Influencer advertising and marketing (IM) allows manufacturers to drive genuine engagement in a saturated digital area the place customers have grown skeptical of conventional promoting. It humanizes you and presents a extra relatable method to join together with your audiences. Because the 2024 Influencer Advertising Report confirmed, nearly half of the 2000 customers surveyed make day by day, weekly or month-to-month purchases due to influencer posts.
Nonetheless, a giant problem entrepreneurs face is discovering the fitting influencers for his or her campaigns. It’s not nearly follower depend—authenticity and topical relevance have change into the true foreign money of profitable partnerships.
In response to the identical report, 67% of customers assume the most effective model and influencer collaborations are these which can be sincere and unbiased. That’s why manufacturers want to make sure they’re collaborating with an influencer whose values and viewers align with their very own, or they danger coming off as disingenuous.
On this article, we’ll dig into how entrepreneurs like you will discover the fitting influencers on your model marketing campaign. We’ll additionally share our personal greatest practices and make clear what influencers anticipate from manufacturers.
What’s an influencer?
An influencer is somebody with a devoted social following who has sway over an viewers in a selected area of interest or {industry}. Influencers usually have specialised information, authority or perception into a selected topic.
Influencer advertising and marketing has been round for many years by movie star endorsements. Nonetheless, as extra superior measurement instruments change into accessible, influencers’ roles in advertising and marketing will shift in 2025. It’ll be much less about their recognition and follower depend and extra about driving conversions and offering a transparent ROI.
Influencers humanize manufacturers and assist them foster a extra real, real-life reference to their viewers. And with the rise of generative AI instruments, customers crave authenticity and human connection like by no means earlier than. That is the place influencer partnerships will shine.
What’s the distinction between an influencer and a creator?
Digital creators and influencers—are these interchangeable phrases? Not fairly. The primary distinction is an influencer shares sponsored content material, whereas a creator develops authentic content material. Whereas there’s actually overlap in what they do—content material creators have affect, and influencers create content material—the intent is completely different.
An influencer’s main intent is to encourage their followers to buy a selected model, product, service and so on., as they’ve a monetary incentive to take action (i.e., they have been paid a promotional payment or earn a fee from gross sales).
Compared, a content material creator’s main intent is to create partaking and worthwhile content material for his or her viewers. They could additionally create content material that manufacturers market as their very own, working behind the scenes. They may have a big viewers, however their content material is their focus vs. their way of life. They could additionally monetize their work by sponsorships however usually produce other income streams like subscriptions, memberships, digital merchandise and fan contributions.
What’s a lookalike influencer?
A lookalike influencer is a creator who shares related traits—comparable to content material type, viewers demographics, area of interest or engagement patterns—with one other influencer who has already confirmed profitable on your model or a competitor.
However why would manufacturers wish to search out lookalike influencers? Properly, most frequently it’s as a result of they wish to scale campaigns to achieve new however related audiences, or replicate previous influencer success. It’s like discovering a brand new “model” of an influencer who already works nicely, serving to you broaden your attain whereas staying aligned with what resonates.
What are the 4 sorts of influencers?
Primarily based on follower depend, there are 4 predominant sorts of influencers: mega-influencers, macro-influencers, micro-influencers and nano-influencers.
We’ll break down every kind, sharing examples and the professionals and cons of working with every.
Mega influencers
Mega influencers have huge, million-plus followings. Well-known actors, musicians, athletes and different public figures usually fall into this class, however many social media stars have achieved mega-status.
For instance, Helen Christie is a UK-based content material creator and actor with shut to 2 million TikTok followers and a million YouTube subscribers. She’s partnered with manufacturers like Disney+, Meta, Monzo and Channel 4.
Mega influencers supply unprecedented publicity for manufacturers, however it comes with a mega price ticket. This kind of influencer partnership may work nicely in case you’re a model with mass enchantment (e.g., tech, meals, huge field retail) and a big advertising and marketing funds.
