To find influencers, write your brief as five checks: the niche, the follower range, the country, posting in the last 30 days, and a way to contact them. Then pick a search that can filter on those checks before you open a single profile, open every profile it returns, and log which checks each one passes. We tested this on October 23, 2026 with two real briefs: US running creators on Instagram and US skincare creators on TikTok, both with 10,000 to 100,000 followers. We ran five common ways of finding creators on each brief and checked every one of the 181 accounts they gave us, 175 different profiles.
The guides that rank for this question list methods. Modash's guide gives eight, including its own database, hashtag search and competitor partnerships, and quotes a survey where most marketers spend 5 to 15 minutes checking one profile. Sprout Social's guide covers native search, social listening and influencer marketing platforms. A Reddit thread in r/SocialMediaMarketing says to stop scrolling hashtags, use a database with filters, and look at your own customers. None of them runs the methods side by side and counts how many of the accounts each one turns up fit a brief. This page does.
13 of 20
Fit from one filtered search
11 of 63
Instagram accounts with an email
1 in 18
US and an email, in our data
Write the brief as five checks
A brief that says "fitness creators with good engagement" cannot tell you when a candidate fails. Five checks can, and every way of finding creators below was scored on the same five.
- The bio names the niche, or most recent posts are about it, and the account is a person, not a brand, store, club or event.
- The account has 10,000 to 100,000 followers when you open it.
- The bio or recent captions name a place in the US.
- The newest post is less than 30 days old.
- The bio shows a business email address.
If you cannot name the niche in words a creator would use in a bio, turn the customer problem into search terms first. If you do not know when to stop searching, set a stopping rule before you start.
The test: 5 ways, 2 briefs, every profile opened
We ran each way once, the way a marketer would use it, and took the first accounts it surfaced, up to 20.
| Way of finding creators | What we did | Steps before the first profile |
|---|---|---|
| Google site: search | Three searches such as site:instagram.com running coach USA, then every account in the results, in order | 3 searches, 60 results read |
| A published list | Feedspot's running list and its skincare TikTok list. We used the list's own follower counts to skip to entries in the 10K to 100K range | 1 page |
| A competitor's tagged creators | Every account named in the captions of the latest 12 posts by US running brands (Oiselle, Rabbit, Tracksmith and Brooks) and 12 skincare brands | 14 Instagram and 18 TikTok profiles opened to find the brands' main accounts |
| A lookalike from one good creator | On Instagram, the accounts a fitting creator tags and the accounts they tag. On TikTok, the related accounts TikTok shows for three fitting creators | 12 and 3 profiles |
| A Virev search | One search over our database of 180M+ creators with the platform, 10K to 100K followers, US and, on Instagram, posted since September 23 | 1 search |
We did not run Instagram hashtag search or TikTok's in-app search. Instagram shows hashtag pages only to signed-in accounts, and TikTok's web search returned an error page to a signed-out browser. Every profile was read signed out, the way a visitor sees it, and the full list of 181 accounts and their checks is in a CSV.
We count steps and profiles opened rather than minutes, because a script opened the pages and its clock time says nothing about how long a person takes. If you take Modash's survey figure of 5 to 15 minutes per profile, every 20 profiles is 100 to 300 minutes of work.
Instagram: US running creators with 10K to 100K followers
| Way of finding creators | Accounts checked | Runners | 10K to 100K | US shown | Posted in 30 days | Email in bio | Fit four checks | Fit all five |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Virev search, "marathon runner" | 20 | 14 | 20 | 18 | 20 | 5 | 13 | 5 |
| Virev search, "running" | 20 | 9 | 20 | 18 | 20 | 6 | 9 | 4 |
| Feedspot list, entries in the range | 20 | 17 | 19 | 13 | 19 | 2 | 13 | 1 |
| Google site: search | 20 | 17 | 2 | 14 | 18 | 5 | 2 | 0 |
| Accounts linked to one good creator | 20 | 7 | 4 | 5 | 18 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| Accounts named in brand captions | 20 | 6 | 3 | 13 | 18 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
What each way did on this brief:
- Google found runners, 17 of 20, but at the wrong size. Eleven had under 10,000 followers and seven had over 100,000. Google's top results were run coaches with small accounts and famous pros.
- The Feedspot list has 100 runners, and only 33 of them have 10K to 100K followers. Its first 20 entries all have more. The 20 in-range entries we checked were mostly pro athletes and Olympians, and one profile did not load.
