12 Best Instagram Influencer Search Tools to Use in 2023 (Updated)

While influencer marketing is still on the rise and hugely popular, there is a darker side to the industry. A recent report by HypeAuditor showed that over 40% of followers on Instagram are fake accounts and over 33% of influencers have inauthentic activity on their profiles.

This means that a massive number of influencers prefer buying fake followers, views, and comments. In view of these statistics, powerful influencer search tools have become more valuable than ever. After all, apart from helping you find content creators with authentic followings they also sift out frauds.

What are influencer search tools?

Influencer search tools are search engines with multiple filters that allow looking for content creators based on criteria like follower count, location, niche, various keywords, etc. They are usually software integrated into influencer marketing platforms and marketplaces.

Basically, you can choose filters due to your needs and get a list of influencers for your campaigns:

There is no denying that software like this makes a marketer’s life much easier. What a manual search can do in a week, a good influencer search tool can do within minutes. This is not to say it’s a perfect solution. Some errors and inaccuracies here and here are possible. However, it still saves a great deal of time and often your hard-earned money.

What are influencer search tools used for

Here are five key reasons why every marketer should use influencer search tools:

1. Time efficiency: Manually searching for influencers can be a tedious and time-consuming process. Influencer search tools streamline the process by providing databases and search functionalities that help you quickly identify potential influencers based on your target audience, niche, or specific criteria.
2. Data-driven decision-making: These tools offer valuable insights and analytics about each influencer, such as engagement rates, audience demographics, and past brand collaborations. This data allows you to make informed decisions about which influencers are the best fit for your brand, ensuring that your marketing budget is spent wisely.
3. Scalability: As your marketing strategy grows, you may want to expand your influencer partnerships. Influencer search tools make it easy to identify new influencers in various niches or with different audience sizes, helping you scale your campaigns without wasting time on manual research. List management is useful, too.
4. Tracking and reporting: With influencer search tools, you can easily monitor the progress of your influencer campaigns. Most platforms offer tracking and reporting features that help you measure the effectiveness of your collaborations, allowing you to optimize your strategy and maximize your return on investment (ROI).
5. Networking opportunities: Influencer search tools not only help you find influencers but also connect with them. This enables you to build lasting relationships with industry leaders, increasing the likelihood of future collaborations and further expanding your brand’s reach.

In conclusion, influencer search tools are an indispensable asset for marketers. They save time, provide valuable data for decision-making, enable scalability, offer tracking and reporting features, and facilitate networking opportunities. By utilizing these tools, you can maximize the potential of your influencer marketing campaigns and drive better results for your brand.

TOP 12 Instagram influencer search tools to use in 2023

1. trendHERO

trendHERO is basically all you need for Instagram analytics in one place.

Here, you can find any IG account unless it’s hidden from public view, thoroughly analyze it, and track its performance or outreach. But to get those analytics, you must first find suitable profiles, right? trendHERO’s got you covered. The service offers a few ways of searching for influencers. There’s a powerful search engine, an option to discover Top creators similar to the ones you already know, and a sponsored content search.

Search tool features

trendHERO’s Discovery tool offers a sophisticated search engine with 16 filters + 3 premium filters to search influencers by audience. You can search for influencers and content creators based on niche, location, language, gender, follower/following count, number of posts and engagements, engagement rate, growth, and other criteria.

You can export search results to a list of influencers, to Excel. Or you can create an offer and outreach these influencers.

Supported social media platforms

Instagram

Pricing

You can sign up and use the service for free with limited features at your disposal. Otherwise, there are 3 tariff plans to choose from, price starting from $15.99.

2. Creator.co

Creator.co is an influencer marketing platform with an impressive database of half a billion content creators you can choose from. To make your search as efficient as possible, the service offers its Creator Search tool. It allows you to search for influencers based on their profile data or on their audience criteria, which is extremely convenient for marketers who want to make sure they will reach their target audience. What’s interesting about the service is that it offers the first three creator profiles in the search results for free. All you have to do is click “Analyze” and see their profile stats.

Search tool features

Creator search filters include creator gender, age, language, location, follower count, account type, ER & number of engagements, interests, bio keywords, and others. Audience search filters include follower gender, age, language, location, ethnicity, interests, and others.

Supported social media platforms

Instagram, YouTube, TikTok.

Pricing

Brands and marketers can sign up for a basic subscription plan for $395/month or upgrade to a more advanced tariff for $995/month. Creators can join the Creator.co community for free.

3. HypeAuditor

HypeAuditor is another influencer marketing analytics service that puts a special focus on the authenticity of their influencer base. This base currently includes over 20 million profiles across multiple platforms. The service’s Discovery tool offers an advanced search engine that allows searching for social media profiles based on influencer data, audience details, or profile quality and engagement.

Search tool features

Influencer search includes criteria like creator age and gender, location, language, and category. Audience search includes audience age and gender, location (country & city), interests, and audience size. Quality & engagement search offers filters such as ER, growth rate, audience quality score, and brand mentions.

Supported social media platforms

Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok.

