Can You Advertise CBD on Google

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If you are like most CBD business owners or cannabis marketers, you wonder whether you can advertise your cannabis products on Google. After all, Google is the most popular digital ad seller and can bring excellent results for your business if done right.

However, unlike other businesses, cannabis brands face many challenges and restrictions when marketing their products on major digital marketing platforms, including Google and Facebook.

Here we look at everything you need to know about advertising CBD on Google.

Let’s get started!

Does Google Allow CBD Ads?

Most CBD marketers have expressed disappointments about the many advertising restrictions on major digital platforms like Facebook and Instagram.

Google, too, has a policy that prohibits CBD advertising on its platform. Even after the 2018 Farm bill passage, many states are yet to develop an excellent regulatory framework for hemp-derived CBD.

As a result, Google doesn’t allow CBD on its advertising platforms, which includes Google Shopping ads. The same goes for other products like supplements, food additives, and inhaled substances.

However, despite Google’s restrictive policy on hemp-derived CBD products, you can still come across CBD ads on Google search results. So what’s the catch? What’s Google’s standpoint on CBD ads?

In a January 2023 update, Google now allows CBD promotions on their advertising platforms in California, Colorado, and Puerto Rico; There are still limitations to what kinds of CDB products brands can promote and how they’re promoted (for instance, YouTube Masthead formats are not allowed for serving).

Nonetheless, one thing is clear: you can promote CDB products on Google. Whether you have a CBD e-commerce site or an affiliate site selling CBD products, the next step now is to look at what is allowed and what’s not allowed in CBD Google ads.

What’s Allowed in CBD Google Ads?

Google Ads’ CBD policy falls under “dangerous products or services.” This clearly states that they prohibit promoting products and services that can cause damage, harm, or injury. Specifically, Google considers these products and services to be dangerous and don’t allow them on their platform:

  • Substances that can change mental state or induce “highs,” including marijuana, cocaine, heroin, cocaine substitutes, and crystal meth
  • Content instructing about producing, buying, or using recreational drugs
  • Products or services aimed at facilitating recreational drug use, including bongs, pipes, cannabis coffee shops, etc
  • Ads that claim health benefits of CBD products without backing them with credible medical research

How to Advertise CBD on Google without violating AdWords terms and conditions

Having read this far, it’s likely you want CBD advertising on Google and are wondering how to go about it. The truth is, with the right approach, you can successfully advertise CBD on Google.

However, before we let you know how you can advertise CBD on Google, you must understand the potential risks of violating Google policies on CBD ads.

Some of the risks that you expose yourself to when trying to circumvent Google ad policies include:

  • Account closures
  • Damage to your brand
  • Flagging of your billing information

To that end, here’s how you can advertise your CBD on Google

Google Ads

The first step you need to take is to create a Google AdWords account specifically for advertising your eligible CBD products or services. You can do the same to promote your FDA-approved pharmaceuticals.

This way, your other products won’t be affected if you run into problems with Google when advertising CBD on its platform. A common challenge that new CBD marketers encounter is their CBD Google ad not getting approved.

In most cases, Google will disapprove of your CBD ads if they notice trigger words like claims of CBD health benefits or references to selling CBD products on your page’s metadata.

The best way to circumvent such issues and get your ads approved is to partner with a reputable CBD digital marketing company. An experienced CBD digital marketing agency understands marijuana advertising restrictions and will help you create a winning CBD ad campaign on Google.

How Can You Boost the Chances of Having Your CBD Ad Approved on Google?

Although no one can guarantee that Google will approve your CBD ads, there are practical ways to boost the chances of your CBD ads getting approved on Google. They include:

  • Avoid using CBD and hemp-related keywords in your ad. Instead, when submitting your ad for review, use euphemisms for the products you are offering, such as pure plant-based remedies.
  • If the ad is not approved, try building a gated landing page for your campaign and remove all references to hemp and CBD.
  • If your ad is still rejected, try removing any links to your website from your gated landing page.
  • If Google approves your CBD ad, wait for a couple of days before adding any link to your website from your gated landing page.

As earlier stated, trying to get your CBD ads approved on Google puts your account at risk. In some cases, it can lead to account closure, giving a massive blow to your business. We recommend using a different advertising account to run your ads.

Focus on CBD SEO on Your Website

A computer screen displaying a website with "CBD SEO" prominently featured. Various SEO tools and techniques are visually represented around the screen

It’s no doubt that SEO remains an excellent way to market and promote your CBD business. By implementing a perfect CBD SEO strategy on your website, your CBD brand will become more reputable, trustworthy and ultimately boost your sales.

Unlike Google ads, using SEO to drive traffic to your online CBD store or CBD dispensary has no restrictions.

The best part is that thousands of people conduct local searches every day, meaning a CBD business with a winning CBD SEO strategy will drive more traffic to their website, increasing their chances of conversions.

That’s why you should aim to appear on the first page of search results for CBD-related queries.

How to Improve SEO for Your CBD Business

A website with a low Domain Authority ranking will not have a robust online presence. One way to improve your domain authority is to post high-quality and relevant CBD-related content regularly.

