ROI With Your Matterport 3D Virtual Tours

ROI or Return on Investment is an essential performance measure when you are evaluating any marketing strategy, including the use of Matterport 3D virtual tours. But how might you measure ROI when it comes to the effectiveness of your Matterport digital twins? Is there a simple statistic or measurable metric that you can look at? Or are there other indicators that reveal virtual tours as an effective component of your overall marketing plan?

There has been a lot of buzz around the use of 3D virtual tours in recent months. Some of the fanfare comes as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, where in-person events have been displaced by virtual ones. Some of the buzz relates to advances in technology, like Matterport for iPhone or its compatibility with virtual reality devices. And some of the credit goes to an upswing in out-of-town home purchases in the last few years.

Actually, interest in virtual tours has been building for some time. Buyers now prefer listings that feature them, and most believe that 3D home tour technology is essential in the age of coronavirus. 

But growing interest alone does not translate into return on investment. Do a quick Google search on ROI for virtual tours in real estate and you will likely find little direct data. Oh, you might run across a suggestion that ROI is estimated at something less than four weeks, or that virtual tours get five million views each day. You might learn that, according to Google, parties who (for instance) view a hotel listing with a virtual tour are twice as likely to book a reservation - especially young travelers in the 18-34 year old demographic. But stats like those are not always easy to apply to your listings and your business.

Perhaps there is another way to gauge the success of your Matterport virtual tours. Rather than try to boil ROI down to a simple formula, maybe a good look at the evidence of their effectiveness and the growing interest in the technology can shed some light on whether or not they are worth the investment.

Evidence of the effect of virtual tours

Virtual tours are found to be an effective tool across a range of industries, from hospitality to facilities management, from art galleries to (of course) commercial and residential real estate. Four areas where virtual tours show their value are convenience, cost, the ability to engage an audience, and the value they bring to a website.

• Convenience. Matterport virtual tours can be viewed at any time, nearly anywhere in the world, and on any digital device - a computer, tablet, or mobile phone. That makes them incredibly convenient. Virtual visitors guide themselves through the “digital twin” of a property (or any other physical space) at their own pace without needing to leave the comfort or safety of their own homes.

• Cost. It is true that startup costs can run into the thousands of dollars for those who chose to create their own virtual tours with the highest level of imagery and accuracy. But entry into the virtual world can be made with nothing more than an iPhone and a Matterport account. For those who prefer not to make their own tours at all, a professional virtual tour service offers reasonable rates; the average 3D home tour costs somewhere around $350 dollars. 

• Engagement. Google suggests that virtual tours help “double interest in a business”, and that sixty-seven percent of respondents in a recent survey said they wanted more businesses to have virtual tours. Google also found a double-digit increase in engagement with Google Map listings that feature virtual tours. 

• SEO Strategy. Google has been shown to favor websites with virtual content. Because of consumer trends in video consumption, there is a natural inclination for search engines to favor pages (and websites) that include virtual tours.

Virtual tours are accessible, affordable, and highly engaging. It is no wonder that they are being implemented in an array of industries around the world.

Gauging interest in virtual tour technology

The National Association of Realtors reports that more than half of adults in the US who use the internet have taken a virtual tour at some point. Since more than ninety percent of buyers begin their home search online, that represents a significant number of tours. NAR also says that more than half of buyers surveyed will not even look at a property listing unless it has a virtual tour. If those numbers are even close to correct, they suggest that virtual tours are making an enormous impact on the real estate market.

Look further and you will see more evidence of interest in virtual tour technology. Of the buyers who search for homes online, more than half end up buying homes they find on the internet. Young buyers are especially interested in virtual engagement; eighty percent want to take a virtual tour before scheduling a live one. Realtor.com conducted a study wherein they found that listings with a virtual tour get nearly ninety percent more views than those without. That is good news for your properties that feature virtual tours.

How might you measure the impact of virtual tours?

With the ongoing advancement of virtual tour technology (related to 3D cameras, mobile connectivity, virtual reality, and more) and the burgeoning interest and demand for virtual tours across many types of businesses, it might be a good idea to consider a holistic view of how virtual tours can impact your own business.

A virtual tour presents the ability to integrate several real estate marketing strategies. For instance, you can embed drone photography and other videos. You can create video content from a virtual tour. Your print advertisements can point to your virtual tours, maybe through the use of QR codes. Your Matterport Pro2 camera scan can provide not only 3D imagery for your virtual tour, but also 4K 2D photographs for your print materials. The list goes on.

For instance, the popularity of virtual tours make for engaging social media content. Virtual tours result in over forty percent more visits to places searched on Google Street View. Matterport showcases can be branded to promote your brand identity in the context of a virtual tour. And a virtual tour brings more potential traffic to your website.

One of the obvious uses for a virtual tour is in place of an open house when in-person gatherings are at a minimum, or when a seller is not comfortable with the high amount of traffic that an open house might generate. These virtual open houses provide 24/7 access to a home, and yet cut down on the number of strangers walking through the physical property. What’s more, anyone can visit from anywhere.

Given the interrelationships between your 3D virtual tours and so many other aspects of your marketing puzzle, it is easy to see why ROI is more than a simple equation of benefit minus cost. The creative use of Matterport virtual tours has the potential to impact almost every other strategy you employ. What might it all add up to? More listing views, more client engagement, more social media shares, more lead generation, stronger brand presence, higher website traffic, and more homes sold.

Preparing for the future with virtual tours

If that is not enough evidence that virtual tours have a high ROI potential, consider the future of your business.

• A recent NAR market recovery survey of realtors revealed that forty-six percent of respondents were either “concerned” or “very concerned” about a second wave or continuing threat from COVID-19, and yet only nineteen percent consider themselves to be “very prepared” for future outbreaks. 

• According to the same survey, the majority of respondents expected that within the next year, the demand for Zoom (or other video technology), virtual tours, live virtual tours, and virtual open houses would increase.

• Twenty-six percent reported working with buyers who made offers on homes (during the week of the survey) without physically seeing the property in person.

If you want to future proof your real estate business, whether against the trends in technology or the continuing threat of coronavirus, you will want to consider the almost immeasurable ROI of 3D virtual tours.