# How to find creators to sponsor, and how to vet them

Source: https://sponsoracreator.com/guides/how-to-find-creators/
Publisher: Sponsor a Creator. Updated 2026-10-20.
Independence: Independent and unsponsored. No company pays to be mentioned, ranked, or reviewed here, and there are no affiliate links. Fact-checked against the primary sources listed below.

> To find creators to sponsor, start with people who already use or follow your brand, then search each platform directly, look at who sponsors creators in nearby niches, and use marketplaces or discovery databases when you need volume. Before you pay anyone, vet each creator with their own analytics screenshots, a read of their comments, a review of past content and sponsors, and a check of how they disclose ads.

Finding creators is the easy half. There are millions of them. The hard half is cutting a list of fifty down to the five whose audience will buy from you, and doing it before you send money. This guide covers both halves in order.

## Where should you start looking for creators?

Start with people who already buy from you or follow you, because a creator who uses your product needs no convincing and their audience hears a real recommendation. Check the posts your brand is tagged in on Instagram and TikTok. Search your brand name and product names on YouTube and TikTok. Read the reviews on your own site for names you recognize.

Then ask. Add one line to your order confirmation email or packing slip: "Do you make videos or write a newsletter? Reply and tell us." A local bakery might find a food blogger among its regulars this way. A software company might find a YouTuber already teaching its tool.

Some discovery tools search your followers for you. Modash, for example, lists a feature that finds creators who already follow your account, or any other account, on Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok. A free alternative is scrolling your own follower list and opening any account with a large following, which takes an afternoon. If your own fans are the best fit, a gifting program may be the right first step. See [product seeding](/guides/product-seeding/).

## How do you search for creators inside each platform?

Each big platform now has its own creator search built for brands, and each uses data from the platform itself. TikTok One's Creator Marketplace lets you filter by creator details, audience details, and performance metrics, then sort by follower count, engagement rate, or recent posts. YouTube Creator Partnerships uses Gemini to suggest creators from the YouTube Partner Program inside Google Ads. Meta Creator Marketing Hub, launched globally in September 2026, includes filters for creators already posting content that features your products.

Plain in-app search works too and costs nothing. Type the phrases your customers would type. A kitchenware brand should search "small kitchen ideas" and "meal prep for one," not "kitchenware." Watch the top results, then open the creators whose videos feel closest to how you would want your product shown.

Our comparison of [creator sponsorship platforms](/guides/best-creator-sponsorship-platforms/) covers what each tool costs and who it suits.

## How do hashtags and sounds help you find creators?

Hashtags and sounds help you find creators who are active in your niche right now, rather than creators who were popular two years ago. Skip the giant tags. A tag with tens of millions of posts is mostly noise. Narrow tags work better because the people using them have a specific audience. A brand selling travel pillows will find better fits under a tag about long-haul flights than under a general travel tag.

On TikTok and Instagram Reels, sounds work the same way. When a sound spreads inside a niche, open it and look at the other videos that use it. The creators who used it early, and well, tend to be the ones paying closest attention to that audience.

Keep a running list as you go. Write down the handle, the platform, a link to the video that caught your eye, and one line on why. That note will save you time later, when you are writing the first message.

## How do you find out who already sponsors creators in nearby niches?

Look at who sponsors creators in categories next to yours, because a creator who has already done a good integration for a related brand knows how to do one for you. A coffee grinder brand should look at who coffee bean companies sponsor. A meal-kit brand should look at who sponsors home cooks.

You can see these deals because platforms label them. Meta's Ad Library includes a searchable database of active, public branded content on Facebook and Instagram that carries a paid partnership label. YouTube adds a disclosure label at the start of videos that creators mark as paid promotion. TikTok shows a "Paid partnership" label on posts creators mark as branded content.

Two cautions. First, check for [exclusivity](/glossary/) before you reach out. A creator under contract with a direct competitor may not be able to work with you for months. Second, a creator who promotes a new brand every week may have an audience that tunes out sponsors. Two or three sponsors a month is easier to work with than ten.

