How Marijuana Brands Can Work With Influencers

If you’re wondering how marijuana brands can work with influencers, you’re not alone. With ad restrictions tightening and competition growing, influencer partnerships offer a powerful way for cannabis companies to connect with customers—without violating platform rules. In this guide, we’ll walk through how marijuana brands can collaborate with influencers in 2025, from finding the right creators to staying compliant with marketing laws.

Influencer marketing is arguably the most effective way to market your brand in 2020. Many consumers look to their favorite YouTubers and Instagram stars for recommendations on the products they should buy and the services they should use. Many smart businesses now reach out to influencers to help them promote their products and services to their target audience. Here’s how marijuana brands can work with influencers.

Look For Marijuana Instagrammers

If you’re not sure about where to start looking for marijuana influencers, Instagram is a great place to start. Instagram has become an incredibly powerful source for influencer marketing with users catering to all kinds of interests, including marijuana. Learning how marijuana brands can work with influencers on this platform can help you find the right voices to promote your products authentically.

Marijuana companies looking for a way to instantly get their brand name out to thousands of people should look for popular marijuana-based Instagram accounts. Examples include TheLittleBeast, TheAliceMoon, EliasTheodorou, and JasonPinsky, but you can find plenty of others.

Cannabis influencers on Instagram post all kinds of cannabis-related content to tons of enthusiastic marijuana lovers. Companies often work with these influencers by offering free products for them to promote. Understanding how marijuana brands can work with influencers helps companies reach many new potential customers, who are also likely to share the content with even more users.

Reach Out To Marijuana YouTube Channels

YouTube is also an extremely useful source for influencer marketing. YouTube is now the #2 most used website on the entire internet, right behind Google. It’s made up of millions of content creators focusing on everything from comedy videos to educational guides. And with so many channels targeted at special interests, you can find many popular marijuana-based channels.

The great thing about using YouTube to promote your brand is that it lends itself especially well to influencer marketing. Marijuana channels on YouTube often include product reviews and demonstrations of new products. By understanding how marijuana brands can work with influencers, you can offer your products to YouTubers to test out on their channel. Some companies even make long-term sponsorship deals with YouTubers for regular advertisements. It’s an extremely effective way to get your brand name out there to tons of viewers, both loyal and casual.

Some marijuana YouTube channels focus on strains and products whereas others focus on things like growing or vaping. Whichever way, you can easily find a YouTube influencer that would benefit your brand. A few examples of marijuana-based YouTube channels include StrainCentral, Canadian Cannabis, and Custom Grow, but there are plenty more out there worth checking out.

Contact Marijuana Podcasts

Another one of the most popular ways to promote your cannabis brand with influencer marketing is by contacting podcasts. Podcasts are long-form online radio shows focusing on all kinds of hobbies and interests. Whereas some podcasts focus on things like specific sports or TV shows, learning how marijuana brands can work with influencers also allows you to connect with tons of marijuana-based podcasts.

Podcasts are another hot source of brand promotion, especially as so many are financially backed by sponsorship deals. Podcasts often include a time slot during each episode dedicated specifically to promoting their sponsors, and learning how marijuana brands can work with influencers can help you make the most of these opportunities, including the subtle use of branded products.

Marijuana podcasts often stream on multiple platforms including YouTube, Soundcloud, iTunes, and Spotify. As such, they can reach a massive listener base. Popular marijuana podcasts include Getting Doug With High, The Dude Grows Show, and The Pot Cast. Even Snoop Dogg and Mike Tyson have pot-based online shows. However, you may want to reach out to smaller podcasts first.

Start Small With Influencer Marketing

When it comes to influencer marketing, many brands might think the bigger the following, the better the results. But while influencers with larger followings will help bring your brand to the attention of more people, they’ll likely already have plenty of brands paying them for promotion and may require more money.

One of the best ways to learn how marijuana brands can work with influencers is by starting with smaller channels and niche creators. For example, while it might be tough to get someone like Snoop Dogg to promote your new cannabis startup, a YouTube channel with 10,000 loyal subscribers may be excited to partner with you—often without demanding a massive fee.

The same applies to all platforms. Instead of looking for Instagram celebrities or Twitter users with the largest followings, you might want to look for pages that have smaller yet loyal followings that would suit your brand perfectly. Understanding how marijuana brands can work with influencers on these platforms can help you gain many new customers while still getting a good return on investment.

What To Offer To Influencers

Understanding how marijuana brands can work with influencers starts with building mutually beneficial relationships. When you reach out to influencers, it’s important to negotiate a deal that works for both parties. Influencers with smaller followings may be happy to promote your brand in exchange for free products, while those with larger audiences will often require some form of payment.

Some influencers make a specific number of posts for a flat payment whereas some deals pay influencers based on a cost-per-click or cost-per-action model. The approach you should take largely depends on what works for both you and the influencer in question.

There are also many ways influencers can promote your products. For instance, they could post a link to your products on Instagram or a review of your products on YouTube. One of the best ways to promote your brand with influencer marketing is by giving influencers custom branded cannabis products such as lighters and grinders. If their followers see these being used by their favorite Instagram or YouTube celebrities, they’re likely to take an interest in your business.

Conclusion: How Marijuana Brands Can Work With Influencers

Learning how marijuana brands can work with influencers is key to growing your cannabis business in today’s digital landscape. When done right, influencer partnerships help build trust, increase brand visibility, and drive engagement—without the risks tied to traditional ad channels. Just remember: transparency and compliance are non-negotiable. For more guidance, check out Cannabis Business Times’ influencer marketing tips to stay ahead of the curve.