CBD Advertising Ideas For Emerging CBD Oil Brands

Navigating the complex world of CBD advertising can prove to be rather frustrating for digital marketers. There are so many barriers preventing you from reaching your target market. Fortunately, we have some ideas to help emerging CBD oil brands find their audience.

CBD products are becoming more popular than ever in the UK, with 6 million UK adults using CBD products in the past year alone. The CBD industry is now worth £300 million in the UK. This rapidly growing industry means that CBD advertising is on the rise.

The popularity of CBD oil is not limited to the UK market. Nearly 7% of Americans were using CBD products in 2019 and it is predicted to increase to 10% by 2025. In the US, the CBD market already generates $2 billion in sales with the state of California being home to many market-leading CBD brands.

Even though CBD has entered mainstream popular culture, marketing CBD products comes with plenty of challenges. There are international differences in advertising regulations which can further confuse matters. Advertising on social media platforms is notoriously difficult because of the ambiguous perception of CBD by the major social media platforms and their own codes of conduct.

Despite these challenges, CBD advertising is not only possible, but essential. This article will give you specific advice on CBD advertising, how to promote CBD oil, and how to market CBD products using a range of marketing channels, such as search engines and social media platforms.

What is CBD Advertising?

CBD advertising is far more challenging than it should be. Advertising policies have curtailed e-commerce sales on an industry-wide level. 97% of start-ups in the cannabis industry fail compared to 20% of small businesses in the US. This places a huge emphasis on the need to invest in quality CBD advertising and CBD marketing.

Content-driven CBD advertising is essential to promoting CBD brands and products in a crowded marketplace. CBD advertising that utilizes social media and uses CBD influencers, as well as using CBD keywords for search engine advertising, helps to exponentially increase brand awareness.

Why invest in CBD Advertising?

Any business owner will tell you that advertisement is key to marketing and promoting products and is a vital investment that dramatically increases profitability, as well as positively influencing the perception of your company and products. This is no different for CBD advertising. One essential method of how to promote CBD oil and related products is through investment in content marketing.

The target market for CBD is relatively broad in scope, with its therapeutic effects appealing to both younger and older generations. Building a loyal customer base is key to the growth of a CBD brand. Referrals are the most powerful CBD advertising tool of them all. If you can gain a core base of loyal customers, this has the potential to grow exponentially as they tell their friends and family about your CBD products.

The biggest issue CBD brands encounter is that most advertisers ban CBD marketing as it is still regarded as a grey area. Many simply refuse to distinguish between cannabis and CBD. By investing in SEO for your CBD brand, you are free to promote your product without falling under the watchful eye of strict advertising regulations. This doesn’t mean that you can make unfounded health claims about your products, but it does mean that you can at least talk about the therapeutic potential of this cannabis-derived chemical compound through SEO-optimized blog content.

What is Content Marketing?

Content marketing is a type of marketing that involves creating and sharing online materials such as videos, blog posts, or social media posts, that do not explicitly promote a brand. Instead, it is intended to stimulate interest in specific products or services. Content marketing needs to be a part of the advertising process and not something separate.

Content marketing for CBD products and brands is essential for driving brand awareness and promoting CBD products. Content marketing takes many forms, from SEO strategies that increase brand visibility to social media marketing that utilizes CBD influencers. Search engines and social media platforms have the power to influence brand perception and drive sales.

Advertise CBD Online with Content Marketing

Advertising CBD online doesn’t have to be difficult. If you are an emerging CBD oil brand, SEO needs to be your priority. By using search engines, you can increase the number of people who view your brand’s website, attracting those that are searching for specific CBD keywords. Google may have stated that it does not allow CBD or cannabis ads, but that doesn’t mean you can’t generate organic traffic through blog articles on this search engine.

Google removes most normal CBD advertising campaigns in less than two weeks, but it is possible to avoid running the risk of violating Google AdWords. After creating your AdWords account, set your budget and location and your campaign type to ‘paid search ads’. Then select CBD keywords that match your product and industry before setting your bid (cost-per-click) per word.

