Can You Advertise CBD on Instagram? The Truth Revealed…
There is One Way to Promote CBD Advertising and Advertising CBD Without Ads But With Marketing
The direct answer to whether you can advertise CBD on Instagram is “yes,” but with specific CBD restrictions. Instagram’s stance on CBD advertising aligns with Meta’s broader policy on CBD. While the platform does not allow the promotion or sale of THC products or cannabis products with related psychoactive components, there are conditions under which CBD can be advertised.
Specifically, ads promoting or offering the sale of cannabidiol (CBD) or similar cannabinoid products are permitted, but only with prior written permission. Furthermore, Meta requires advertisers promoting CBD products to be certified with LegitScript. These certified advertisers must adhere to all local CBD laws, CBD industry codes, and CBD guidelines, including Meta’s targeting requirements. Remember businesses can promote the sale of CBD if they receive written approval from Meta.
Learn more about where you can advertise CBD in our articles on “can you advertise CBD on Tiktok?“
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Is CBD Advertising Products on Instagram With CBD Images in a Post Possible?
Yes, you can advertise CBD on Instagram, but with CBD restrictions for your CBD products. Ads promoting CBD products must not contain more than 0.3% THC and should only target individuals in the United States who are 18 years or older with your CBD products. It’s essential to avoid making health or medical claims in your ads about CBD and your CBD products. While you can promote hemp products that don’t contain CBD or more than 0.3% THC in Canada, Mexico, and the United States, you must ensure CBD compliance with all local CBD laws and CBD industry guidelines on and off Instagram for your CBD products.
The short answer is you can advertise CBD on Instagram, but you cannot mention CBD anywhere in your Instagram ads, including the Instagram copywriting, Instagram images, or Instagram call to actions of your Instagram advertisements on Instagram when selling CBD products. The only exception to this Instagram advertising policy is non-ingestible hemp and non-ingestible CBD products, such as hemp topicals; these products can be advertised on Instagram, according to a Facebook spokesperson.
Instagram’s Community Guidelines address CBD indirectly here, “We also remove content that attempts to trade, coordinate the trade of, donate, gift, or ask for non-medical drugs, as well as content that either admits to personal use (unless in the recovery context) or coordinates or promotes the use of non-medical drugs.”
Since CBD stems from the cannabis plant, which marijuana a drug stems from, then Instagram CBD content created about CBD is not allowed on Instagram. Since Instagram considers CBD a drug, CBD content about CBD is not allowed on the Instagram platform.
How to Advertise Your CBD and Create CBD Ads For Your Product Advertisements on Instagram?
Keep in mind you cannot mention CBD in your organic content posted on Instagram, just like paid advertisements for your CBD products. Many brands are skirting these rules and risking their accounts potentially being banned at any moment with their products.
If you are willing to take the risk of building a product brand on Instagram only to have your product brand deleted and lose all revenue from that product account at any moment, then go ahead. If not, stick with strictly mentioning hemp products on Instagram and leave out CBD.
Instagram CBD Policy 2023 For Marketing and to Advertise
Instagram’s product community guidelines in full are displayed here, but the only part of the Instagram product community guidelines that are relevant to CBD is the following:
“We also remove Instagram product content that attempts to trade, coordinate the trade of, donate, gift, or ask for non-medical drugs, as well as Instagram product content that either admits to personal use (unless in the recovery context) or coordinates or promotes the use of non-medical drugs on Instagram.”
CBD is considered a non-medical drug on Instagram. For this reason, advertising and organic Instagram CBD content mentioning or containing CBD will be removed from the Instagram platform. Your CBD brand can’t buy product ad space on Instagram unless you follow these product rules. Most advertisers will not promote cannabis and CBD. Transferring cannabis is prohibited on the site you could try to use non-paid advertisements but those are risky too.
Examples of Ways to Promote Advertising CBD Products on Instagram
Here are five ways to post products about CBD on Instagram without violating Instagram’s product community guidelines protecting your product brand for the long term –
- Create visually appealing Instagram CBD content without mentioning CBD on Instagram when you advertise your CBD products.
Instagram is a visual product platform where users go to enjoy visual CBD content on Instagram about your products. Users of Instagram are not using Instagram to purchase products; they are on the Instagram platform to enjoy visually engaging CBD content that they are interested in and receive gratification and value from experiencing this CBD content on Instagram about your products.
This does not mean users of Instagram will not purchase products from your CBD brand and your products. This does mean it is important to understand where users of Instagram are at in their customer journey on Instagram when looking for products. They are not ready to purchase CBD products, yet many may not even be aware CBD exists or your product.
This is an opportunity for your brand to build brand awareness about CBD and your products to get users of Instagram excited and interested in the value that your products have to offer their life. Your content needs to demonstrate the value your products have to offer the users of Instagram in a visually pleasing, exciting, and valuable way about your products.
If you care about your brand over the long term, then do not mention CBD anywhere in your posts; use the words hemp instead for your products. Doing so protects your CBD brand’s Instagram account from being permanently suspended on Instagram.
Here is an example of how to create visually engaging content on Instagram about CBD when you advertise your products:

Here is an example of what not to do when creating content on Instagram about CBD when you advertise your products using your account:

