Every brand comes into influencer marketing campaigns with different goals and different strategies. Some want to utilize as many influencers as possible. Others are hoping for a more narrowly targeted campaign. In every campaign, the importance of collaborating with the right creators is significant. There are hundreds of thousands of influencers across platforms, each with unique ways of partnering with brands and different follower counts and engagement rates. Finding the right fits for a brand partnership can appear daunting.

Many different attributes could make an influencer an ideal partner for a business. They could be personable, communicative, and have a large group of interested followers. They could also have a small following but be actively involved in the right community. Several different factors could contribute to making an influencer a good fit for you.

Let’s explore some of the attributes that make an influencer an ideal fit for brands.

Active in Targeted Communities

On all the primary platforms that utilize influencer marketing, such as YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok, there are different niches that people tend to be attracted to. Many creators have cultivated a more specific following, whether it is van life influencers known for their on-the-go lifestyle and love of the outdoors, or bodybuilding influencers, who promote mass-enhancing products.

Working with niche influencers allows brands to more narrowly tailor their promotional content. Ensuring you work with influencers that are active in targeted community can cut costs and increase return on investment. Working with active influencers in the community your brand is targeting allows you to have a more personalized outreach. According to Statista, 90% of users find personalized marketing somewhat to very appealing.

By utilizing niche influencers, you can more authentically connect with a specific targeted group. Making sure the creators you work with are active in targeted communities makes you more likely to find the right influencer fits.

On Budget

Every marketing campaign needs to maximize impact and minimize spending. Influencer marketing is no different. Since campaigns typically cast a wide net, you have to ensure that the influencers you’re working with align with your budgetary restrictions. The typical brand isn’t going to be able to pay the price for promotion from an influencer like Kylie Jenner or Addison Rae, so ensuring that the influencers you’re connecting with fit your budget is a must.

While the biggest influencers can demand hundreds of thousands of dollars for an Instagram story or static post, the typical influencer won’t run you anywhere near that price. Depending on the size of their following and their personal preferences, influencers will have varying prices. Some influencers will rely on influencer gifting for posts, meaning you can exchange products in return for marketing content.

The right fit for a brand partnership is very reliant on budgetary restrictions. Having influencers that provide the maximum amount of results for the least spend is essential, which means being very careful when creating your budget and selecting your targeted influencers. Always make sure that the influencers you are partnering with align with the overall budgetary goals of your campaign.

Highly Engaged Following

There are many different metrics people look at when trying to decide which influencers to partner with. Typically, they’ll look at follower count and base their decision on that number. And while influencers with high follower counts do have a broad reach, one indicator is much more valuable when evaluating an influencer, and that is their engagement. Most social media experts consider engagement to be one of the best ways of analyzing an influencer’s impact within their following.

Engagement rate is a metric that tracks the amount of interaction social content earns relative to audience figures. What it shows goes beyond follower count and other vanity metrics; it shows how many of the people that follow the influencer consistently interact with them. This is an important metric because it can illustrate an influencer’s real value to a brand.

An influencer with a smaller to mid-sized following with a high engagement rate is an extremely valuable asset. Engagement shows whether the influencers can generate conversation and interactions with their following, which is what brands are seeking when they market with influencers.

When partnering with an influencer, checking to ensure they have a highly engaged following goes a long way. Influencers with high follower counts and low engagement rates can demand more payment even if they have less value, so when trying to find the right influencer partnership, make certain their audience responds to their posts.