CBD Ads on Google & Social Media Platforms: Things to Know

In an ideal world, most online advertising campaigns of CBD brands would use a balanced mix of paid social, paid search and programmatic ads to attain their campaign goals. Unfortunately, in the real world, brands are not able to rely on anything except programmatic ads. However, CBD brands still need to create ads for CBD business and try for the approval of those ads on social and search platforms.

Here’s what you need to know about creating and getting the ads approved by varied digital platforms.

Are CBD brands allowed to advertise on Google, Instagram & Facebook?

Facebook and Google are the foremost social and search advertising platforms and they account for approximately 60% of digital advertising dollars spent in the United States. However, CBD brands do not account for even half that amount but only some of it.

The problem with these platforms is that they don’t let CBD brands to openly advertise their products, even though hemp-deprived CBD was legalized in the 2018 Farm Bill. That said, the platforms do accept a specific and small subset of ads explained below.

What kind of ads are allowed on Google?

Google’s polices clearly state that they don’t allow promotion of certain products or services that cause harm, damage or injury. Under recreational drugs, the platform bans advertisements for substances that change the mental state for the purpose of recreation and this includes marijuana and other such substances. The platform also doesn’t allow ads for products or services that facilitate recreational drug use, such as bongs, pipes or cannabis coffee shops.

However, Google does allow brands to run ads for hemp-deprived CBD products that depend on hemp keywords.

What kind of ads are allowed on Instagram & Facebook?

The advertising policies of Facebook and Instagram states that they prohibit content that facilitate the promotion of illegal products or services. Adverts that are targeted to minors must not promote services, activities or products that are unsafe, illegal or inappropriate. Facebook also has additional policies that pertain to unsafe supplements and drugs. But CBD ads typically tend to get rejected under illegal products or services even though the products are legalized in most states in the USA.

However, the policies and rules are slowly changing. Today, CBD ads are allowed to run on Facebook if they’re ads for CBD business that are selling CBD topicals. This change in policy is fairly new and previously, CBD topicals were also banned.

Ways to enhance your chances of getting your CBD ads approved by Facebook & Google

There’s no guarantee your ads will get approved but you can make the effort to increase the chances of their approval. You can also collaborate with a professional CBD digital marketing agency experienced in running ads on Google and social media platforms. While you are looking for the right partner, these methods should help to enhance your approval chances.

• • From your ad creative, you need to remove all the hemp and CBD keywords and replace them with euphemisms, such as plant-based remedies.
  • You can design a gated landing page that is specific to your campaign. The page must omit the references to hemp and CBD, but include a CTA that drives potential customers to your website. You can use this page as a landing page for the campaign.
  • If your ad campaigns are still rejected, you can eliminate all links to your website and leave a stand-alone page that doesn’t have any connection to your main page. You must not mention hemp or CBD and submit the campaign.
  • If your ad campaigns are approved, you must wait for two days before introducing links through to your website via the gated landing page.

So, these are a few of the best practices that you can follow for running ads for CBD business on Google and across popular social media platforms. You can also take help from a professional agency to ensure your ads don’t get rejected.

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