Cannabis Advertising Isn’t Limited to Google and Meta
By Vee Popat, Principal, ColaDigital
One question I hear from cannabis businesses is whether they can advertise online at all.
It’s understandable. Try running a conventional cannabis campaign through Meta, and you’re likely to run into restrictions. Google has historically been difficult too, although its Canadian cannabis Search advertising pilot has changed things for some eligible businesses.
But there’s another advertising channel that often gets overlooked: programmatic cannabis advertising.
Cannabis businesses can access ad inventory beyond the usual Google and Meta platforms, including display ads, online video (OLV), and connected TV (CTV).
And the targeting options are more interesting than many dispensary owners realize.
What Programmatic Advertising Actually Means
Programmatic advertising uses technology to buy digital advertising space across participating websites, apps and streaming environments.
Instead of buying advertising directly from one publisher, advertisers can access inventory across multiple publishers through a campaign platform.
For cannabis retailers, the important difference is that some of these advertising networks accept cannabis campaigns, subject to their policies and applicable laws.
You aren’t necessarily restricted to placing ads on cannabis news websites or industry publications.
Depending on the available inventory and campaign approvals, you can reach eligible adult audiences through display advertising, online video and connected TV.
Here’s what surprises a lot of cannabis retailers. Your ads aren’t limited to cannabis websites.
Programmatic advertising can place your display ads on mainstream news, entertainment, sports, weather, and other websites and apps people already use. That can include major publishers, not just smaller niche sites.
And you don’t necessarily want to target a particular website. You can target an eligible audience instead, which is a much more effective advertising strategy.
For example, someone visits your dispensary website, checks the menu and leaves without ordering. With the right tracking, consent and audience setup, you may be able to show that person another ad later while they’re browsing a completely different website or app.
That’s retargeting. You’re reaching someone who has already shown interest, rather than hoping they happen to visit a cannabis publication.
You can also build audiences using permitted location and behavioural signals, including visits to retail areas around competing dispensaries. That doesn’t mean you know exactly what someone purchased. It means you can use available audience data to make your advertising more relevant.
The costs can also be reasonable. At ColaDigital, our programmatic display advertising typically runs between US$7 and $9 CPM, meaning the cost per thousand ad impressions.
That’s media pricing, not a promise of customers or sales. Video and connected TV have their own rates, and the actual cost depends on the campaign.
The Targeting Is Where It Gets Interesting
Think about a dispensary operating in a competitive market such as Toronto, Winnipeg, Edmonton, or Vancouver.
Several competing stores are likely within a few kilometres, all trying to attract the same customers.
With programmatic advertising, you can build a more focused campaign in several ways.
Geographic targeting: You can concentrate advertising around the communities a dispensary serves instead of paying to reach people across an entire province.
Geofencing: You can define geographic areas around relevant locations, including competing retail areas, and use eligible location-based audience signals where permitted.
Custom audiences: Campaigns can use available audience segments based on interests, relevant browsing behaviour or other permitted signals.
Retargeting: Where the required consent, permissions and platform conditions are met, you can reach eligible people who previously visited your website.
Video and CTV: You can use video creative and streaming inventory to reach audiences in environments beyond traditional website banners.
Now imagine you’re operating a dispensary in Vancouver. You could build a campaign around the areas your stores serve, select appropriate adult audiences, and test different messages or creatives.
You could also evaluate location-based audiences associated with visits to competing retail areas, where available data and applicable privacy rules permit.
That’s a different proposition from simply trying to boost a social media post and hoping it doesn’t get flagged and that the right people see it.
But there’s an important distinction. Location data doesn’t automatically tell you that someone purchased cannabis. Visiting a shopping plaza or a dispensary area isn’t proof of a transaction.
I wouldn’t make that claim to a client without reliable supporting evidence.
What About Cannabis Advertising Rules in Canada?
Programmatic advertising isn’t a way around Canadian cannabis law.
The federal Cannabis Act restricts promotional content, including advertising that appeals to young people, uses testimonials, or creates certain lifestyle associations.
It also restricts how informational and brand-preference promotions can be communicated.
A campaign needs to be reviewed for the advertiser’s licence, the province, the intended audience, the creative and the places where the ads will appear.
This matters particularly with video and connected TV. Just because advertising inventory is available doesn’t mean every placement or message is appropriate for a cannabis retailer.
The same applies to audience targeting and retargeting. Access to an advertising technology platform is not permission to use customer or location data in whatever way you want.
So while we have programmatic campaign capabilities across Canada, actual campaigns still need to meet the applicable requirements before they launch.
How I Would Approach a Dispensary Campaign
I wouldn’t start with a large national audience unless the business had a reason to reach one.
For a local dispensary, I’d begin with the stores themselves.
Where are customers likely to come from? Which neighbourhoods matter? Are we trying to introduce a new location, increase awareness of an existing store, or bring previous website visitors back?
Then I’d look at the advertising options that fit those goals.
A display campaign could introduce the business to an eligible local audience. Online video might help explain a store’s location or available services, within the advertising rules. Consider CTV when the objective is broader awareness and suitable inventory is available.
Retargeting may be useful when the business already has enough qualifying website traffic and can meet the relevant consent requirements.
I’d rather test one or two clearly defined audiences than launch a dozen targeting combinations and struggle to understand which ones made a difference.
And I wouldn’t judge the campaign solely by impressions.
I’d want to look at qualified website visits, menu activity, store-related actions and any other outcomes we can measure responsibly.
Programmatic advertising can provide reach. It doesn’t automatically prove someone visited a store or made a purchase.
Where Does SEO Fit?
I still believe organic search deserves attention, especially for dispensaries.
Someone searching for a nearby cannabis store is already interested. A strong local search presence can help them find the right location, hours, and menu.
Programmatic advertising does something different. It can introduce your business to eligible audiences who aren’t actively searching for you at that moment.
That makes the two channels potentially complementary.
A dispensary might use cannabis SEO to improve its visibility when someone searches for a store, while using programmatic advertising to build awareness in the surrounding market.
I wouldn’t swap a working local SEO campaign simply because programmatic advertising is available. I also wouldn’t dismiss paid advertising because Google and Meta have restrictions.
The point is to understand your options before deciding where to put the budget.
There’s More Available Than Many Retailers Realize
Cannabis advertising is complicated, but it isn’t limited to the two platforms everyone talks about.
Programmatic display, online video and connected TV deserve consideration, particularly for retailers competing in markets with several nearby dispensaries.
The targeting capabilities are worth exploring, and entry costs for display can be manageable.
But I would start with a basic question: what are we trying to accomplish for this specific store?
Once that’s clear, we can look at the audience, available inventory, compliance requirements, budget and how we’ll measure the results.
There’s no point running an advertising campaign simply because the technology allows it.
About the author
Vee Popat is principal of ColaDigital, a cannabis search marketing agency working with dispensaries and cannabis brands in Canada and the United States.