Solved: Advertising THC Supplements on Ad Platforms?

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out!

Happy to give you some initial thoughts and guidance on what is, to be brutally honest, one of the most difficult niches to advertise online. You're right to be cautious; pouring money into ads without a bulletproof strategy here is like setting fire to a pile of cash. Most people get banned within days because they approach it like any other eCommerce product, which is a fatal mistake.

The entire game changes when you're in a high-risk category. You can't just run a standard sales campaign on Meta and hope for the best. The secret isn't some 'trick' to fool the ad platforms – that's a short-term game that always ends with a permanently banned account. The real solution lies in fundamentally rethinking your entire approach, from your website and offer right through to your choice of platforms and financial modeling. It's about building a resilient business that can survive the inevitable scrutiny, not just a clever ad that slips through the cracks for a week.

So, let's unpack this properly.

We'll need to look at the foundational problem: Trust, not Traffic...

Before you even think about which ad platform to use, we have to talk about your website. For a standard eCommerce store selling t-shirts, a decent Shopify template might be enough. For you, it's nowhere near good enough. When you're selling a product that people ingest, and one that operates in a legal grey area, your website isn't just a storefront; it's your single most important asset for building trust.

Think about it from a customer's perspective. They land on a site selling THC supplements from an ad they saw somewhere. Their immediate questions are: Is this legal? Is this safe? Is this a scam? Is this product actually going to work? Your website has to answer all of these questions instantly and convincingly. If there is a single shred of doubt, they will leave and never come back. Most businesses in your position fail right here. Their sites look amateurish, they lack transparency, and they scream 'dodgy'.

Your website needs to feel more like a high-end medical or wellness brand than a typical supplement store. This means:

-> Professional Design and Photography: No stock photos. No blurry images. You need crisp, clean, high-end product photography and a website design that is flawless. It should look like you've invested tens of thousands of pounds into your brand, even if you haven't. This signals legitimacy. One client we worked with in a similarly sensitive niche saw their conversion rate double just from reshooting their product photos against a clean, clinical background.

-> Unshakeable Transparency: This is non-negotiable. You need a prominent, easy-to-find section with third-party lab reports (Certificates of Analysis) for every single batch of product you sell. If a customer can't easily verify the purity and potency of what you're selling, they have no reason to trust you. You should also have a detailed 'About Us' page that tells your story, shows the faces behind the brand, and explains your mission. People buy from people, especially when the product is sensitive.

-> Overwhelming Social Proof: Reviews are your lifeblood. You need to be relentless in collecting and displaying them. Not just on product pages, but on your homepage. Video testimonials are even better. If you have any press mentions, features in blogs, or endorsements from credible figures, they need to be front and center. I remember a gambling client of ours, another high-risk niche, who saw a huge uplift in performance once we started incorporating winner testimonials into the landing pages. It just makes the whole thing feel more real and trustworthy.

-> Educational Content: You aren't just selling a product; you're educating a market. Your site should be a resource. Have well-researched blog posts about the benefits, the science, dosage guides, and the legal landscape. This positions you as an expert and a trusted authority, not just a seller. It builds confidence and helps potential customers make an informed decision.

The gap between a customer's inherent distrust and the confidence needed to make a purchase is what I call the "Trust Gap". Your website's job is to close it. Below is a simple calculator to illustrate how different elements contribute to this. It's not scientific, but it demonstrates the point: you need to pull every lever available to you.

I'd say you need to forget what you know about normal advertising...

Right, with a fortress of a website in place, we can now talk about traffic. But you have to delete the idea of running a simple "Buy Now" ad on Facebook or Google from your brain. It will not work. Their automated systems will flag keywords like 'THC', and even if you get clever with your wording, a manual review (which is inevitable) will shut you down and likely ban your ad account, your personal profile, your business manager, and your Facebook page for life. It is not worth the risk.

I've seen it happen countless times. A client comes to us after being banned from Meta, hoping we can work some magic. Tbh, once you're on their blacklist, it's incredibly difficult to get back on. You are actively paying the world's most powerful advertising machine to find reasons to shut you down. When you run a standard conversion campaign for a prohibited product, you are literally asking the algorithm to scrutinise your entire business. It's a game you will lose.

So, what's the alternative? You have to shift your mindset from direct response to creative-led acquisition and risk diversification. You can't just rely on one channel. You have to build a multi-pronged system where no single channel ban can kill your business. This means looking at platforms with more lenient content policies or advertising models that are less direct. The flowchart below is how I'd approach thinking about this. It’s a decision matrix based on risk and potential reward.

As you can see, the 'safer' routes are less direct. For instance:

TikTok/Reels: The algorithm here is powerful. You could create content that is educational or entertaining around the *problems* your product solves, without ever explicitly mentioning THC. For example, videos on "3 ways to improve your sleep quality" or "Natural remedies for chronic pain". The goal is to build an audience that trusts you, and then direct them to the link in your bio. It's a longer game, but far more sustainable. We had an app client in the sports space who got over 45k signups by focusing on creative-led TikTok ads that showed the excitement of the sport, not the features of the app. It's the same principle: sell the outcome, not the product.

Influencer Marketing: This is probably your single best bet. Partnering with credible micro-influencers in the wellness, health, or alternative medicine spaces is a powerful way to get your product in front of a receptive audience. Their endorsement acts as a powerful trust signal, shortcutting a lot of the skepticism a new customer would have. The key is to find influencers whose audience genuinely trusts their recommendations.

