Choosing a good influencer means looking beyond follower count. Consider engagement rate, how well their audience matches your brand’s customers, content quality and tone, and their work history. Watch for red flags like fake followers and abnormally low engagement. This article covers criteria for choosing influencers that fit your brand and avoid wasting budget.
Hiring the wrong influencer is the most common way to waste budget in influencer marketing. Many brands choose by follower count alone, then find the results aren’t worth it because the audience is off-target or engagement is low.
This article covers criteria for choosing influencers that fit your brand. To understand the full picture of influencer marketing, read the main article what influencer marketing is.
What Should You Look at When Choosing an Influencer?
Choosing a good influencer means considering several factors beyond follower count. First is engagement rate, showing how much followers actually interact. Second is how well their audience matches your brand’s target customers.
Third is content quality and tone, whether it fits your brand image. Fourth is their work history, whether they’ve reviewed competitor products or have a damaged reputation. See how to find the right tier in Influencer tiers Nano to Mega.
Why Does Engagement Rate Matter?
Engagement rate matters more than follower count in many cases, because it shows how genuinely interested and interactive followers are. An influencer with a million followers but low engagement may perform worse than one with ten thousand but high engagement.
Generally, smaller tiers like Nano and Micro have higher engagement rates than larger tiers, because of tighter follower relationships. Checking engagement rate helps filter out influencers who look good but lack real quality.
Red Flags to Watch For
Watch for bought fake followers, visible from abnormally low engagement relative to follower count, bot-like comments, and unnaturally spiking follower growth.
Other flags include taking product reviews too frequently to seem credible, and followers that don’t match your target customers. Checking these before hiring helps avoid wasting budget.
Conclusion
Choosing a good influencer means looking at engagement rate, audience fit, content quality, and work history, while watching for red flags like fake followers, not just follower count.
The key is choosing people whose audience matches your group and who have real engagement. If you want a team to help vet and select quality influencers that fit your brand, our team is happy to help.