Anyone who has worked in the cannabis industry at some point has faced hurdles and challenges due to the plant’s improper federal status. From cannabis marketing agencies to social media influencers, there’s trouble promoting and posting about anything related to cannabis products and consumption.
Among all the platforms and apps that have their own set of cannabis social media rules and regulations, Twitter just changed the game.
Recently, Twitter announced it will now allow licensed cannabis businesses to purchase advertisement campaigns within their legal state.
Considering the limiting advertising opportunities currently available for the industry, this is a major step for companies to actually market their product and brand.
Learn what this new Twitter cannabis ad policy means for businesses moving forward, and the best practices to navigate this new way of advertising.
Breaking Down Twitter’s Cannabis Ad Policy
This new addition to the platform’s advertisement campaign policy will permit licensed cannabis and CBD companies to target audiences across the United States, within these conditions:
- Advertisers must be licensed by the appropriate authorities, and pre-authorized by Twitter.
- Advertisers may only target jurisdictions in which they are licensed to promote these products or services online.
- Advertisers may not promote or offer the sale of Cannabis (including CBD– cannabinoids)
- Exception: Ads for topical (non-ingestible) hemp-derived CBD topical products containing equal to or less than the 0.3% THC government-set threshold.
- Advertisers are responsible for complying with all applicable laws, rules, regulations, and advertising guidelines.
- Advertisers may not target customers under the age of 21.
Additionally, any advertisement from these licensed cannabis or CBD companies must also adhere to the following rules for ad content creation:
- Not appeal to minors in the creative, and landing pages must be age gated and sales must be age verified.
- Not use characters, sports-persons, celebrities, or images/icons appealing to minors.
- Not use minors or pregnant women as models in advertising.
- Not make claims of efficacy or health benefits.
- Not make false/misleading claims.
- Not show any depiction of cannabis product use.
- Not depict people using or under the influence.
- Not encourage transport across state lines.
Even with these regulations and guidelines in place, there is still a great opportunity for cannabis businesses to advertise their products or brands without the risk of getting banned or disabled.
Knowing you can advertise on Twitter without the risk, you can now dive into the fun part of social media advertising and branding – the strategy!
Advertising Your Cannabis Brand on Twitter: Best Practices
With respect to the app’s new cannabis ad guidelines, your business now has the chance to freely create and advertise.
Consider these best practices for Twitter ads and how to implement them into an opportunity to advertise your cannabis brand on this social media platform!
1. Strategy
When you’re ready to start a cannabis advertising campaign on Twitter, look for opportunities where your brand can get engaged and connected with the latest trends and happenings at the moment.
For an advertising strategy, think:
- Are you looking to launch a new product, service, or promotion within your brand?
- Are you looking to build and engage with a community and audience on the latest trends and news buzzing on your feed?
No matter the direction you take your new cannabis ad strategy, use it as a chance to build your brand voice and promote products in a way you never could before.
2. Copy
In addition to this new cannabis ad policy, all advertisements must follow standard Twitter standards. When it comes to tweeting copy for ads, the best practice is 50-100 characters.
With such a brief character limit, it’s important to keep your ad message concise, straightforward, and clear for all readers.
- Convey urgency to grab the reader’s attention. These ads are implemented throughout a user’s feed, consider copy that will make them stop scrolling to read more.
- Have a strong call to action. What is the purpose of your ad and the message you’re trying to relay? “Learn More,” “Follow,” and “Shop Now” are all simple and direct copy that will direct further action.
- Avoid hashtags and mentions. As much as it is a Twitter standard, including too many hashtags or mentions in your ad copy will redirect users to other landing pages or accounts that aren’t your call to action.
3. Images & Videos
Adding imagery or graphics is the most effective way to have your ad stand out on Twitter. Whether it’s a GIF, video, or image, keep image content eye-catching and captivating to the user.
- Have your ad clearly show the connection between the imagery and the key message of the ad.
- For video ad content, try to maintain the video message within 15 seconds or less for better brand impact and engagement.
- Quick motions or clever transitions within the first few seconds of videos help to grab the user’s attention. Text overlay, logo branding, and captions help to briefly and clearly get the advertising message across.
- Remember, Twitter’s new cannabis ad policy does not allow showing the use of consumption in any images. However, there’s still plenty of room to get creative with image or video ad content.
4. Optimizing Your Ad Campaign
Once your creative ad asset and copy is prepared and set, you’re ready to create a cannabis advertisement campaign on Twitter!
Creating an ad campaign comes with many options and modifications that help tailor your brand’s message to a targeted audience, demographic, and location.
- For your first few cannabis ad campaigns, try keeping your targeted audience broad and open to see who your content resonates with. With this insight, you can adjust and modify your select audience as you go.
- If your campaign happens to touch on the topic of a trending conversation or piece of news, Twitter’s unique conversation targeting outreach option helps to engage with users active in those conversations.
- Like most ad campaigns you’ll see, running around 3-5 different formats of your ad is another helpful way to see which content is responding successfully. Consider the different combinations of ads to try – an image with witty copy, a video and website link, or maybe even a plain text tweet.
- The bid you place on your ad campaign is a driving factor that determines the frequency and visibility of your advertising content. Twitter’s auto-bid option ensures that your brand’s ad will run competitively and efficiently online.
- Checking in with your campaign’s insights and analytics will help you assess and make adjustments where needed to further optimize your cannabis ad campaign.
Even when there had to be vague and ambiguous branding content and consumption references, Twitter was known for its large cannabis audience. Now, brands and companies can fully promote products and bring brand awareness to Twitter’s newsfeed openly and creatively.
Raising Hope for the Future of Cannabis & Social Media
This updated policy for Twitter’s ad campaigns is a huge move for the industry and raises the question even higher if other social platforms will soon follow suit (we’re looking at you, Instagram and Facebook!)
As many accounts race to put out unique and exciting ad content around their brand, we will begin to see how this unfolds and impacts the country’s cannabis marketing.
Now, there’s an opportunity for brand awareness, customer or sales growth, and ad content creation waiting for you to explore!
However, with a new form of cannabis advertising permitted and underway, maintaining and managing your brand’s Twitter and social media presence is a whole other matter.
Cannabis Creative Group’s dispensary and cannabis social media management services take the stress and concern out of cannabis advertising. Our team of social media managers and experts are ready to jump on the latest trends and directly engage with followers to increase your brand’s awareness.
Learn more about our marketing services for cannabis and social media management. Stay up to date on the latest cannabis marketing trends on the Cannabis Creative Group Twitter page!
