How to Find Similar Influencers in 2023

Anyone who ever tried to look for influencers to advertise with knows that it’s not as easy as it might seem. After all, the supply is massive and there’s a risk of feeling like you are in over your head. And it doesn’t get easier even after you find the perfect candidates. What if influencers you worked with before are unavailable or unsuitable for your changing marketing goals? In this case, you may need to find similar bloggers that match your goals perfectly.

But there’s no need to be discouraged. Whenever influencer marketing poses a challenge, you can be sure there is a number of solutions out there to help you out. After all, there’s a good reason why over 70% of companies include influencer marketing in their budgets.

Let’s talk about how you can find influencers similar to those you worked with before or seen on the platform.

Why do you need to find similar bloggers?

Your business grows and your marketing objectives change. Instagram’s influencer marketing scene is ever-changing and evolving too, just like the platform itself. This means that the bloggers you partnered with before might not be as great for your marketing campaigns tomorrow. Or you simply need a bigger list to choose from.

In fact, there are multiple reasons why you might need to look for Instagrammers with similar audiences:

1. You need to find more niche influencers.

Let’s say you own a local business that offers a specific product and service. In this case, you might want to look for bloggers who work in a narrow niche and in a specific location.

2. You’d like to have a look at your competitors.

Monitoring your competition and learning from their mistakes and accomplishments is often one of the keys to successful business growth. By looking for similar bloggers, you can see what brands they’ve been partnering with.

3. You want to research your target audience.

Knowing your target audience as well as possible is another thing that helps you grow – and ensures the success of your marketing campaign.

How can you find similar bloggers?

On Instagram

1. By using the Suggested feature

In case you want to look for bloggers similar to those you are already following, you can use Instagram’s Suggested feature to do so.

The platform offers a number of profiles based on your previous activity on the platform including likes, comments, views, and search history.

The downside of this method is it’s not the most accurate. Besides, the number of profiles suggested by Instagram isn’t that big.

2. By using hashtags

You can look for similar bloggers inside your niche by using keywords referring to that niche or anything that has something to do with it. Here’s a small tip: use characteristics rather than generalized words. For example, look for “nutritionist” instead of “nutrition”. This will ensure better-targeted search results.

3. By location

In case you are looking for similar bloggers in a certain area, try to search for them by locations tagged by influencers you already worked with.

4. By looking among their followers

Let’s say you have a list of bloggers you’ve already interacted with in this way or another. If you want to find more influencers like them, the most straightforward method would be to look at their followers. This might take quite a while but chances are they have bloggers who work in the same niche and have similar audiences.

5. By looking for bloggers your competitors work with

This method is a bit sneaky but no less effective. It’s likely that your direct competitors work with niche influencers that can work just as well for you. All you have to do is go to your competitor’s profile, note the influencers they tag or share, and contact them (influencers, of course).

On trendHERO

While a manual search on Instagram can prove to be more or less effective, there’s no denying it takes a great deal of time. It might not be such a major issue if all you are looking for is just a couple of similar influencers for a small-scale marketing campaign. But what if your business is expanding and you need a list of dozens or even hundreds of bloggers to choose from? This might take weeks.

Fortunately, you can save yourself a lot of time with trendHERO and its “Top Similar Accounts” feature. If you ever used the service to get Instagram profile analytics, you might have noticed this option:

This feature is available for Pro and Advanced subscription plans.

How does it work?

Let’s say you’ve found an influencer, you’ve analyzed their profile and you are quite satisfied with what you see. However, you could use having more influencer like this as a reserve, an alternative, or additional actors in your marketing campaign. You go to this influencer’s profile report, click on the button you can see on the screencap above, and get a list of similar accounts. This list will include up to 300 Instagrammers.

But if you’re looking for a account in a specific niche, you probably understand that it’s not only thor content that matters. It’s also about their audience. The “Top Similar Account” feature doesn’t just offer a list of multiple similar influencers. It also gives you a bigger picture. This is how you can make sure that the followers of those bloggers you work with are really interested in your niche.

For example, there is a healthy food influencer and you want to find more like them. You would expect that the list you’ll get will consist of users interested in healthy eating. If that’s not the case, it’s safe to suggest your blogger’s audience isn’t really interested in what they have to say.

The service collects relevant information on an IG influencer’s audience and checks who they follow. This is especially advantageous for marketers that want to find influencers from unexplored niches.

The selection happens based on 2 factors:

• the number of users that follow influencers from a similar niche;
• the ratio between the number of users that follow a similar influencer and that influencer’s follower count.

trendHERO offers filters that allow sorting the search results by follower count, engagement rate, and the two above-mentioned factors. It’s worth noting that taking into account the ratio ensures that you can get both bloggers with large audiences and micro-influencers.

Or you don’t even need ‘the first’ influencer.

Start with similar accounts for your brand account. In this way you’ll explore:

• your audience favourite influencers,
• your niche competitors,
• brands to collaborate,
•  your followers’ interests.

We recommend to start any Instagram audit with similar accounts report.

How to narrow down your search results

As was mentioned earlier, trendHERO already offers the option to improve your search efficiency by sorting the results based on multiple factors. However, you can narrow them down even more for improved accuracy. Here’s how you can do that:

1. In case you need to find influencers from a certain place, remove the results that don’t match your desired location.
2. Remove all selected profiles with an engagement rate (ER) of less than 1%.
3. Use the Ad Posts search to see what kind of sponsored content they post. You might not want to partner up with influencers that are currently working with your direct competitors. Besides, you might not want to get involved with those bloggers who publish sponsored posts too often.
4. Make sure that their target audience is similar to yours.

More things to consider

So after all of the above is done, you’ve got a list of similar bloggers on your hand. Is that all? Not quite. Once you prepare a list of eligible influencers, there are a few more things to take into account:

• analyze their content quality. What kind of content (both photos and videos) do they publish? How do they interact with their audience? How does it affect your brand mission and values?
• monitor their growth using the Tracking feature. Any abrupt spikes in audience growth might mean they use inauthentic methods of boosting their presence on the platform
• look at the number and quality of comments. What do their followers say in the comment section and how? Are there a lot of spam comments? Are there any negative comments?
• pay attention to video and Story views. It’s one of the easiest ways to see the true level of their audience engagement
• and last but not least: run full profile analytics on trendHERO for every blogger you find suitable.

Conclusion

Needless to say, the choice of method is completely up to you. You can use the manual methods without leaving the platform. You can use the easier and faster option trendHERO offers. Or you can use them both combined for even better results.

That being said, trendHERO makes your life much easier by offering a great tool that both time-saving and extremely efficient. For any marketer who values their time, it’s truly a lifesaver.