How to Find Influencers: 5 Channels Compared for Your Brand

How to find influencers comes down to five channels: marketplaces, agencies, native platform search, hashtag browsing with DMs, and your own customers' posts. Most brands need two, chosen by budget, niche and weekly hours.

You get a table of the five channels, a rule for choosing by budget and weekly hours, a step list from brief to booking and the rules that apply whichever channel you use.

Five ways to find influencers for your brand (the hours are rough editorial estimates, not benchmarks)

Most brands end up combining two: a marketplace for filters and listed prices, plus native search or customer posts to catch creators the marketplace does not list. Agencies and cold DMs sit at the two extremes, spending money to save time or time to save money.

To try the marketplace channel first, find influencers on Collabios by platform, niche and country, or search creators by price and follower count. Profiles show public per-service prices, so you can compare options before you create an account.

Start with the channel that matches your budget and the hours you can spend each week; the table below is an editorial rule of thumb, not campaign data.

If you land in the small-budget row, filter Collabios creators by price range and platform and keep the ones whose listed packages fit your budget. Once you know your channel, the guide to hiring influencers covers the hiring side.

An influencer marketplace, also called a creator marketplace, lets a brand search creators and book them directly; software and agencies solve different jobs, so compare by the job you need done. The creator marketplace guide sets out the model.

The table uses each company's own description, read on 28 October 2026. It prints no vendor prices: the influencer search tools guide has published prices, and the influencer database guide explains what a database subscription buys.

When Collabios is not the right option. Collabios is not the right fit if you need audience analytics on any public account (a database such as Modash is built for that), outreach automation across many creators (Upfluence-style software), or an agency to run the campaign for you. It also lists only creators who have signed up, so a creator you already know may not be there yet.

For a side-by-side view, read Collabios vs Modash, Collabios vs Upfluence and Collabios vs Collabstr.

If self-serve booking at listed prices fits how you work, create a free brand account on Collabios and send your first booking request.

Search your niche keywords and hashtags on each platform, open the accounts that appear repeatedly, and write down every creator whose content fits your product in one sheet.

1. Search the words your customers use, not your brand name, and note who shows up for them on each platform.
2. Open the tagged posts of two or three competitors and list the creators who appear there.
3. Look at who comments on and shares content in your niche, since active small accounts often sit there.
4. Record handle, platform, country, niche and the last three sponsored posts for each candidate.

Free search gives you public numbers only: follower counts and visible engagement are on the profile, while the audience's country and age usually are not unless the creator shares them. Dedicated influencer discovery tools add that layer for a fee, and the influencer search tools guide compares them. Each platform also publishes help pages on its brand-side creator tools, and availability differs by country, so check them for yours.

Once you have the longlist, search the same niche and country on Collabios to see which creators already list a price for Instagram, TikTok, YouTube or UGC.

They work slowly: hashtag browsing finds small and local creators no marketplace lists, but every reply costs time and none is guaranteed.

A cold DM is easier to answer when it names a specific recent post, states the deliverable and the budget up front, and asks one question. If the creator lists an email in the bio, send the same message there. The outreach email templates guide has wording to adapt, and the multi-platform outreach guide covers the sequence across Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. A free product counts as a connection that must be disclosed, so it needs the same label as a paid post (see the rules table below).

If cold DMs cost more hours than your budget allows, book a listed package from a creator on Collabios and start from a price instead of a pitch. Messaging before booking is not available yet: the creator has 72 hours to accept, and you get a full refund if they decline or do not answer.

Once a quarter, pull the posts that tag your brand or use your brand hashtag and list the people who post regularly in a style that fits you.

Thank them first, then send a paid brief a week or so later. A customer already knows the product, which makes the brief easier to write and the content easier to believe. The catch is that the channel only exists once customers post about you, so a pre-launch brand has nothing to mine yet.

To find influencers in the UK, use the same five channels with the country filter on: UK location tags and hashtags on Instagram and TikTok, and the country filter on a marketplace or database. The UK adds one thing the other channels do not: the ASA's labelling rules.

One honest limit: Collabios lists creators based in Europe, and its UK supply is small today, so use the country filter to see who is listed before you plan a UK-only campaign. Cards are charged in euros at checkout. For creators across the rest of Europe, filter Collabios by country and platform and read the UK agency comparison if you want a managed route instead.

Check each creator yourself, brief them in writing, then book. The table maps the path from brief to booking and what each step looks like on Collabios.

For step 3, the guide to checking influencers before you hire lists what to look at, and the influencer casting guide helps you pick among finalists.

When the shortlist is checked, open a creator's profile on Collabios and book the package that matches your brief.

The same disclosure rules apply whether you found the creator on a marketplace, through an agency or in a DM, and in several countries the brand carries part of the responsibility.

The European Commission and national authorities reviewed 576 influencers in a sweep published on 14 February 2024 and found that only 20% systematically disclosed their posts as advertising (IP/24/708), so check each creator's disclosure history before you book.

This is general information, not legal advice. On Collabios you write that wording into the order brief when you book a package or send a custom offer; Collabios does not apply or check labels for you.

Brands find creators through the same five channels. In marketplace search the filters decide who is shown, so a clear niche, a country, the platforms you work on and a listed price all help. On Instagram and TikTok, a niche-specific bio and a steady posting history help the brands that browse hashtags.

List your services on Collabios so brands that filter by niche, country and price can see your packages.

Pick one channel and give it a week of work before you judge it. If you chose the marketplace route, find influencers on Collabios now, or create a free brand account to send your first booking request, and follow the hire influencers guide from shortlist to approved delivery. If you are a creator, create your profile so the brands reading this guide can find you.