Last updated September 2026
Let’s talk about something that comes up in almost every conversation I have with sexual wellness founders.
“Our ads keep getting rejected.”
“We’ve had another account warning.”
“We’re not even sure which platforms are worth investing in anymore.”
I hear it constantly.
After more than 20 years working in the sexual wellness and sex toy industry, I’ve watched brands spend thousands of pounds on channels that were never going to deliver the results they wanted, while overlooking platforms and marketing channels that could genuinely help them build visibility, trust and growth.
Let’s cut through the noise.
The question isn’t simply which social platform has the biggest audience.
It’s which platforms make sense for your product, your audience and your objectives, and how you build a marketing strategy that doesn’t fall apart every time a platform changes its rules.
Getting that balance wrong is one of the most common marketing mistakes I see.
That’s easier said than done, particularly when you’re operating in an industry where the rules are different.
First, Let’s Be Honest About the Restrictions
Sexual wellness is a complicated category to market online.
And “sexual wellness” covers a lot of ground.
A pelvic-health company, lubricant brand, sexual-health service and sex-toy retailer aren’t necessarily treated the same way by advertising platforms.
That’s one of the first things brands need to understand.
Many platforms distinguish between sexual health and sexual pleasure, between educational content and promotional content, and between organic posts and paid advertising.
Google, for example, has restrictions around sexual content in advertising, while allowing some sexual-health and wellness products in specific circumstances. The rules can vary according to the product, advertising format and market.
And that distinction matters.
Something being allowed organically doesn’t automatically mean you can put £5,000 behind it as an advert.
I’ve seen brands learn that lesson the expensive way.
The restrictions aren’t likely to disappear. The question is how you build around them.
The brands that tend to be better positioned are the ones that understand the rules, keep an eye on changes and avoid making any single platform responsible for their entire growth strategy.
That’s why strategy matters particularly in this category.
Instagram: Still Important, Still Complicated
Instagram remains one of the most useful platforms for sexual wellness brands, particularly when the objective is community building, education, brand awareness and trust.
Organic content can work particularly well around topics such as sexual health education, self-care and wellbeing, body confidence, relationships and intimacy, expert advice, founder stories and brand values.
Where brands often get into trouble is assuming that organic content and paid advertising operate under the same rules.
They don’t.
That distinction is particularly important in sexual wellness.
A piece of educational content may be perfectly appropriate for your audience but become much more complicated when you’re trying to promote it through paid media.
And that means your social strategy needs to go beyond:
“What can we post?”
You also need to ask:
“What can we promote?”
“What can we say about the product?”
“What does the platform actually classify our product as?”
The brands doing this well aren’t necessarily the ones shouting the loudest about their products.
They’re building familiarity.
They’re answering questions.
They’re creating useful content.
They’re giving people a reason to follow them before asking them to buy.
And all of that contributes to how people perceive and remember your brand.
Instagram works best when you’re building a relationship with your audience, not when you’re constantly trying to sell to them.
TikTok: Huge Opportunity, Significant Limitations
TikTok remains one of the most powerful discovery platforms around, particularly for brands that can communicate quickly, naturally and entertainingly.
But sexual wellness brands need to understand an important distinction here too.
Being able to create content on TikTok doesn’t mean you’re automatically able to advertise your product there.
TikTok’s advertising policies place significant restrictions on adult sexual products, including sex toys, while some sexual-health products may be treated differently and subject to specific conditions.
So if you’re a sex-toy brand, TikTok shouldn’t necessarily be approached as a conventional paid advertising channel.
That doesn’t mean it has no value.
Far from it.
Education, storytelling, humour, expert commentary, personal experiences and broader wellbeing conversations can all provide opportunities to build an audience, provided the content complies with the platform’s rules.
Creators can also play an important role.
The right creator doesn’t simply give you access to their audience.
They give your brand a different voice, one that can feel more natural than traditional advertising.
What works on TikTok rarely feels like advertising. It feels like a conversation.
LinkedIn: The Platform Sexual Wellness Brands Keep Ignoring
This is where I tend to disagree with conventional wisdom.
LinkedIn may be one of the most underused platforms in the sexual wellness sector.
While everyone is focused on Instagram and TikTok, LinkedIn is full of people most sexual wellness brands want to reach, such as retail buyers, investors, distributors, manufacturers, journalists, consultants, potential partners and other founders.
For B2B brands, manufacturers, consultants and industry experts, that matters.
The conversations happening there might generate fewer likes than TikTok.
But they can generate something considerably more useful:
Business.
Thoughtful commentary about the industry, retail trends, product development, regulation, marketing and consumer behaviour can position a founder or company as someone worth knowing.
And that kind of industry visibility can feed into PR and media opportunities too.
If your objective includes wholesale growth, partnerships, industry visibility or thought leadership, LinkedIn deserves a place in the conversation.
It doesn’t have to replace your consumer-facing channels.
It can do something completely different.
YouTube: The Long-Term Authority Builder
YouTube is another channel I think more sexual wellness brands should be considering.
Unlike fast-moving social platforms, YouTube has a strong search component.
People actively look for information about sexual health, intimacy, relationships, pelvic health, products and wellbeing.
That creates an opportunity to answer questions before you ever ask someone to buy something.
