Solved: Advertising THC Supplements Without Getting Banned

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out!

Happy to give you some of my initial thoughts and guidance on this. Advertising THC supplements is definitely a tricky business, and you're right to be cautious before spending any money. A lot of people get it wrong and end up with banned accounts and wasted budget. There aren't really any simple "tricks," but there is a much smarter way to approach it that massively reduces your risk and gives you a proper chance of success. It's less about trying to fool the ad platforms and more about building a solid marketing foundation that works *with* their systems, not against them.

The Hard Truth about Advertising Restricted Products...

Right, let's get this out of the way first. The big ad platforms like Meta (Facebook & Instagram) and Google are not your friends here. Their default position on anything related to cannabis, THC, CBD, or even hemp is 'no'. This isn't personal; it's business for them. They have to protect their own brand, their relationships with advertisers who spend billions, and they have to navigate a patchwork of confusing international laws. A supplement company, even a legitimate one, is a tiny fish in their massive pond, and they would rather ban a hundred legitimate businesses by mistake than let one non-compliant ad slip through that causes them a legal or PR headache.

So, when you hear stories about people getting banned quickly, they're not exaggerating. It happens all the time. Usually it's because they've tried to be clever. They've used misleading language, cloaked their landing pages, or tried to find loopholes. The algorithms are incredibly sophisticated now and they share data. If you get flagged on Facebook, you can bet your Google account is also at a higher risk. Any strategy that relies on "tricks" is doomed from the start. It's a short-term game that you will eventually lose. The goal isn't to find a way to sneak past the guards; the goal is to create a marketing strategy so good that you can walk straight through the front door without setting off any alarms.

This means we have to be smarter, more strategic, and more focused on fundamental marketing principles than anyone else in a less restricted niche. The restrictions are actually a blessing in disguise because they force you to do the hard work that most advertisers skip. And that hard work starts long before you even think about writing an ad.

We'll need to look at your offer first...

This is probably the single biggest reason I see campaigns fail, for any product, but it's a death sentence in a high-risk niche like yours. The offer. Most founders think their product is the offer. It's not. The product is just a thing. The offer is the entire package: the problem it solves, who it solves it for, the price, the guarantee, the messaging, the whole experience. A weak offer will fail no matter how much money you throw at it.

I see it constantly. Founders spend ages developing what they think is the perfect product, adding features, perfecting the formula, but they never stop to ask if there's genuine, urgent demand for it. They fall in love with their idea and assume everyone else will too. But a lack of demand is the silent killer of businesses.

So what makes a high-value offer that actually has demand? Three things:

1. A hyper-specific audience: You don't sell to "people who want THC supplements". You sell to a very specific person with a very specific problem. The more niche you go, the more powerful your message becomes. It feels like you're speaking directly to them, because you are.

2. An urgent problem: Your offer needs to solve a deep frustration, a real pain point. People don't buy supplements; they buy solutions. They buy better sleep, less anxiety, relief from pain. They buy a better version of themselves. You need to connect your product to that emotional outcome.

3. A clear solution: You need to package your product as a clear, tangible solution. It's not just "THC oil". It's the "30-Day Deep Sleep Protocol" or the "Anxiety-Free Afternoon Gummy". This productises your service or product, making it feel less like a commodity and more like a structured solution. It makes a complex or intimidating purchase feel simple and less risky for the buyer.

Getting this right is everything. It's the foundation upon which your entire advertising strategy will be built. Without a strong offer, you're just pouring water into a leaky bucket.

I'd say your ICP is a Nightmare, Not a Demographic...

So, we've established you need a hyper-specific audience. The next step is to truly understand them. Most marketing advice tells you to create an "Ideal Customer Profile" or ICP. But they usually get you to fill out a pointless template with demographic data. "Sarah, 35-45, lives in the suburbs, income of £60k, likes yoga". This tells you absolutely nothing of value. It leads to generic ads that speak to no one.

