How to Find TikTok Influencers

There’s no doubt: TikTok is the king of social media networks, and its throne remains untouched in 2024, too.

In three years of navigating TikTok influencer marketing, we’ve watched it grow from a rising platform to the powerhouse it is today. 

It’s no longer about viral trends and challenges but it’s an ecosystem where brands can connect with a global audience. Although everybody focused on the fact that Gen Z is obsessed with TikTok, the truth is that even 40% of millennials are using TikTok to discover new things.

This means your business has to be on TikTok! 

You can do so by creating a business profile and posting engaging content or you can find TikTok influencers that will spread the word about you. In the end, you can do both and get the most out of TikTok influencer marketing. 

TikTok has 732M monthly active users, and more than 50% are creating content, so, finding TikTok influencers that can successfully promote your brand or services is tough. 

Although TikTok has ever-changing dynamics, after helping 1k companies partner with ideal creators across all social media platforms, including TikTok, we’ve found out what works and what doesn’t. 

Let’s dive in through everything brands should know about finding TikTok influencers while maximizing the potential of influencer marketing at scale.

What are the main types of TikTok influencers?

We will cover the 3 types of TikTok influencers you should have in mind:

1. Micro influencers

• Specialize in a particular niche;
• Have 50.000 – 150.000 followers on TikTok.

2. Macro influencers

• Represent the leaders of their specific niche or genre.
• Have 750.000 – 2.500.000 followers on TikTok.

3. Celebrity Influencers

• A traditional celebrity (not an online celebrity anymore) who gained fame and status through their online presence;
• Have 2.500.000+ followers on TikTok.

4 free ways to find TikTok Influencers

To get the most out of TikTok, it’s a good idea to find TikTok influencers that will align with your brand image. That way, you can build a loyal and engaged following. 

If you are looking for a free strategy to find TikTokers, you will need to do the analysis and decide whether a certain influencer is suitable for your brand or not. 

 Here are some tips to keep in mind:

• The influencer’s content and follower count should align with your brand.
• Your target audience should already engage with and trust them.
• Their video content should receive high engagement.
• If they are active on platforms outside of TikTok it’s a plus.

Now that you know what types of influencers you’re looking for, here are four easy and completely free ways to find influencers on TikTok.

1. Identify influencers via the Discover page

Go to the main discovery page on TikTok and enter specific keywords or industry trends to find influencers that may be the right fit for your brand.

You can search by hashtags or keywords. For example, if you need marketing experts to promote your new tool, write “marketing tips” or something more specific like “social media marketing”.

Once some influencer coughs your mind, open their profile and analyze their content, go through comments to see if the creator is engaging with the audience, find them on other platforms, etc.

2. Conduct a Google Search

You can also hop over to Google search and write your industry or niche and add “TikTok influencer” at the end.

You will find articles featuring some of the currently best TikTok influencers but also results from the TikTok discovery page. 

With this approach, you will usually find only famous TikTok influencers. If you are looking to find micro-influencers, you need to add the word “micro”. 

After that, the process is the same as when searching for TikTokers via the TikTok discovery page. You need to analyze each influencer to find the ones that are

3. Use ChatGPT

You can also find TikTok influencers using the ChatGPT free version. Here’s the prompt you need to use:

Yet, the one downside is that ChatGPT data is not up to date. Hence, a big part of the influencers listed will no longer be available, or will not match your requirements, which means you have to manually check each influencer. 

Bonus tips: After testing chatGPT with different criteria for TikTokers we found out that:

• You will get better results if you ask for smaller lists
• Searching TikTok influencers by niche is mostly correct if you need influencers in a popular niche
• ChatGPT doesn’t have precise location information

However, if you need only a few influencers, don’t have a specific location in mind, and have the time to manually check each profile, you can easily find TikTok influencers using ChatGPT.