- Create educational reels about the Endocannabinoid System (ECS) and CBD without mentioning the words CBD when you advertise your products using your account
CBD has health benefits since CBD binds with the CB1 and CB2 receptors in the endocannabinoid system. Since you are not allowed to post about CBD and your products using your account, you could post using your account about the endocannabinoid system and explain how cannabinoids are beneficial to one’s health due to how cannabinoids positively affect the endocannabinoid system.
Reels are an excellent way to educate your audience in an exciting, engaging and visually pleasing way about cannabinoids and the endocannabinoid system. Doing so could help educate those not aware of CBD about the health benefits rooted in science in your advertising. Therefore generating interest in CBD for your brand and website from your advertising.
Here is an example of some excellent reels about CBD and cannabis brands on Instagram when you advertise:
- Create posts that show the ideal customer the life they desire while including your CBD products. Keep in mind, not to mention CBD.
Instagram is a visual platform where users go to escape their reality on Instagram in images. Often these users will engage with content that they wish their reality had. By using ideal customer profiles to segment your audience based on their needs for CBD, you could target your ideal customer with visually engaging content that demonstrates the life they would like to have and how they could have it using your products. For instance, if someone is experiencing chronic inflammation and chronic pain, they may be using Instagram to look at how a pain-free life feels. Perhaps they have chronic pain in their legs, so they can no longer hike or go to the beach. In this case, they may be watching reels on Instagram about people enjoying the beach and hiking. You could use Instagram to demonstrate how those who use your products can manage chronic inflammation and chronic pain, allowing them to hike and go to the beach again. Therefore demonstrating the ideal life your potential customers are looking for on Instagram and how CBD is a solution that could help them gain their ideal life on your campaign landing page or your brand ambassadors without using the word CBD.
- If you are a local business, engage with your community on Instagram. Take photos with happy customers in the community and tag them in your posts to buy CBD.
Perhaps you are a CBD retailer who owns a storefront CBD shop where local customers could come in and shop for CBD. In this case, you could use Instagram media to show media photos of happy customers that purchased CBD from you. You could tag them in the post about your dispensary. Often when you take photos with your customers and tag them in the posts, they may comment about the wonderful experience at your CBD store. These comments show up on the feeds of your customers’ followers, which shares your CBD store launch with more potential customers and demonstrates to these potential customers that they could trust your CBD store and learn more details about your store using hashtags.
- Encourage your customers to share posts about your CBD for free rewards and discounts and hashtag your brand.
Creating a viral hashtags following of Instagram followers stems from incentivizing those who use Instagram to benefit by sharing your brand’s profile on social using hashtags.
For example, your cannabis brand could run a giveaway using hashtags. Suppose your customers share photos of themselves on Instagram with your cannabis while tagging your cannabis company and using your hashtag. In that case, your brand will enter them in a chance to win a large supply of CBD using your hashtags.
This incentivizes your customers to share your brand on Instagram with more followers, and the more people who see and engage with your brand, the faster your following will grow on Instagram.
Here are some examples of CBD companies taking advantage of this tactic:

Can Influencers Promote CBD on Instagram?
Yes, influencers can and do promote CBD on Instagram; however, this does not mean they are allowed to post, promote, and advertise CBD on Instagram.
If you are interested in promoting CBD products selling on Instagram using influencer marketing, there is a strong possibility that Instagram will remove the posts about CBD products. You may pay an influencer to post ads about your products only to have the ads removed and receive nothing in return when paying to promote the ads using your hashtags to your people.
In this case, it is important that you only use influencer marketing on Instagram to advertise CBD without violating Instagram’s community guidelines and Meta’s advertising guidelines with your ads and hashtags to your people. When choosing an influencer, choose influencers with an engaged following of an audience with a large number of potential customers for your brand to promote on using your hashtags for your people, location, and story.
Ask the influencer for analytics data on their audience and the types of ads posts they engage with the most to determine if these influencers share your ideal customer audience for your ads, hashtags, and people on social.
Can You Advertise CBD on Social Media in General?
In general, all major social media platforms have either banned CBD advertising, CBD marketing, and content creation or severely restricted the advertisement of CBD and content posting about CBD using your hashtags for your people on social.
The best marketing and advertising tactic not banned or restricted online is using organic search on Google and Bing. Directly promoting CBD and advertising is completely unrestricted in the organic search results on search engines like Google, Bing, and DuckDuckGo without hashtags and social you can reach your people.
However, using the one and only PPC or pay-per-click ads to promote cannabis is currently banned in the paid advertising results on search engines like Google and Bing to reach your people. Organic search marketing has the largest return on investment over time out of all advertising and marketing tactics online to reach your people without influencers.
The only way to generate marketing traffic and revenue from the organic search results in Search Engines like Google is to use SEO or Search Engine Optimization to reach your people.
This is a marketing process for increasing rapid response traffic and revenue to your website from the organic search results. To learn more about using organic search and SEO to increase traffic and revenue for your CBD brand, reach out for a free consultation now and learn more information simply at the click of a button
Frequently Asked Questions
Can You Advertise CBD on Social Media?
Yes, you can promote using Instagram ads but with restrictions. Marketing platforms like Instagram, under Meta’s policies, allow CBD advertising under specific conditions, such as obtaining prior written permission and ensuring the products don’t contain more than 0.3% THC. Your CBD brand can’t buy ad space on Instagram unless you follow these restrictions.
What Platforms Can You Advertise CBD On?
CBD can be advertised on platforms like Instagram, but only with prior written permission and adherence to specific guidelines. They do check everything on their platform. Other platforms may have their own set of rules regarding CBD advertising and you can learn more about them on their platforms. Research their platforms to learn more about what you can and cannot do.
Why Can’t You Advertise CBD?
CBD advertising is restricted because it’s derived from the cannabis plant, which also produces THC, a psychoactive component. Platforms like Instagram have policies in place to ensure that only certified advertisers promote CBD products, and they adhere to all local laws and industry guidelines.
Are You Allowed to Sell CBD on Facebook?
Yes, but with conditions. Advertisers can promote or offer the sale of CBD products on Facebook, but they must be certified with LegitScript and have written permission from Meta. They must also comply with all applicable local laws and industry guidelines.
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