Wana

Wana Brands sees 2x lift in New Customer ROAS after running LeafLink Marketplace Ads

Over the years, Wana Brands and LeafLink have built a strong partnership in the states of Colorado, Oregon, and Oklahoma, with Wana leveraging the LeafLink platform to sell its products in the LeafLink Marketplace, and process digital payments via LeafLink Payments.

See how Wana took advantage of the LeafLink Marketplace, and used its Featured Brands Ads and Discover Products Ads to help them expand their reach and increase the sale of their Wana Optimals product – 
a first-of-its-kind lineup of daily wellness solutions powered by rare cannabinoids, terpenes, and other plant-derived ingredients.

Years on LeafLink

6+

Years in Business

12+

Sales on LeafLink

$100M

Company overview

Wana Brands is one of America’s leading edibles companies, with a mission to enhance people’s lives by unlocking the full potential of the cannabis plant. That means using only the highest quality ingredients, investing in cutting-edge innovation, and pouring thousands of hours every year into the research and development of first-of-their-kind products like their bestselling Wana Quick Fast-Acting Gummies. As a grassroots, woman-owned business with deep ties to their Boulder community, and a commitment to enriching all the communities they serve, they’re working every day to enhance our world, with a special focus on issues of food security, housing, domestic violence, LGBTQIA+ rights, and racial justice within the cannabis industry.

More than a decade after the brand’s initial conception, customers all over the U.S. and Canada trust Wana to deliver a premium cannabis experience, 
every time they reach for a Wana product.

Product Focus:
Edibles & Ingestibles

The challenge

Marketing a cannabis brand online is no easy feat. The industry is highly regulated, and due to strict community guidelines from several social media platforms, and government regulations around the promotion of marijuana products, many sellers have a hard time building their communities and bringing more awareness to their brands and products. Today’s emphasis on digital marketing essentially means that cannabis companies will lose out on business if they’re unable to reach their audiences online.

The strategy

Wana was no stranger in navigating the tangled web of state regulations, platform restrictions, and stigmas when it came to online advertising, and was eager to find an alternative channel that would help them build a robust online presence and promote their Optimals gummies to dispensaries in the states of Colorado, Oregon, and Oklahoma. Fully aware of LeafLink’s high market share in the B2B ecommerce space, Wana decided to invest some of their marketing budget into LeafLink Marketplace Ads, with the hope of reaching more buyers and opening new revenue streams.

“We chose to run ads on the LeafLink Marketplace because it is one of the most efficient uses of our marketing dollars in that it allows us to directly reach buyers who are making decisions about which SKUs their store will carry. Knowing that most markets have hundreds of dispensaries (customers for us), Marketplace allows us to amplify the efforts of our sales team to ensure that we reach everyone with the message about new/existing SKUs, specials, etc.”

Joe Hadas | Chief Marketing Officer, Wana Brands

The solution

Wana launched both Featured Brand Ads and Discover Products Banner Ads on the LeafLink Marketplace, in which their brand was placed at the top of search results on the Shop Brands page, and throughout various high-touch points in the marketplace. This helped Wana reach prospective customers at the optimal time — while they are actively searching for products similar to theirs. With over 2500 active buyers in the states of Colorado, Oklahoma, and Oregon, LeafLink provided Wana access to a huge network of dispensaries who are actively shopping to restock their shelves and therefore more likely to convert. This channel also proved to be a great way to gauge their audience’s response to the Wanna Optimals gummies and the ad creatives that were best resonating in each respective market.

“LeafLink is a very easy plug and play platform that has coverage in all of our key markets, allowing us to spend ad dollars to speak directly to buyers. As a B2B wholesaler, its not only efficient, but critical to our overall marketing mix. For Wana, specifically, we have such a large inventory or SKUs, not all of which are available in all markets. So, when we bring a new SKU to a market, its a great tool that allows us to make buyers aware that there is a new revenue opportunity for them.”

The results

Through targeted advertising placed prominently throughout the LeafLink Marketplace, Wana Brands was able to directly reach qualified, net-new customers while also re-engaging with previous buyers on their core order management tool.

LeafLink’s Featured Brand Ads and Discover Products Ads provided the perfect solution to spread the word about their Optimals gummies and reach an audience of qualified buyers in all three markets.

“We do plan to continue investing in ad spend on the LeafLink Marketplace as we believe it is accretive to our sales and marketing efforts in key markets, allowing us to increase point of distribution by providing an additional, and distinct, touch point with dispensaries and buyers.”

LeafLink launched in 2016 as a place for cannabis operators to buy and sell wholesale inventory. Since then, we’ve connected over 12,000 brands, retailers, and distributors across 27 markets, to achieve the highest market share in the B2B cannabis commerce space. With LeafLink Marketplace Ads, sellers can stay top-of-mind with a variety of highly visible and visual placements, and leverage our growing network of buyers to promote their brands to hundreds of qualified leads at a time.

Ready to increase your brand’s visibility and reach on the largest B2B marketplace? Reach out to your account manager at sales@leaflink.com!