As cannabis is being legalized throughout most states of the country, the competition between various brands selling cannabis online is also increasing day by day. While running and marketing a business online has become extremely easy in our day and age, the cannabis industry still has to face struggles that businesses in no other industry have to. 

The cannabis market is still running on shaky grounds; the constant changes in legislation and regulations can make it difficult for brand owners to keep their businesses afloat. Moreover, the cannabis industry is now becoming an increasingly competitive landscape – which is why brand owners now need to put their best foot forward to make sure they can survive in the market; hence,e In this case, forming a solid digital marketing campaign and focusing on increasing online visibility of their brand, is a business owner's best bet.

 If you are a dispensary owner, you must pick the right marketing strategy for your business to make sure your brand stands out from the others and reaches new people. Because the more people visit your website, the more people will buy from your dispensary – and eventually, the more you will make.

So what's the best marketing strategy for your dispensary? PPC and SEO are two effective marketing strategies that have proven to be beneficial for numerous businesses. Let's get to know both of their pros and cons to help you decide which one you should go for! 

Pay Per Click (PPC)

Pay per click (PPC) is one of the most popular paid digital marketing strategies. It refers to a digital ad strategy that charges you only when people actually click your ad – so you can run the ad free of cost, but you will be charged when your ad appears in front of someone and interests them enough to get a click form the. 

PPC ads come in different forms –the most common ones are display ads, search ads and video ads. You can run these ads on various social media platforms – the most effective so far has been google ads, but Facebook has been no less.  

Pros of PPC

• Faster Results 

PPC ads run faster than any other paid marketing strategy; they can help you draw attention to your dispensary website almost immediately. This is because once your ad gets approved on the platform, you can set a bid and start posting online. Your posts will now act as a billboard that, with the right bid, can attract hundreds and thousands of views every day. 

• You can Set your Scale. 

PPC allows you to bid on various keywords and set your bids according to your budget – making PPC scalable, which most marketing techniques are not. It is easy to create, and you can tweak it according to your results after a few test runs. 

• Higher Reach

PPC can increase your reach in no time. You can easily gain foot traffic on your website from people far away from your vicinity because PPC ads show up in searches from people worldwide based on the searches. 

Cons of PPC

• Unsupportive of Cannabis Industry

PPC may be a great marketing technique, but it isn't the right fit for the cannabis industry. PPC ads are unfriendly to marijuana because the word itself is prohibited on moist online platforms where you can run your ad. Platforms like google function according to the federal schedule and may only allow you to advertise medicinal marijuana but may not allow you o display the word “marijuana” in the ads. 

• Not Secure 

Even if you do get to find your way around the regulation of the advertising platform, you are dependent on them entirely. Google and other platforms can remove your ad and even suspend your account whenever they want to – especially if they find out you have been finding loopholes around the rules.

Search Engine Optimziation (SEO)

SEO is a marketing technique that helps you rank higher on the search engine results (SERPs), such as Google. You can use SEO to target your desired keywords in your content to reach your target audience. SEO is an organic technique; it doesn't cost you anything to run SEO on your website. With the right strategy, you can increase visitors to your website free of cost and in no time. 

Pros of SEO

• You Can Start Now 

SEO simply makes creating new content; you don't have to create an account and start bidding or wait for your ad to get approved. You can literally begin today by putting up the right content on your website. 

• Long-Term Advantage 

SEO is always on – online paid ads that have a time limit to run your SEO remain on your website, and you can benefit from It for years. 

• Free of Cost 

The best thing about SEO is you don't have to pay a single penny to attract traffic to your website; it is free of cost. You only need to be aware of the right keywords and how the strategy works, and you are good to go. 

• No Blockage 

Unlike PPC, SEO has no specific rules and regulations for the cannabis industry. It is flexible, and you have the liberty to post whatever content you want to publish on your webpage. Be it blogs or case studies; you can design your content based on your audience. 

Cons of SEO

• Requires Consistency and Regular Optimization

Even though SEO is free of cost and gives you the liberty to work your way, it is, in fact, a little high maintenance. You need to be consistent with your content to stay ahead of your competition. If you do not regularly optimize your content, your content will soon become irrelevant and get forgotten by the search engine. You need to be consistent and punctual with updating and optimizing your content to stay on top. 

• It is Time Taking

Unlike PPC, you will not get immediate results from your SEO campaign. SEO requires patience and days of hard work – you need to publish regular content, be knowledgeable about the right keywords and keep a regular check to maintain your positions in the SERPS. 

SEO – The Best Marketing Strategy for your Dispensary

Reading the abovementioned pros and cons, it is easy to conclude that SEO is simply the best marketing strategy for cannabis dispensaries. Even though SEO has its fair share of cons, it is still a lot more reliable than PPC when it comes to the cannabis industry. 

While PPC gives faster results and can help you gain more traffic on your website asap, it is not marijuana-friendly and can harm your website in the long run. To avoid being blocked by google or wasting money on ad campaigns that can get removed anytime – it's better to rely on your skills and knowledge and apply your energy to SEO/