Apartment shopping is a visual process.
At every touchpoint—from ILSs and Google Business Profiles to digital ads, social media, and your website—renters are scrutinizing your photos and videos.
They’re asking: Are these images high-quality? Can I picture myself living here? What does the inside of the 2-bedroom look like?
Each channel leaves a lasting impression that either builds confidence by answering their questions or drives them away.
Here's how to use virtual tours content to use across every marketing channel, ensuring your community appears in its best light and captures more renters' interest.
How Should Virtual Tours Live on Your Apartment Website?
Renters need more than just community highlight video or a random photo gallery—they want to see the inside of the exact floorplan they’re considering.
Virtual tours deliver the greatest impact when they're displayed on floorplan-specific pages of your website.
Alongside the critical details renters need, each floorplan page should include:
- A walkthrough video tour that lets renters easily explore the unit as if they were seeing it in-person.
- A curated photo set that makes rooms clearly identifiable, supports the walkthrough video, and further clarifies expectations.
Adding a strong call-to-action turns a floorplan page into the conversion engine of your apartment website because it captures momentum at the exact moment renters are most ready to act.
When virtual tours live at the floorplan level on your website, renters:
- Engage longer and bounce less because their exact needs are addressed.
- See your community as more trustworthy since nothing is hidden.
- Self-qualify, making faster, more confident leasing decisions.
Virtual tour content still plays a role on your homepage—especially with visuals featuring exteriors, amenities, and lifestyle that create an initial "wow."
But it's floorplan pages where renters decide—and where your videos and photos mirror what they’ve seen everywhere else.
How Do Virtual Tours Improve Internet Listing Services (ILS) Performance?
Renters usually interact with ILSs early in their apartment search. It's there where they can filter communities by location, price, and other preferences to narrow their options.
But once your community fits their criteria, it still faces a comparison crisis. Many ILS listings have the same template, and while paying for premium listing packages may buy you more visibility, renters judge you by your visuals.
To stand out amongst hundreds of competing properties on an ILS, you need:
- Professional media that makes renters stop their scroll.
- A comprehensive selection of visuals showcasing floorplans, amenities, exteriors, and other differentiators.
- To include both photos, walkthrough videos, community overview videos, 3D tours—more touring options give renters more reasons to engage with your listing.
Multiple data points show ILS listings with strong, comprehensive visuals earn more traffic and leads.
And when the visuals on your ILS listings match what renters later see on your website, they are more inclined to move toward a lease instead of starting their search over.
How Can Virtual Tours Boost Your Google Business Profile?
Google Business Profile is one of the most visible yet most underutilized multifamily marketing sources.
Renters see it the moment they search for your community by name or explore Google Maps—and they instantly judge whether the listing looks cared for or abandoned. The deciding factor? Your visuals.
Yes, accurate business information matters, but it’s the photos and videos at the top of your listing that make or break credibility. Renters subconsciously asking: Does this community look appealing? Do I trust what I see enough to click through or call?
Consider the difference:
- Community A: A grainy Street View photo of the parking lot and a dropped pin on a map.
- Community B: A striking exterior shot as the cover image, backed by categorized photos and videos of amenities, floorplans, and exteriors.
Which GBP listing would you trust if you were searching for an apartment?
The choice is obvious. Communities that invest in comprehensive virtual tour content and apply it to their GBP listings appear more attractive and also perform better in location-based searches and Maps results.
How Do Virtual Tours Strengthen Digital Advertising and Social Media?
Digital ads and social media are where your visuals fight for attention. In crowded feeds and search results, you want the right ad or post to reach the right renter at the right moment—and you want them to see visuals that put your community in its best light with high-quality virtual tour content.
When renters click an ad and land on a page that shows the same floorplan video or photos they just saw, it reassures them they’re in the right place. That consistency makes them more likely to self-qualify and convert.
It also signals to ad platforms that your ad and landing page are highly relevant, which boosts visibility, drives more clicks, and lowers costs.
Every walkthrough video and photo then becomes part of a growing asset library you can repurpose across search, display, and retargeting campaigns—making your virtual tour investment work harder.
The same principle applies to social media. While those channels lean toward lifestyle and user-generated content, short-form clips from walkthrough videos make for effective reels, stories, and highlight posts.
They spotlight your floorplans and amenities in the same channels renters already use to research where to live—keeping your community top of mind.
Conclusion: Media Works Harder When It’s Everywhere Renters Look
Don't let your investment in virtual tours sit idle or only live on your community website.
The better you're able to distribute your photos and walkthrough videos, the more consistent and attractive your online presence becomes. Wherever renters search for apartments, you're there with high-quality visuals highlighting your floorplans and amenities—all matching what they would see on other channels.
That builds trust and makes renters feel more comfortable and informed decisions—without actually having to drive to tour your community in-person.
We can help with RentVision Virtual Tours—floorplan-specific videos and photos captured by our in-house multifamily media specialists that work to boost your websites, ads, and occupancy.