## When should you use a marketplace, database, or agency?

Use a marketplace, discovery database, or agency when your free methods cannot produce enough fitting creators fast enough. Each one trades money for time in a different way.

| Method | What it costs | Speed | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Your own customers and followers | Free | Slow | Gifting and first deals |
| Native platform search | Free to search | Medium | Creators on one app |
| Hashtags, sounds, rival sponsors | Free | Slow | Finding active niche creators |
| Marketplaces | Creator fee plus any platform fee | Fast | Small paid deals with listed prices |
| Discovery databases | Monthly subscription | Fast | Shortlisting dozens of creators |
| Agencies and managed services | Service fee plus creator fees | Fast for you | Brands with budget but no time |

Marketplaces show you creators who want brand deals and list their prices, which speeds up the first conversation. Databases cover far more creators, including ones who never signed up anywhere, but you still have to contact them yourself. Agencies do the searching and the outreach. If you plan to hire one to three creators, free methods are enough.

## How do you vet a creator before you pay them?

Vet a creator by checking eight things before any money moves: real followers, engagement, comments, audience, past content, past sponsors, disclosure habits, and reliability. Use this table as your checklist.

| Check | What to look at | Red flag |
|---|---|---|
| Fake or bought followers | Follower growth, follower profiles, views compared with followers | Sudden jumps, empty follower accounts, tiny views on a big following |
| Engagement quality | Likes, comments, and shares on the last 10 to 20 posts | One viral post carrying the average |
| Comment quality | Read 50 comments across several posts | Generic praise from accounts with no posts |
| Audience location and age | Screenshots from the creator's own analytics | Most viewers outside your shipping area or age range |
| Brand safety | Six to twelve months of posts, full videos, live streams | Content your customers would complain about |
| Past sponsors | Recent branded posts and their labels | A direct competitor, or a new sponsor every few days |
| Disclosure habits | How past paid posts were labeled | Hidden or vague labels like "collab" |
| Reliability | Posting schedule, replies to your messages | Long gaps, missed dates, slow replies |

The next sections explain how to do the checks that need more than a glance.

## How do you spot fake or bought followers?

Spot fake followers by comparing a creator's follower count with the views and comments their posts actually get. A creator with 200,000 followers whose videos get 1,500 views is showing you that most of those followers do not watch. Open twenty random follower accounts. If most have no photo, no posts, and odd usernames, be careful.

In the US, buying fake followers also breaks an FTC rule. The FTC's rule on consumer reviews and testimonials, announced in August 2024, prohibits buying or selling fake indicators of social media influence, "such as followers or views generated by a bot or hijacked account," when the buyer knew or should have known they were fake and uses them to misrepresent influence for a commercial purpose. The FTC's own Q&A says a business is not liable just for hiring an influencer who happens to have fake followers. You would still be paying for an audience that does not exist.

## How do you judge engagement and comment quality?

Judge engagement by calculating it yourself and comparing the result with the creator's own recent average. Engagement rate is likes plus comments, divided by followers or by views, times 100. Say a creator's last post got 1,800 likes and 120 comments on 40,000 views. That is 1,920 divided by 40,000, or 4.8% of viewers. Do this for ten to twenty posts, not one, because a single viral post can hide a dead account.

Comments tell you more than the number. Read at least fifty. Good signs are questions about the product, people tagging friends, and the creator replying. Bad signs are strings of emoji and "great post" from accounts with no posts of their own, which often point to bots or engagement groups that trade comments.

## How do you check a creator's audience location and age?

Check audience location and age by asking the creator for screenshots from their own analytics, dated within the last thirty days. Every major platform gives creators this data. YouTube Studio's Audience tab shows an age and gender report and a top geographies report. Instagram Insights shows the top countries, cities, age ranges, and gender of the accounts a creator reached, as long as they reached more than 100 accounts in the chosen period. Follower trends appear once the account has 100 followers. TikTok Studio's analytics include a demographic view of followers.

Ask for the views or reach breakdown as well as followers, because followers can be years old. If you sell only in the US and 70% of a creator's viewers are elsewhere, then 70% of your fee pays for people who cannot buy. If something looks off, ask for a short screen recording that scrolls through the analytics.

