Advertising on Social Media can be done for adult categories, you just have to be a little clever about it if you want to climb to success.
The reality is that you may find you path blocked at 80% of the things I say may work below, not everything will work in every case, but it's the 80/20 rule - and that 20% could be the difference between a few sales and a fortune in sales. Plus, not all of these are my own successful stories of workarounds.
nb. take the below ideas as inspiration to build your own workaround, share them with others in the industry, share this post, comment on it with your own ideas and success. We know sex toys will remain banned for a while yet, but these workarounds are for now what we have to work with. Firstly, Do NOT Use a Picture of the Product!Seriously, it's banned almost everywhere - and even if you do post it (not in an advert) it will hit a 'adult / graphic filter' and need unblocking, instantly making people think ... err 'whats this porn?' - you have instantly made your post NSFW and the commute to work.
Second, Don't Mention It In The Title!It's pretty clear that you can't mention that your product is a vibrator or anything like that in your page title, the text of the advert, on the image you use or anything like that.
You can't mention that the product is for sexual pleasure or to enhance your sex life, or anything of that sort - at least not in text of the advert or in the image or anything like that.
So what are the workarounds you are saying...My top tip is to get to grips with being creative.
Lioness, used videos to read what their user feedback was about their vibrator and managed to get it on facebook advertising platforms (mainly Instagram) where it went huge!
Lioness was crowdfunding at the time and needed a way to get eye and clicks on their page, to get investment / pledges. It worked a treat.
Beyond video, think about using images that are fun and interesting, not just of your packaging (there is nothing more boring than a picture of your box! It does NOT sell your product at all I assure you, it doesn't matter if you cover it in feathers or roses...) but that will engage people - perhaps find a way of engaging users with a piece of content that is tangential to your product, its often easier to find images for these type of content than directly for sex toys.
My next tip, is to remember that Sex Toys are NORMAL - they are not NAUGHTY. Calling something naughty creates a stigma, it always has, thats why people won't go into a adult shop for fear of thinking 'oh who is going to see me' or they think 'i wonder if that online shop delivers in a plain box or with their logo on it' - its all stigma... Sex is Normal, Sex Toys are Normal. Stop thinking of it as Naughty, Stop treating it as Naughty. And most importantly Stop using the 'naughty' language to describe your sex toys.
My final tip, avoid personalising your ads. In particular Facebook has a dislike for ads which are focused on individuals and pushing products or services on to them. Telling them something will do something for them, or that they need something is likely to be seen in a bad way if you get reviewed and if on of your ads gets reviewed you may find they all do - and any that have been OK before may now not be. Do not use language such as 'you need' or 'you could' or 'this could be your' or 'the best thing you' it simply doesn't help.