Macro-influencers
Macro-influencers are well-known social media personalities with audiences throughout the 100,000 to 1 million follower vary. They’re thought of go-to voices inside a selected area of interest, comparable to meals, magnificence or way of life.
For instance, Mattie James is an Atlanta-based way of life influencer and writer who has partnered with manufacturers like Samsung, T.J. Maxx and Kroger.
Like mega influencers, macro-influencers have substantial attain—with a hefty price ticket. Nonetheless, since they usually have a extra area of interest viewers, a macro-influencer partnership may work nicely for manufacturers seeking to attain a selected however giant viewers. For instance, since Mattie is a Black millennial mother, she’d be a superb match for manufacturers seeking to attain this demographic excited about clothes or skincare.
Micro-influencers
Micro-influencers have audiences of 10,000 to 100,000 followers. They could not have the attain of mega and macro-influencers, however research have discovered that they usually have the next engagement fee, which means followers see, like, touch upon and share their content material extra usually. In addition they are usually extra inexpensive than extra distinguished influencers.
For instance, Serena Lalani is a digital creator who’s grown a TikTok viewers of over 16,000 followers by vlogging about her life in Montreal, Canada. She’s partnered with manufacturers like Murad Skincare and Osheaga, a Montreal-based music pageant.
Nano-influencers
Nano-influencers have lower than 10,000 followers. However what they lack in dimension, they usually make up for in engagement. They’re useful for reaching particular communities and demographics at an inexpensive fee.
For instance, Danica Nelson is a Canadian finance and journey creator who has labored with manufacturers like Mydoh, Rakuten and Porter Airways.
How you can outline your supreme influencer
Partnering with an influencer with a big following might assist you enhance model consciousness, however if you’d like essentially the most bang on your buck, you must work with influencers who can get your model in entrance of the fitting folks. To do that, you have to first outline what your supreme influencer appears like. These pointers will assist.
Know your target market
Understanding your target market allows you to decide on influencers with audiences and social channels that align together with your model. Plus, whenever you perceive what your viewers likes, you possibly can choose influencers you already know they are going to relate to.
For instance, it is smart for a health model like Athleta to accomplice with an athlete influencer, like determine skating champion Mariah Bell, over a extra generic way of life influencer with a bigger viewers. As of the time of writing this text, Mariah has an engaged following of over 100,000 health fans, making her a robust match for the model.
Mariah’s experience as knowledgeable athlete provides trustworthiness to her suggestions. Plus, since she frequently posts apply classes, content material about her coaching within the model’s merchandise suits with the remainder of her and Athleta’s content material.
Set up your marketing campaign targets
Set up readability over your marketing campaign targets—whether or not it’s boosting model consciousness, producing leads or driving gross sales. For model consciousness, prioritize influencers with broad attain and excessive engagement. In case your aim is lead technology or conversions, search for creators with a extremely focused, trusting viewers and a monitor report of influencing motion.
Your targets ought to straight form the kind of influencer you accomplice with, from their area of interest and content material type to the platforms they use.
Take note of social dialog and model mentions
Take note of social mentions and social conversations revolving round your model and {industry}. Concentrate on people who have interaction ceaselessly together with your model. It’ll assist to make use of instruments like Sprout Social Listening as a result of then you possibly can entry hundreds of thousands of unfiltered social conversations on completely different subjects related to your marketing campaign. This manner, you possibly can rapidly and effortlessly determine model advocates by establishing which people are already speaking about you—and in a optimistic mild. The software’s built-in sentiment evaluation algorithms additional allow you to know conversations in a extra nuanced method.
Determine key influencer traits
Zero in on the traits of your supreme influencer that match your model and viewers. Search for area of interest relevance—do they create content material in your {industry} or converse to your goal market? Analyze viewers demographics to make sure their followers align together with your supreme buyer. Prioritize engagement fee over follower depend, because it alerts belief and influence.
Evaluation their content material high quality and consistency, and ensure their tone, values and magnificence align together with your model. The nearer the match, the extra genuine and efficient the partnership can be.