## How do you review brand safety, disclosure, and reliability?

Review brand safety by watching full videos from the last six to twelve months. Highlights hide too much. Watch at least one live stream if they do them, and read how they reply to critics. You are checking whether your customers would be comfortable seeing your logo next to this person.

Then look at how they labeled past sponsored posts. The FTC says a disclosure in a video belongs in the video itself, not only in the description, and warns against relying on a platform's built-in label alone. Its endorsement guidance also expects advertisers to have reasonable programs to train and monitor the creators they work with. A creator who hid past deals will likely hide yours, and that becomes your problem. Our guide to [disclosure rules](/guides/sponsored-content-disclosure-rules/) covers what to require.

Reliability is the last check. Look at their posting schedule for long gaps, notice how fast they reply to you, and ask whether they can share a past brand contact. Then start small. One paid post tells you more than any audit, and it gives you a reason to [pitch](/guides/how-to-pitch-a-creator/) a bigger deal once it works.

## Questions people also ask

### How many creators should I shortlist for my first campaign?

Shortlist about three times as many creators as you plan to hire. Some will not reply, some will quote more than your budget, and some will fail vetting. If you want three creators, start with nine or ten names.

### Is it rude to ask a creator for their analytics?

No. Professional creators expect it and many keep a media kit ready. Ask for screenshots from their own analytics, dated within the last month. Never ask for a login or password, and do not accept one if offered.

### Should I pick creators by follower count?

Follower count is the weakest signal you have. Recent views, audience location, and comment quality tell you far more about what your money will buy. A creator with 20,000 engaged followers in your city can beat one with 500,000 spread across the world.

### What is a good engagement rate for a creator?

There is no single good number, because engagement rates differ by platform, format, and audience size, and they change as the apps change. Compare each creator against their own recent average and against other creators in the same niche and size range you are considering.

### Can I find creators without paying for software?

Yes. Your own followers and tagged posts, in-app search, hashtags, and Meta's Ad Library are all free. Paid databases save time when you need dozens of creators, but a first campaign with three to five creators rarely needs one.


## Sources

- [TikTok Ads Help: How to find creators to collaborate with](https://ads.tiktok.com/help/article/how-to-find-creators-to-collaborate-with-using-the-creator-leaderboard?lang=en)
- [YouTube Official Blog: Discover a new era of brand and creator partnerships on YouTube](https://blog.youtube/news-and-events/youtube-creator-partnerships-newfronts-2026/)
- [Meta for Business: Making it easier for businesses to partner with creators](https://www.facebook.com/business/news/iab-global-creator-week-making-it-easier-for-businesses-to-partner-with-creators)
- [Meta Transparency Center: Ad Library tools](https://transparency.meta.com/researchtools/ad-library-tools/)
- [YouTube Help: Add paid product placements, sponsorships and endorsements](https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/154235?hl=en)
- [TikTok Ads Help: About the Commercial Content Disclosure setting for creators](https://ads.tiktok.com/resources/help/article/about-the-content-disclosure-setting-for-creators)
- [Modash: Plans and pricing](https://www.modash.io/pricing)
- [FTC: Federal Trade Commission announces final rule banning fake reviews and testimonials](https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2024/08/federal-trade-commission-announces-final-rule-banning-fake-reviews-testimonials)
- [FTC: The Consumer Reviews and Testimonials Rule, questions and answers](https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/resources/consumer-reviews-testimonials-rule-questions-answers)
- [YouTube Help: Understand your YouTube audience](https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/9314416)
- [Meta Business Help Center: About Instagram Insights](https://www.facebook.com/business/help/788388387972460)
- [TikTok Support: Creator tools and TikTok Studio](https://support.tiktok.com/en/using-tiktok/creating-videos/creator-tools-on-tiktok)
- [FTC: Disclosures 101 for Social Media Influencers](https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/resources/disclosures-101-social-media-influencers)
- [FTC: FTC's Endorsement Guides, what people are asking](https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/resources/ftcs-endorsement-guides-what-people-are-asking)