Pricing

You can use the service free of charge with limited features, which is especially convenient for those who are new to it and want to explore the possibilities. Once you decide you are ready to subscribe for more, you have an option to choose a basic subscription for $399/month. If you still want to get more from the service, you can purchase add-ons to the Basic plan or get an Enterprise subscription. View the list of add-ons or contact the HypeAuditor sales department to learn how much the upgrades will cost.

4. BuzzStream

BuzzStream started as a powerful link-building service but has recently expanded its features to cater to your influencer marketing needs. These features include an influencer search and analytics tool. The influencer search tool doesn’t have multiple filters like those you can see on many specialized influencer marketing platforms. Instead, you can search by online content keywords. Once you get the search results, you can view the creators’ profiles, statistics, and contact details.

Search tool features

BuzzStream offers a simple search engine tool called BuzzStream Discovery that allows searching for bloggers and influencers based on keywords related to your niche.

Supported social media platforms

BuzzStream is primarily focused on standalone blogs. However, it often includes information on bloggers’ social media profiles.

Pricing

BuzzSTream offers a 14-day free trial period, after which you’ll have to choose one of the four available monthly subscription plans ranging from $24 to $999.

5. PitchBox

PitchBox is an outreach and influencer marketing service that, just like BuzzStream, focused on standalone blogs rather than social media. And just like BuzzStream, it offers a rather simple discovery tool that allows searching for bloggers by relevant keywords. Once you get your search results, you can filter them using integrated SEO software and send them emails and follow-ups.

Search tool features

A simple search tool by relevant keywords.

Supported social media platforms

PitchBox is about standalone blogs but blogger reports usually include information about social media profiles including Instagram.

Pricing

There’s no exact information on pricing but PitchBox allows exploring the options and possibilities by requesting a service demo.

6. Upfluence

Upfluence is a 360-degree influencer marketing platform that offers pretty much everything a business may need in terms of influencer outreach and marketing campaign management. Apart from a standard discovery tool, the platform allows searching for potential brand ambassadors among your followers and finding creators similar to those you’ve already worked with.

Search tool features

Search filters include criteria like follower count, language, location, engagement rate, audience demographics, and others. You can also use relevant keywords.

Supported social media platforms

All major social media platforms including Instagram and standalone blogs.

Pricing

There are three subscription plans with an unidentified price. To learn more, you have to contact the Upfluence team.

7. Heepsy

Heepsy is a service specifically tailored for influencer search and outreach. There is a database of over 11 million content creators across three major social media platforms with at least 5, 000 followers/subscribers. Heepsy’s sophisticated software uses advanced filters for precise search results. Once your influencer lists are ready, you can easily export them to your device.

Search tool features

Search influencers by relevant keywords, follower count, ER, language, location, and audience details.

Supported social media platforms

Instagram, YouTube, TikTok.

Pricing

You can try the service for free with limited search results. Once you feel like you want to explore more, subscribe for one of the three plans, $49, $169, and $269 each.

8. Post for Rent

Post for Rent is another comprehensive influencer marketing tool that takes care of every aspect of the matter for you. And as such, it features a powerful search software that allows brands to find influencers locally or worldwide based on advanced search criteria. The search results include creators’ main statistics and an option to add them to your lists.

Search tool features

You can search for influencers by social media platform, location, reach, age, gender, category, and hashtags they used in their content.

Supported social media platforms

Instagram and all major platforms including Snapchat and standalone blogs.

Pricing

If an influencer search tool is all you need, you can use it separately by paying $5 per search. If you are interested in additional features, sign up for a Campaign Manager plan with customizable paid options or for a Manages service plan. To learn how much the latter will cost, contact the service’s support team.

9. Keyhole

Keyhole offers a number of solutions for content creator discovery, analytics, and tracking. It’s extremely easy and fast to use, thanks largely to the fact that the platform’s search tool doesn’t offer sophisticated filters. All you have to do is type keywords related to your niche in the search bar and view the profiles includes in the search results. The profile previews show influencers’ follower count, posting frequency, and an average number of engagements.

Search tool features

Search by social media platform and keywords.

Supported social media platforms

Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube.

Pricing

Keyhole offers a free trial and three subscription plans: Standard (starting from $79 per month), Team (starting from $179 per month), or Enterprise (with custom pricing). Yearly payments are available.

10. Klear

Klear is an influencer marketing platform that helps to connect brands with influencers in the most effective way possible. It allows searching for content creators in the service’s vast database with dozens of niches and multiple social media platforms.

Search tool features

Search for content creators based on platform, niche, location, creator type, age, audience demographics, mentions, and many more.

Supported social media platforms

Instagram, YouTube, TikTok.

Pricing

You can use Klear absolutely free of charge, in case the limited number of features work fine for you. But if you want to explore the full set of solutions Klear has to offer, you can order a service demo to determine your budget.

11. Grin

Grin is an online tool designed to help eCommerce businesses create better relationships with their customers. It also provides a wide range of influencers marketing services for brands wishing work with them across a variety of social media platforms, including Instagram. There are integrations with Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento, and other eCommerce software like. This helps to generate coupons and track sales while creating influencer marketing campaigns.