Create an “supreme influencer” persona
Use all the data you’ve collated above to create a perfect influencer persona. Test your marketing campaign targets—what would you like the influencer that can assist you obtain (e.g., consciousness, engagement, conversions)? Then, define the traits that align with these targets. Embrace metrics like supreme follower depend, engagement fee and previous model collaborations. Make sure to account for topical alignment and model match, too.
Consider this persona as a profile of your good accomplice—somebody whose voice, viewers and influence naturally complement your model and targets. This readability will assist you filter candidates and goal outreach extra strategically.
How you can discover influencers on your model
With short-form movies and interest-based algorithms dominating feeds, content material high quality, engagement and well timed developments have change into essential deciding elements in selecting the best influencers to accomplice with.
Listed below are sensible methods to look and join with influencers—from influencer advertising and marketing platforms to good old school networking.
Use an influencer advertising and marketing platform
Influencer advertising and marketing platforms are instruments that simplify influencer advertising and marketing marketing campaign administration. They provide a spread of options, however many have search instruments to assist manufacturers discover their good influencer match.
For instance, Sprout Social Influencer Advertising helps you chop by the noise and seek for influencers on your model campaigns by utilizing targeted, AI-driven social insights. Take a look at this video to see how we constructed our influencer advertising and marketing program from scratch, scaled it strategically and turned insights into actual outcomes.
Listed below are extra particulars on how the platform helps you discover the fitting influencers:
The profile discovery software places crucial and actionable data, just like the subjects an influencer discusses most frequently, entrance and heart. It has over 50 search filters that assist you discover influencers that match your actual standards.
A strong Model Match Rating helps you perceive how nicely an influencer’s content material aligns together with your model’s values and targets.
Benchmarking instruments for comparative insights will let you determine creators with the strongest probability of success.
An always-on Model Security software helps defend your fame so your advertising and marketing groups can give attention to constructing impactful partnerships and guarantee a easy and environment friendly marketing campaign execution.
The built-in affinity engine additional narrows down your search by utilizing machine studying and viewers psychographics to determine manufacturers and creators with a robust model affinity.
The Sync function permits you to construct customized touchdown pages to draw, qualify and seize potential influencers for model partnerships.
Analytics and reporting instruments allow you to confidently measure and report the ROI of your influencer campaigns alongside branded content material. Strengthen your social technique by analyzing the efficiency of each paid (sponsored) and natural posts in a single place.
These highly effective instruments assist you derive the total worth of your social ROI so that you’re in a position to unlock a extra refined advertising and marketing pipeline. And since AI-powered suggestions make looking for and evaluating the fitting influencers that a lot simpler, it doesn’t matter whether or not you’re a professional at influencer advertising and marketing or a first-timer.
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Social media platform native searches
Trending {industry} posts are nice for locating influencers. Should you discover a put up going viral, see who revealed it and whether or not they have a considerable and energetic following. Additionally, have a look at the remark part of a preferred put up to see if any influencers are partaking with it.
Should you’re on the lookout for LinkedIn influencers, seek for a related key phrase and set the filter to ‘Posts.’ Scroll by the outcomes and search for posts with a excessive degree of engagement (i.e., likes, feedback, views, and so on.). A whole lot of engagement is often an indication that somebody has a big viewers.
A easy content material seek for the time period ‘website positioning’ on LinkedIn led us to Danny Asling, a advertising and marketing skilled with over 30,000 followers.
Use social media networks’ search capabilities and lookup key phrases and hashtags associated to your services or products to seek out influencers already creating related content material. For instance, an moral clothes model on the lookout for TikTok influencers may try the community’s #sustainablefashion hashtag.
Should you’re on the lookout for Instagram influencers, use location-specific hashtags to seek out influencers in your space. Attempt a mixture of your location, area of interest and phrases like ‘influencer,’ ‘creator,’ ‘blogger’ or ‘vlogger’—like #atlantamomblogger.
Competitor Evaluation
Are your rivals working with influencers? Whilst you may wish to use completely different expertise, try their influencers’ viewers and who they observe to seek out related creators. Additionally, control who will get a number of likes or feedback in your rivals’ posts, as they too, may very well be influencers.
