Cannabis marketing has been an ever-changing landscape no matter what state or niche you provide for. From coast to coast, medical and recreational states have been developing ever-stricter regulations on what cannabis advertisements can claim, include, and where they can appear. The changing rules and unpredictably strict interpretation of those rules have made programmatic advertisement a unique challenge for cannabis brands.
Not only are you tackling the individual policies of your digital platforms, but it’s also vital that key state and regional compliance laws are adhered to. Even, perhaps especially, when your computer is the one sending the advertisements. Fortunately, modern technology also offers some solutions. Locational data, now ever-more available, is one of the most useful tools to stay strictly compliant while enjoying the efficiency of automated, programmatic marketing.
Behavioral Data Can Indicate Proven Adults
IP data and browser tracking can both provide you with a set of behavioral data. Behavioral data includes shopping and browsing trends, purchase history, visited sites, and other points that can help you with key user identifiers. For cannabis marketing compliance, the most important thing about behavioral data is identifying computers used by adults, minors, and family computers shared by both.
You can make behavioral profiles of a work computer, an adult’s personal computer, and exclude profiles that indicate that the user is a minor.
IP Address Locational Data
Possibly the most recognized form of locational data is the IP address of online computers. No doubt, you want your marketing assets to be seen by potential customers searching for cannabis brands and facts online. Because cannabis legality and marketing laws are defined by states, cities, and counties, it’s important to know where your online customers are searching from – before they see a single piece of ad copy.
Geotargeting Avoids Out-of-State Marketing
IP address data can allow you to use geotargeting to limit your cannabis programmatic ads only to those within your state or region. An IP address gives its location based on where it connects to the internet service provider. This is usually as precise as a neighborhood and even the address of any connecting device.
Geotargeting Avoids School or Library Computers
IP address data, and related behavioral data, can also help you avoid showing cannabis ads to local computers that are more likely to be operated by underaged people, like students. Most school and library computer labs share a public IP address. Once your programmatic system knows those IP addresses, you can avoid ever showing cannabis content (of any kind) to these student-operated computers.
Device ID Locational Data
Device ID, or DID, is a unique marker for mobile devices that allows brands to tell devices apart and track individual data without revealing any specific personal information. For a cannabis brand, DID is essential for programmatic marketing compliance with local laws. Because so many people search and shop on their phones today, DID is now as important as IP address data in identifying your customer’s location, access to your brand, and potential to be of legal age.
DIDs make it possible to send promotions to return customers who are nearby. However, when it comes to compliance, DID can help you avoid sending promotions to devices that are out of your region, out of state, or in view of minors.
Never Promote to Devices Within a School or Daycare Radius
One of the best applications of DID programmatic marketing for a cannabis brand is no-go zones. It is illegal in most states to show a cannabis promotion within a radius of schools, daycares, and other child-populated locations. DIDs make it possible to exclude phones, even of repeat customers, who are within this range
Only Send Promotional Texts to Phones Inside State Borders
You can also make sure your promotions only reach those who are within the legal boundaries of your marketing regulations. If there is a “dry” county next to your legalized city, promotions don’t reach across that boundary. Likewise, any device that is currently out of state will be excluded from promotional content pushes to remain compliant and avoid bothering customers too far away to patronize your business.
With precise targeting and targeting-exclusion data, it is finally possible for cannabis brands to take advantage of programmatic marketing. Contact us today for more cannabis industry insights and software solutions.
