Nine steps from a blank list to a signed creator: where to look, which influencer search tool to use when native search runs out, and the cost-per-view check that tells you who to hire.
To find influencers for your brand, decide whether you are buying content or audience, write a one-line creator spec, and start with people who already tag or buy from you. Then search Instagram, TikTok and YouTube by keyword. Shortlist on average views across the last twelve posts and cost per thousand views, not follower count.
Most guides stop at where to look. The expensive mistakes happen after that: paying for followers who do not watch, messaging creators on a channel they ignore, and agreeing a fee before agreeing the rights. Steps six to nine cover those, with worked numbers.
Last updated October 2026. Tool prices checked 24 October 2026 on each vendor's own pricing page.
Each step opens with the answer, then the detail. Follow them in order the first time.
Content means a creator films a video you run as your own ad, so follower count barely matters. Audience means they post to their followers, so reach and views set the price. The two are priced and searched differently, so settle this first.
A good spec names the niche, platform, audience location, follower band and the most you will pay per creator. For example: sub-25K fitness creators in Texas with at least a 30% view rate, under $400 each. That one line becomes your search query and your negotiation cap.
The warmest influencers are already in your orbit: accounts that tag your products, follow you, or buy from you. They reply more often and need less convincing. Check tagged posts and mentions on Instagram and TikTok, then your customer list.
Every platform has free search that is better than people expect. Use keywords from your niche plus a city or audience descriptor, and save anyone promising to a list as you go.
Native search runs out of patience around twenty creators. A search tool lets you filter thousands of profiles by follower band, location, engagement and audience, and shows contact details. The table below compares the main options on published price.
Pull average views from the creator's last twelve posts, divide by followers for the view rate, and divide their asking price by average views to get cost per thousand views. That last number lets you compare a 112K account with a 47K account on equal terms. The worked example below shows why it changes the answer.
Message Instagram and TikTok creators by DM from your brand account, and YouTube creators at the business email they list. Keep the first message short: who you are, why them specifically, what you want made, and that you pay. Expect most not to reply, so contact three times as many as you need.
Before anyone films, put the fee, the delivery date, the number of revisions and the usage rights in one written agreement. Rights are where the price moves: paid social use commonly adds 20% to 30% of the base rate per month, and running ads from the creator's handle adds more.
To hire influencers safely, pay through escrow or a platform that releases money on delivery, or pay half up front and half on approval if you contract directly. Ask for the Spark Ads code or Meta partnership-ad access with the content, so the video can run from the creator's handle in your own ad account.
Step six in numbers. Run this on every shortlist before you send a single offer.
| Creator | Followers | Avg views, last 12 | View rate | Asking | Cost per 1K views |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | 112,000 | 9,600 | 8.6% | $980 | $102 |
| B | 46,800 | 15,100 | 32.3% | about $740 | $49 |
| C (illustrative) | 18,000 | 6,300 | 35.0% | $300 | $48 |
View rate = average views ÷ followers. Cost per 1,000 views = asking price ÷ average views × 1,000. Creator A has more than twice the followers of B and costs more than twice as much per view. Creator C is a micro account at the same efficiency as B for well under half the fee, which is why a batch of smaller creators often beats one bigger name.
Creators A and B are the example from the Remy influencer agent page; B's asking price is worked back from its $49 per thousand views. Creator C is an illustration of the same math at micro scale. Expect about fifteen minutes per creator to run these checks by hand.
