The market for CBD products has been on the rise ever since the 2018 Farm Bill legalized the sale, consumption, and production of industrial hemp on a federal level. Soon after, states followed in, and now you can grab the best sleeping gummies from online and offline CBD stores in almost all US states.
And it’s not just limited to America; the demand for CBD products is on the rise globally and may reach up to $70 billion in valuation by 2033. This is because CBD has now become a top choice for people to deal with day-to-day anxiety, stress, recovery, pain, and sleep-related issues.
Hence, new CBD brands are jumping on this hype train every other day, but not all succeed that well. To grow your brand in such a competitive industry, you need to advertise it well. But you can’t advertise CBD like other supplements or products.
The FDA still hasn’t approved it as a dietary supplement, so advertising it openly through social media platforms is a bit difficult. So, can you advertise on Snapchat? Well, in a way, yes! But there’s more to it; let’s explore this topic in detail.
Snapchat CBD Advertisement Policy
As per Snapchat’s official advertising policy, you cannot advertise recreational or illegal drug use of pharmaceutical products. However, they do allow some advertising in limited capacity for CBD products in legal states.
So as long as you follow the state CBD laws and keep targeting as per guidelines, you can advertise your brand. But you cannot promote any smokable products like vapes or CBD cigarettes. Now let’s look at the best and most effective ways to advertise your CBD products on Snapchat.
Official Advertising Method
The official method involves using an advertisement program offered by Snapchat. They offer you to add spaces in the form of Snap ads, sponsored lenses, story ads, and collection ads, where you can send the creatives, and set impression limits, times, and target audience.
These advertisements will be visible to users, sandwiched between organic content, as they scroll through the app. They can range from as little as 3 seconds to as much as 3 minutes in overall duration.
You’ll have to make sure that the visuals are attractive enough to make people click on them. Plus, this is very costly and might not be suitable for new budding brands. And the advertising restrictions placed by Snapchat make it quite difficult to place your products in advertisements properly.
Restrictions On CBD Advertisements On Snapchat
- You cannot show CBD gummies in advertisements; only the bottle can be shown. Quite regressive, right? What’s the point of showing just the bottle?
- You cannot glamorize CBD use. It means that you cannot show visuals where people are directly using the products in their day-to-day lives like someone taking drops of CBD oil or gulping CBD gummies and then feeling good or happy after it.
- You cannot use language that promotes CBD as a remedy for something. So forget about promoting your CBD gummies as a sleep aid or your full-spectrum oil as an effective pain reliever.
- You cannot show experience or testimonials from people who used your CBD products and benefited from them. Hence, no ad is based on the user’s real-life experience.
- You cannot show any promotional offers, like a money-back guarantee, discounts on upcoming sales, or special discounts.
So yeah, in a way, it’s next to impossible for a new brand to effectively promote its CBD products through the official advertisement services offered by Snapchat.
In a way, this is just a money-burning machine with a very low return on investment incentive. This brings us to alternative methods; let’s learn about them in detail.
Alternative Ways To Advertise CBD On Snapchat
Snapchat is a user-generated content platform with a very heavy influencer base from all sorts of industries. Snapchat has over 400 million daily active users, and many of them rigorously follow their idol creator’s Snapchat handles. You’ll find a great chunk of CBD or cannabis enthusiasts in this group, along with plenty of CBD influencers.
The best way is to form a deal with these influencers, where you send them your products for testing and they share their experiences through stories and messages among their followers.
These creators have a massive following, and people tend to buy the products promoted by them. You can further enhance the campaign by giving them targeted scripts, specially made coupons, and affiliate links to further drive sales and note how that campaign is performing.
Just try different influencers, and then enter a long-term contract with those who bring in the most sales. This method gives you a chance to mix both your and the creator’s creativity, which can result in a promising advertising campaign.
Another method is to use surrogate advertising. It works best for alcohol products and may be quite effective in the cannabis industry as well. To get your brand’s name out there, you can launch ads for water bottles, snacks, or other products offered by your brand.
Of course, it won’t directly translate into sales right away, but it will help in imprinting your brand’s identity in people’s psyches. You may be able to run such ads on other mediums, like podcasts, TV, and radio shows.
The Final Note
To sum it up, yes, you can advertise CBD on Snapchat. However, the restrictions in place and upfront campaign costs can restrict the success chances of your ad campaign. Plus, it’s very difficult to get your CBD product’s exact purpose out there through official Snapchat ads.
Though they do offer a variety of options like story ads, AR-based ads, and even collection ads, So if you have the budget, create a visual, set the campaign, set the rules, and let it run wild.
But a much better and more effective way is to partner with influencers instead. With them, you can go as creative as you want and give them story ideas, video ideas, special discount coupons, and incentive-based affiliate links, which can result in much better targeting and a better return on investment.
So try both and choose the one that works best for you. For CBD users reading this, even if you come across a lucrative ad, just make sure to do a product check first. Only buy products that come from reputed brands like Colorado Botanicals and have the most up-to-date third-party lab test reports.