Ideally, your content should provide answers to the common CBD questions that your audience is asking.

Google aims at providing the best user experience for its users. It will reward your website if people spend more time on your website. To improve your SEO and increase your chances of ranking, provide valuable and shareable CBD content to your users.

People will see your website as an authority in the CBD space and come to your website anytime they are looking for CBD products or CBD-related information. Google will reward you by ranking you on the first page of search results.

Below are our tips for making an excellent CBD SEO strategy:

Perform an SEO Audit for Your CBD Website

The first step towards a robust CBD SEO strategy is to perform an SEO audit for your site. SEO audit results will help you know your standing on SEO matters and the steps you can take to improve your ranking.

Before performing an SEO audit, ensure that your website is registered for webmaster services. An SEO audit analysis is broken down into four major categories, including:

  • Accessibility
  • Indexability
  • On-page ranking factors
  • Off-page ranking factors

Understand the Search Intent

Users search for something for various reasons. You need to understand your users’ search intent to develop your SEO strategy based on the type of content they want to see.

There are four types of search intent, including:

  • Informational: Users are looking for information
  • Navigational: When users are looking for a specific website
  • Commercial investigation: Users are researching more before purchasing a particular product
  • Transactional: Users are ready to purchase a specific product and are looking for a better place to buy

Take your time to understand your audience’s search intent and create content that answers their questions to boost your chances of ranking.

Perform Keyword Competitive Analysis

Blogging is an excellent way to attract more traffic and improve your domain authority for your CBD brand. However, creating an effective blogging strategy is not easy, especially for most novice CBD advertisers.

That’s why we recommend performing competitive analysis to have a clear understanding of what is working out there. A competitive analysis allows you to define your CBD brand so it can stand out from the competition.

Here are some things to keep in mind when performing an SEO competitive analysis:

  • Check the CBD brands on the first page of SERPs.
  • Check the popular keywords used by popular CBD brands
  • Consider the difficulty of keywords in your niche
  • Check your competitors’ on-page SEO and on-site content
  • Have a close look at your competitor’s site structure and user experience
  • Check social media pages of competitor CBD brands

Search Quality CBD-Related Keywords

Now that you know the search intent and have performed a competitive analysis, the next step is to perform keyword research.

When doing keyword research, consider the users’ concerns, questions, and the type of products they are looking for most.

Long-tail keywords are the new deal in SEO since they have highly-focused search queries. Aim for high ROI CBD keywords, not the basic keywords used by many underperforming CBD brands out there.

After you find quality CBD keywords, focus on these content trends of 2021:

  • Content that touches on specific user’s needs
  • User-generated content
  • High-quality long-form content
  • Video content
  • Don’t ignore voice search

Improve Site Speed

Site load speed is an essential ranking factor. Site load speed is a primary concern for Google and Bing and will favor websites with a fast load time.

Some of the tasks we perform to increase your site load speed include:

  • Improve server response time
  • Minify CSS, JavaScript, and HTML
  • Reduce redirects
  • Optimize images
  • Remove render-blocking JavaScript
  • Enable compression

Make Your Website Mobile-Friendly

Google announced the mobile-first indexing in 2019, meaning Googlebot will index your mobile-friendly pages before they crawl your desktop version. If you are unsure whether your site is mobile-friendly, take the free mobile-friendly test using Google’s free testing tool.

Focus on User Experience When Designing Your CBD Website

A person browsing a CBD website on a laptop, with a clean and organized layout, easy navigation, and clear product information

 

Your SEO efforts will not bring a good ROI if you ignore user experience. After all, your website gives the first impression of your CBD brand. That being said, you must aim to make your website user-friendly.

According to Google, the new page experience signal will be the new ranking factor from May 2021.

That means CBD websites that don’t have a good user experience will not rank on Google after May 2021. You must think about your audience when designing your website to get the most out of your SEO and advertising efforts.

Use Local SEO

You should invest in local SEO if you operate a local CBD store and want to boost your online presence.

Local SEO helps you increase foot traffic to your CBD shop and website traffic if you sell CBD products online.

Sign up for Google My Business to get a free business profile. Don’t forget to include your address, name, and contact information.

How to Advertise CBD on Google Recap

  • Create a new Google AdWords account for your CBD products
  • Define your target location
  • Set a budget for your ad campaigns
  • Select “Paid Search Ads”
  • Select good ROI CBD keywords
  • Don’t advertise your CBD products directly when writing ads

Need Help in Advertising Your CBD on Google? AlchemyLeads Can Help

As you have seen, you can advertise your CBD products on Google without violating Google ad policies. However, the truth is, not every CBD brand owner or marketer can achieve this.

That’s why you need an experienced CBD digital marketing agency like AlchemyLeads to hold your hand when advertising CBD on Google. Our SEO and content marketing nerds understand the Google ads policies and can help you create campaigns that will not violate Google Ads regulations in the CBD niche.

Whether you need help with creating effective CBD Google ads or an excellent CBD SEO strategy, we are here to help. Ready to start? Please contact us by filling the form below, and we will get back to you with more details.