Rightmove and Zoopla Listings: Why Video Wins the Scroll

Rightmove and Zoopla between them handle the overwhelming majority of UK property search traffic, and both have quietly made video a bigger part of how listings are displayed and discovered. If your listing doesn't have one, it's competing at a structural disadvantage against ones that do — regardless of price, location, or photo quality.

How video changes a listing's presence on the portal

On both platforms, a listing with video gets a visible play icon on its thumbnail in search results — before a buyer has even opened the listing. That single visual difference changes click-through behaviour: a thumbnail that signals "there's more here" competes better in a results grid than one that looks identical to every other photo-only listing around it.

Once inside the listing, video sits prominently near the top of the gallery, ahead of most individual photos in the viewing order. That placement alone means it's often the first real content a buyer engages with, setting the tone for how they read the rest of the listing.

Why this matters more now than it used to

A few years ago, video on a portal listing was rare enough that having one at all was a mild differentiator. That's changed. As more agents adopt AI-narrated video specifically because it's become fast and affordable to produce, video is moving from "nice differentiator" to "baseline expectation" — the same shift photos went through a decade earlier, when a listing with no photos at all became almost unthinkable.

Being early relative to your local competition still matters. In areas where most listings are still photo-only, a video listing stands out sharply. As adoption catches up, the differentiation narrows — which is a reason to add it now rather than waiting.

Adding video to a listing that's already live

You don't need to relist or restart the marketing clock to add video. The practical process:

1. Use the listing's existing photos — paste the live Rightmove URL into a tool like Online Viewing, or upload the same photo set directly if the listing's on Zoopla or elsewhere.
2. Generate the narrated video — this takes a couple of minutes, not days.
3. Upload the video through your agency's portal account the same way you'd add or replace a photo, following Rightmove's or Zoopla's standard media upload process.

Because the process is fast, it's realistic to retroactively add video to listings that have been live for weeks and are starting to lose momentum — a video refresh can genuinely revive interest in a stale listing without any change to price or photos.

What performs well specifically on portal video

Portal viewing behaviour is different from social media or a dedicated agency website — buyers are typically comparing several listings in one session, often on mobile. A few things matter more here than elsewhere:

• Keep it tight. 60–90 seconds outperforms longer cuts in a portal context, where attention is split across multiple open listings.
• Front-load the strongest room. The first several seconds decide whether a buyer keeps watching or clicks back to results.
• Make sure it works with sound off. Many portal viewers browse on mute, especially on mobile — narration should be reinforced by on-screen captions or strong enough visual pacing that the video still communicates without audio.

Frequently asked questions

Do Rightmove and Zoopla charge extra to include video? This depends on your agency's specific portal package — check your account's media allowance, as some packages include video uploads and others treat them as an add-on.

Does adding video improve a listing's search ranking on the portal? Portals don't publicly confirm video as a direct ranking factor, but video listings do see measurably higher click-through and inquiry rates, which indirectly supports better performance in a market where portals do factor in listing engagement.

Can I use the same video on both Rightmove and Zoopla? Yes — there's no reason the same walkthrough can't be uploaded to both, as well as your own site and social channels.

The bottom line

Video is no longer a marginal upgrade on Rightmove and Zoopla — it changes how a listing shows up in search results before a buyer even clicks in. Adding one to a listing that's already live, using photos you already have, is a fast way to reset a stalling listing's momentum.

Add video to your next listing in minutes: Online Viewing — paste your Rightmove listing link, or upload photos directly, to get started free.