- Brand captions named the crew more often than creators. The 20 accounts were 6 runners, 6 photographers, filmmakers and creative studios, 2 hotels, 2 nonprofits, a watch brand, a travel platform, a clothing store and a race page whose profile did not load. None of the 6 runners had 10K to 100K followers.
- The lookalike route started at @kiefferallie, a 2:28 marathoner in New York, and drifted within two steps to the Berlin and Copenhagen marathons, an Ethiopian pro and photographers in Vienna and Stuttgart.
- Virev's filters held the size, the US and recent posts for all 20 results, so the niche was the only check left. The search for "running" also returned a dog account, a music podcast host, an author and a card collector. The search for "marathon runner" returned 14 runners.
Across every way, 33 different accounts passed the first four checks, and 14 of them name a running or apparel brand in their bio, such as Nike, Puma, Salomon or lululemon. A pro under contract may not be free to post for a second shoe brand, so ask about exclusivity before you send a brief.
The email check failed most often. Of the 63 accounts we opened with 10,000 to 100,000 followers, 11 had an email in the bio. The eight that passed all five checks were @herm.runs, @taya.skelton, @__katiesmiles, @dcdimsumgirl, @chief_preeth, @arielgreenstein_, @davie_fitness and @aishapraughtleer, a two-time Olympian for Jamaica whose recent posts are from live shows in Chicago.
Search US marathon runners with 10K to 100K followers in Virev.
TikTok: US skincare creators with 10K to 100K followers
| Way of finding creators | Accounts checked | Skincare | 10K to 100K | US shown | Posted in 30 days | Email in bio | Fit four checks | Fit all five |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Virev search, "skincare" | 20 | 14 | 20 | 10 | 20 | 16 | 8 | 8 |
| Google site: search | 20 | 13 | 8 | 10 | 18 | 11 | 2 | 2 |
| Feedspot list, entries in the range | 7 | 5 | 5 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 |
| Accounts linked to one good creator | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Accounts named in brand captions | 10 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 8 | 4 | 0 | 0 |
TikTok changed two things:
- Emails are common in TikTok bios. Sixteen of the 20 Virev results and 11 of the 20 Google results had one, so the email check stopped being the problem.
- Brands on TikTok rarely name the creators they work with. Captions on the newest videos from 12 skincare brands named 38 accounts, and 28 of those were stores such as Sephora, Ulta and Target, or names cut off by a space.
The other ways did worse than on Instagram. Feedspot's skincare TikTok list has 45 creators, only 7 in the 10K to 100K range, and two of those handles no longer existed. TikTok returned related accounts for only one of the three skincare creators we started from, and none of the four was about skin: two fan pages, a Malay-language personal account and a Chinese-language comedy account.
Two numbers count against Virev here. Virev labels all 20 results as US, but the bio or recent captions named a US place for only 10 of them, so read the profile before you trust the country. And we counted a creator as skincare when the bio names skincare or two of the six newest videos are about skin. Count only creators whose videos are mostly skincare, and Virev and Google each found 2 that pass all five checks. They are @skinwithjakob, a Boston esthetician, and @kail4yn in Orlando from Virev, and @facedbycam in Garden City, New York, and @sincerelylaure in Seattle from Google.
Search US skincare creators on TikTok in Virev.
Why the email is the check that fails
The test matches what we see across our own data. Of 10,927 Instagram creators with 10,000 to 100,000 followers whose bio we have on file, 28.5% write an email in the bio, and 5.7% are both in the US and show one. That is 1 in 18. The share rises with size: 15.6% of creators with 1,000 to 10,000 followers show an email, and 36.6% of those over 100,000 do.
If you open Instagram profiles in this range without filtering first, about 17 of every 18 fail the country check or the email check. So the search you start from should drop the wrong size and country before you open anything.
A missing email in the bio does not mean the creator has no contact route. Instagram lets creator accounts add a Contact button in the app that can hold an email address, and some creators put an address on the page their bio links to. Our guide to finding an Instagram creator's published business email covers each place to look, and the one for YouTube covers the About page.
How to find Instagram influencers in your niche
- Search with filters for size and country first, using the words creators put in bios. "Marathon runner" found 14 runners in 20 results where "running" found 9.
- Open each profile and check the date of the newest post that is not pinned.
- Read the bio for a brand the creator already represents, and ask about exclusivity if it is a competitor.
