Cannabidiol, or CBD, is now one of the most popular product categories in the health and wellness industry. People are now ditching prescription medications and exploring the uses of CBD oil, gummies, and other such products for dealing with their pain and anxiety issues.
The sleep hygiene industry has also seen an influx of CBD products, and nowadays you can easily find special CBD sleep gummies on sale. There are plenty of studies to back CBD’s potential health benefits claims now, along with a large number of personal anecdotes all across the web.
Experts estimate that the global CBD industry will reach a valuation of $22.05 billion by 2030, with a CAGR of 15.5%. This presents a huge opportunity for CBD brands to grow, and owners are constantly on platforms to advertise.
Still, it’s a new product, and the government has placed many restrictions on its advertising policies. But who needs radio and TV ads when social media platforms like Facebook, with 3 billion active users, are available?
So let’s dig in and learn about the best and most efficient ways to advertise CBD on Facebook.
What is Facebook’s CBD Advertisement Policy?
So now you have a platform with billions of active consumers, but they do have their own restrictions.
Yep, you can’t just blast away the platform with whatever creative advertisement you make for your CBD product. Let’s take a look at some guidelines that Facebook has for CBD promotion:
Things that you can do
- You may promote stuff made from hemp, like seeds, fibers, and all, but it must not contain any CBD or THC.
- You may run ads containing educational content around hemp products, including CBD, like how to use it safely, legalities, and all. But there shall be no intent to sell.
- You may direct people to a landing page with hemp and topical CBD products, but the primary ad itself can not feature them.
Things you cannot do
- You cannot directly sell or promote any cannabinoid products like CBD oils, CBN oils, CBG gummies, etc.
- You cannot promote or sell any products that contain even the slightest amount of intoxicating or psychoactive compounds, like THC (tetrahydrocannabinol).
- You cannot directly claim any benefits from cannabinoid products. This CBD oil will improve your sleep, or these THC gummies will decrease your anxiety or pain.
So, in a nutshell, you can’t directly advertise your CBD brand or products on Facebook. Neither can you promote them as something with potential health benefits nor as a cure for some diseases or medical conditions.
For example, you can’t say that your CBD gummies can help someone sleep better or improve their recovery. All you are allowed to do is display some educational content with the intent of spreading awareness.
Hemp products with zero CBD and THC, like hemp oil, can be promoted with selling intent, but they should comply with the laws of the targeted region.
When you submit a creative submission, it goes through checks and parameters, and Facebook can reject it if it’s not in compliance with their policies. Most of the time it’s a hit or miss, so try to have many variations.
So, What Are Other Ways Then?
Yes, these Facebook advertising policies are a bit abused and highly restrictive and don’t leave much room for creativity. But, don’t worry, there are plenty of indirect ways in which you can target these billions of active users, let’s learn about them.
Surrogate Ads For CBD
Surrogate ads are a perfect way to advertise controlled products. You must have come across ads for zero-alcohol soda from liquor companies; the same could be done in the CBD space.
You can launch a non-CBD-infused vitamin drink or some zero-CBD hemp topicals and run creatives for them on Facebook.
This allows you to get your brand’s name out there and grab some eyeballs. Over time, people will see these again and again and will try to Google the brand’s name out of curiosity. The intent here is to build brand image, imprint the logo in people’s psyches, and let consumer psychology play in.
Publish Informative Blogs
CBD has recently become legal, and there are plenty of people who don’t know about it. You can write search engine-optimized articles around the most searched and trending CBD topics and publish them on your brand page.
You can place some links on specific anchors, like Learn More Here, explore its benefits, and link them to your brand’s page or product page. This is a great and well-tested method to drive potential traffic and boost your page traffic.
Since pure hemp products without any cannabinoid trace are allowed, you can publish informative content on them. Like how to make hemp rope, how to cook with hemp seed oil, how to hydrate your skin with hemp, etc.
Collaborate with Influencers
Influencer marketing allows you to capture the charisma and fame of certain individuals as a tool for boosting your brand image and sales. You can collaborate with health, fitness, and educational content makers and ask them to place your products in posts, stories, or videos, or do mini reviews around them.
You can make special discount coupons for their followers, run limited-time deals, etc. Many CBD brands have found success with this in recent years, and regardless of how high or low your budget is, there’s plenty of fish in the pond to tap into.
The Final Note
To sum it up, you can’t directly promote your CBD brand or products on Facebook, but there are plenty of alternative methods available. Through official Facebook ads, you can push creatives showcasing pure hemp products.
As long as they don’t have any CBD or THC in them and have an informative intent, you can easily get approval. But it’s hit-or-miss most of the time and usually requires human moderator intervention.
That’s why alternative methods like SEO-driven content, surrogate product display on business pages, and influencer marketing should be preferred.
These methods offer you the ability to capture as many eyeballs as possible and sustainably and slowly build your brand’s image. The intent should be to get the name out there, and sales will follow.
You may also penetrate CBD discussion forums, engage in discussion, educate newcomers, and slowly increase your brand presence. As an entrepreneur, the possibilities are endless, and the demand for CBD doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon. Reputed brands like Colorado Botanicals have done a tremendous job of making CBD more accessible and affordable for common folks, and you can learn a lot from their journey.
