The 5-strategy system DTC brands use to build a pipeline of creators that actually convert — across 400M+ creator profiles and 300+ campaigns.
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Creator profiles you can search
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More engagement from long-term partners
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Filters to pinpoint your exact creator
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Watch or Read
Start with the full masterclass replay
I ran a live session with 40+ marketers walking through the exact system we use to find creators — live demos inside ClickAnalytic, real brand examples, and a full Q&A. Watch the replay or scroll down to read the write-up.
▶ Watch the masterclass replay
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Read the summary instead
All 5 strategies, the power-filter playbook, budget guidance, and the live Q&A — written up below. About 8 minutes to read.
Most brands search for creators vor they know who they’re looking for.
I’ve been on both sides of creator marketing — managing creator inboxes as an agent, then building ClickAnalytic after doing influencer discovery manually for too long. The single biggest lesson: finding the right creators is less about searching harder and more about knowing exactly who you need first.
So before any tactic, get specific about your objective: what is this campaign for, and what kind of creator actually serves it? That one decision shapes every search that follows.
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Don’t reduce creators to a follower count. In skincare alone, your best creator could be a fitness, makeup, lifestyle, or family creator — and the Inhaltsformat (Reels, UGC, tutorials) matters as much as the size. Decide your objective first, then test several creator types against it.
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Creator ≠ influencer. Every influencer is a creator, but not every creator is an influencer. A creator makes content — including UGC creators with little or no audience. An Influencer is a creator with an audience (usually 1K+ followers, public account) who can actually move it.
The Mindset Shift
One post won’t move the needle. Repetition will.
Don’t expect one story from a big creator to generate millions in sales. Only a small slice of any audience sees a single post — and one-off posts rarely convert directly. Think about how TV works: brands don’t buy one hour, once. They buy repeated placements so the same audience sees them again and again.
The Myth
One viral post = a flood of sales
A single story reaches the whole audience
Bigger creator always = better results
One-and-done collabs are enough
The Reality
Repeated, long-term partnerships compound
Audiences act after seeing you several times
Fit beats size — every time
Repetition is the core of all marketing
The Data
Long-term partners drive 70% more engagement than one-off collabs.
Why? Their audience is already aware of you, the creator has already vouched for your product, and trust compounds with every post. So when you find a creator, pick one you can work with repeatedly — not just once.
The Playbook
5 ways to find die rechts Schöpfer
Everything below is ordered from warmest (creators who already know you) to coldest (creators who’ve never heard of you). Strategy 1 is the foundation that makes the other four work.
Foundation
1 · Start with the objective
Know your campaign goal and the exact creator type before you search.
Warmest
2 · Creators who already mention you
They’ve posted about you and convert best. Start here.
Warm
3 · Your competitors’ creators
Already love similar products — and open to an alternative.
Inbound
4 · Build a creator funnel
Flip it — make creators apply to you every week.
Cold
5 · Cold discovery
Surface perfect-fit creators who’ve never heard of you, with filters.
Strategies 2 & 3 · Warm
Start with the creators who schon know you.
The warmest leads are creators who’ve already mentioned your brand. They convert better for obvious reasons: they’ve spoken about you to their audience, that audience is already aware of you, and they tend to engage more with your content. Social listening surfaces exactly these people.
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Recent posts analyzed for one skincare brand (Sín, Iceland)
500–600
Reels detected from creators already mentioning them
27M+
Views across that creator-generated content
Then steal your competitors’ creators. List 5–10 top competitors and find every creator who has posted about their products. It’s one of the fastest ways to build a list — here’s why it works:
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The audience is pre-qualifiedThey already engage with products like yours.
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Few have a long-term contractMost competitor creators aren’t locked in — there’s room for you.
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They’re open to alternativesCreators are often willing to test a competing product.
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You learn what worksStudy which creator types and content formats perform — then copy the pattern.
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Do the homework on both your brand and competitors: how many mentions per month, which creators post most, and which content formats win. You can do this manually (Google “brand name” + mentioned + TikTok, or check who follows and engages with the brand), or layer the data automatically in ClickAnalytic.
ClickAnalytic Social Listening
Find every creator already mentioning you — and your competitors
Run social listening on any brand to see who’s posting, the exact content, the performance, and the media value. Refresh it weekly to catch new creators in your top content — then contact and track them in one click.
The move top DTC brands swear by: make creators come to you.
Instead of always hunting for creators, build a creator funnel so thousands apply to you over time. Most brands skip this — and miss a huge opportunity. It’s not hard to build, and it’s a real competitive advantage.
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Example — Wild (one of the top DTC deodorant brands). At the bottom of their site sits an “Influencer / Affiliate Program” link → a dedicated landing page explaining the benefits → a simple application form. Creators who discover the product can apply on the spot.
You can build a basic version in an afternoon:
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Add a program linkPut an affiliate / influencer program link on your site and in your social bios.
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Point it to a simple formEven a 10-minute Google Form works to start — no full landing page required.
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Ask only what qualifies themFor skincare, that might be audience, niche, and skin type — whatever you need to judge fit and ship product.
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Export applicants → import to ClickAnalyticDownload the CSV and import the list to enrich it with full stats automatically.