Educational videos, expert conversations, product explainers, myth-busting and useful answers to common questions can all contribute to a library of content that continues working after the original publication date.
That’s particularly valuable in a category where consumers may spend considerable time researching before making a purchase.
You don’t need to become a full-time YouTuber. You do need to have something worth saying.
And What About YouTube Shorts?
Short-form video is obviously part of the current YouTube landscape too.
YouTube Shorts can now be up to three minutes long, so there’s no reason to force every piece of content into an arbitrary 60-second format.
For sexual wellness brands, Shorts can be useful for quick educational points, myth-busting, expert commentary, answering common questions and introducing people to longer-form content.
I’d think of Shorts as a discovery tool, rather than trying to make every Short do everything.
The important question isn’t whether a video is 30 seconds or two minutes.
It’s whether somebody actually wants to watch it.
Pinterest: Quietly Interesting
Pinterest rarely features prominently in conversations about sexual wellness marketing, but it shouldn’t necessarily be dismissed.
The platform has a strong visual and discovery element, making it potentially useful for brands working around wellbeing, confidence, relationships, education and lifestyle.
However, Pinterest’s advertising rules place restrictions on adult and sexual-product advertising, so brands need to distinguish between organic activity and paid campaigns rather than assuming the same content will work in both environments.
For a visually strong brand with the right audience, Pinterest can be a useful supporting channel.
It doesn’t have to be your biggest channel to be worth having.
Reddit: The Honest Conversation Brands Often Miss
Reddit is an interesting one.
People use it to ask questions, compare experiences and have conversations they might not necessarily have publicly elsewhere.
That makes it particularly interesting for sexual wellness.
But Reddit is not somewhere I’d recommend turning up with a catalogue and a discount code.
The community comes first.
Subreddits have their own rules and cultures, and overt promotion can quickly destroy whatever credibility you’re trying to build.
For brands, Reddit can therefore be valuable for listening, understanding customer questions and, where appropriate and permitted, contributing genuine expertise.
Don’t pretend to be a customer.
Don’t hijack conversations.
Don’t assume anonymity means there are no rules.
Treat Reddit like a community, not an advertising channel, and you’ll understand it much better.
Email: The Channel You Can Control
If I could convince every sexual wellness founder to prioritise one marketing asset, it would be their email list.
Every social platform can change its algorithm.
Every advertising platform can change its policies.
Every account can face restrictions or reduced visibility.
Your email list gives you a direct way to continue communicating with people who have chosen to hear from you.
That means email capture, useful newsletters, product education and customer retention should be part of the conversation from the beginning and not something you suddenly think about when your social reach disappears.
Don’t wait for a platform to change its rules before you start building an audience you can reach directly.
SEO: The Channel You Shouldn’t Ignore
Here’s the part that gets overlooked whenever everyone starts talking about social media.
People are still searching.
They’re searching for products.
They’re searching for answers.
They’re comparing brands.
They’re researching questions they may not feel comfortable asking publicly.
That’s why SEO remains one of the most important long-term opportunities for sexual wellness brands.
And it’s particularly valuable in a category where paid advertising can be restricted.
A useful article, buying guide, product page or educational resource can put your brand in front of someone at the exact moment they’re looking for information.
SEO isn’t exciting.
It isn’t usually fast.
But it can build an asset that continues attracting relevant traffic over time.
And unlike social media, you’re not relying entirely on what an algorithm decides to put in someone’s feed that day.
SEO isn’t a quick fix. It’s part of building something that lasts.
So Which Platforms Should You Prioritise?
Here’s the slightly frustrating answer:
It depends.
A DTC sex-toy brand doesn’t necessarily need the same marketing mix as a sexual-health company.
A manufacturer doesn’t need the same channels as a consumer-facing retailer.
And a consultant or industry expert may get considerably more value from LinkedIn than TikTok.
There is no universal social-media formula for sexual wellness.
What I would recommend is thinking in terms of an ecosystem rather than a single platform.
Your website and SEO can help people find you.
Email can help you retain them.
Social platforms can help you build awareness and community.
Creators can introduce your brand through a more human voice.
LinkedIn can open B2B conversations.
YouTube can build authority.
And communities can tell you what your customers are actually interested in.
You don’t need to be everywhere.
In fact, trying to be everywhere is one of the easiest ways to end up doing everything badly.
Choose the channels that make sense for your audience, your objectives and your resources.
Then give them enough time and consistency to work.
That’s where a strategy built specifically for the sexual wellness market can make a difference.
The Bottom Line
The sexual wellness industry isn’t going to suddenly become a straightforward category for digital advertising.
Platforms will continue to change their policies.
Algorithms will change.
Consumer behaviour will change.
New platforms will appear, and others will become less relevant.
That’s the reality of digital marketing.
The answer isn’t to find one magical platform that solves everything.
It’s to build a marketing ecosystem that can survive when one platform changes its mind.
Own your audience. Build your search visibility. Create useful content. Choose your social channels carefully. And don’t put your entire business at the mercy of an algorithm.
After more than 20 years working in this industry, that’s one lesson I keep coming back to.
If you’re not sure where to start or you want to work out which channels actually make sense for your brand, let’s talk.
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