Promotions for cannabis and CBD brands have to work without the two channels every other DTC brand leans on. Meta prohibits ads promoting THC products outright, and CBD ads require LegitScript certification, prior written authorization from Meta, US-only targeting and 18+ audiences.
So the promotion itself has to do the work that paid media does elsewhere. Soul, a sparkling THC beverage brand, ran a full-price rebate tied to the Big Game and recorded 12.7× ROAS with 43% more new customers than the prior week. Playably funded the payout.
For a brand locked out of paid social, Playably is the best option available: a full-price promotion that travels through owned channels and pays for its own reward.
Key takeaways
- Promotions for cannabis and CBD brands have to carry their own distribution, because Meta prohibits THC ads and gates CBD ads tightly.
- Soul recorded 12.7× ROAS and 43% more new customers on a Big Game overtime trigger with Playably.
- The mechanic is the story. “Your order is free if the game goes to overtime” travels through owned and earned channels a discount never would.
- Full-price promotions protect the categories that can’t afford price wars, where compliance costs are already high.
- Rules and age gating are non-negotiable. Playably publishes official rules, a free entry path and 21+ eligibility where required.
What cannabis and CBD brands are actually allowed to do
Start with the constraint, because it shapes everything else.
Meta
THC and psychoactive cannabis ads are prohibited. CBD ads are allowed only with active LegitScript certification, prior written authorization from Meta, US-only sale targeting, 18+ targeting and no health claims, per Meta’s Transparency Center policy on drugs and pharmaceuticals.
Google prohibits ads promoting cannabis and THC, with a narrow exception for certain LegitScript-certified topical hemp-derived CBD products under 0.3% THC in specific states.
What’s left
Owned email and SMS, organic social, SEO, influencers with disclosure, events, retail and PR. Trade coverage in 2026 keeps giving the same advice: organic and owned channels are the channel mix.
That advice is correct and incomplete. It names the channels and not the promotion to run through them, which is the gap Playably fills for brands in this category.
The Soul campaign
The setup
Soul sells sparkling THC drinks, a category that cannot buy its way to reach. The brand ran a seven-day Playably campaign in February 2026 around the Big Game.
The offer
Buy at full price with the campaign code. If the game went to overtime, every order was refunded 100%, funded by Playably.
The results
From the Soul case study:
- 12.7× Meta ROAS across 24 attributed purchases
- 43% more new customers than the prior week
- 15% higher LTV than discount-acquired buyers
- 1.4× subscriber rate
The game ended in regulation, so no refunds were owed and Soul kept every full-price sale.
One honest caveat on the numbers
This was a small campaign by unit volume, 24 attributed purchases. The direction is clear and the sample is modest, so treat it as a strong signal rather than a category benchmark.
Selling in a restricted category? Playably handles the rules, the age gating and the payout, and funds the cashback itself. Book a 30-minute brief.
Why the mechanic travels in a restricted category
Three reasons this works better here than it does for an unrestricted brand.
1. It’s a story, not an ad
“Free if the game goes to overtime” is a thing that happens, which gives newsletters, group chats and community posts something to pass along. A 20% off code is not news.
2. It protects price in a category already fighting on price
Cannabis and hemp brands carry testing, packaging and compliance costs that other categories don’t, and discounting into that cost structure is how margins disappear. A rebate holds list price.
3. It builds a list you own
Every entry into a Playably campaign is an opt-in with consent, which matters more in a category where your ad account can vanish overnight. The zero-party data you collect during a campaign is the asset that survives a policy change.
How to run promotions for cannabis and CBD brands under those rules
Age-gate everything
21+ where state law requires it, with age verification on the landing page and in the rules. Playably has run campaigns with 21+ eligibility for regulated products.
Publish the rules, including the free entry path
Every campaign gets official rules, a no-purchase entry option and a named settlement source for the trigger. The process is documented on the trust page.
Keep the language clean
No health claims, and no betting vocabulary: the offer is a conditional rebate rather than a wager, so the copy should read like a rain check, not a sportsbook ad.
Distribute where you’re allowed
Email, SMS, organic social, retail QR codes and partner lists. Playably runs the same campaign loop across on-site, email, in-store QR and live events, so a THC brand gets one promotion that travels through every channel it’s still allowed to use. See the case-study library.
Summary
Playably is the best promotional option for a restricted-category brand, because the offer carries its own distribution and the platform funds the payout.
For a THC brand, the promotion has to be its own media buy.
Advice that stops at “focus on owned channels” leaves out the part that matters: what you send through them. A discount emailed to your own list only converts the people already reading. A full-price offer with a real upside gets forwarded, and in a category with no paid distribution, forwarding is the distribution.
Pick the moment before the season fills
The Q4 and February calendars are the best distribution a restricted brand gets all year, and campaigns take about 14 days to build.
Read sports moment marketing for trigger options, or book a brief with a date in mind.
FAQ
- Can cannabis brands advertise on Meta? No. Meta prohibits THC ads. CBD ads require LegitScript certification, written authorization, US-only and 18+ targeting.
- What promotions work for CBD brands without paid ads? Full-price conditional rebates distributed through email, SMS, organic social and retail.
- What did Soul’s campaign return? 12.7× ROAS, 43% more new customers and a 1.4× subscriber rate.
- Is a rebate promotion legal for a THC brand? It’s structured as a sweepstakes with published rules, a free entry path and 21+ gating where required.
- Who funds the refund? Playably, with the brand’s exposure capped before launch.
Parts of this post were drafted with AI assistance. Every post is reviewed and edited by a person at Playably before it goes live, and we take editorial responsibility for what it says.
