Repurpose Audio Ads for Podcasts & Streaming: Maximize Budgets

Repeated ad exposure can be crucial for brand and message recall. But how do you hold the line between maintaining consistency, nailing down the right campaign length, and minimizing ad fatigue? The answer lies in repurposing your best creative content. When brands reuse successful content across their media and platforms, you can boost awareness and stretch your ad dollars. Dive into our best practices for why and when to (and when not to) repurpose your audio ads across podcasts and streaming audio. 

Reasons to Repurpose Audio Creative

Repurposing ad creative can be seen as a marketing crutch, but there are some solid benefits for recycling tried-and-true content—especially when you make mindful tweaks to ensure the creative works in a new media channel. Repurposing is more than a simple copy-and-paste job. In fact, making thoughtful adjustments is what keeps your campaign strategic and the content fresher for longer. 

Maximize Your Budget and Time

One of the biggest reasons to repurpose ad creative is the cost and productivity savings. The content you’ve already created and published is content you’ve already paid for. If you have confidence that your ad creative will land with your audience on another medium, repurposing your creative can be the right approach. By re-editing and adjusting existing material, you can save extra budget and time. 

Maintain Message Consistency

When an ad resonates with listeners, brands have an opportunity to ride the wave by extracting and repurposing the best aspects. Ask yourself: Is there a similar message we can reinforce with a new voice actor? Is there a specific phrase that evoked the most emotion? Did the music choice significantly outperform that of a previous ad?

Repurposing your creative with several tweaks can be as simple as creating a tighter edit or remixing the same messaging with new creative elements. And by doing so, you’re maintaining message consistency while minimizing your listener’s thoughts of “I think I’ve heard this before.” Message consistency can also be achieved with sequential audio, a long-form storytelling approach that involves each ad building upon the previous one. 

Enshrine Your Sonic Identity

When your audience can associate certain sounds and audio elements with your brand, you can spend less time explaining who you are and what you offer—and simply reinforce that cue. For instance, once you’ve listened to a podcast a few times, you no longer need to listen to the same introduction each time. The host’s voice and intro music tell you all you need to know. 

If you’ve already nailed down your sonic identity, repurposing these elements (whether it’s a jingle or a catchphrase) across your ads ensures consistency and builds long-term recall. 

Reach Different Audiences Across Media

Just because you’ve reached optimal exposure and engagement on one platform doesn’t mean your campaign should be limited to that channel alone. Brands commonly have various audiences across platforms, and there’s potential for no overlap. By repurposing ads across channels, you can reach multiple audiences and prevent ad fatigue. For example, you can serve one ad to audience A on a podcast network and then the same ad to audience B on streaming audio. 

Gain Insights on Resonance

Running the same or similar ad creative across media and platforms creates its own A/B test. Think of it this way: What performs well on SiriusXM radio may not be the best fit for a Pandora campaign. By using ad repurposing as its own creative test, you can determine which audience segments respond better to certain formats or which creative elements work best. This test-and-learn approach can help brands incrementally refine messaging, ad formats, and ad length.

When You Shouldn’t Repurpose Audio Creative

While repurposing ad creative can be effective, it’s not a strategy that works everywhere, every time. Here’s what to take into consideration. 

Factor in Each Medium’s Unique Qualities

There’s content that is easily translated to other media, from social to video or video to podcasts. But this can be a tricky translation, and it shouldn’t be forced. Think of a radio ad—it’s designed to cut through the noise with its booming announcer voice and clear CTA. However, this format may feel intrusive on a podcast, where the audience expects intimacy and authenticity. And using the audio from your video ad may miss the mark if the audio requires visual context. 

Don’t Take the One-Size-Fits-All Approach

An ad that feels wildly out of place can do more harm than good. At best, it gets tuned out. At worst, your audience is turned off and remembers the experience. When repurposing creative, you don’t have to match the exact tone and cadence of the other content on the platform, but you do need to acknowledge and even experiment with the tools and limits of the format. 

Making small adjustments—like tweaking a CTA or rephrasing an intro—can improve performance across formats. Consider localizing intros and outros from one region to another or customizing the ad length based on the platform. 

How to Repurpose Podcast Ads and Streaming Audio Ads

Here are some of our recommended strategies for adapting existing creative to another platform. 

Tailor Your Creative to the Audience

Adjust your message by checking that your content and tone align with the platform. For instance, podcast listeners are highly engaged and ad-receptive, creating opportunities for a more personalized ad type like host reads. Meanwhile, streaming audio frequently accompanies listeners throughout various activities during the day and should be to the point and attention-grabbing. 

Repurpose Brand-Read or Pre-Produced Ads

Brand-read ads, also known as pre-produced ads, provide consistency and control, making them ideal for cross-platform tweaks. While they’re commonly used on podcasts, they can be repurposed for streaming audio. With a solid script and production quality, they’re easy to adapt. Start by adjusting the pacing or CTA, switching up the voice actor, or experimenting with ad lengths. 

Understanding the Differences: Podcast Ads vs. Streaming Audio Ads

Podcast and streaming audio ads can be very different in terms of targeting, format, and measurement. Here are a few key differences. 

Targeting Potential

Streaming audio ads can get precise, giving brands the ability to target based on user behavior, mood, or location, helping brands deliver personalized ads within the listener’s context.

Podcast ads, on the other hand, give advertisers the ability to target based on brand suitability (aligning with content that’s suitable for your brand), listeners’ favorite genres (true crime or sports), transcription (content that’s relevant to your business), and behaviors and interests. 

Ad Format and Delivery

Streaming audio platforms give brands multiple ad types to choose from, offering audio, display, and video ads across various devices and formats. 

Meanwhile, podcasts offer the option of host reads, announcer reads, or video podcast ads with messaging that feels like a part of the show. 

Measurement Capabilities

Once your ad is out into the world, it’s time to measure its performance. With streaming audio, you can leverage a mix of creative testing, brand lift studies, and sales lifts to understand engagement and whether or not you maximized ROI. 

With podcasts, you can measure ad performance metrics like conversion rates, brand lift and awareness, and ROI with the help of surveys, social media listening, and data analysis. 

Reuse, Recycle, Reimagine 

Repurposing ad content doesn’t have to be a mundane, copy-and-paste strategy. It’s all about reimagining your storytelling so it works for your various audiences. A little strategic repurposing can help you reach more ears, amplify your message, and maximize your creative investment.

Ready to reimagine your ad creative? Let’s talk. 

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