Search tool features

Grin has a variety of filters to search for  influencers: platform, category, location, type, age, audience demographics, mentions, and many more. You can also use influencing customers search to find influencers among your followers and clients.

Supported social media platforms

Facebook, TikTok, Twitter, Twitch, and YouTube

Pricing

Get a platform demo to determine your budget. They don’t show the pricing on their site, so you need to connect with representatives to set your own pricing model. It depends on your company size, niche, solutions you need, etc.

12. Traackr

Traackr is a well-known influencer marketing and relationship management platform. It provides an advanced search engine to help you find influencers based on your target audience, industry, and other criteria. Additionally, it offers influencer analytics, campaign management, and relationship tracking features.

Search tool features

• By content: mentions of your brand, competitors, relevant topics, and trending hashtags.
• By attributes: job title, gender, location, language, social media platform, follower count, and engagement rate.
• By Audience Filters: audience demographics such as gender, age, family status, interests, brand preferences, location, occupation, and income level.

Supported social media platforms

Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, and Tik-tok

Pricing

Get a platform demo to get an offer. The cost will vary based on factors such as your company’s size, niche, required solutions, and other considerations. The pricing information is not displayed on their website; therefore, it’s necessary to get in touch with their representatives to determine a customized pricing model.

How to choose the most suitable Instagram influencer search tool for your brand

When it comes to Instagram influencer search tools, suitability is a rather relative notion. It depends on your brand, its size, and many contextual factors like current marketing campaign goals and Instagram trends.

That being said, there are a few criteria you might keep in mind when searching for a suitable tool.

1. Pricing

Price is always important, whether you are a small brand owner or a marketer working for a major company. If all you want is to find local micro-influencers for a small personal brand marketing campaign, you’d hardly want to break the bank in order to get access to a creator search tool.

2. Advanced/simple search filters

When you look for the right content creators in a massive database, you’d want to use granular filters to make sure you find exactly what you need to save a great deal of time. On the other hand, not everyone needs sophisticated influencer search software. For some of us, just a few basic filters or a simple keyword search is quite enough.

3. Database

When you want to find creators to drive your marketing campaign, you want to make sure that there is a decent database to choose from. More importantly, you also need to make sure that this database is comprised of real people with authentic profiles.

4. User-friendliness

Creator search software must be a) powerful and b) easy to use. Basically, it should be a complex solution made simple.

Marketing tips how to search for influencers using tools

1. Start with a global search and then go deeply. For example, start with a country and language. Then add a category, ER, size, number of comments, etc. One by one. In this way you’ll explore the niche and all opportunities.
2. Search for micro and nano influencers. Search tools are perfect for this type of task.
3. Keywords are magic. Use them to create really precise search queries.
4. Always use the ‘Similar accounts’ feature. It’s really a two-click solution for influencer search.

Marketing tips how to find influencers

So, there are some free of charge ways of searching for influencers and those you need to pay for. Let’s explore more and figure out how to finally find this desirable needle in a haystack.

• Start the search with hashtags.
  This method performs well but can take some time. You will be able to discover influencers that are talking about products or services similar to yours. Appraise the publications that come up in the results, and choose those made in the most professional way, and look appealing.
• Examine the followings of influencers.
  They usually form such a “social club” to share insights and create content together. So, check followings to find similar influencers and double your search results.
• Monitor your competitors.
  It’s always a good idea to see what your competitors are doing and with whom they’re collaborating. It’s not necessary to win these influencers over but you’ll better understand the direction of your future steps. Look at as leading companies in your niche and the smallest ones.
  Also, pay attention to the posts where your competitors have been tagged in. Just for inspiration and knowledge. Not for a copy, of course.
• Check followers of your profile.
  Sometimes we do not need to go far to find influencers. There may be creators that follow your brand’s Instagram account and are interested in collaboration. Once you have found someone, it might be a match! But never be tempted by how many followers the influencer has. Always ask for Insights creenshots and check if the audience is really engaged.
• Use the advanced search on Google.
  This technique may sound a little old-fashioned, but it still deserves to be mentioned. If you use Advanced Search Queries, you will get more targeted results, editing your queries and adding location and date filters.
  • Go to Google Search Settings and set up Region Settings based on your location or targeting.
  • Then go to Google search and start typing in the advanced search query format: Your niche keyword (Health) + Your target location (New York) + site:instagram.com.
    You will get lots of results connected with your niche. They can be not only influencers, but different brands that can also give you useful information.

• Do not put free marketing tools aside to find influencers.
  As the demand for social media celebrities increases and so does their number, there are many quality search tools. For example, trendHERO has the pricing plan called Free.

Conclusion

In times when there are too many influencers and too little authenticity, finding the right creator to collaborate with might be difficult.

The above-mentioned services offer a great solution to this problem. After all, they offer not only the search software itself but also multiple ways to analyze the profiles that pop up in your search results.