Skincare model Mario Badescu posted a Reel from way of life influencer Vanessa Zambito.
Taking a look at her followers led us to Elxi Elvina, a digital type creator with over 170,000 followers.
Search engines like google and yahoo
Attempt utilizing Google to look social media websites. Right here’s how:
Kind “web site:” adopted by the title of the web site you’re looking.Comply with the web site title with a single area after which kind the search phrase
Should you needed to seek for a magnificence influencer in Detroit, you’d kind the next into the search area: web site:instagram.com “detroit magnificence blogger”
A search like “your {industry} + influencers in X area” will assist you discover native influencers. You may also see some articles with lists of the most effective influencers in that area. For example, in case you’re a San Francisco-based cookware model, a easy seek for ‘Bay Space meals influencer’ generates hundreds of thousands of hits.
Trade-specific communities and boards
One other nice method to discover influencers is thru scanning industry-specific communities and boards. For instance:
Reddit: Use Reddit social listening to look related subreddits and search for customers with excessive engagement and worthwhile contributions.
Fb Teams: Fb influencer advertising and marketing is an effective way to transform leads into gross sales as a result of, in accordance with The 2025 Sprout Social Index ™, practically 40% of Gen X customers use the platform for social product discovery and purchases. Be part of energetic teams in your area of interest and determine members who put up persistently and get robust engagement.
LinkedIn Teams: Monitor discussions in related teams; observe members who frequently share insights and spark dialog. Listed below are some LinkedIn influencers who’re efficiently partnering with manufacturers.
Area of interest communities: Area of interest advertising and marketing generally is a studying curve, however as soon as you know the way and the place to look, it may be a game-changer. For starters, search for area of interest teams inside your target market with distinctive preferences and desires. Then search for high posters or moderators with excessive optimistic engagement and whose opinions are wanted by the neighborhood.
Interact on these boards authentically by commenting or sharing content material out of your supreme influencers or asking considerate questions. This creates your model consciousness and helps you construct rapport and make your outreach extra real and efficient.
Your community
One of many best methods to seek out an influencer is to ask for suggestions. Attain out to your community—colleagues, workers, buddies, {industry} contacts, enterprise companions, and so on.—and see in the event that they know any influencers that may suit your standards.
You too can put up about your influencer search on social media. Encourage your community to suggest or tag potential influencers within the feedback and share or just like the put up to assist enhance its attain.
Trade occasions and conferences
Influencers may fit on-line, however you possibly can nonetheless join with potential companions in individual at occasions and conferences. Attempt attending creator-specific occasions like VidCon or CreatorConf to find new influencers and acquire suggestions and inspiration to optimize your subsequent marketing campaign.
Don’t have the funds to attend? Lookup some occasions and conferences in your {industry} and see who’s talking at them. Occasion organizers usually rent influencers as audio system, as their sizable audiences will entice attendees.
It’s essential to concentrate to an influencer’s follower-to-engagement ratio and engagement high quality to identify a pretend influencer. If an influencer seems to have many followers however has abysmal engagement, they may be a fraud.
It’s additionally key the influencers you wish to accomplice with ought to have the expertise or experience to knowledgeably promote your product and model. A simple method to discover out is to look by their media kits. Most established influencers have these displays of their account profile, which embody insights on their viewers, area of interest, follower demographics, follower development, engagement metrics, content material codecs and platforms.
3 greatest practices on how you can discover the fitting influencers from Sprout’s first-hand expertise
Discovering the fitting influencers isn’t nearly follower depend—it’s about influence. The very best partnerships really feel genuine, drive actual engagement and align together with your model values—and marketing campaign targets.
Past these foundational ways, we uncovered key strategic greatest practices by our firsthand expertise collaborating with influencers and thought leaders when growing The 2025 Sprout Social Index ™.
