Ad Creatives and Landing Pages

Craft Creative Ad Campaigns That Captivate (a tongue twister)

When it comes to marketing in the cannabis industry, your campaign creatives are your brand's handshake, your first introduction to potential customers. Whether it's a social media post, an ad, or a website banner, the visuals and messages are vital in grabbing attention and driving action in a highly regulated and competitive market. A well-executed creative ad campaign doesn’t just inform, it connects, resonates, and converts. From display ads to video spots, your creative should reflect your brand voice while staying compliant with advertising laws. Most importantly, it should be consistent in quality and messaging across the board. Here's how you can ensure your cannabis brand's creatives are on point.

Know Your Audience

Before jumping into design or copy, it's essential to understand your audience. Are they seasoned cannabis connoisseurs, curious newcomers, or perhaps medical patients? Are they living in urban areas or rural or who are they? What do they enjoy doing?

Each segment has its own preferences, pain points, and motivations. Tailoring your creatives to address their specific needs and desires is the first step to making an impact. Also, authenticity is key—high-quality images that resonate with the lifestyle or medicinal benefits of cannabis will capture attention. Make sure your visuals evoke the right emotions, be it relaxation, wellness, or enjoyment.

🚀Dig into our Cannabis Target Audience Academy for more.

Here's a great example of how detailed you should understand your target audience:

Your campaign creatives are your brand’s first impression—the handshake before the conversion. In cannabis, where trust and compliance matter more than impulse, your visuals and messaging must strike a balance between bold, clear storytelling and legal alignment.

Great creatives:

• Capture attention instantly
• Speak directly to your target audience’s values or needs
• Stay compliant and brand-consistent
• Inspire action—clicks, visits, purchases, or sign-ups

Know Your Audience

Before writing a single headline or selecting a single photo, define exactly who you're speaking to.

Ask:

• Are they wellness-focused professionals like Sophie Hart?
• Are they experienced consumers, new explorers, or medical users?
• What do they believe in, worry about, and search for?

Tailor creative elements—tone, visuals, colors, products—to their lifestyle and motivations. Authenticity wins. Use real imagery that resonates with their reality, not stock photos that feel out of touch.

🔗 Explore audience segmentation in the Cannabis Target Audience Academy

Cannabis Creative Checklist

A quick-reference guide to designing compliant, high-impact ad creatives that convert across programmatic channels.

Static vs. Dynamic Creative Ads: What's the Difference?

When building cannabis ad campaigns, the type of creative you use can dramatically impact performance.

Static Ad Creatives

These are fixed ads that show the same message, image, and call-to-action to every viewer. They’re perfect for brand consistency and compliance across highly regulated markets like cannabis. Use static creatives when you want to tightly control messaging or target a narrow segment.

Dynamic Creative Ads

‍These adapt in real time based on a user’s location, behavior, demographics, or device. Programmatic platforms use these to automatically generate and serve tailored ads to different audience segments. Dynamic creatives are ideal for campaigns that span multiple regions, products, or audience profiles, and they’re especially powerful when paired with first-party data and geotargeting.

💡 Pro Tip: Combine static ads for awareness campaigns and dynamic ads for retargeting or high-intent conversion strategies.

Keep It Simple. Keep It Compliant.

In cannabis advertising, simplicity isn’t just a design choice—it’s a legal safeguard. Every word, image, and audience you target must align with strict advertising regulations. The goal is clear: create effective campaigns that inform and convert without triggering compliance violations.

Why Compliance is the Foundation of Cannabis Marketing

Compliance isn’t optional—it’s the backbone of sustainable growth in the cannabis industry. Advertising laws govern:

• Who you can target (e.g., 21+ audiences only)
• Where you can show ads (compliant platforms and geographies)
• What you can say (no medical claims, no appealing to minors)

Failing to follow these rules can result in:

• Hefty fines
• Ad account bans
• Damaged brand reputation
• Legal investigations and license risk

Household Targeting Requirements by State

To stay compliant, your programmatic advertising and digital campaigns must meet the Legal Drinking Age (LDA) household threshold in each state.
Examples:

• California: 76.6% of targeted households must be 21+
• Florida and New York: Up to 90% LDA compliance required

Your DSP, geotargeting, and audience segments must be set up to meet these standards before launch.