You need to forget demographics and define your customer by their pain. By their specific, urgent, expensive, career-threatening, or life-ruining nightmare. Your ICP isn't a person; it's a problem state.

Let's apply this to your business. Who are you really selling to?

• Bad ICP (Demographic): "Men and women, aged 40-65, interested in alternative health." - This is useless. It's too broad. Their motivations are completely different.
• Good ICP (Nightmare-based): "The 55-year-old former athlete whose chronic knee pain from an old injury stops him from playing golf with his friends. He's tried everything from the doctor, feels let down, and is now desperately searching for a natural alternative because he misses the social connection more than the sport itself."
• Good ICP (Nightmare-based): "The 32-year-old startup founder who works 16-hour days. Her mind races at 2 AM with investor worries and product bugs. She's terrified of burning out but can't afford to slow down. She needs something to quiet her mind so she can get the 4-5 hours of deep sleep she needs to function."

See the difference? The nightmare-based profile gives you everything you need. It tells you their deepest fears and desires. It gives you the exact language they use to describe their problem. It tells you where to find them. The former athlete is probably in Facebook groups for his sport, reading articles about managing chronic pain. The startup founder is listening to business podcasts like 'Acquired', reading newsletters like 'Stratechery', and is a member of 'SaaS Growth Hacks' groups. This isn't just data; it's the entire blueprint for your targeting and your ad copy. If you don't do this work, you have no business spending a single pound on ads.

You probably should focus on a message they can't ignore...

Once you know their nightmare, you can craft a message that speaks directly to it. This is where you have to be extremely careful with compliance. You cannot mention THC. You cannot make specific health claims. You must focus on the feeling, the outcome, the solution to their nightmare, using compliant language.

We'll use a classic copywriting framework called Problem-Agitate-Solve (PAS). It’s incredibly effective because it mirrors the exact thought process of someone in pain.

Let's write an ad for our 55-year-old former athlete with knee pain:

• Problem: "That old injury still dictating your life? Every step a reminder of what you *used* to be able to do." (We're hitting the pain point directly without making a medical claim).
• Agitate: "It's more than just the ache. It's missing out. It's watching from the sidelines while your mates are out on the course. It's the frustration of feeling trapped in your own body." (We're twisting the knife, connecting the physical pain to the emotional consequence – the real nightmare).
• Solve: "It's time to rediscover your comfort. Our plant-based formula is designed for people who want to support their active lifestyle naturally. Find your freedom of movement again." (We offer a compliant, benefit-focused solution. Note the careful wording: "support", "comfort", "plant-based formula").

And for our 32-year-old startup founder with sleep issues:

• Problem: "Another 2 AM stare at the ceiling? Your body is exhausted but your brain just won't switch off."
• Agitate: "Every sleepless night is a loan taken from tomorrow's performance. The big presentation, the crucial team meeting... you can't afford to be running on empty. Burnout isn't a possibility; it's an inevitability."
• Solve: "Reclaim your nights. Our 'Evening Calm' blend is a natural way to help you unwind and prepare for a restful night. Wake up ready to conquer your day, not just survive it."

This messaging is powerful because it's built on a deep understanding of the customer's pain. It's also compliant. We're not selling a substance; we're selling relief, peace, and a return to a life they want. The product is just the bridge to get them there. This is how you advertise without advertising the ingredient.

You'll need to understand the real cost of getting a customer...

Okay, this is where we get into the numbers. You're worried about "pouring money into advertising". That's a valid concern. But the question isn't "How little can I spend?" The real question is "How much can I *afford* to spend to acquire a great customer?" The answer to that lies in a metric called Lifetime Value (LTV).

LTV tells you how much a customer is worth to you in profit over their entire relationship with your business. Once you know this, you can make intelligent decisions about your ad spend. Without it, you're just guessing.