- Look for the email in the bio, then behind the Contact button in the app, then on the linked page.
- Use a published list to learn who the known names are, and expect most of them to be over your follower range.
For smaller creators, find micro-influencers beyond hashtag lists through customer mentions, communities and referrals. To widen a list from one creator who works, use the grid in finding lookalike creators without copying the same audience, because in our test a chain of tags drifted to another country in two steps. For a city campaign, separate local creators from visitors. For ready-made lists, see our 51 running influencers, 55 micro fitness influencers and 2,154 micro beauty influencers, each built from creators Virev measured.
How to find TikTok influencers
- Search in a creator database or with Google's site: operator, because TikTok's web search does not work signed out and its related accounts were unrelated in our test.
- Do not rely on brand captions, because TikTok brands tag stores far more than creators.
- Check the country by hand. Half the accounts Virev labeled US did not name a US place on the profile.
- Expect an email in most bios, and use it.
To brief TikTok creators on what their audience is asking, see using TikTok search questions to plan creator content.
How to find YouTube influencers
We did not run YouTube in this test. The same five checks apply. YouTube shows a business email on a channel's About page when the owner added one, and it may ask you to sign in and pass a human check first. The Audience report in YouTube Studio lists other channels your viewers watch, which is a lookalike list built from your own audience. The steps are in finding a YouTube channel's business inquiry address and our micro-influencer guide explains the Audience report.
Which way to use for which job
| Way of finding creators | Use it for | What it missed in our test |
|---|---|---|
| A creator database with filters | Most of the shortlist, when you know the size, country and words in the bio | Loose keyword matches, and a country label that the profile did not always back up |
| Google site: search | A first look at a niche, and creators with their own websites | 18 of 20 Instagram results were the wrong size |
| A published list | Knowing the big names in a niche | Few entries in the 10K to 100K range, and handles that no longer exist |
| A competitor's tagged creators | Learning who a competitor already pays | Crews, stores and hotels outnumber creators |
| A lookalike from one creator | Adding a few names close to one that works | Drift to other countries and roles within two steps |
| Customers who already post about you | The warmest leads | Not tested here. See creators already using your product |
Turn the finds into a shortlist
Log each candidate with the check it failed, so a reviewer can see why someone is missing. Our guide to building a creator shortlist you can defend gives a ten-candidate sheet, and presenting a shortlist with clear tradeoffs covers the meeting. If an AI tool suggests the names, check each claim against the real profile. For two markets, see finding bilingual creators, and for a dated event, finding creators for a fixed location and date.
How we ran the test
On October 23, 2026 we ran each way of finding creators once per brief and took the accounts in the order it showed them, up to 20. We read every Instagram profile signed out through a residential connection, which shows the bio, the follower count and the 12 newest posts with their dates. We read every TikTok profile and its newest videos through Virev's crawler. We judged the niche and the country from each bio and its six newest captions, with the rules in the five checks above, and applied the same rules to every way.
The Virev searches used the filters the Virev app offers: platform, 10,000 to 100,000 followers, United States, creator accounts, and on Instagram a last post after September 23. On TikTok the last-post filter returned no results, so we left it off. Feedspot pages were read on the same day. The Google searches ran through Google in the US.
Twenty accounts per way is a small sample, and reading a bio for niche and country is a judgment call. The email check counts only an address in the bio, so it undercounts creators who list an email behind Instagram's in-app Contact button. We picked the running and skincare briefs before we ran anything, and we report both Virev searches on Instagram, including the weaker one. The data on 10,927 creators comes from accounts Virev's crawler read between August 20 and September 30, 2026, which lean toward accounts brands search for.
Data for journalists
The test covers 181 accounts from 11 runs: six ways on Instagram, counting two Virev searches, and five on TikTok, with every check per account. The bio data covers 27,302 Instagram creators with 1,000+ followers whose bios Virev has on file, 10,927 of them with 10,000 to 100,000 followers. Download the accounts and checks: how-to-find-influencers-test-2026.csv. Cite as: Virev, "How to find influencers: we tested 5 ways on 2 real briefs", October 2026, virev.ai/blog/how-to-find-influencers.
Find creators for your brief
Virev creator search covers 180M+ creators on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. Set the follower range, the country and the last post date, type the words a creator would put in a bio, and open the profiles that come back. Try running coach, esthetician or skincare to start.
