Marketing Your Dispensary When You Can't Run Ads

You run a dispensary. Meta won’t approve your ads. Google’s paid platform is locked down. Your Instagram keeps getting shadowbanned. Welcome to cannabis marketing.

Here’s the honest answer: paid acquisition is not where you win in this vertical. Retention, SEO, and community are. Budget accordingly.

SEO is the primary acquisition channel

Your blog isn’t a nice-to-have — it’s the acquisition engine. Long-tail local keywords (“best pre-rolls in [city],” “[product] vs [product]”) are where you’ll rank, and where buyers are actually searching. Invest in a content program that ships 8–12 posts a month targeting specific local and product queries.

Email and SMS do the heavy lifting on revenue

Once you’ve acquired a customer in-store or via ecommerce, Klaviyo and a good SMS platform should be doing 30–40% of your revenue. Build these flows first:

• Welcome series (3 emails + 1 SMS)
• First-purchase abandoned cart
• Replenishment reminders based on average cycle time
• Win-back series at 45 days of inactivity
• VIP loyalty tier for top spenders

Community is your moat

The dispensaries that win long-term are the ones that become a third place — events, education nights, artist partnerships, local cause sponsorship. Paid advertising will come and go as regulations shift. Community compounds.

The paid channels that do work

Not all paid is off the table. Leafly, Weedmaps, programmatic display through cannabis-permitted DSPs, Reddit, and podcast sponsorships are all available. They just require more nuance than “boost this post.”

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We’ve been running marketing for cannabis brands since the vertical opened. See how we help.