Here’s how we calculate it. We need three numbers:

1. Average Revenue Per Account (ARPA): What's the average amount a customer spends with you per month? (If they buy one-off, calculate the average order value and how often they repurchase in a year, then divide by 12). Let's say it's £50.
2. Gross Margin %: What's your profit margin on that revenue after the cost of goods? Let's say it's 70%.
3. Monthly Churn Rate: What percentage of your customers do you lose each month? This is the most difficult one to estimate if you're new, but you have to try. Let's start with a guess of 10% (meaning the average customer stays for 10 months).

The calculation is: LTV = (ARPA * Gross Margin %) / Monthly Churn Rate

So, in our example: LTV = (£50 * 0.70) / 0.10 = £35 / 0.10 = £350.

This means, on average, each new customer you acquire will generate £350 in gross profit for your business. This number changes everything.

A healthy business model often aims for a 3:1 LTV to Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) ratio. This means you can afford to spend up to £350 / 3 = ~£116 to acquire a single new customer and still have a very healthy, profitable business. Suddenly, seeing a Cost Per Purchase of £50 or £70 in your ad account doesn't look so scary, does it? It looks like a bargain. This is the maths that unlocks aggressive, intelligent growth. It frees you from the tyranny of trying to get 'cheap' clicks and allows you to focus on acquiring high-value customers.

Use the calculator below to play with your own numbers. See how changing your margin, your average order value, or, most importantly, your customer retention (lower churn) dramatically impacts how much you can afford to spend on ads.

You'll need to choose the right campaign objective...

This is a mistake I see nearly every new advertiser make. They want to "get their name out there," so they choose a "Brand Awareness" or "Reach" campaign objective on Meta. This is the fastest way to burn your money I know of. It's actively paying Facebook to find you the worst possible audience.

Here’s the uncomfortable truth: when you tell the algorithm to find you the largest number of people for the lowest possible price (which is what a Reach campaign does), it does exactly that. It seeks out the users in your target audience who are least likely to click, least likely to engage, and absolutely, positively least likely to ever buy anything. Why? Because those users' attention is not in demand. It's cheap. You are paying the world's most powerful advertising machine to find non-customers.

For a business like yours, awareness is a byproduct of sales, not a prerequisite for it. The best awareness is a customer having a great experience and telling their friends. That only happens if you get customers in the first place.

Therefore, you must *always* use a conversion-based objective. For an eCommerce store, that means choosing the "Sales" objective and optimising for the "Purchase" event. For a lead generation business, it's the "Leads" objective. This gives the algorithm a completely different command: "Don't just find me cheap eyeballs. Go into my target audience and find the specific individuals who have a history of doing what I want them to do (i.e., buying things) and are showing signals that they are likely to do it again soon."

Yes, your cost per impression (CPM) will be higher. Your cost per click (CPC) will be higher. But your cost per *result* will be infinitely lower, because you will actually be getting results. This is non-negotiable. You are not a mega-brand with millions to spend on branding. You are a business that needs to make sales to survive. Optimise for sales.

I've detailed my main recommendations for you below:

So, to bring it all together, here's the step-by-step approach I would recommend. This isn't a list of "tricks", it's a proper marketing strategy designed to give you the best possible chance of success while keeping your accounts safe. It's more work upfront, but it's the only way to build something sustainable.

This whole process is obviously a lot more involved than just boosting a post. And in a high-risk category like yours, every little detail matters. The quality of your landing page, the exact wording in your ads, the structure of your campaigns – any one of these things can be the difference between a profitable business and a banned ad account.

It can feel a bit overwhelming, and that's where getting some expert help can make a huge difference. Having someone who has navigated these challenges before can save you a tremendous amount of time, money, and stress. We've worked on numerous campaigns in tricky niches, and the principles are always the same: build a solid foundation, respect the platforms, and focus relentlessly on the customer's real problem.

If you'd like to chat through your specific situation in more detail, we offer a free, no-obligation 20-minute strategy session where we can take a look at your plans and give you some more tailored advice. It's often really helpful just to have a second pair of expert eyes on things.

Regards,

Team @ Lukas Holschuh