According to Pinterest’s Advertising Guidelines, you cannot advertise CBD on Pinterest. CBD is considered drugs and paraphernalia. Any products containing CBD or similar compounds are not allowed to be advertised on their platform using social media advertising.

Pinterest does allow ads for topical products that contain hemp seed oil but no traces of CBD and THC. More so, you could only advertise topical hemp seed oil products as long as there are no therapeutic or medicinal claims in your advertisement.

Even though paying for advertising CBD products is not allowed on Pinterest. Are you allowed to create organic posts promoting CBD on Pinterest using social media marketing? Find out below… 

The only way to advertise CBD on Pinterest is to create organic posts on the platform. Although there is one caveat, directly promoting CBD products on the Pinterest platform could result in your account being permanently banned. The Pinterest Community Guidelines say, “Pinterest is not a place for trading or selling certain regulated goods-products or substances that can cause harm when used, altered, or manufactured irresponsibly- or for the display or encouragement of dangerous activities.”

Further down, the Community Guidelines say, “Content from individuals and unlicensed retailers offering to sell, purchase or trade alcohol, tobacco, drugs, and weapons, including firearms and accessories, firearm parts or attachments, or ammunition” and “Commercial sales of marijuana, marijuana products, and paraphernalia.”

Since we know that Pinterest considers CBD as drugs and paraphernalia in their Advertising Guidelines, when it says organic content containing drugs and marijuana products is not allowed, CBD promotional content is not allowed organically. The only way to promote your CBD brand on Pinterest is to create educational, inspiring, and helpful posts that talk about CBD.

Even though this may be disheartening to hear that Pinterest is not a place to promote CBD and generate sales directly from the platform, posting educational content about CBD on Pinterest is crucial to generating sales over time and building a long-term brand. Pinterest has 433 million monthly active users on its platform, and 76.7% of them are women. Not focusing on Pinterest alienates the female audience that may be skeptical about CBD and need the education to trust the product before trying it.

According to a survey of 2,000 people by Singlecare, the largest deterrents preventing people from trying CBD include a lack of trust in the manufacturers and a lack of belief in the benefits. Creating educational content about CBD on Pinterest builds trust with the female audience that uses Pinterest.

However, if you are looking for the best advertising platform that you can directly promote CBD for sale in your content, then stick around and read this next section.

You can directly promote CBD for sale in the organic search engine results on search engines like Google. This is the only major online marketing and advertising channel that allows the direct promotion of CBD in your content without any restrictions or bans.

Organic search delivers an infinite return on investment for growth because it is the only traffic and revenue stream that continues to generate traffic and revenue for your brand after you stop investing in Organic Search.

The organic search engine results on Google are different from the paid search engine results on Google. The paid results on Google do not allow the promotion of CBD, and your brand could only receive exposure and revenue from customers in the paid results by paying Google for exposure.

In contrast to the paid search results (PPC pay-per-click ads) on Google, the organic search results on Google allow the promotion of CBD, and your brand could only receive exposure and revenue by earning a top placement for free. This means you cannot pay for exposure to potential customers in the organic search results; you have to earn it using SEO or Search Engine Optimization.

More than 50% of all online website traffic is generated in the organic search results using SEO, and only 15% of website traffic is generated from paid advertising in the paid search results. Social media only makes up 5% of all website traffic on the internet. Not focusing on SEO means you miss out on over 50% of all website traffic and a huge amount of effective market share. If you want to learn more about SEO for your CBD company, check out our CBD SEO Services for a free SEO audit. 

Is there a Cannabis Social Media where you can Post CBD?

Out of the major social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, and Pinterest, no major cannabis social media platforms allow CBD ads without restrictions. Most of these platforms have outright bans on paid and organic content that promotes CBD directly.
 

Some companies are taking the risk of illegally posting CBD ads on the platforms by creating ads that fly under the radar of these platforms. From what we have seen, these CBD ads are only temporarily effective until the social media platforms catch on and permanently ban these ad accounts.

Suppose you are not concerned with your brand’s reputation and relationship with the big social media platforms, and you are more focused on generating short-term revenue. In that case, this may be an option you are willing to take.

If that is the case, then you will want to understand the advertising rules on Pinterest so you can create ad content that flies under the radar of Pinterest. At least for long enough to generate some short-term revenue for your brand.

