Why Social Commerce + Affiliate Marketing Are the Growth Engine Cannabis Has Been Waiting For
For most consumer categories, digital marketing runs through a familiar playbook: paid social, search, retargeting, influencers, email, SEO. But cannabis isn’t most categories. Even in 2025, brands still face some of the toughest advertising restrictions of any consumer industry.
Yet one of the biggest opportunities for cannabis companies is finally breaking open: social commerce and affiliate marketing. These models thrive in categories where trust, community, and word-of-mouth shape purchase behavior—which makes them almost perfectly suited to cannabis.
Here’s why they work, how they differ from traditional e-commerce, and how cannabis brands can start using them today.
Why Social Commerce Works in Cannabis
Consumers trust people—not platforms
Cannabis is a category where product literacy is still developing. The average consumer doesn’t fully understand strain genetics, terpene profiles, extraction methods, or formats—and they don’t want a lecture. They want a trusted human to guide them. When I was at Planet 13, we prepared for massive crowds on 4/20 and established an "express line" with limited items for those customers who knew exactly what they wanted. Surprisingly, even when encouraged to "skip the line" most consumers preferred to talk to a budtender, ask questions and generally have a more interactive experience.
Budtenders, micro-influencers, and educators already act as this “trust layer.”
Social commerce lets brands turn that trust directly into sales.
It bypasses the advertising restrictions (legally and organically)
Social platforms limit most paid cannabis advertising, but they do not block:
Product experiences
Education
Reviews
Ritual and lifestyle content
Personality-driven storytelling
When that content connects to a shoppable link, affiliate code, or creator storefront, discovery and purchase happen in one flow—no paid media required. The key, though is to move BEYOND just influencers promoting a dispensary or brand and move past to recommending products for purchase
The category is inherently social and the products keep evolving
From first-timers to enthusiasts, cannabis has always been a people-driven category and the nature of the product - with its different formats and strains - makes it perfect for sharing and conversation. Sharing recommendations is part of the culture. Just when you think you've tried everything, some unique brand or cultivator has dropped a product that you've never heard of before. Even if you're not a newbie, at some point you need to figure out the difference between Rosin and Resin, the difference between a joint and a spliff. Social commerce simply amplifies a behavior for sharing personally that already exists.
Why Affiliate Marketing is a Natural Fit
Affiliate Marketing is Performance-based, not friction-based
Traditional marketing models require significant upfront spend—impressions, clicks, and content fees—with no guarantee of revenue. In every cannabis role I've worked on, marketing spending has been an afterthought at best and non-existant at worst. All of the startup money goes into operations with little left around true digital marketing or brand building. It doesn't help that most cannabis companies - even the most well known brands - are severely undercapitalized vs. their CPG comparisons. Affiliate marketing is the opposite of these traditional paid models: brands pay only when a verified sale happens.
In a category with tight margins and fragmented regulations, this model is far more efficient.
Influencers become true business partners
Instead of one-off posts, creators can earn ongoing income through the sales they drive. That changes the relationship from “content-for-pay” to “revenue-sharing partnership”—attracting more committed, motivated ambassadors.
Local creators matter more here than anywhere else
Cannabis is a state-by-state, city by city business. A creator with 8,000 Colorado followers can drive more real sales than a creator with 800,000 national fans. Affiliate models empower hyper-local influence—one of the industry’s strongest levers.
How Cannabis Brands Can Grow Through Social Commerce
1) Build the Foundation
Use a compliant affiliate platform (Refersion, Awin, Impact).
Create unique links, shoppable landing pages, and discount codes.
Create standard asset that influencers can use - logos, images, videos, etc. Make it easy for your affiliates to stay on-brand
2) Recruit the Right Influencers
This is the tricky part. There are lots of people who want to get paid to recommend cannabis products, but it's important to prioritize credibility over follower count. Why? Follower counts are likely 30% fake. Also, if people trust your influencers, that will more likely convert to customers:
Budtenders and dispensary staff
Cannabis educators and reviewers
Micro-influencers (5k–50k) with local audiences
Lifestyle creators who authentically use your products
These are your high-converting storytellers.
3. Give Influencers “Story Kits”
Provide:
Short, recommended or approved talking points
Education on effects, formats, and rituals
Do’s and don’ts for compliance
Brand photography, UGC examples, and video prompts
You’re not giving them scripts or trying to tell them what to say; you’re giving fuel for storytelling
4. Build Social-Native Storefronts
Examples include:
TikTok Shops (where legally possible)
Instagram Collabs
Link-in-bio retail landing pages
Creator-branded “pick lists”
Make it incredibly easy for consumers to buy at the moment of inspiration.
5. Integrate With Retail Partners
This is key. Since most cannabis sales ultimately happen at the dispensary, its critical that the dispensary knows where the traffic came from and will compensate for the sale. This is the best use of their marketing budget
Tie each affiliate link to the correct local menu
Give creators store-specific links
Offer retailer incentives for pushing creator-driven traffic
This turns social traffic into real in-store revenue.
6. Pay Fast and Track Performance
Creators stick around when they get paid quickly.
Monitor:
Sales by creator
Content engagement vs. conversion
ROAS compared to other acquisition channels
In cannabis, affiliates often outperform paid search by 3–5x.
7. Turn Top Performers Into Pro Partners
Elevate your best influencers into:
Ambassadors
Retail event hosts
Brand educators
Co-branded product collaborators
Recurring content creators
Scaling your stars is one of the fastest ways to grow.
Social Commerce Isn’t a Trend—It’s Cannabis’ Most Scalable Growth Channel
Cannabis brands need channels that:
Circumvent paid media restrictions
Build trust and education
Scale locally, not nationally
Deliver predictable ROI
Align with culture and behavior
This is a new way of thinking about and orienting your cannabis marketing mix. Sure, sampling, demos, in-store events are necessary, but affiliate models are the most industry-right way of driving measurable sales in an industry where people matter.
The brands that activate creators—not algorithms—will be the ones that win the next decade of cannabis marketing.
To talk more about marketing in the cannabis industry, let’s grab time together!
