How To Advertise Weed On Instagram As A Cannabis Brand

Sick of being shadowbanned, flagged, and deactivated? Here's how to avoid that and successfully market your brand on Instagram.

Rachel Abela

Your weed brand might be thriving, but your Instagram page might not reflect that.

Maybe you had a viral post that gained some serious traction, only for it to get deleted because of Instagram’s rigorous restrictions against the plant. Well, it’s not just cannabis, but drugs in general.

Even if you’re headquartered in a state where cannabis is recreationally legal, marketing your safe, legal, and high-quality goods on Instagram is no walk in the park.

If this is something you or your brand can relate to, let’s dive deeper into marketing cannabis on social media, the restrictions, and how cannabis brands can market their goods while still remaining compliant with the law and Instagram’s guidelines.

Instagram's Community Guidelines

Photo by Culta

Cannabis brands have experienced the wrath of Instagram’s community guidelines first-hand. These community guidelines state the following:

“Offering sexual services, buying or selling firearms, alcohol, and tobacco products between private individuals, and buying or selling non-medical or pharmaceutical drugs are also not allowed. We also remove content that attempts to trade, co-ordinate the trade of, donate, gift, or ask for non-medical drugs, as well as content that either admits to personal use (unless in the recovery context) or coordinates or promotes the use of non-medical drugs.”

The key takeaway here is “non-medical drugs,” aka recreational cannabis. Basically, the only way you can talk about the personal use of cannabis is if you’re sharing a story about recovering from it.

This is because cannabis is still illegal at a federal level in the United States. It’s still on the list of controlled substances, so promoting it takes some serious planning if you want to shimmy through these complicated guidelines.

Finally, Instagram’s choice of which accounts to flag and deactivate is very inconsistent. It’s not uncommon to see brands marketing their products like no tomorrow, and then your account ends up getting deactivated for something you thought was pretty subtle.

Can You Post Weed On Instagram? Not Exactly, And Here's What To Avoid

Although Instagram’s guidelines are rather complicated, there are a few things you can do to ensure your brand’s account won’t get flagged or deactivated.

As aggravating as it sounds, you simply cannot reference cannabis, the sale of cannabis, or any products your brand offers. Here’s a more thorough list of things to avoid when posting cannabis marketing content on Instagram:

Posts that directly mention cannabis or marijuana
Posts that mention prices of cannabis products
Posts about a product menu
Posts about discounts and sales of cannabis products
Posts that direct people to your cannabis store, physical or online

Before we get into what’s “allowed” on Instagram, you might be wondering if it’s okay to post images and videos of cannabis or someone using cannabis.

Oddly enough, these posts sometimes get a free pass. However, it’s essential for brand owners and social media managers to understand the potential consequences of posting pictures and videos of cannabis.

What Are The Consequences Of Breaking Instagram's Guidelines?

The first time Instagram notices you’re posting content that crosses its community guidelines, you could have your account deleted almost instantly.

This is the worst-case scenario. Some brands and content creators have been lucky enough to get a warning, and maybe even a second warning. Sometimes, there are no warnings at all, and you wake up to a blank page.

You can also easily get shadowbanned after receiving a warning or two from Instagram. This essentially means that your posts will not reach as many people as they once did.

So, it’s in your best interest to follow Instagram’s community guidelines if you truly want to use the platform for effective and successful marketing.

Which Cannabis Marketing Posts Are Allowed On Instagram?

Photo by InsideCreativeHouse / Adobe Stock Photo

The best way to avoid cannabis marketing hiccups on Instagram is to center your page around your brand rather than your products.

If your company doesn’t have much in the way of branding, now is a better time than ever to start thinking about:

What your brand strives for
Your brand’s mission
What sets you apart from the competition
How your brand is moving the cannabis culture forward

With this in mind, you have the creative control to create a page that truly reflects all that your brand is about. This helps consumers form a better relationship with your brand, and it also makes it easier for people to resonate with your ideas and values once they’re shared on your page.

Explain what your brand promises and how you put that into action. Give consumers a look at the behind-the-scenes process of your brand’s day-to-day; maybe that’s getting a new shipment or taking a tour of your headquarters.

Other Tips For Successful Cannabis Marketing On Instagram

If you really want to reach the most people possible, it’s essential to post often and consistently.

Post at the same time every day and at the best possible times (when people are most on their phone, depending on your demographic. For example, adults who have lunch breaks from 12-1 pm and get off work around 5 pm).

Don’t be a ghost page. By that, I mean posting tons of content but not engaging with your fanbase. Like a comment, pin a comment, reply back; this is key in order for consumers to feel like they’re not connecting with some corporate company, but a brand with a heart.

It might also be wise to reach out to influencers who might want to partner up and promote your products. But, for brands that might not be at that level yet, we suggest using hashtags that relate to your post.

Hashtags that reference cannabis, like #cannabis and #marijuana, do not exist because of Instagram’s community guidelines. That’s where you need to get creative and think of keywords that relate to your brand but could also reach a new audience of consumers. A few examples include:

#Wellness
#Health
#Plantbased

Marketing your weed brand can be challenging, and it takes time to learn what’s allowed vs. what’s not on Instagram. With the tips above, you should reach your target audience in no time.

Is your brand interested in building a marketing plan? Visit our page on how you can grow your revenue with Herb.

Posting Weed On Instagram - The Best Cannabis Instagram Hashtags

Hashtags are your best friend when posting on Instagram—they’ll help you connect with the right crowd and boost your reach.

Need to know how to post weed on Instagram without getting deleted? Avoid obvious language that might alert Insta’s bots. Instead, herb-lovers on the platform use clever, low-key hashtags to keep their posts visible and connected to the right people.

Here are some herb-friendly hashtags that’ll signal to the Instagram community (at least the ganja-loving side) what you’re all about: