Can You Advertise CBD on Instagram? The Truth Revealed…

There is One Way to Promote CBD Advertising

You cannot advertise CBD on Instagram because advertising CBD violates Instagram’s community standards. Instagram’s policy says, “Ads must not promote the sale or use of illicit or recreational drugs, or other unsafe substances, products or supplements, as determined by Meta in its sole discretion.”

 

 Instagram considers CBD an unsafe substance since CBD comes from the same cannabis plant as marijuana, a drug. Therefore advertising CBD products on Instagram that mention CBD will be taken down, and the advertising accounts will be suspended.

The short answer is you can advertise CBD on Instagram, but you cannot mention CBD anywhere in your ads, including the copywriting, images, or call to actions of your advertisements on Instagram when selling CBD products. The only exception to this advertising policy is non-ingestible hemp, such as hemp topicals; these products can be advertised on Instagram, according to a Facebook spokesperson. 

 

Posting CBD related content and mentioning CBD in your content is not allowed on Instagram. Even when you are not paying to advertise a post or ad on Instagram, you cannot advertise CBD anywhere in your ad.

You are allowed to create content that uses the word hemp, but the products cannot contain CBD; otherwise, you will have your post taken, and your account may be permanently suspended. 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 content created about CBD is not allowed. Since Instagram considers CBD a drug, content about CBD is not allowed on the Instagram platform.

The safest way to advertise CBD products and create CBD ads on Instagram is to not mention CBD in any of your ads. You could mention hemp in your ads but not mention CBD. Posting CBD products that are not paid advertisements for your business account on Instagram is a great way to get potential customers excited and interested in CBD.

Keep in mind you cannot mention CBD in your organic content posted on Instagram, just like paid advertisements. Many brands are skirting these rules and risking their accounts potentially being banned at any moment.

If you are willing to take the risk of building a brand on Instagram only to have your brand deleted and lose all revenue from that account at any moment, then go ahead. If not, stick with strictly mentioning hemp on Instagram and leave out CBD.

Instagram’s community guidelines in full are displayed here, but the only part of the community guidelines that are relevant to CBD is the following:

 

“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.”

 

CBD is considered a non-medical drug on Instagram. For this reason, advertising and organic content mentioning or containing CBD will be removed from the Instagram platform.

As of now, there are no active CBD ads on Instagram that we could find. However, here are some examples of accounts on Instagram actively posting about CBD which violate Instagram’s community guidelines:

 

Here are five ways to post about CBD on Instagram without violating Instagram’s community guidelines protecting your brand for the long term –

 

1. Create visually appealing content without mentioning CBD

 

Instagram is a visual platform where users go to enjoy visual content. Users of Instagram are not using Instagram to purchase products; they are on the platform to enjoy visually engaging content that they are interested in and receive gratification and value from experiencing this content.

This does not mean users of Instagram will not purchase products from your CBD brand. This does mean it is important to understand where users of Instagram are at in their customer journey on Instagram. They are not ready to purchase CBD products, yet many may not even be aware CBD exists.

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. 

If you care about your brand over the long term, then do not mention CBD anywhere in your posts; use the words hemp instead. 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:

Here is an example of what not to do when creating content on Instagram about CBD:

2. Create educational reels about the Endocannabinoid System (ECS) and CBD without mentioning the words CBD

 

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, you could post 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. Therefore generating interest in CBD for your brand.

 

Here is an example of some excellent reels about CBD and cannabis brands on Instagram:

Link:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CPdyTgDBB6g/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link 

3. 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. 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.

 

4. 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.

 

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 to show photos of happy customers that purchased CBD from you. You could tag them in the post. 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 with more potential customers and demonstrates to these potential customers that they could trust your CBD store. 

 

5. Encourage your customers to share posts about your CBD for free rewards and discounts and hashtag your brand.

 

Creating a viral following of Instagram followers stems from incentivizing those who use Instagram to benefit by sharing your brand’s profile on social. 

For example, your cannabis brand could run a giveaway. 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.

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:

Yes, influencers can and do promote CBD on Instagram; however, this does not mean they are allowed to post and advertise CBD on Instagram.

Can You Advertise CBD Using Influencers 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 for the ads. 

 

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. When choosing an influencer, choose influencers with an engaged following of an audience with a large number of potential customers for your brand. 

 

Ask the influencer for analytics data on their audience and the types of posts they engage with the most to determine if these influencers share your ideal customer audience.

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. 

 

The best marketing and advertising tactic not banned or restricted online is using organic search on Google and Bing. Directly promoting and advertising CBD is completely unrestricted in the organic search results on search engines like Google, Bing, and DuckDuckGo. 

 

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. Organic search marketing has the largest return on investment over time out of all advertising and marketing tactics online. 

The only way to generate traffic and revenue from the organic search results in Search Engines like Google is to use SEO or Search Engine Optimization. 

 

This is a process for increasing 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.