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Vet, contact & track in one clickCheck audience quality and fake followers, confirm fit, mass-contact, and add them to a tracking campaign.
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No program link = invisible. Interested creators browse your site, want to post about your product — but with nowhere to apply, they DM or email you and get lost in the noise. A simple form captures them.
Why It Wins
Inbound flips the leverage in your favor.
When creators come to you, you don’t have to negotiate as hard — they already want to work with you. That’s why it’s the very first thing I’d set up, before any active outreach.
For cold discovery, work from one of the largest creator databases in the world — 400M+ profiles und Über 30 Filter. The method matters: set your basic filters first, then add one power filter at a time. It’s like searching Google or prompting ChatGPT — your first query is rarely the best, so iterate.
Start with basic filters:
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StandortCreator location and audience / origin location (city level: keep one city ≤ 10%).
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Audience genderMatch it to your product — e.g. female-skewed for a female skincare line.
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FollowerPick your range — e.g. 1K–100K for nano / micro creators.
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Has email · Active · Min postsRequire a contact email, recent activity (posted in last 30 days), and a minimum post count (e.g. 50+).
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Golden rule: use ONE power filter at a time. Stacking power filters collapses your results. Run one, check the count, then narrow with basic filters. Each power filter surfaces a completely different set of creators.
The 6 power filters:
power_filters — tap to expand
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AI Topics ▾
Our AI reads each creator’s actual content and assigns topics — not hashtags or caption keywords. You can use several at once. This is the narrowest, most relevant filter.
Match an exact keyword, hashtag, or brand mention in captions. Use one at a time — it’s broader, since it catches any creator who used it even once.
Beispiel: mention @nike, or hashtag #makeup → can return thousands of profiles.
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Bio keywords ▾
Search for a keyword in the bio itself. Extremely powerful for niche profiles — and a quick way to surface a specific creator type.
Beispiel: bio keyword UGC → finds UGC creators directly.
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Audience interest · Instagram only▾
Our AI sorts content into pre-made categories, then measures how much of a creator’s audience engages with that type of content.
Beispiel: Interest = Beauty & Cosmetics at 30–40% → audiences that genuinely engage with beauty.
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Ersteller-Doppelgänger ▾
Drop in a seed creator and the AI finds similar ones — based on similar keywords and brand mentions. Sort by relevance, followers, or engagement.
Beispiel: lookalikes of Kendall Jenner → creators posting similar content and brands.
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Audience lookalikes ▾
Different from creator lookalikes: this finds creators whose Publikum resembles a seed creator’s audience — often surfacing very different profiles.
Beispiel: audience lookalikes of Kendall Jenner → e.g. the wider Kardashian family, who share an audience.
Once you’ve found a promising recipe, save it. Here’s a simple starting point:
Sample search recipe
BASISFILTER Location:UK · London (max 10% in one city) Audience gender:Female Follower:1K – 100K Has email:Ja-Active:last 30 days-Min posts:50+POWER FILTER— use ONE at a time AI Topic:skincare routine → Run it, check the count, then refine with basic filters.
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Combining filters? In some cases you can layer power filters — e.g. a UGC bio keyword plus a topic — to refine when a single filter returns too many results.
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Want the full written playbook? We put together a detailed guide covering every search strategy with examples: clickanalytic.com/find-creators-guide
ClickAnalytic Creator Search
Search 400M+ creators with Über 30 Filter — free for 14 days
Run basic and power filters, vet audiences, mass-contact, and import your inbound applicants — all in one place. About 100 free searches a day on the trial, no card needed to start.
It depends entirely on your model. Plenty of brands run on tiny budgets by gifting product; others spend thousands on paid deals. Here’s the honest breakdown:
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To start with gifting / affiliate — find creators free and just send product
$5K+
Recommended minimum for paid deals, so you can test several creators & types
~$100/mo
ClickAnalytic, to search and contact thousands of creators
With paid deals, don’t pour $1K into a single creator — you’ll only learn about one bet. Spread $5–10K across multiple creators, sizes, and types, see what performs for your brand, then double down with repeat partnerships.
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14-day free trial · ~100 searches a day. Build your first list of top creators and pull real insights before you pay anything.
FRAGEN UND ANTWORTEN
Answers from the live session
It really depends on your model. For affiliate / gifting you need no budget — find creators on the platform, contact them, and send product. For paid deals, aim for a minimum of around $5K (ideally $5–10K) so you can test multiple creators and types rather than betting everything on one. The platform itself starts at roughly $100/month.
Every influencer is a creator, but not every creator is an influencer. A creator makes content — including UGC creators who have little or no audience. An influencer is a creator mit an audience: typically 1K+ followers on a public account, big enough to actually influence them.
Select your creators and add them to a tracking campaign. Every time they mention your brand, it’s captured automatically — so you never miss a post and you can see the performance each piece of content generates.
No — there’s a 14-day free trial with about 100 searches a day. That’s enough to build your first list of top creators and gather insights. You only subscribe once you’re ready to keep going and run your program.
Start with the strategies that don’t depend on an existing audience: set up a simple gifting / affiliate funnel so creators can apply, steal your competitors’ creators, and use cold discovery to find perfect-fit profiles. Gifting needs no budget, so you can begin immediately.
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