Reddit Ads: This can be effective but requires a delicate touch. You can target very specific subreddits where people are actively discussing the problems you solve (e.g., r/insomnia, r/chronicpain). Your ad cannot be a hard sell. It needs to feel like a helpful recommendation. You're entering a community, and if you come across as a spammy advertiser, you'll be torn apart. But if you do it right, you can tap into a highly qualified audience.

You probably should focus on the audience's real pain...

This brings me to my next point, which is absolutely critical for high-risk marketing: you are not selling THC supplements. You are selling a solution to a deep, urgent, and often expensive problem. Forget demographics. "Men aged 25-40" tells you nothing. You need to define your customer by their nightmare.

Your ideal customer isn't just a job title; she's a 45-year-old executive terrified that her chronic anxiety is going to sabotage a career-defining presentation. Your ideal customer is a 60-year-old retired builder who can't play with his grandkids because of his arthritis pain. Your ideal customer is a 30-year-old programmer who hasn't had a proper night's sleep in six months and is on the verge of burnout. This is your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP). It's not a person; it's a pain state.

Once you understand this, your entire messaging strategy changes. Your ads, your landing page copy, your blog posts—they all stop talking about your product's features (e.g., "10mg of pure THC") and start talking about the customer's desired transformation.

You use the Before-After-Bridge framework:

-> Before: You describe their current pain in vivid detail. "Another night staring at the ceiling, your mind racing as the alarm clock gets closer and closer? You've tried everything, but the exhaustion is starting to affect your work, your mood, your life."

-> After: You paint a picture of their desired future. "Imagine waking up feeling genuinely refreshed. Moving through your day with a sense of calm and focus, free from the nagging pain that's been holding you back."

-> Bridge: Your product is the bridge that gets them from Before to After. "Our meticulously formulated supplement is designed to help you find that natural relief. See what thousands of others who felt just like you are saying."

This approach is powerful because it connects with the customer on an emotional level. It shows that you understand their struggle, which is another massive trust builder. It's also much more compliant, as you're focusing on wellness outcomes rather than making explicit claims about a restricted substance. You have to become an expert in their problem, not just your product.

You'll need a financial model that can withstand the storm...

Alright, let's talk numbers. Given that customer acquisition is going to be difficult, expensive, and unpredictable, the only way to build a sustainable business in this niche is to have an exceptionally high Customer Lifetime Value (LTV). You can't survive on one-off sales. The real question isn't "How low can I get my cost per acquisition?" but "How high a cost can I afford to acquire a customer who will stick with me for years?"

The maths is simple but profound. Let's calculate it:

1. Average Revenue Per Customer (ARPC) per month: Let's say your average customer buys a £60 bottle every month.
2. Gross Margin %: After product costs, what's your profit margin? Let's say it's 70%.
3. Monthly Churn Rate: What percentage of customers do you lose each month? A good subscription business aims for 5% or less. Let's use 5%.

The LTV formula is: (ARPC * Gross Margin %) / Monthly Churn Rate

So, LTV = (£60 * 0.70) / 0.05 = £42 / 0.05 = £840.

This means each customer you acquire is worth £840 in gross margin to your business over their lifetime. Now we can work backwards. A healthy LTV to Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) ratio is typically 3:1. This means you can afford to spend up to £280 (£840 / 3) to acquire a single new customer and still have a very profitable business model. Suddenly, paying an influencer £500 for a post that brings in three long-term customers doesn't seem expensive; it looks like an incredible bargain.

This is the financial model that unlocks aggressive, intelligent growth. It frees you from the tyranny of trying to find cheap clicks. Your entire focus should shift to:

a) Maximising retention: Subscription models, loyalty programs, outstanding customer service. Everything you do should be geared towards keeping customers for as long as possible.
b) Increasing Average Order Value: Bundles, upsells, cross-sells. Can you sell them a sleep-focused product and a pain-focused product?

This LTV-focused approach is the only way to make the economics of a high-risk niche work. Use the calculator below to play with your own numbers and see how small changes in churn or margin can dramatically impact the amount you can afford to spend on marketing.

So, what's the actual plan? This is the main advice I have for you:

Pulling this all together, a viable strategy is not a single 'trick' but a system. It's about building a brand that's so trustworthy and a product experience that's so valuable that you can afford the difficult and expensive process of finding customers through less direct, more creative channels. One mistake can get your entire operation shut down, so every step has to be deliberate.

I've detailed my main recommendations for you below in a more structured format. This isn't a simple checklist; it's a strategic framework. You must get the foundations right before you spend a single pound on ads.

As you can probably tell, navigating this is a full-time job and it's incredibly complex. It's not just about setting up ads; it's about architecture, finance, compliance, and creative strategy all working in perfect sync. A single misstep, like using the wrong word in an ad or having a non-compliant landing page, can undo months of hard work.

This is where expert help becomes invaluable. An agency or consultant with experience in high-risk or heavily regulated niches (like gambling or finance, which we've worked in) understands how to build these resilient systems. We know how to read between the lines of ad policies, how to build funnels that insulate your business from risk, and how to craft messaging that resonates without raising red flags.

You're essentially trying to perform surgery with a butter knife. It's possible, but it's messy and the chances of a catastrophic failure are high. Working with a specialist is like having a team of surgeons with the right tools and years of experience.

If you'd like to chat through your specific situation in more detail, we offer a free, no-obligation initial consultation call where we can review your website and assets and map out a more concrete strategic plan. It might be the most valuable 20 minutes you spend on your business this year.

Regards,

Team @ Lukas Holschuh