Conversion tracking for cannabis, starting with what you cannot advertise on
The first honest thing to say about cannabis marketing is that Google, Meta and TikTok will not knowingly run your ads, and no measurement work changes that. What you can measure is everything else — the SEO traffic, the cannabis-specific ad networks, the delivery and pickup platforms, the loyalty programs, and the in-store revenue that most dispensaries never connect to any of it. That is a real project with a real return, and it is a different project from the one a generic agency will pitch you.
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Getting and tracking leads for cannabis businesses
Where a cannabis delivery service or card clinic gets customers when the usual ad channels are closed
Cannabis businesses beyond the single storefront, such as delivery services, medical card evaluation clinics and operators with several stores, get customers from marketplaces, the Business Profile, texts and their own sites. Google doesn't allow ads that facilitate recreational drug use, so first-party records decide budget. Count a completed delivery, a finished evaluation or a POS sale, never a menu view.
The complaint we hear: the delivery app says it sent a record month, the card clinic's calendar looks full, and the books match neither. A delivery order placed on Eaze happens entirely on Eaze's site and app, so it carries none of your sources. A medical card evaluation booked online is a health appointment, and the patient's qualifying condition is exactly the detail that must never reach an analytics or ad tag. Operators with several stores add a third problem: one menu provider, several locations and no store ID on the conversion. Without completed orders and finished evaluations tied to a source and a store, the business keeps paying for whatever reports best and cuts what brings customers back.
The ten-minute check: for each store or delivery zone, list every place a customer can order or book, and mark which happen on your domain and which on someone else's. Place a test order on each one you control and see whether a purchase event fires with an order ID and a store ID. For an evaluation clinic, fill in your own booking form and read what the browser sends; if a condition, a page title naming one, or the patient's email shows up in a request to Google or Meta, stop there. Then compare a month of marketplace-reported orders with completed orders in BLAZE, Dutchie POS or Cova.
Fixed looks like this: completed orders and finished evaluations sent from the business side as first-party server events with an order or booking ID and a store ID, no product detail or condition attached, every marketplace kept as its own source, and repeat customers from texts reported apart from new ones. If you run AIQ, its pixel goes in once, through tag manager or the page code, because both together double-fire. The free audit maps every ordering and booking path you run and checks what leaves each one.
Where the leads come from
| Channel | Role | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Delivery marketplaces | Eaze and other app-based delivery orders | Orders happen on the marketplace's site and app; judge on completed deliveries in your own system. |
| Weedmaps and Leafly | Listings for storefronts and delivery services | Orders reach the POS through menu or orders integrations; keep the marketplace as the source on each one. |
| Business Profile | One profile per store with hours, menu link and directions | One profile per real, staffed location; UTM tags on every menu and booking link. |
| Google Search ads | Restricted | Products or services marketed as facilitating recreational drug use aren't allowed; check every ad and landing page against the dangerous products policy. |
| Own storefront and app | BLAZE Ecom, Sweed or WebJoint stores and branded apps | Same-domain checkouts can send a purchase event with order ID; app orders need their own source tagging. |
| SMS and loyalty | springbig and AIQ campaigns | Repeat orders from a text aren't new customers; report them separately. |
Which calls count
- Count it when
- Count a call only when it places a delivery order or books a medical card evaluation. Stock, hours and delivery-zone questions are not leads.
- Minimum duration
- An evaluation booking call takes a few minutes; use the booked evaluation, not a timer, as the count.
- After hours
- Delivery services that run late should answer the phone through the last delivery window; an unanswered order call is an order placed with someone else.
Where each lead should land
- Marketplace delivery order
- Order record with the marketplace as source, reconciled to completed deliveries.
- Own-site or app order
- POS order with the order ID, store ID and the source stored at checkout.
- Medical card evaluation booking
- Appointment with the source and click ID only; the qualifying condition stays in the clinical record.
- SMS campaign order
- Order tied to the loyalty profile and campaign, reported as repeat business.
Cannabis · what breaks
What cannabis businesses usually run into
- 01
Major ad platforms unavailable
Not a tracking problem and not fixable by one. Any agency proposing Google Ads conversion tracking for a dispensary is either uninformed or hoping you are.
- 02
Marketplace and delivery platforms holding the customer
Weedmaps, Leafly and delivery apps sit between you and the buyer, and they do not hand over the click.
- 03
In-store revenue disconnected from everything online
Most dispensary revenue is a counter transaction with no link to any online activity.
