Digital Advertising can offer more advertising freedom for some industries, and more restrictions for others. From fireworks, firearms, to alcohol, cannabis and more – Vici has you covered. We will help you plan and strategize the extra hurdles for these opportunities and help you and your clients come out on top. For the purposes of this blog, we are going to focus on the largest, and fastest growing, of these opportunities, cannabis. So, let's roll!
Key Takeaways:
1. Cannabis Advertising Is Heavily Restricted — But Still Possible
Major platforms like Google and Meta prohibit THC-related ads, but CBD is fair game. Success in this vertical requires understanding platform rules and using compliant alternatives like Display, Video, Native, CTV, and Social Mirror ads through Vici’s platform.
2. The Cannabis Market Is Exploding
The U.S. cannabis industry is projected to reach $45 billion in revenue by 2025, supporting over 440,000 full-time jobs and generating $20 billion in tax revenue — nearly double alcohol. Marketers who enter early can capture a rapidly growing, mainstream audience.
3. Smart Targeting Wins in Restricted Industries
Effective campaigns use layered targeting — behavioral, keyword, AI, retargeting, and geofencing — to reach high-intent cannabis and CBD buyers. Using AI targeting helps expand limited ad inventory while staying compliant.
4. Social Mirror and CTV Provide the Perfect Workaround
Social Mirror ads replicate social media engagement without the platform restrictions, while Connected TV (CTV) delivers unskippable awareness ads directly to audiences’ living rooms — creating immersive, compliant reach.
5. Be the Trusted Marketing Partner for Dispensaries
Dispensary owners are passionate about their products, not digital strategy. Agencies that educate, strategize, and simplify compliance become invaluable partners. With Vici’s toolkit — from DOOH and SEO to Website Visitor ID and Live Chat — marketers can help cannabis clients thrive in a competitive, regulated landscape.
Dispensaries and cannabis brands are raking in serious green, but most of them still don’t know how to spend it effectively when it comes to marketing. That’s the blunt truth.
The cannabis market has gone from taboo to totally mainstream. The U.S. cannabis industry is expected to hit nearly $45 billion in revenue by the end of 2025, adding a whopping $115 billion to the economy just last year.
Did you know?
Public opinion has shifted dramatically — and with that, the opportunities for digital marketers have skyrocketed. Are you getting a piece of this?
Dispensaries are growing like weeds, but dispensary owners and managers aren’t digital marketing pros. They’re passionate about their products — not pixels.
That’s where agencies and media professionals who prepare, research, and educate these clients can shine. If you can speak their language (and we’ll help with that), you can become their go-to marketing partner. So, first things first, request a Research Report for local geography, and let’s learn the lingo.
Cannabis 101: Terms You’ll Want to Know
Here are the essentials every marketer should know before pitching a dispensary or cannabis brand:
Advertising Cannabis Digitally: What You Can and Can’t Do
Here’s the not-so-secret challenge, cannabis advertising is restricted. Major platforms like Google and Meta don’t allow THC ads — but CBD fair game. So, how do cannabis brands reach their audience without getting flagged? With Vici’s powerful targeting and ad tech, there are plenty of ways to run compliant, effective campaigns.
To start, familiarize yourself with what is and isn’t allowed. We have a handy table in the Ad Restrictions folder of your Vici Drive (login through adtini):
As you can see, these products are fair game to advertise cannabis on, but you will need to add an additional cpm to the standard rates, for:
· Display
· Video
· Native
· Native Video
· CTV
· Social Mirror
· Social Mirror CTV
Before we review what, the above ad types are, lets summarize how the above can be targeted to reach the cannabis user for your dispensary client:
1. Define the local, geographic targeting area you want the ads to appear in
2. Select behaviors to reach the right people. Common examples for Cannabis and CBD include:
· Age
· Alternative Medicine
· Arthritis
· Back Pain
· Cancer
· Cannabis
· Cannabis Industry Growers
· Cannabis Lab Technicians
· Cannabis News Readers
· Cannabis Researchers
· Cannabis/CBD Store Shoppers
· CBD > Capsules
· CBD > CBD for Energy
· CBD > CBD for Joint Support
· CBD > CBD for Muscle Support
· CBD > CBD for Pets
· CBD > CBD Oil Shoppers
· CBD > Edibles > Gummies
· CBD > Sports & Fitness Recovery
· CBD > Tinctures & Oils
· CBD > Vape & Vaping (E-liquid)
· Cannabis > Capsules
· Cannabis > CBD for Energy
· Cannabis > CBD for Joint Support
· Cannabis > CBD for Muscle Support
· Cannabis > CBD for Pets
· Cannabis > CBD Oil Shoppers
· Cannabis > Edibles > Gummies
· Cannabis > Sports & Fitness Recovery
· Cannabis > Tinctures & Oils
· Cannabis > Vape & Vaping (E-liquid)
· Chronic Pain
· Cigarettes
· College Students
· Concert Goers
· Farming and Agriculture
· Feminine Pain Relievers
· Gamers
· Green Living
· Headaches & Migraines
· Healthy Living
· Insomnia
· Interest - Live Events
· Liberal Voters
· Marijuana Legalization
· Music Festivals
· Organic & Natural Foods
· Outdoor Enthusiasts
· Political Liberals
· Smoking Cessation
· Tobacco Products
· Tobacco, Cannabis and Vape Shops
· Vitamins & Supplements
· Would Consider Medical Marijuana As Treatment
3. Create a Keyword Targeting list – we can use up to 500 keywords and phrases.
· Consider including the business’s name and name of competitors
· Brands of products they carry
· Types of products that are sold, flavors, etc
4. Layer in Artificial Intelligence Targeting to use machine learning to find the cannabis or CBD consumers in the geographic targeting area. Highly recommended for restricted vehicles as inventory is more limited, having AI as a strategy helps increase opportunity.
