Influencer marketing gets dismissed as unmeasurable, usually by people who picked partners on reach alone and got what that buys. The diligence isn't complicated. It's just rarely done.
Comments over likes
Likes are cheap and easily bought. Comments are much harder to fake convincingly. Open their last ten posts and read them.
- Are people responding to the specific content, or posting generic praise and emoji?
- Does the creator reply? A creator in their own comments has a real relationship with an audience.
- Any recurring names? Repeat commenters mean genuine community.
- Do the accounts commenting look like your customers, or like bots?
| Nano, 1k to 10k | 3.86% |
|---|---|
| Micro, 10k to 100k | 2.60% |
| Macro, 100k to 1m | 1.70% |
| Mega, 1m+ | 1.21% |
Archive.com micro influencer benchmarks, 2026. Nano creators post 219% higher engagement than mega accounts, and typically cost a fraction as much.
A creator with 8,000 followers who reply by name will outsell one with 300,000 who scroll past.
The audience has to overlap with yours
Ask for the audience breakdown, every serious creator has it. Check the top geographies first. A fitness creator with a great engagement rate is worthless to a Calgary only service business if 70% of their audience is in Manila.
Then check age and gender against your actual buyers, not your aspirational ones.
Look at their last three paid posts
This is the highest signal twenty minutes you'll spend. Find their sponsored content and compare it to their organic.
- Did engagement collapse on the sponsored posts? Their audience resents ads.
- Did they disclose properly? Sloppy disclosure is a regulatory problem you inherit.
- Was the integration natural or read off a script?
- How many brands in your category have they promoted this year? Serial promoters convert badly.
Red flags worth walking away over
- Follower spikes on a graph with no viral post to explain them
- Engagement rate under 1% on a mid size account
- No media kit and reluctance to share screenshots
- Rate quoted per post with no discussion of usage rights or exclusivity
Measure it like a channel
Unique discount code per creator, dedicated landing page, and a survey question at checkout asking how they heard about you. Between those three you'll get within a reasonable margin of the truth, which is all any channel gives you.