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Guides Coupon Creator

BOGO Coupons: How to Run a Buy One Get One Deal That Prints and Expires

6 min read

A BOGO deal is the offer people understand without reading the fine print: buy one, get one. It is the most-searched coupon type for that reason, and it is also the easiest one to lose money on, because "free" is doing a lot of work in that sentence. This guide is the math first, then the terms, then the coupon itself, built with the free Coupon Creator plugin in about an hour.

What a BOGO actually costs

Every BOGO is a discount in disguise. Know which one you are giving before you print it.

The offer Real discount Units moved When it works
Buy one, get one free 50% off each 2 Margin above 50%, perishable stock, a slow day, a new item people have not tried
Buy one, get one 50% off 25% off each 2 Most retail; keeps the second unit profitable
Buy two, get one free 33% off each 3 Consumables people stock up on: coffee, supplements, car washes
Buy one, get one for a friend 50% off, split 2 people Services and classes: the second person is a new customer

Two reasons a BOGO beats "50% off" even when the math is identical. The customer pays full price for the first item, so your average ticket holds. And the second unit leaves the building, which is the point when the stock is seasonal or has a shelf life.

1. Pick the BOGO that fits (10 minutes)

  • Restaurant. Buy one entrée, get one free, Tuesday and Wednesday only. Fills the two emptiest nights without touching the weekend. For a lighter version: buy one entrée, get a free appetizer or dessert.
  • Salon, spa, auto, dental. Buy one service, get a second service or an add-on free. The second service is usually the one with the best margin, so the "free" costs you little.
  • Retail. Buy one, get one 50% off on a category, not the whole store: "all candles," "any two tees." The category keeps the discount away from the items you sell at full price anyway.
  • Classes, memberships, events. Buy one, bring a friend free. You are paying for a referral with a seat that was empty.
  • Coffee, bakery, car wash. Buy two, get one free. Three visits instead of one.

Pick one. A page with four BOGO variants reads like a clearance.

2. Write the terms before the coupon (10 minutes)

The terms are the whole difference between a BOGO that works and one that gets stretched. Five lines, in this order:

  1. What the free item is. "Free entrée of equal or lesser value," "free item up to $25." Without this line, the customer picks the most expensive thing on the menu as the free one.
  2. How many. "One coupon per table," "one per customer per visit."
  3. Where and when. "Dine-in only," "Tuesday and Wednesday," "in store only."
  4. What it does not stack with. "Not valid with other offers or on holidays."
  5. The expiration. Coupon Creator prints this on the coupon by itself; you set the date in step 3.

Keep the terms on the coupon. A customer at the counter cannot see your website's footnote, and your staff should not have to argue about it. Terms Field Formatting covers line breaks and bold inside the field.

3. Build the coupon (15 minutes)

Under Coupons, Add New:

  1. Business Name: your name as it should read above the deal.
  2. Deal: the headline, in the words a customer would say out loud. BUY ONE ENTRÉE, GET ONE FREE beats BOGO SPECIAL. The Deal field is plain text, so the offer can be anything your terms allow.
  3. Terms: the five lines from step 2.
  4. Pick a design. The templates page shows the twelve designs as live coupons. Modern Ticket with your brand color in the deal panel is the one to start with. Creating a Coupon walks the whole screen.
  5. Expiration tab: choose Expiration Date and pick the last valid day. The coupon stays up through that whole day and disappears the next morning. Expiration Dates has the options.
  6. Category: tick one. "Weeknight Deals," "BOGO," or the season. The category is what you will display, so the page never needs editing. Coupon Categories covers the screen.
  7. Publish. The Coupon Shortcode box now shows the shortcode for this one coupon.

If a designer already made the artwork, use the Image coupon type instead: upload the image, set the expiration, done. Creating an Image Coupon has the sizes that print cleanly.

4. Put it where people will see it (15 minutes)

Three placements, pick the ones you have:

  • On the page that sells the item. Paste the coupon's shortcode under the entrée, the service, the class. One coupon, one page, right where the decision is made.
  • On a deals page. One page at a short address, such as /deals/, with the category block or the shortcode: [coupon totalcoupons="6" category="weeknight-deals"]. Every live coupon in the category shows; expired ones drop out on their own. Displaying Coupons covers the block and the attributes.
  • In the sidebar or footer. The shortcode works in a text widget too. Can I display a coupon in a sidebar or widget?

Then click the coupon. It opens the print view, a clean page with only the coupon, which is what a customer prints or shows on their phone. How to Print a Coupon from a Website is the customer's side of that. Check it on a phone: most BOGO coupons are shown at the counter on a screen.

Share the page link, not a screenshot of the coupon. A screenshot cannot expire, and it will be back in March.

5. Stop one coupon from becoming ten (10 minutes)

A BOGO is the offer people most want to reuse. Three levels of control, from free to tight:

  • Free plugin. The expiration date ends the offer on a day you chose. "One per customer per visit" in the terms, and staff collect the printed coupon or mark the phone screen as used. For most counters this is enough.
  • Coupon Creator Pro. The print counter retires the coupon after a set number of print views, so "first 100 customers" is enforced by the coupon. Recurring expiration runs a "this week only" BOGO that resets itself every Monday.
  • The Add-ons. Dynamic Code stamps each printed coupon with its own code, and the coupon's edit screen lists every code issued, so staff can check one against the list. Click Reveal hides the code behind a button and counts reveals. For an online store, WooCommerce Coupons mirrors the coupon into a real checkout code with WooCommerce's own usage limits.

6. Know whether it worked (5 minutes)

Count the coupons at the register, or read the print counter if you have Pro. Then compare the BOGO nights with the same nights the month before: covers, ticket average, and how many faces were new. A BOGO that fills a slow night with regulars gave away margin. A BOGO that brought in people who come back on a full-price night paid for itself.

When not to run one

  • Thin margins. A buy one get one free on a 40% margin item loses money on every pair. Use buy one get one 50% off, or a gift with purchase.
  • Stock you cannot replace. A BOGO moves units fast. If the second unit is the last one, run a percentage off instead.
  • Every month. Customers learn the rhythm and wait for it. Two or three a year, tied to a reason: a slow season, a new item, an anniversary.
  • Premium positioning. "Free" reads as surplus. A bring-a-friend offer keeps the price intact and still fills the room.

For more offers built the same way, see Restaurant Coupon Ideas That Get Redeemed, and for a BOGO with a date attached, Holiday and Black Friday Coupon Pages in an Afternoon.