CBD is a growing and competitive industry, but if your brand wants to go anywhere, you need to know how to advertise. Unlike other markets, where advertising can be fairly straightforward and there aren’t as many regulations, CBD has very specific marketing and advertising challenges. Not only are there local laws and regulations, but each advertising platform has its own restrictions you have to respect and follow. 

Learn more about the rules and restrictions you have to deal with as you advertise across multiple platforms.

Facebook and Instagram

Since Facebook bought Instagram in 2012, CBD advertising laws on both platforms have been the same. Unfortunately, Facebook’s advertising standards reject most CBD ads. While their formal public ad guidelines never mention the restriction of CBD products or companies, there is an internal policy that categorizes CBD as an illegal product or service. 

The most confusing part of Facebook’s advertising standards is it can appear that certain CBD products and brands are able to advertise, while others find it impossible. Facebook isn’t playing favorites. Instead, it comes from improper planning and not paying attention to the details. If you set up the campaign incorrectly by using the wrong keywords in your advertisement or even on your landing page, your ad will be removed. 

It is possible to advertise on Facebook and Instagram, but you have to follow their rules and focus on small, important details. Oddly enough, to advertise CBD on Facebook and Instagram, you have to remove all explicit mentions of CBD, hemp, and cannabis from your content. 

Facebook crawlers will also check your landing page for this terminology, so you have to remove all unapproved keywords from your landing page and domain as well. In some cases, the best way to fight against this is to create a separate domain specifically to act as a landing site that directs traffic to your brand’s domain, so you don’t have to scrub your entire website from any explicit mention of CBD.

Google Ads

Google carries its own unique issues with rules and regulations for CBD digital marketing. Google Ads’ advertising policy states they do not allow the promotion of CBD because it is viewed as an unapproved pharmaceutical and supplement. 

Much like running a campaign on Facebook, you still can advertise CBD on Google Ads as long as you do not explicitly sell the CBD of your CBD brand. This can take some work, but if you are smart about the details of your campaign and landing page, you can run a successful ad. 

X (Formerly Twitter)

X (formerly Twitter) is known to have some of the strictest CBD advertising laws. It bans all promotion of drugs and drug paraphernalia. This includes illegal drugs, recreational and herbal drugs, accessories associated with drug use, and dispensaries. 

Previously, X was seen as a place to avoid because there was no way of modifying or creating an ad that would be approved. However, there have been changes to their strict guidelines, which create exceptions for advertising in the United States and Canada. For marketing CBD in the US, you must:

• Follow all laws and regulations.

• Be a licensed business, pre-authorized by Twitter.

• Only promote non-ingestible, legally derived CBD topical products.

• Only target locations and jurisdictions where you are legally licensed to promote CBD products.

• Avoid advertising in Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Dakota, and Virginia.

• Avoid targeting users under the age of 21.

Once you have met those requirements and received approval from X, you will be able to run campaigns for your brand. 

TikTok

While it’s new to the market, you shouldn’t underestimate the power of advertising and creating content on TikTok. This media platform is typically seen as an outlet for silly dances and fun videos, but it’s also a great place to help increase product awareness and education while also sharing your brand voice and culture. 

Before you create any content, read TikTok’s guidelines. They “prohibit the trade, sale, promotion, and use of certain regulated goods…Content may be removed if it relates to activities or goods that are illegal or regulated…even if the activities or goods in question are legal in the jurisdiction posting.” 

This creates a unique problem for CBD companies because they have to be aware of local, national, and international laws concerning CBD. Much like other social media platforms, overt mention of CBD and hemp can be the fast-track to getting your content removed. However, with targeted content creation, you can gain a marketing foothold on TikTok. 

How To Know If Your CBD Campaign Is Successful

Because there are restrictions and regulations on all platforms against CBD advertising campaigns, one of the biggest ways to see that your campaign is successful starts with not getting it removed, reported, or taken down. A rejected campaign can’t possibly be successful, after all.

Additionally, not all marketing campaigns have the goal of directly increasing sales. Are you looking for more organic traffic, promoting a new product, targeting new customers, or are you simply looking to develop brand loyalty and recognition? No matter what your initial goal is, before you start your marketing campaign, you need to decide how you are going to measure and record any changes. Without determining what factors you’re trying to change, you’ll have no idea whether your campaign was successful or not. 

Agility Can Help

Agility makes it possible for you to create, manage, and track the growth of your CBD campaigns across a variety of platforms. We specialize in CBD advertising and make it easy for you to run CBD marketing campaigns while also tracking your success and achieving the best results. Agility can help provide you full visibility and control of keywords while also helping you build audiences. On average, we’ve seen a 2x return on ad spend after implementing search retargeting. 

With Agility Analytics, you will be able to see analytics and reports in real-time for your campaign to know exactly how your ads are performing. Schedule your free demo to see how Agility can help you.