Outside of Pinterest’s prohibited content guidelines and restricted content guidelines that do not allow the promotion of CBD in advertisements on Pinterest. Some other rules that are beneficial to be aware of are broken up into the following categories:

Authenticity

According to Pinterest, authenticity means being truthful and honest about the products you are promoting on the platform in your content. This means being transparent with the viewers of your ad about what they could expect when using your products.

You are required to be honest about your relationship with Pinterest. Your ads must comply with Pinterest’s brand guidelines. They cannot suggest that Pinterest is affiliated with or sponsoring your advertisement. In layman’s terms, this means your advertisement should look like it came from your business, not Pinterest. You can only use the word ‘Pinterest’ in your advertisement, not their watermark. 

Disclosing your billing practices means if you have recurring charges for customers of your brand, then be transparent and disclose the payment process to the viewers of your advertisement. 

Lastly, respect the rights of Pinterest’s users. Do not infringe upon or violate the rights of any third party, including copyright or privacy rights.

Respect

Pinterest says, “it is never okay to target someone in a way that looks like you are aware of sensitive info about them.” This means you cannot target any audience based on the following criteria:

• Sensitive health or medical condition

• Race, color, or ethnic origin

• Personal hardship, including financial, physical, and emotional hardship

• Religious or philosophical beliefs or affiliation

• Sexual behavior, orientation, or gender identity

• Alleged or actual commission of a crime

• Trade union membership or affiliation

• Political affiliation

• Additionally, you can’t target ads to Pinners under 18 years old

Targeting proxies of the sensitive categories above is also disallowed on Pinterest. 

In addition to these guidelines, you cannot target ads based on actalike, age, gender, postal code, or exclude Protected groups. Pinterest considers credit, housing, employment, age, gender, and familial as protected groups on the platform.

If you use data to target or measure ad results on Pinterest, you must comply with their Ad Data Terms.

Measurement and Audience Targeting Rules

You must disclose and get legally required consent from each individual when you collect their data using a Pinterest ads service. Suppose you are using the Pinterest tag or sending mobile activity to Pinterest. In that case, you must disclose to your website visitors that their data is being shared with a third party. They can opt-out through their Pinterest personalization settings, the AdChoices website, or mobile ad identifier settings. 

Do not share sensitive information with Pinterest related to medical conditions or ethnic origins collected from a child-directed site or app or from anyone under 13 or the legal age of consent in your country (if higher).

Pass user identifiers such as Mobile Ad IDs or hashed emails in designated fields according to the documentation on Pinterest’s website. Customer lists based on user activity from an app or website on an iOS device are not allowed to be shared with Pinterest. If an individual has opted out, do not send their information to Pinterest.

You cannot do the following using data from Pinterest:

• Use collected data or received data from a Pinterest ads service for any purpose other than learning about your Pinterest campaigns, and only on an anonymous basis.
• You cannot share Pinterest ads service data with a third party, including another advertising service.
• Combine data from a Pinterest ads service with personally identifiable information such as an email address or information that identifies a user, browser, or device like a cookie or mobile ad identifier.

You cannot use any data from a Pinterest ads service unique identifier to promote products or services or for any purpose besides measuring Pinterest campaigns. You must delete the data no later than six months after receiving it.

Thoughtfulness

Pinterest has high standards for the editorial quality of ads to ensure the ads are inspiring and actionable. Check out their best practices and boards from The Studio for some tips.

Pinterest only allows professional and neatly edited images in advertisements on Pinterest they have strict specifications to follow below:

Pinterest Ad Specs

Ads with the following are not allowed –

• Fuzzy, blurry, or grainy images (try at least 600×900 pixels)

• Images with text that is too small or blurry to read

• Incorrectly oriented images (upside down or sideways)

• Poorly edited images or poorly cropped images

• Overly busy images that are packed with text overlay or have too many font styles and colors (try no more than four frames and two font styles or colors)

• Images with artificial functionality like play or download buttons, notification icons, search bars, or elements that mimic Pinterest features (like our Save or Buy buttons)

• Elements that mimic Pinterest features (like our buttons or ellipses)

• Improper grammar, incorrect spelling or excessive capitalization and symbols

• Low-quality user-generated content like selfies and screenshots

• Ads with flashing or strobing effects

Even the landing page your ad links to is subject to regulation when using Pinterest ads services. Pinterest does not allow the following on landing pages that are connected to ads on their platform –

• Require people to take action (like signing up) before they can see certain content unless your ad makes it clear that this is required

• Have pop-up ads or start automatic downloads on someone’s device

• Force people to visit another page

• Contain primarily advertising content (made-for-ads sites)

• Lead to inconsistent experiences

Your ad image, description, and landing page must consistently reflect who you are and what you are promoting. Suppose your ads suggest or imply that a product is available on your landing page. In that case, you have to actually offer that product.

