ Different products sold: TV shopping products are mainly high average order value, while live streaming products are mainly tens to one or two hundred yuan; WeChat WeChat is undoubtedly the social platform with the best e-commerce closed loop. Through official account content to attract fans and fission; personal accounts for communication and operation; WeChat groups, mini-programs, and WeChat stores for product conversion. The advantage of WeChat official accounts is that they carry long-form images and text, especially suitable for functional product placement, such as maternal and child, skincare, and high average order value products. By telling stories, analyzing product ingredients, and providing endorsements, they increase user trust. Now, WeChat placements are basically paid advertising. As brands pay more attention to results, requirements for accounts are getting higher, specifically reflected in ROI. A common phrase is: "Does this account drive sales?" To be honest, KOLs themselves find it hard to guarantee ROI, which is closely related to brand, unit price, discount strength, and article structure. Take beauty and skincare brands as an example. For new brands, achieving ROI 1:0.5 on WeChat is already good. For well-known brands, ROI 1:1 or even 2 is basically achievable, and with luck, higher. For details, see an article I wrote earlier. Weibo Weibo is the most suitable platform for communication and building buzz. Weibo is more open and easier to be searched, so such a platform cannot be missed. Weibo is especially suitable for brands with limited budgets: ◢ Low cost: Currently, the overall placement cost on Weibo is much lower than WeChat official accounts; ◢ Links on Weibo can directly jump to Taobao and Tmall, reducing loss rate; ◢ Suitable for high average order value products: Although people around me use WeChat more frequently than Weibo, after talking with several brands, the placement effect on Weibo for food, daily necessities, and home furnishings is quite good, and it's suitable for high average order value products. I know several companies that can guarantee ROI, and they guarantee Weibo ROI, not WeChat. When placing ads on Weibo, don't be superstitious about verified users. Many ordinary users with tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of fans have very good interaction rates. For brands: ◢ You can cooperate with agencies that guarantee ROI; ◢ You can also exchange gifts; ◢ Search by keywords to find precise, vertical bloggers. I am completely pessimistic about long videos on Weibo for planting seeds. Very few consumers will spend a few minutes watching a video. Even if they finish watching, without a Weibo showcase, the sales conversion rate is very unsatisfactory. Douyin and Kuaishou Currently, Kuaishou and Douyin are very suitable for individual and small team entrepreneurs. Especially Douyin, which uses Toutiao's intelligent recommendation mechanism (similar to Taobao's personalized recommendation), allowing novices with no fan base to get high exposure. As long as the content matches the platform's user characteristics, is high-quality, interesting, and provides value to users, it can attract fans. Gaining tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of fans overnight is not a dream. Whether Douyin or Kuaishou, so far no brand has done well with its own account, mainly because brands cannot sustain the ability to produce quality content. But Kuaishou and Douyin are slightly different: On Kuaishou, brands are suitable for live streaming and short videos directly advertising products. Kuaishou launched the Maitian Plan and Liaoyuan Plan to teach merchants how to sell. On Douyin, product placement and feed ads are suitable. The platform proposed the Xingtu Plan to teach brands how to place ads. If your product's average order value is above 50 yuan, Kuaishou's effect is not good. Although Kuaishou's Sandage can bring in over 100 million yuan in sales in one night, it's not universal, determined by Kuaishou's user base. High average order value products are basically hard to promote on Kuaishou. So if you are a brand with an average order value above 50 yuan, what should you do?

