How to Make Money With A Virtual Tour
Did you know that a virtual tour can directly make money for your company or organization? Probably not, but that is fine! Virtual Tours are an interactive and engaging form of media that lives directly on your website. Due to its capabilities, virtual tours offer multiple ways to monetize the content.
Virtual tours almost serve as a “website within a website”. Meaning if they are well produced and optimized they can use nearly the exact same revenue strategies as a website, including e-commerce, ad revenue, affiliate marketing, and more!
Rather than being a marketing expense, a virtual tour can and should be a digital asset that is able to directly make more revenue for you. In this article we will go through the different ways that you can make money with a virtual tour. Some of these entries will be general and some will be industry specific.
Buying Directly in the Virtual Tour
The most direct way for a virtual tour to make money, is the ability of it to make direct purchases. One of the main differences between virtual tours and traditional photos and videos is that viewers are directly engaged with the media. A key component of this are “hot spots”; which is an interactive point within the tour that, when clicked, reveals extra content like images, videos, text, or links to enhance the viewer’s experience.
That’s right, Links! Meaning that within the tour you can add a clickable link that will take the viewer directly to a sales or booking page. While this is good for almost any industry, it is perfect for real estate and hospitality.
If you want to see this in action check out our Embassy Suite virtual tour below. Select the "I" button. From there you can directly book a room (if you want).
Ads/Placements
Virtual tours support video and photo pop-ups, allowing other companies to place ads directly within your tour. These ads tend to outperform traditional video ads because viewers are already actively engaged. Just be careful not to overdo it—too many ads can ruin the viewing experience.
You can also charge for “virtual tour placements.” In this model, a company aligned with your brand pays to be featured in your virtual tour. For example, if you're promoting a resort, a nearby restaurant or attraction might pay to appear in your tour. This approach works especially well for tourism boards and hospitality properties.
Sponsorships
Did you know that you can add branding directly into a virtual tour? Images and logos can be placed directly into the virtual tour, thus allowing for sponsorship opportunities.
This is great for nonprofits in particular, because it gives them a way to fund the production of a virtual tour, while spreading awareness and engagement for the sponsor.
Check out this example below to see what a sponsorship can look like.
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing lets you earn money by actively promoting someone else's product or service online and earning a commission for each sale or action made through your unique referral link. A local attraction might not pay for an ad or virtual tour placement. However, with affiliate marketing, you can still generate revenue with a seamless promotion.
By embedding affiliate links to related products, services, or booking platforms (like hotels, gear, or tickets), you can earn commissions when viewers make a purchase directly through the tour—effectively turning your virtual tour into a revenue-generating tool.
Pay-Per-View
If you think your virtual tour is really amazing, you may want to check out a pay-per-view model. Wherein customers can make a one-time or even a subscription based purchase to access your virtual tour. Leading to direct revenue.
However, when going the pay-per-view route be aware that customers may not want to be exposed to other forms of monetization such as ads and sponsorships.
Offer it as an Exclusive
While this may not be direct revenue, a unique way to use a virtual tour is to make it where viewers can only gain access by providing their email. This can be a great way to grow your email lists, while providing prospects with an engaging entry point into your brand and business.
Or if you use a subscription model, a virtual tour(s) can be a great piece of content to your subscribers and will help retain them.
Offer it as an Attraction
If you are a museum, exhibit, or gallery, a well curated virtual tour can be an amazing (and an up charge) experience for your customers. Virtual tours will allow visitors to learn and experience outside of the venue, without having to physically leave the venue. In order to maximize this experience, we recommend using a tour that is optimized for virtual reality (VR).
Conclusion
Virtual tours can and should serve as a digital asset that can make you more revenue in the long run. This is because different revenue can and should be easily assimilated into the virtual tour. By providing an exceptional experience for your viewers or guests, they won’t mind and should understand why you are seeking a little additional revenue.