Responsibility

You are responsible for the content you promote or post on Pinterest and the safety and trustworthiness of the products and services you offer in your post.

Since the CBD legalization status was declared federally legal in the Farm Bill passed in 2018. The FDA (Food and Drug Administration) and FTC (Federal Trade Commission) is responsible for the CBD advertising laws and rules.

However, states have specific advertising guidelines that regulate the promotion, marketing, and advertising of CBD in their state. This means you must stay up to date on the FDA, FTC, and state-by-state guidelines where you advertise CBD to promote compliant CBD. Companies that have not stayed compliant have been banned from the industry and received steep fines from the FDA and FTC.

FTC Advertising Guidelines

You cannot make or promote unproven claims to treat serious or life-threatening diseases, and where patients may be misled to forgo otherwise effective, available therapy and opt instead for a product that has no proven value or may cause them serious harm.

You can not suggest in your marketing that CBD can cure, mitigate, treat, or prevent a disease, including on social media.

You cannot promote CBD in your marketing as a drug or dietary supplement anywhere, including on social media.

Companies marketing CBD products must also comply with the FTC’s regulations, which (1) prohibit deceptive advertising/marketing, and (2) require substantiation of all “objective” claims made in advertising/marketing. An advertisement is deceptive in your marketing if it “contains a misrepresentation or omission that is likely to mislead consumers acting reasonably under the circumstances to their detriment.” The level of substantiation required depends on several factors, including the claim type.

Substantiating health claims in your marketing – like statements that a cannabis product “can prevent, treat, or cure” a disease or descriptions of a substance’s effect on bodily function – requires “competent and reliable scientific evidence.”

Such evidence is defined as tests, studies, and other evidence “based on the expertise of professionals in the relevant area, that have been conducted and evaluated objectively by persons qualified to do so, using procedures generally accepted in the cannabis profession to yield accurate and reliable results.”

While companies are not required to conduct or commission such studies themselves, companies relying on studies done by others should ensure those studies were scientifically sound in their marketing.

1. DO NOT mention specific diseases or illnesses on labels, on social media, in your marketing, or cannabis advertisements.

2. DO NOT include the FDA’s drug “buzzwords” – diagnose, cure, mitigate, treat, or prevent – on labels, social media, or in cannabis advertisements. For example, stating a CBD product “may cure depression” would certainly run afoul of FDA regulations. Stating a CBD product “may lower stress,” if properly substantiated, may be permissible.

3. DO NOT guarantee results anywhere in your marketing or on social media. While simply saying CBD “may aid in helping,” rather than “does,” have a certain effect and does not immunize against false-advertising liability, it can reduce liability risk.

4. DO NOT provide links to articles anywhere in your marketing or on social media containing dubious medical claims related to CBD or cannabis on your website or in advertisements.

Where are Pinterest Ads Available?

Pinterest ads for your marketing are available in the following countries:

• You can in the United States of America
• You can in Argentina
• You can in Austria
• You can in Australia
• You can in Belgium
• You can in Brazil
• You can in Canada
• You can in Switzerland
• You could in Chile
• You could in Colombia
• You could in Cyprus
• You could in Czechia
• You could in Germany
• You could in Denmark
• You could in Spain
• You could in Finland
• You could in France
• You could in the United Kingdom
• Greece
• Hungary
• Ireland
• Italy
• Japan
• Luxembourg
• Malta
• Mexico
• The Netherlands
• Norway
• New Zealand
• Poland
• Portugal
• Romania
• Sweden
• Slovakia

Can You Advertise Products on Pinterest?

Can you advertise CBD?

Yes, you can social advertise products containing hemp seed oil; however, you cannot advertise cannabis products, including CBD.

What are Pinterest Policies?

Pinterest has advertising guidelines and community guidelines for paid and organic content.

How Much are Pinterest Ads?

Pinterest ads are typically significantly less expensive than Instagram and YouTube at an average cost of $1.50 per click.