CBD Marketing Practices in 2021

5 min readFeb 12, 2020

General information

CBD products become more and more popular and it seems like they are advertised everywhere. But as hemp and CBD are still a somewhat grey area in a lot of countries, there are some limitations and specific features to the CBD ad campaigns that ensure the legality of the promotion. Some platforms ban terms “CBD” and “hemp” altogether and don’t allow advertising even 0% THC products derived from “safe” cannabis strains that can’t technically provide any high. While that would be a temporary precaution and sometime soon we might enjoy the full freedom of marketing CBD products as any other legal supplements, there is a need for marketing instruments we could use right now to be on top of the current CBD boom.

It’s hard to navigate the CBD advertising scene of early 2021, so we will try to gather some insights that would help marketers get CBD ad campaigns approved and running.

“White” Social Media Marketing

Building your presence

Social media advertising is a useful tool and it is widely accessible to the product selling businesses. Social media platforms seem to accommodate businesses more and more introducing features such as in-app checkout and clickable products right in the user’s feed. Still CBD product sellers and marketers are generally out of luck when it comes to the popular social media products run by Facebook, Inc. Paid ad campaigns for the ingestible CBD products are banned on Facebook and there is a limited possibility of advertising topical CBD products.

If you don’t want to risk and prefer playing by the rules to avoid bans and deleted accounts, you can abstain from running Facebook ads for now and focus your marketing efforts elsewhere. But it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t build a social media presence on all possible platforms. Creating a business page for a product and showcasing your goods is not forbidden, on the contrary, it’s a great way to build a community of followers who prefer to get their news via their social media feed. It’s necessary to follow the guidelines and avoid controversial medical claims that could get you in trouble and focus on the inspiring lifestyle content that does more than just sell a different product in each post. Getting a solid social media presence now might be well worth it when the tide finally turns and the strict no-CBD ad rules will be relaxed: all you will need to do is to start a paid ad campaign with your existing profile.

Influencer marketing

Other ways to advertise your products without the use of the official ads is sponsoring influencers’ posts on platforms like Instagram. Influencer marketing is still a hot topic because the star status of the microbloggers among their thousands of followers is a great way to add popularity to a product. It doesn’t take to be a super-famous blogger to make a difference: the latest trend of “micro-influencers” who have just a few thousand followers proves that collaboration with smaller accounts can be beneficial as well as more pocket-friendly, while the big whales of Instagram are definitely out of reach for the smaller brands.

“Grey” Social Media Marketing

If you’re feeling adventurous and don’t want to wait until Facebook officially allows CBD promotion, you can try and run a stealth promo with vague terms that would hint on what you’re selling but not name it directly. Make sure you use a disposable business page and don’t risk your main page you have following on. You can use the images of oil bottles or other supplements, just make sure the actual words “CBD” or “hemp” are not included. Get a separate domain that doesn’t mention hemp or CBD to redirect from the Facebook ad. It seems like a lot of fuss to try to explain to your customers what you’re trying to sell without actually naming it, but if you target the right audience they will be more likely to decipher the message and check out your products.

Sites, Blogs and SEO

When it comes to making a seller’s site visible, nothing is as important as SEO. Trends are changing fast as are the search algorithms, so it’s vital to keep the site up to date and well optimized. It’s not enough to just upload some photos with short descriptions to become visible to almighty Google: there should be more individuality and more content to become searchable.

Having a blog with regular updates is not just a trend, it’s a vital tool in 2021. When everybody has a site and wants to sell similar products, there has to be something that makes you special and relatable to the potential buyers. Adding value in terms of content is a must for a company that wants to increase the sales.

When it comes to using AdWords and other search engine paid ads, it’s still forbidden to directly advertise CBD products. As it’s the case with the Facebook ads, you need to get creative not to get banned, flagged and forgotten by the search giants. This means you will need to rely on optimizing your or your client’s site or blog the best way possible so it can hit the sweet spots in the search. Whether it’s creating review or comparison sites or creating various types of content (articles, videos, etc) for CBD product placement, it’s time to get creative to get noticed.

We have a post about best CBD advertising practices in our blog, check it out if you are interested!

Summing Up

While diverse and complicated scene of CBD advertising might seem too confusing to even consider an earning possibility, we urge you to take a dive and be in one of its first waves to see what it might bring next. Join CBD Partners Affiliate Network to get the best in-house offers as well as top recognized brands’ campaigns. Our team is here to make sure you have the best performing creatives and is always ready to consult you on the best promotion techniques for your type of traffic. We are constantly monitoring the latest CBD market trends and news to provide you with a solid knowledge base. Stay tuned for more marketing tips!