Step five in detail. Pick by how many creators you need a month, not by database size.
| Tool | What you search | Entry price | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Instagram creator marketplace | Opted-in Instagram creators | No brand fee published | Instagram-only, warm intent |
| TikTok One | TikTok creators open to brand work | Free to access from a business account, per TikTok | TikTok-first brands |
| Collabstr | 1.3M+ creators with posted prices | $0 plus 10% per hire | Seeing real prices fast |
| Heepsy | 20M+ creators, four platforms | $0, then $69/mo yearly | Cheap shortlists |
| Modash | 380M+ profiles over 1K followers | $199/mo yearly, 14-day trial | Searching the whole market |
| Upfluence | 14M+ creators, customer matching | Custom quote, 12-month minimum | Established ecommerce brands |
| Remy by QuickAds | Instagram, YouTube and TikTok, searched for you | From $129 per booking | Search, outreach and negotiation done |
Sources: Collabstr, Heepsy, Modash, Upfluence pricing pages and TikTok's TikTok One help page, checked 24 Oct 2026. For deeper platform comparisons see our best micro influencer platforms ranking.
Follower count is the easiest number in this industry to inflate. 81% of marketers hit influencer fraud in a year, in the World Federation of Advertisers survey cited in our creator sourcing report. Views and comments are harder to fake.
A YouTube creator who lists a business email will rarely see a comment or DM. An Instagram creator may never open a cold email. Use the channel they publish.
A $250 video with three months of paid social use came to $437.50 in the example on our UGC rates page. Asking for rights after delivery is negotiating from the weaker side.
Roughly one in five briefed creators produces nothing usable, per the same report. A clear brief and approvals inside 48 hours are what keep good creators coming back.
Remy, the QuickAds influencer agent, runs steps four to nine for you, AI assisted and human reviewed. Describe the creators in a sentence; Remy searches Instagram, YouTube and TikTok, strips out bot engagement, works out view rate and cost per thousand views on every profile, messages creators from your handle and negotiates under your cap. Creators reply in 1 to 2 days and brief to delivery is 5 to 7 days. UGC video is $129, Gold creators (5K to 50K followers) $299, Mega (50K to 250K) $699, creator fee included. See how Remy works.
The questions people search on the way to their first creator booking.
Match on delivery rather than audience size. Pull average views from the creator's last twelve posts, work out the view rate against their follower count, compare engagement to peers in the same niche, and check their audience sits where your customers are. A 112,000-follower account averaging 9,600 views can cost twice as much per view as a 46,800-follower account averaging 15,100.
Most brands find them in four places: their own tagged posts, followers and customers; native search on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube; marketplaces such as Collabstr, where creators list packages and prices; and search databases such as Modash or Heepsy. Meta's creator marketplace and TikTok One are the platforms' own directories of creators open to brand deals.
Search for creators with roughly 10,000 to 100,000 followers in your niche, using platform keyword search or a tool with a follower-band filter. Then sort by average views rather than followers, because micro accounts vary widely. Micro creators commonly charge $150 to $300 for a short-form video, so a test of ten is affordable.
Add your city or region to every search, check location tags and geotagged posts near you, and look at who tags local businesses similar to yours. Search tools such as Heepsy and Modash filter by creator and audience location. Then ask for the audience location breakdown, because a creator based in Austin can have most of their followers somewhere else.
Search your niche on TikTok and filter to recent videos to see who is active now, then open profiles and note average views on the last twelve posts. Brands can also use TikTok One from a business account on the web, or a search tool that covers TikTok such as Modash, Heepsy or Collabstr. TikTok creators usually answer DMs first.
Find and verify them, reach them on the channel they answer, agree a rate and a delivery date in writing, and secure paid usage rights before filming rather than after. Pay through escrow or on delivery. Ask for the Spark Ads code or partnership-ad access with the content so you can run it as an ad.
It depends on volume. For a few creators, Instagram and TikTok search plus Collabstr's free plan is enough. For a steady program, Heepsy starts at $69 a month and Modash at $199 a month billed yearly, with Modash covering every public Instagram, TikTok and YouTube profile over 1,000 followers. If you want the search and outreach done for you, Remy runs it at a published price per booking.
Tell us the brand and the creators you want. Remy runs the first search with you across Instagram, YouTube and TikTok and sends back a ranked list with average views, cost per thousand views and contact details.
See your creator list Our pricingSeven-day platform evaluation for $1; creator bookings are priced separately.