Cannabis · the fix
What changes — Cannabis
Measurement built on channels you can actually run
Organic, email, SMS, cannabis-specific networks and marketplaces — each measured properly rather than lumped together.
In-store revenue bridged where a bridge exists
Through loyalty accounts and online ordering, with the join rate stated as a number.
Compliance-aware data handling
Purchase history in this category is sensitive. It should not be leaving your systems to a general-purpose ad platform, and mostly it cannot anyway.
Cannabis · architecture
The conversion map for cannabis businesses
Five events across the channels that are actually available to a cannabis business.
- 1
Marketplace referral
Weedmaps, Leafly and similar. They pass a referral you can capture, not a click ID you can bid on.
- 2
Online order placed
Pickup or delivery. The cleanest measurable conversion in the category.
- 3
Loyalty signup
The bridge to in-store, and the highest-value online action for a dispensary.
- 4
In-store transaction
Joined only via loyalty or an online order. Otherwise unattributable.
- 5
Repeat purchase rate
Where the economics of this business live. Reported, not sent anywhere.
Cannabis · diagnose
Where cannabis businesses tracking usually breaks
- 01
Assuming the major platforms are an option
They are not, and building measurement for campaigns that cannot run is wasted money.
- 02
Marketplace platforms holding the relationship
You get an order, not an attributable click. Report marketplace revenue as its own channel.
- 03
Loyalty capture that depends on staff asking
The join rate then varies by shift and by store, which makes the number unstable.
- 04
Product-level data leaving your systems
Cannabis purchase history is sensitive. Send a value, never a basket.
Cannabis · prove
How the work is proven — Cannabis
Source of truth
Your point-of-sale and online ordering records — transactions by date and channel, for the same window
- A channel eligibility review before any measurement work, so nothing is built for campaigns that cannot run.
- Online orders reconciled per order against each measurable channel.
- The in-store join rate measured and stated, rather than implied.
- A written statement of what leaves your systems and what does not.
Cannabis · free audit
What we check in the free audit
- Assuming the major platforms are an option
- Marketplace platforms holding the relationship
- Loyalty capture that depends on staff asking
- Product-level data leaving your systems
Checked against
Your point-of-sale and online ordering records — transactions by date and channel, for the same window
Free30 minutesNo obligation
Cannabis · when not to buy
What lands in your monthly report — Cannabis
- Revenue by channel over a closed month, with marketplace revenue reported separately.
- Cost per order on the channels where you actually spend.
- Loyalty signup rate and the share of in-store revenue it lets you attribute.
- The unattributable share, stated plainly, so nobody reads the measured part as the whole.
Cannabis · what we deliver
The flow we build — Cannabis
Identifier captured on the channels available to you
Marketplace referrals, organic, email and SMS all carry something you can persist.
Carried into the online ordering system
Onto the order, so pickup and delivery revenue is attributable.
Loyalty account as the in-store bridge
The only reliable way to connect a counter transaction to any prior online activity.
Nothing about products or consumption sent onward
A value and a channel. Not what someone bought.
Written guarantee
95%+ tracking accuracy
Measured against Your point-of-sale and online ordering records — transactions by date and channel, for the same window. Miss it and we keep working at no cost.
From $400 · See packages
FAQ
Cannabis questions, answered
Not for cannabis products. Both prohibit it, and accounts that try get suspended. Some ancillary and CBD businesses have narrow paths under specific conditions, which change often enough that you should verify current policy directly rather than trusting any agency's summary — including ours. Measurement work for campaigns you cannot run is money burned.
Organic search, email, SMS, cannabis-specific ad networks, marketplace referrals, and your own online ordering. That is a genuine program and for most dispensaries it is under-measured today, which is where the return is.
For the share of customers who use a loyalty account or ordered online, yes. For an anonymous cash purchase, no — and any vendor claiming otherwise is describing modeling rather than measurement. We publish the join rate rather than burying it.
Send a transaction value and a channel. Do not send product-level baskets to a general-purpose advertising platform — cannabis purchase history is sensitive information, and in this category the platforms you would be sending it to do not want your business anyway.
More on Cannabis
- Google Ads · CannabisGoogle Ads conversion tracking for cannabis businesses
- Meta · CannabisMeta Ads conversion tracking for cannabis businesses
- TikTok · CannabisTikTok Ads conversion tracking for cannabis businesses
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Start with which channels you can actually use
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