CBD keywords such as CBD oil, CBD skincare, or CBD balm generate interest and increase online traffic towards your website. Creating CBD keywords that are phrased into statements that might be typed into Google by potential consumers is key for SEO. Phrases such as Instagram CBD or selling edibles are examples of phrases you might use.

After utilizing CBD keywords, you can create your Google ad. It is important that you do not promote your CBD product directly. Link your advertisements to blog content about generalized topics relating to wellness.

Facebook recently relaxed its policy to allow topical hemp CBD brands, but there is still a complete ban on advertising ingestible hemp and CBD products. This means that selling edibles is not possible as ad campaigns that use specific CBD keywords that imply ingestible hemp or CBD will be banned.

Although Instagram does not endorse the sale of CBD, the new Instagram policy gives account holders a warning instead of their account being automatically blocked, removed, or banned. Even though you still cannot explicitly advertise CBD on Instagram, your social media marketing team will be warned instead of completely banned, giving them time to alter their ads and marketing.

Instagram influencers are essential for CBD marketing online. Instagram has the highest interaction rate of all social media platforms, so through paying influencers to showcase your product or brand, you can effectively reach a large target audience and encourage customer growth, whilst stimulating interest in your brand.

Influencers can interact with your brand through hashtags, posts, or through showcasing your product on Instagram stories. Ensuring that influencers use targeted hashtags in their posts will help put your CBD brand in front of people who are interested in buying it. But Instagram’s policy specifies that influencers need to use #sponsored or #ad to distinguish promotional content.

CBD Advertising Regulations UK

The unparalleled growth of CBD products in the UK is a direct result of a change in legislation. In 2016, the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Authority (MHRA) determined that CBD oil in the UK could be considered a medicinal ingredient as long as it was used for medicinal purposes.

If you are distributing CBD oil, your product must have a THC content of less than 0.2% and you either need to be a licensed medical distributor or sell the product as a nutritional supplement. If you are a licensed medical distributor you have greater flexibility for dispensary marketing. If not, CBD products must be sold in accordance with the Food Supplements Regulations 2003.

Edible CBD products must either be sold as a food supplement or as a novel food. Novel foods are classified as a product that has not been in long term and safe use before 1997. CBD product manufacturers for novel foods should apply for approval from The European Food Safety Authority.

Vague health claims must be avoided in CBD advertising. CBD keywords or phrasing that are unspecific and unsupported health claims cannot be used in CBD product advertising. Keywords and phrases such as healthy or full of goodness are potentially misleading and unsubstantiated, so break UK advertising regulations.

Similarly, if your CBD product is not a classified medicine, it cannot make any medical claims in its advertising. The CBD advertising for these types of products must not use keywords such as cure, heal, prevent, or fight against any illness or health conditions. Marketing cannabis and cannabinoid products in the UK must be carefully worded in order to comply with advertising regulations.

CBD Advertising Regulations US

Marketing cannabis products or cannabinoids in the US follow very similar restrictions to the UK regarding the wording and claims made to advertise your CBD product or brand. In the US, companies advertising CBD must comply with the Federal Trade Commission’s regulations which prohibit deceptive advertising and require substantiation of all ‘objective’ claims made in advertising.

Much like the UK, certain keywords such as prevents, treats, or cures are unsubstantiated health claims and therefore need evidence verified by tests, studies, or scientific evidence in order to be used in CBD or cannabis marketing.

In the US, advertising regulations are unique to each state, platform, and local marketing laws so careful consideration of where you are launching your product needs to be taken into account before you create your CBD advertising campaign.

Final Thoughts on CBD Advertising Ideas

Through effective CBD advertising and marketing, you will be able to build a successful CBD oil brand. In the UK, the CBD industry is on track to be worth $1 billion in 5 years. As competition starts to heat up, CBD advertising is going to be essential for any emerging CBD oil brand to gain market share.

Regardless of whether you are advertising in the UK or the US, the laws and regulations make it clear that you should not be promoting unsupported and unscientific claims. Instead, you can talk about the therapeutic potential of CBD as a food supplement.

You can read our full CBD marketing study here. If you have any questions about the study or would like to talk with us about CBD content writing for your brand, please email Adam@FreshlySqueezed.Online. You can also view our blog content samples and pricing plans.