By industry
Ad server for cannabis sites
Dispensaries, brands and delivery services want to reach your readers. The big platforms will not sell them the impression, and most ad tech will not serve it.
What Pyrobid does here
Your portal lets a dispensary or a brand buy a placement the way it buys anything else online: register, add funds, choose your slots and the states or cities it is licensed in, upload creative and wait for your approval. No merchant account is needed on either side, because payment can be a transfer, an invoice or cash, credited to the advertiser as a voucher.
Why this is harder than it should be
The same product, a different obstacle. This is what stands between your advertisers and your inventory.
The mainstream platforms are closed to your advertisers
Cannabis advertising is restricted or refused across most large ad platforms, so your advertisers cannot reach your audience through the usual channels even when both of you want the deal.
Legality is a map, not a switch
What is legal for a dispensary in one state is not in the next, so campaigns need geographic control at the placement level. Generic remnant demand has no idea where it is allowed to appear.
Payment processing is its own obstacle, and this is the part we actually solve
Cannabis businesses routinely have merchant accounts declined, frozen or closed. Pyrobid does not require one. You can take payment by bank transfer, invoice or cash and issue the advertiser a voucher, which redeems as ad credit in your portal. Card payments are an option, never a prerequisite.
What the big platforms let cannabis businesses run
Google Ads. Marijuana is on Google's list of recreational drugs it will not advertise, along with pipes, bongs and cannabis coffee shops. Topical, hemp-derived CBD with 0.3% THC or less is allowed only for retailers certified by LegitScript, in the few US locations where Google permits it.
Canada is the exception, for now. A Google pilot lets businesses holding federal Health Canada licences, and provincially authorised operators and retailers, run Search ads only, from 25 August 2025 to 31 December 2026.
Meta. No THC products at all. CBD only in the United States, only from LegitScript-certified advertisers with Meta's written authorisation, only to people 18 or over and with no health claims. Hemp products only in Canada, Mexico and the United States. Paraphernalia such as bongs, rolling papers and vaporisers is banned.
State law still applies to you. California, for example, allows cannabis advertising only where at least 71.6% of the audience is reasonably expected to be 21 or older. Know your audience figures before you sell, and keep each campaign inside the states where the advertiser is licensed.
Who buys placements on sites like yours
Dispensaries, delivery services, cultivators, CBD and hemp brands, cannabis tech and POS vendors, packaging suppliers, and compliance consultants.
What sells on sites like yours
Package your space around how these advertisers already buy.
Local placements
A dispensary sells to people within driving distance. City and region targeting lets one slot carry different dispensaries in different towns.
Weekly deals
Offers change every week, so flat weekly bookings suit them better than long campaigns, and fresh creative keeps the slot from going stale.
Launches beside reviews
Cultivators and brands launching a product want the reviews, guides and news pages where buyers decide. Native units that match the page suit them.
Both of those are the real product. The demo is open if you would rather click through it than look at a picture of it.
How to set it up
- Region and city targeting, so a campaign runs only where the advertiser is licensed.
- Approval of every creative, so nothing appears that breaks the rules your site follows.
- A schedule by day and hour, in the advertiser's own time zone.
- Vouchers for payment by bank transfer, invoice or cash, so no merchant account is needed.
Is running cannabis ads going to get my site in trouble?
Pyrobid is software you run, so what you accept is your decision and your compliance responsibility, exactly as it is today when someone emails you asking for a banner. What changes is that geographic and scheduling targeting is built in, so a campaign can be confined to the states where the advertiser is licensed instead of being enforced by hand.
Common questions
How do cannabis businesses pay me?
However you agree: bank transfer, invoice or cash. When the money arrives, issue a voucher for the amount and it becomes ad credit in their account. There is no processor to decline them.
Can I sell CBD ads nationwide?
That depends on the product and the state, and the rules change. Set each campaign's location targeting to where the advertiser may legally sell and advertise, and ask them to confirm it.
Related reading
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