Best Practices for Cannabis Ad Compliance

• Avoid medical claims (e.g., “treats anxiety” or “heals pain”)
• Never use childlike imagery or language
• No consumption of images or videos
• Use age-gating, disclaimers, and required license numbers
• Align your CTA with compliant conversion paths (e.g., “Learn More” vs. “Buy Now”)

Simplicity Builds Trust—With Consumers and Regulators

Keeping your messaging clear, compliant, and aligned with state regulations builds credibility. It signals to partners, platforms, and customers that you take trust, safety, and compliance seriously.

💡Pro Tip: One focused message. One strong, compliant call to action. That’s how you convert while staying compliant.

🚀Check out our State-by-State Guide to Cannabis Advertising Laws to ensure your campaigns meet local requirements.

Need help creating and launching compliant campaigns? Contact us today.

Build Trust Through Consistent Branding

In cannabis marketing, brand consistency isn’t optional—it’s essential. From your display ads to your landing pages, every visual and message should feel unmistakably you. This includes:

• Consistent colors, fonts, and logo placement
• Imagery that reflects your brand’s tone and values
• Unified messaging across channels

Why it matters: In a regulated and often stigmatized industry like cannabis, brand recognition builds trust. When consumers repeatedly encounter consistent branding, it reinforces credibility, professionalism, and confidence in your products.

✅ Brand Recall = Higher Engagement = Increased Conversions

Stay Fresh Without Losing Focus

While consistency is key, cannabis is a fast-evolving market, and brands that experiment with new creative concepts tend to stay top of mind.

Just remember:

• Test new visuals and formats, but stay rooted in your core brand identity
• Ensure every creative variation still reflects your values, audience, and mission

Design Mobile-First to Capture Attention

Over 72% of cannabis consumers browse and shop on their phones. If your creative doesn’t shine on mobile, you’re missing your biggest opportunity to connect.

Mobile-First Creative Principles:

• Use large, legible fonts and bold visuals that stand out on small screens
• Include tap-friendly call-to-action (CTA) buttons
• Keep text concise—get to the value prop fast
• Ensure fast-loading assets with compressed file sizes (under 500KB)

💡 Pro Tip: Always preview your ads on mobile before launch. What looks great on a desktop may fall flat in a feed.

By pairing consistent branding with mobile-first design, your campaign stands out and stays compliant while meeting your audience exactly where they are.

Standard ad dimensions (in pixels) are as follows:

• 970x250
• 320x50
• 320x480
• 336x280
• 300x50
• 300x600 Half Page
• 728x90 Leaderboard
• 300x250 Medium Rectangle
• 160x600 Wide Skyscraper

Remember to keep file size: under 500 KB, file type: GIF, PNG, or JPG and animated GIFs are recommended.

Designing High-Impact Landing Pages

After creating amazing campaign creatives that truly resonate with your cannabis audience, the next step is to make sure your advertising landing page is just as compelling. Think of it as the home base where all your hard work comes together. It's where your audience arrives after clicking on your well-crafted ads, so it needs to deliver on the promise you made in those creatives.

When crafting a high-converting landing page design, it's all about creating a visual flow that naturally guides your visitors to the most important parts. Think of it like setting up a roadmap for their eyes. Start by making key elements like your headline or sign-up button stand out with size, color, and smart placement. For instance, a big, bright "Buy Now" button helps grab attention right away and tells consumers how to take action.

Following programmatic creative best practices, your landing page design should maintain continuity with your ad creatives to avoid a disjointed user experience. Use consistent messaging, visuals, and value propositions to reinforce the user journey from click to conversion. Using clear, simple fonts and avoiding clutter also helps keep everything easy to follow.

The idea is to make your page user-friendly and focused so visitors know exactly where to look and what to do next. Don’t forget to A/B test different versions of your advertising landing page to find the best-performing layout for your audience.

For inspiration, look to some of the best landing page designs that prioritize mobile responsiveness, fast load times, and intuitive UX. Remember to keep it simple, understand what resonates with your audience, and always test different layouts. With the right design strategy, your landing pages can turn casual visitors into loyal customers.

🚀 Everything you want to know about developing an advertising landing page: Cannabis Landing Pages: Best Practices for Programmatic Display Ads

💡 Pro Tip: Landing pages are not “set and forget”—they’re performance engines. Optimize often, test boldly, and let the data guide your evolution.

Increasing Landing Page Conversion Rates

Your landing page is not merely a one-time creation; it's an ongoing process of refinement and optimization. Continuously assess the performance of your landing pages through tracking, analytics, and A/B testing. Embrace the data-driven insights gained from these efforts to make informed decisions and fine-tune your approach. With dedication and strategic thinking, your landing pages can become a cornerstone of your online success, consistently delivering results and engaging your audience.