  1. Place Douyin feed ads, charged by CPM;
  2. Place ads with vertical bloggers on Douyin for product placement. The best way is to appear in multi-product planting, which is easier for consumers to accept;
  3. Open your own account to create short videos, then invest in Dou+ to have the system recommend your videos to more people, increasing views. But remember, Dou+ is just a catalyst. The fundamental thing is that video quality cannot be too poor, otherwise no matter how much Dou+ you invest, it's useless. Also, the placement time should be shortly after the video is published, and you should actively interact with user comments, which helps improve the account's quality score. Xiaohongshu The emergence of Xiaohongshu has cultivated the habit of checking Xiaohongshu before shopping. This is why, although Xiaohongshu's monthly active users are not as high as Weibo, its effect on planting and weeding is better than Weibo. High-appearance products are very suitable for Xiaohongshu planting, including food, beauty, daily necessities, and home decor. Currently, brands cooperate with Xiaohongshu KOLs in two main ways:
  4. Paid placement with various vertical bloggers. Currently, Xiaohongshu blogger prices are more cost-effective compared to Weibo and WeChat. Tens of thousands of yuan can place a hundred articles;
  5. Gift exchange with bloggers for free traffic exposure: Currently, Xiaohongshu bloggers' commercialization ability is still very weak, especially bloggers with fewer than 50,000 fans, but their data is relatively authentic; I know many brands have dedicated personnel to connect and discover bloggers, forming their own blogger pool, regularly sending products to bloggers, and then continuously optimizing blogger quality through data comparison. Whether you have a budget or not, this approach is an increment, a steady stream, accumulating over time. Bilibili Bilibili is a magical website, gathering a large number of Generation Z, an unprecedented gathering of high-consuming young users, with three major characteristics:
  6. Very young: users born after 1990 account for over 80%;
  7. Strong stickiness: Bilibili users spend an average of 95 minutes per day;
  8. High consumption: nearly half of users come from first-tier cities, with affluent family conditions. Cooperation with Bilibili bloggers is currently mainly through product placement. It is said that Bilibili has signed all bloggers with over 20,000 fans for commercialization, but even so, except for top bloggers, the rest are still very difficult to commercialize. This gives brands and bloggers the opportunity for free cooperation. Bloggers with fewer than 20,000 fans can follow the Xiaohongshu model, using gift exchange to achieve brand exposure. After talking with several brands, the effect of beauty and skincare products on Bilibili is very good. Summary As brands demand more precise traffic, KOLs in vertical fields on various platforms will be increasingly favored by brands, while the commercialization opportunities for accounts with broad fans, such as emotional, chicken soup, and entertainment accounts, will become fewer.
  1. An obvious sign is that accounts like Shidian Reading and Vision Story cannot monetize through physical products; they can only monetize through knowledge payment.
  2. Previously, brands with large budgets thought cooperating with such accounts was beneficial for brand endorsement and tone, but this mindset is quietly changing. Taking beauty and food brands as examples, placing ads on such accounts with 100k+ reads has far less effect than vertical accounts with 100k+ reads, let alone brand effect. Self-media platforms such as Toutiao, Douyin, Xiaohongshu, and Kuaishou are rapidly rising. Although they can barely be called "private domain traffic," they are not so pure. These platforms will not allow marketing accounts to exist too exaggeratedly for long. For example, Xiaohongshu publicly cleaned up KOLs, deleting and cleaning various Xiaohongshu accounts that sell goods. Douyin has also been continuously cracking down on leaving personal WeChat accounts in the bio. For these UGC content platforms, content quality is the first priority, but many e-commerce merchants do not have such production capabilities. They can only place KOL product placements to achieve brand exposure, and then achieve sales conversion on the platform mall or Taobao/Tmall. For individual entrepreneurs and small teams, self-media platforms have basically become a pipeline for private domain traffic. Through platform content exposure, they leave personal WeChat accounts and carry private domain traffic in the WeChat ecosystem. The battle for traffic will continue. You cannot rely solely on buying traffic, otherwise you will become addicted. The effect is not good, but you dare not stop placement. Once you stop, there will be no transactions, and when you resume, the traffic cost will be even higher. Source: Marketing Old Wang (ID: wltx-2015) Tips will be paid 400-2000 yuan once adopted. China FMCG + Internet Professional New Media Committed to FMCG manufacturer and distributor transformation and channel digital solutions