Guide · social media research
How to find influencers for your brand
To find influencers for your brand, search the words your customers use on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube and list the creators who keep coming up. Then see who your competitors already pay: a sponsored post carries a Paid partnership label on both Instagram and TikTok. Keep the creators whose audience matches yours, whose comments look real and who you can reach. Brands can also search the platforms’ own creator tools, Meta’s Creator Marketing Hub and TikTok One, or ask Oneirosea for a scored list in one prompt.
Search the words your customers use
- Write down the words your customers use for the problem your product solves, not your brand’s: “sore knees after running”, not “joint supplement”.
- Search each one on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube, and open the posts in the top results.
- Note the creators who show up more than once. A creator who keeps posting about the problem already has the audience you want.
- Read the comments on their best posts: other creators in the niche often comment there, and each is one more lead.
See which creators your competitors already pay
Sponsored posts carry a label. On Instagram, the label reads Paid partnership with, followed by the brand partner’s name, and posts with an affiliate link should carry it too. On TikTok, a post made for another business is labelled Paid partnership, and a post promoting the creator’s own business is labelled Promotional content.
Meta’s Ad Library keeps those Instagram and Facebook posts, from August 17, 2023 on, each with the creator, the brand partner and a link to the post. Open Branded content at the top of the library, choose Instagram, and search a competitor’s profile to see the creators it has paid.
A creator with paid partnerships in your category has done this before and knows their rate. One with none may be keener, and cheaper.
Source: Instagram Help Center, TikTok Support, Meta Business Help Center, Meta
Use the platforms’ own creator tools
| Meta Creator Marketing Hub | TikTok One | |
|---|---|---|
| Where | Meta Business Suite, under Creator marketing | TikTok One, under Explore creators |
| Search | Recommendations for your brand, and AI-powered keyword search | A username or keyword, and AI search for select customers |
| Filters | Interests, age and follower count, for creators and their audiences | Creator country, followers and language; audience country, age and gender; median views and engagement rate |
| On a profile | Past and active partnership ads, branded content, past partners and metrics | Follower growth, views and engagement over time, audience, and recent organic and sponsored videos |
| Contact | A message, or the creator’s email where available | An invitation to your project, or a link for creators not on TikTok One |
Meta’s hub is for business and creator accounts on Instagram and may not be available to yours yet. It can also find creators similar to a list of handles you upload as a CSV. Each tool covers its own platform only.
How to vet an influencer before you reach out
- Niche fit. Their recent posts are about your category, not one post that mentions it.
- Audience fit. Their audience lives where you sell and speaks your customers’ language.
- Reach. Recent views count for more than followers: 200K followers and 3K views a video reach fewer people than they look.
- Engagement quality. Comments are about the post, not just emoji. Check their engagement rate by followers or by views.
- Brand safety. Scroll back a few months for anything you wouldn’t put your name next to.
- A way to reach them. An email in the bio, a link-in-bio page or a management contact.
Score each creator from 1 to 5 on all six and start outreach from the top. For e-commerce, a creator’s TikTok Shop showcase or Amazon storefront shows the products they already sell.
How to find UGC creators
UGC creators make videos for your ads and product pages rather than posting to their own audience, so judge the videos, not the follower count.
- Search UGC with your niche on TikTok and Instagram, such as “UGC skincare”: many UGC creators say so in their bio, with an email.
- Watch their portfolio for the format you need: an unboxing, a demo or a testimonial.
- Check how recently they posted, so you know they are taking work.
A scored influencer list in one prompt
Oneirosea works like ChatGPT for social media, answering from live public data. Name your product and market and it searches TikTok, Instagram and YouTube for creators in your niche, reads each one’s profile, recent posts and paid partnerships, checks a TikTok creator’s audience by country, finds a contact on their link-in-bio page, and scores each one on niche fit, audience fit, reach, engagement quality, brand safety and contactability. You get the best fits, outreach angles and a CSV to export.
Find 20 fitness micro-influencers in the US on Instagram and TikTok who post home workouts, with real engagement and a public email. Score each one, show their recent views, and give me a CSV.
Find TikTok UGC creators who make skincare demo videos, have an email in their bio and posted in the last month.
Common questions
How do I find influencers for my brand for free?
Search the words your customers use on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube and note the creators who keep appearing. Then search a competitor’s profile under Branded content in Meta’s Ad Library to see the creators it pays. Both are free; they take time.
How do I find fitness influencers on Instagram?
Search the workouts and problems your customers search, such as home workouts or running knee pain, and note the creators who post about them every week. Check each one’s recent views, comments and audience before reaching out, or ask Oneirosea for a scored list.
How do I see which influencers a competitor works with?
Look for the Paid partnership label on posts about the competitor. For Instagram and Facebook, open Branded content in Meta’s Ad Library and search the competitor’s profile to see the creators who posted paid partnerships with it.
How can I tell if an influencer’s followers are real?
Compare their recent views and engagement with their follower count, and read the comments: a real audience writes about the post. Many followers with few views, or comments that are only emoji, are warning signs.
Where do brands find UGC creators?
On TikTok and Instagram, where many UGC creators put UGC and an email in their bio. Search UGC with your niche, then judge their portfolio videos rather than their followers.
Sources
- About labels on paid partnership postsInstagram Help Center, read October 26, 2026
- Promoting a brand, product or serviceTikTok Support, read October 26, 2026
- About the Meta Ad LibraryMeta Business Help Center, read October 26, 2026
- Ad Library, with its search tipsMeta, read October 26, 2026
- Find creators to partner with on Meta Creator Marketing HubInstagram Help Center, read October 26, 2026
- How to find creators who work with TikTok OneTikTok Business Help Center, read October 26, 2026