Deciding to go off the overwhelmed path, we explored a long-term marketing campaign with strategic influencer partnerships to proceed the excitement across the newly launched Index. We invited influencers and creators who mirrored our model values and target market to kind the inaugural Index council, the place we sought their insights on all issues poised for social in 2025. This was adopted by content material collaborations that ran throughout six months.
Our influencer efforts delivered robust outcomes, driving over 260 new results in the Index throughout 21 items of content material, with momentum nonetheless constructing.
To share what we’ve discovered, listed below are the three greatest practices we’ve distilled.
1. Search on surprising platforms
Don’t restrict your search to Instagram or TikTok. Influencers thrive on platforms like LinkedIn, Reddit, Discord, Twitch, Medium or area of interest boards—particularly in B2B or specialised industries. These communities usually home micro-influencers with extremely engaged, trust-based audiences. Exploring these lesser-known areas helps you uncover voices that really resonate together with your goal market, not simply the loudest ones.
We adopted this method and targeted our efforts on LinkedIn as our main platform to advertise the Index and lift consciousness amongst choice makers and social professionals alike.
“We needed to distinguish ourselves and meaningfully embed our influencers and creators into the creation of the Index itself. We determined to have an Index council of social practitioners and choice makers within the social advertising and marketing area, that additionally included influencers and creators shaping the {industry}. We invited these #SproutSocialPartners to be part of our (Index) council, they usually really helped form a part of the insights discovered within the last draft of our Index report,” explains Sprout’s Senior Social Media Strategist, Greg Rokisky.
One among our companions was Brianna Doe, Founding father of Verbatim Company, and host of the favored podcast, Cease the Scroll. With practically 250,000 followers, she’s a key voice in model affect and helped amplify our Index outreach by LinkedIn.
2. Suppose long-term
Skip the one-off promo mindset. Lengthy-term partnerships with influencers present them with the area and creativity to authentically combine your model into their content material—and vice versa— over time. This offers your marketing campaign a much-needed drumbeat and builds credibility and belief. Plus, repeated publicity helps enhance model recall and loyalty. Search for creators who can develop together with your model and evolve into ambassadors, not simply short-term megaphones.
The secret is to be up entrance when discussing long-term collaborations together with your supreme influencers, Rokisky says. For the Index council, for instance, Sprout commissioned a 6-month contract with influencers and creators firstly of the marketing campaign.
“Have a look at creators who’re keen to co-create with you on a long-term foundation. A whole lot of creators or influencers have an interest on this, however some solely need one-off posts. Not all influencers need long-term commitments, and you have to perceive to actual aim or goal of each activation you’re planning” he advises.
“Not solely did we focus on partnering with us on the launch of the report with a put up from every Council member to drive preliminary buzz and consciousness inside these first few weeks, however we additionally contracted digital occasion activations that spanned all through the primary half of the 12 months for a constant drumbeat to drive lead technology,” he defined.
The opposite good thing about long-term campaigns like that is that they really feel like equal partnerships. “It actually looks like we’re co-creating with influencers and creators, not simply on content material, however how they’re embedded inside our group from the very keystone stories that we develop as a corporation,” Rokisky emphasised.
Look past the unique social posts—what else are you able to create to increase the lifetime of your marketing campaign? Discover repurposing concepts to maintain your content material contemporary and spark creativity. This opens up new engagement alternatives and ensures your message reaches completely different audiences in additional significant methods.
For instance, right here’s one other member of our Index Council, Josh Rangel, Senior Director, Social at Ogilvy, constructing off the 2025 Sprout Social Index. On this put up, he’s selling a webinar targeted on key insights from the Index, that includes him, Tim Brogdon, Director of Digital Content material on the Chicago White Sox and Sprout Social CMO, Scott Morris.
3. Base partnerships on shared values and topical alignment
Authenticity issues. Your model and the influencer ought to align on key values—whether or not it’s social causes, sustainability, innovation, inclusivity or transparency. That is particularly essential as a result of it provides influencers artistic freedom whereas providing you peace of thoughts that their content material is aligned together with your model values.
