Once you have a list of potential creators, the next question is who actually makes the cut. It's not just about numbers. It's about fit. And some of that fit you can assess before you ever send a message. Some of it you only discover once you start working together.
Here are the five things I check before committing to anyone.
1. Check their audience profile, not just their follower count
This is the first thing and the most important thing. Where are their followers based? What age range? What interests? A creator with a beautifully curated feed and 1M followers means nothing if their audience is completely outside your target market.
Meta's creator marketplace shows you this data.The free methods article covers how to use it.
2. Check their engagement rate
Follower count is vanity. Engagement rate is closer to reality.
If someone has a large following but engagement is sitting under 2%, the audience is there, but nobody is paying attention. You want to see genuine interaction: real likes, real comments, real saves. Install the Keywords Everywhere Chrome extension or other extensions, and it overlays this data directly onto their profile as you browse. Free, and takes seconds.
3. Look at who is actually commenting
This one most people skip, and it tells you a lot.
Scroll through the comments on a few recent posts. Are they genuine? Are they from real accounts with profile photos, actual bios, and posting history? Or are they one word responses and emoji chains from accounts with no followers? Bot activity inflates numbers but delivers nothing.
More importantly, look at whether the people commenting feel like your customer. If the comments are coming from the right kind of person, that's a stronger signal than any metric.
4. Does their overall profile align with your brand style
Step back and look at their feed as a whole. The aesthetic, the tone, the kind of brands they've worked with before. Does it sit naturally next to your brand, or does it feel like a mismatch?
You're not looking for a clone of your own account. You're looking for someone whose audience trusts them and whose visual language won't clash with yours. If you have to convince yourself it works, it probably doesn't.
5. Send a message and see how they respond
This is the one check you can only do by actually reaching out.
How quickly do they reply? Is the response warm and engaged or copy-pasted and transactional? Do they ask questions about your brand or just ask about the fee? Their first reply tells you a lot about how the collaboration will feel once it starts.
You can get a sense of professionalism and attitude before you commit to anything. Someone who is responsive, clear, and genuinely curious about your product and brand is a good starting point.
"Their first reply tells you more than their follower count ever will."
These five checks will filter out most of the wrong fits before you spend anything.
But there's one thing no checklist can tell you in advance. Some creators are warm and responsive at the start, then disappear after receiving the product or the payment.
Some give you a cold first reply but deliver exceptional content. Some campaigns that look perfect on paper produce nothing. Some long shots work remarkably well.
You can reduce the risk. You can't eliminate it. Influencer marketing is still a campaign, and like any campaign, you only know the result once it runs. Check these things before you deal. Then commit and see what happens.
