Click Analytic

The 5-Step Creator Search Guide

How to find the best creators in a few minutes

Finding the right creators is the hardest part of influencer marketing — and your biggest edge over competitors. Here's exactly how to search like an expert on Click Analytic.

400M+creator profiles
3platforms: IG, TikTok, YouTube
1K+followers, public accounts

Before you start — 4 things to know about the search tool

Each search shows how many profiles matched, unlocking 10 at a time — and the last columns are customisable.
Each search shows how many profiles matched, unlocking 10 at a time — and the last columns are customisable.
Customise the data columns on each creator.
Save any creator to a list to contact, track or pay them later.
The system at a glance

5 steps to your perfect creator shortlist

Most marketers dump keywords into a search bar and hope. Experts follow a system. Here's the whole thing in 5 moves — we'll break down each one below.

1

Define your objective

Decide who you want and why — it sets every filter that follows.

2

Add 2–3 critical filters

Start broad with the essentials. Don't pile on — you'll miss great profiles.

3

Layer one "power filter"

The expert move — niche, bio keyword, topics or "talks about" to pinpoint creators.

4

Find lookalikes

Found a winner? Let the AI surface dozens more just like them.

5

Save to a list

Build your shortlist — then analyze, export, contact or pay them in one place.

1

Define your objective

Know who you're looking for before you search

The creators you want decide the filters you use. Start by answering two questions:

What kind of creator? Influencers, UGC creators, or affiliates — and for what campaign? If you want UGC, performance metrics like views and engagement rate don't matter; content and aesthetic do.

Which platform? Filters differ per platform. Engagement rate matters on Instagram, but on TikTok and YouTube, views are king.

Quick win: Write your objective down first. It makes choosing the right filters far easier.
2

Add your 2–3 critical filters first

Start broad, then refine

Lesson #1: don't pile on filters. Too many at once and you'll miss great profiles. Add a few, see how many results come back, then refine. The platform tells you if your search is too broad, too niche, or just right.

The most useful starting filters:

Creator location Audience location city ≤10% · country ≤70% Follower size Engagement rate 2–3% to start Avg. views / reel views Posted in last 30 days Total posts 50+ Language
Don't go too narrow. A range like 10K–25K followers can leave you with too few results once other filters stack on top.

Run the search now to see how many profiles are available — that tells you how many more filters you can afford to add. Once you've done Step 3, you can layer in extras like audience gender, age groups, "has an email", or follower growth (great for spotting trending creators).

Click tells you whether your search is too broad, too niche, or just right.
Click tells you whether your search is too broad, too niche, or just right.
Rule of thumb: never run 10–20 filters at once. It quietly kills your results.
3

Layer one "power filter" to find creators by niche

The expert move — use these one at a time

Looking for something specific — say, mothers who post about skincare? These are the filters that surface niche creators. ⚠️ Use one at a time to start

Niche & Interests INSTAGRAM

Our AI reads captions, photos and videos to detect categories. Audience interests = what the audience engages with; creator niche = what the creator posts about.

Audience interest start at 30–40%Too many results? raise to 50–70%

You can select multiple interests at once.

Set audience interest between 30–40% to start.
Set audience interest between 30–40% to start.

Bio keywords

One of the most powerful filters — find any creator worldwide by a word in their bio. Perfect for niche searches (many UGC creators literally write "UGC" in their bio).

Find any creator worldwide by a keyword in their bio.
Find any creator worldwide by a keyword in their bio.
Pro tip: one bio keyword at a time, or it gets too narrow. Found a great creator? Check the keywords in their bio to find similar ones.

Topics

Our AI scans pictures, videos and captions to tag the topics across an account — not just keywords used, but themes it actually detects. Each creator gets several topics.

AI-detected topics across each account.
AI-detected topics across each account.
Pro tip: select multiple topics to include any creator matching any of them. Results auto-sort by "Relevance" (the profiles our AI rates best) — you can switch to Followers or other sorts anytime.
Results auto-sort by Relevance — switch anytime.
Results auto-sort by Relevance — switch anytime.

Talks About

Find creators by what appears in their captions. Pick one of each type:

Keyword caption text Hashtag Mention e.g. @nike
Keywords — words used in captions.
Keywords — words used in captions.
Hashtags used in content.
Hashtags used in content.
Mentions — e.g. @nike — to find brand collaborators.
Mentions — e.g. @nike — to find brand collaborators.

For mentions, use the exact brand handle — or try the brand name as a plain keyword, since creators don't always tag. (Stories aren't covered.)

How it combines: "Talks About" is an AND condition — if you use all three, a creator must match all three to appear.
You can select one of each type — one keyword, one hashtag, one mention.
You can select one of each type — one keyword, one hashtag, one mention.

Superfans — creators who already know your brand

The best creators are the ones who already like you — they'll engage authentically and are easier to negotiate gifting deals with. Three ways to find them:

→ Use a brand mention or keyword in "Talks About" to find creators who posted about you before.

Use "Talks About" mentions to find creators who posted about your brand.

Analyze your own account: go to Search → Analyze & Compare and enter your handle. You'll see top influencers among your followers and your likers (switch to "Likers Metrics" for the latter).

Go to Search → Analyze & Compare and enter your handle.
Go to Search → Analyze & Compare and enter your handle.
See top influencers among your followers and likers.
See top influencers among your followers and likers.

Do the same for competitors to find creators already engaged with similar products.

⚠️ You need ~5K–10K followers for this to surface relevant profiles.

Find similar creators (lookalikes)

A power filter of its own — use it with basic filters only, no niche filters. Found one perfect creator? Let the AI find more like them.

Creator Lookalikes · similar content, keywords, topics Audience Lookalikes · similar audiences
Creator Lookalikes — similar content, keywords, topics.
Creator Lookalikes — similar content, keywords, topics.
Audience Lookalikes — creators with similar audiences.
Audience Lookalikes — creators with similar audiences.
Don't use both at once. Not every creator has lookalikes available, so try a few different ones.

Putting it together

Do Step 2 and Step 3 first, then layer extras. A strong first search often looks like this:

Audience location US 60% Followers 20K–150K Eng. rate 2%+ Posted last 30 days + one power filter bio keyword "skincare"
Bonus

Social Listening

More on it here → Track every brand mention

Want help finding your creators?

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