It’s additionally nice from the viewers’s viewpoint as a result of audiences are fast to identify a mismatch, and compelled partnerships can backfire. A shared mission makes collaboration extra pure and significant, and it strengthens the emotional reference to each the influencer and their viewers.
What influencers anticipate when collaborating with manufacturers
When influencers collaborate with manufacturers, they’re not simply lending their viewers—they’re placing their fame on the road. To create a profitable partnership, manufacturers should perceive what influencers actually anticipate of them. This strengthens your model pitch.
Listed below are three key elements that may assist you higher collaborate with influencers.
1. Inventive freedom
Influencers wish to current your model in their very own voice, not a scripted gross sales pitch. They know their viewers greatest and how much content material resonates. When manufacturers micromanage whereas going by layers and layers of approvals, content material can start to really feel inauthentic. This may damage each the influencer’s credibility and the model’s outcomes.
Trusting the influencer’s type and tone results in extra real, partaking collaborations. This, once more, exemplifies why it’s vital to make sure you and the influencer you wish to collaborate with share the identical values. Listed below are some influencer advertising and marketing marketing campaign examples that present how being on the identical web page can result in profitable advertising and marketing.
2. Clear communication & expectations
Influencers admire transparency from the beginning—what the marketing campaign targets are, the timelines, deliverables and compensation. This readability can stop misunderstandings later within the venture, which may weaken the marketing campaign, and guarantee either side are aligned on the finer particulars. In actual fact, per the 2024 Influencer Advertising Report, 65% of influencers wish to be concerned in artistic or product improvement conversations early within the venture, relatively than simply being handed a quick on the final minute.
3. Truthful compensation
The 2024 Influencer Advertising Report reveals 59% of influencers wish to work with corporations which have clear budgets and cost constructions. That’s comprehensible as a result of influencers anticipate to be paid pretty for the worth they convey—whether or not by attain, engagement or affect in a distinct segment market.
However right here’s the excellent news—compensation doesn’t must be inflexible. It might probably embody financial funds, merchandise, affiliate commissions or perhaps a combine. The essential factor is that it ought to mirror the scope of labor and the influencer’s degree of affect. This additionally helps in the long term as manufacturers that supply honest phrases construct long-term goodwill and entice higher-quality companions.
Right here’s extra from our IRL occasion at 2025’s Inventive Economic system Stay, the place our influencer companions like Creator and Strategist Jayde Powell, and Brendan Gahan, CEO and co-founder of Creator Authority, share their insights on how manufacturers can discover the fitting influencers and create profitable partnerships for actual, long-term influence.
Construct highly effective campaigns by partnering with the fitting influencer
Discovering the fitting influencer isn’t nearly good technique. It’s the cornerstone of impactful influencer advertising and marketing. Partnering with the influencers greatest on your model will be the distinction between a strong marketing campaign that’s profitable and one which doesn’t fairly provide the social ROI you have been anticipating. While you prioritize alignment and select influencers whose values and viewers genuinely mirror your personal, you unlock the facility of genuine storytelling and trusted engagement.
Speak to our workforce and learn the way Sprout’s highly effective influencer advertising and marketing instruments might help you select the fitting influencer so that you’re aligned together with your influencer advertising and marketing targets. Request a Demo immediately.
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Often Requested Questions
How can I discover influencers?
To search out influencers, you have to have a mixture of strategic analysis and influencer advertising and marketing instruments. Begin by defining your viewers, then use social media searches and influencer platforms to seek for your supreme influencers. It’s additionally essential to investigate rivals and vet potential collaborators for authenticity and topical relevance.
Are there instruments and apps I can use to seek out influencers?
Sure, there are a number of instruments and apps designed to assist discover influencers, comparable to Sprout Social’s influencer advertising and marketing platform, Hypeauditor and Modash.
How can I discover native influencers?
You could find native influencers by looking location-based hashtags, checking native model collaborations and utilizing social listening and influencer administration instruments like Sprout Social.
How do I attain out to an influencer?
To achieve out to an influencer, prioritize customized communication by way of e-mail or direct message, highlighting real curiosity and providing clear collaboration particulars.