5. Place a container tag with retargeting pixels on the client’s website so we can retarget their website traffic.
6. Add in geofencing and georetargeting from areas where the target audience is likely to be.
· Competitor dispensaries
· Alternative medical clinics and facilities
· Festivals and live events
7. Consider custom audiences or lookalike audiences if the client has a database of past or current customers they want to advertise to.
The above targeting tactics (behavioral, keyword, AI, retargeting, custom and lookalike audiences, geofencing and georetargeting) can be mixed and matched for the core cannabis products (social mirror, display, native, video, and CTV). Let’s review what these are.
Social Mirror Ads: Go Where Social Can’t – With Better Targeting, and Higher Reach!
Social Mirror ads look like social media posts (think Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, etc.), but they run across thousands of premium websites and apps. We can use social content, in a targeted way without the restrictions social media platforms put on the Cannabis and CBD industry, because we aren’t placing the ad spend inside those platforms. We are extending the reach outside of the walled gardens and onto other websites and apps the target audience is using.
You can include videos, carousels, or single images.
The ads have multiple click thru urls to send people to social media platform or the client’s website. In addition to a website CTR, you can trade that for CTAs like Click-to-Call, Click-for-Directions, or Click-to-Email. We can even turn a social post into a Connected TV (CTV) ad, complete with the client’s logo and a QR code. Our team can even make you Social Mirror and Social Mirror CTV spec ad if you fill out the request form in adtini. There is no reason not to do this! It’s been proven to help get cold prospects engaged and increase the closing ratio of proposals!
Social Mirror is the perfect workaround for cannabis advertisers who want social-style engagement, without social platform limitations.
Native, Display, and Video Ads: Meet Your Audience Where They Are
Native ads blend right into the content your audience is already consuming, making them feel less like ads and more like recommendations. This creative format really shines as a way to educate potential customers.
Video ads, whether :15 or :30 seconds, can play before or during content across thousands of sites and apps — it will include both skippable and unskippable inventory. Our reporting will show you the completion rates, and lower completion rates can be a surprisingly good thing as that may not indicate a skip, but a click!
Connected TV (CTV): Stream Your Message Straight to the Couch
CTV ads run 100% on connected TVs that are streaming their content. Our approach guarantees that 100% of these ads are unskippable. Because CTVs are not devices people use to browse the internet, these ads are not meant to drive a click to increase website traffic, therefore you want to ensure your CTV budget is running with only unskippable inventory that is embedded directly into the programming. Your client’s message appears right on the big screen in living rooms into your target audience’s home.
CTV ads when paired with other video campaigns or Social Mirror video, is one of the most immersive ways to build awareness and trust.
Moving beyond our core cannabis product lineup, we can also offer these clients Digital Out-of-Home advertising (varies by state), Search Engine Optimization, Live Chat, and Website Visitor ID.
Digital Out-of-Home (DOOH): Take It to the Streets
Digital Out-of-Home ads (DOOH) are your chance to be seen everywhere — from dispensaries to convenience stores, gyms, sports complexes, and even ride-share screens.
You pick your geography — city, zip, DMA — and we’ll serve your ads across the venues that include large formats, place based, and point of purchase:
· Large format: billboards, urban panels and transit shelters.
· Place-based: malls, gas stations, restaurants, taxis, gyms, hotels, sports complexes, salons, movie theaters, parking garages, and offices.
· Point-of-purchase: convenience stores, grocery stores, and retail stores.
Digital out-of-home reaches people when they are offline, across public digital screens, on a local level. DOOH can be incredibly powerful, especially when paired with a targeting online tactic.
DOOH has the ability to run weather triggers as well, so if the client sees their business impacted due to certain weather conditions, ads can be triggered to run by scheduling a specific forecast or weather event ahead of time.
DOOH lets cannabis advertisers stay top of mind with people out and about in their communities, all while staying compliant with regulations.
SEO – search engine optimization – helps dispensaries be found on Google when consumers go looking for them.
Beyond ads, SEO is a must. Optimizing for voice search, AI platforms, and online directories keeps cannabis brands discoverable — especially since search restrictions limit ad exposure. If a dispensary doesn’t exist online and their website isn’t indexed to rank on the first page of Google, they might as well not exist. Our customized approach to SEO, led by a true titan and expert in the SEO space, our very own “SEO Steve”.
And for direct engagement? Tools like Live Chat with call connect can capture leads in real time — even outside business hours.
A must have tool for any business, and especially cannabis, is one of our latest innovations – Website Visitor ID. If your client’s website isn’t running WVID they are fishing with a net that’s been cut. They reel the fish up to the boat, only to lose them. Website Visitor ID will match the client’s website traffic against the real visitors. Who are they? What are their names, what is their email address, and more! This data can be used for direct mail, email campaigns, and more! Before running any campaign, ensure your client’s privacy policy is updated. Cannabis data falls under multiple compliance frameworks — including CCPA, CPRA, NAI, and DAA standards. It’s all about staying compliant while staying creative.
Final Hit: Be the Resource
The cannabis industry is booming — and most of it still doesn’t know where to spend its marketing dollars. That’s your opportunity to become the trusted expert who helps them grow (and grow and grow).
With Vici’s suite of tools — from Social Mirror and DOOH to SEO and live chat — you can help cannabis clients dominate the market and reach customers compliantly, creatively, and effectively. Layer in Vici’s advanced behavioral targeting, you can reach:
Translation: you can reach exactly the right audience, wherever they hang out online. We meet them where they are.
So, ready to roll?!