4. Cross-check potential influencers on other platforms

If they’re on TikTok, chances are, they’re probably on Instagram, too. Give it a shot and check out what they offer on other social platforms and how they market products to different audiences.

Find TikTok influencers at scale

All the free methods we mentioned will help you find TikTok influencers, but the paid strategies below offer a more targeted and streamlined approach to finding relevant influencers for your brand.

1. Use a creator discovery dashboard

The strategy big companies such as Amazon, HP,  Discord, etc. use to find creators is using the Influencers Club dashboard. 

They use our dashboard and filter TikTok influencers in a few minutes. Here’s how it works:

First, select filters in the Basic Info section. Choose the type of TikTok profiles you want to find, if you have a preferred location, gender, etc.

Next, in the Social Media section choose filters according to your demographic criteria, preferred niche, audience size, etc.

Lastly, use the filters in the Creator Deep Dive section to narrow down your search. This is a huge advantage as you can find TikTok influencers who are experienced in influencer marketing, present on multiple platforms, etc.

All influencers we have in our dashboard are filtered and manually checked so you can get only relevant results when using our filters.

So, you can find any type of TikTok influencers. Whether you are looking for:

• Smaller influencers with rapid growth
• Experienced content creators who are present on multiple platforms
• Influencers that partnered with your competitors

2. Hire a TikTok Influencer Agency

Another effective shortcut to finding TikTok influencers is hiring a TikTok influencer agency. 

They have a deep understanding of the TikTok landscape and can match your brand with influencers that align with your values and target audience. 

The good part is that you don’t need to manually search and vet influencers. However, this strategy is more expansive compared to other ways to find TikTokers. 

To hire a TikTok influencer agency you need to:

1. Do research and find reputable agencies that have experience creating influencer marketing campaigns on TikTok. Some of the currently most reputable are Ubiquitous, Viral Nation, MOMENTiQ, Moburst, etc.
2. Set your budget. This will help you narrow down the choice and select the right agency.
3. Connect and Review proposals.

The key factors you should consider when deciding what agency to hire are:

• Experience and past campaign results
• Reviews from past clients
• Transparency and communication
• Influencer network – both size and diversity are crucial factors
• Reporting and Analytics 
• Pricing

After you start working with the agency make sure to stay involved in the collaboration process. When brands work with influencer agencies, they usually make the mistake of not having direct communication with influencers.

3. Run ads on TikTok

Sponsored content is a direct approach to increase brand awareness and place your brand in the spotlight. With TikTok ads that clearly communicate your goal, you can attract TikTok influencers for collaboration.

To create a TikTok ad, you can watch this guide and follow these 4 steps:

1. Enter the ad name – This is not visible to the audience.
2. Select ad format – You can create both image and video ads. However, keep in mind that TikTok primarily supports video ads. 
3. Enter ad details – This includes media, thumbnail, text, links, and CTA
4. Add tracking links – For example, if your conversions are website visits, add third-party URLs to monitor ad performance data, or other tracking strategy that works best for your case.

This is an effective way to attract TikTok influencers as you can target specific demographics so you can be sure your ad reaches the right audience. 

Plus, sponsored content ensures prime placement on TikTok, so you stand a better chance of being noticed by top influencers.

The downside is this is usually way more expensive than other strategies, especially if you need TikTok influencers at scale. Plus, overexposure can lead to a reduced engagement rate. 

That being the case, we believe that sponsored content on TikTok is a powerful strategy to find TikTok influencers when executed correctly.

Bonus: How to master TikTok influencer marketing

Now that your search is over – it’s action time!

Before we explain how to work with TikTok influencers, keep in mind that on TikTok, long-term partnerships work best.

Let’s say you want to pay the influencer for just one post. TikTok algorithms don’t work that way, and you might not get the attention you expect (blame it on the proprietary algorithm of this social media platform).

On the other hand, long-term collaborations feel more authentic because it shows that people actually like your products or service. In this case, the TikTok algorithms will work in your favor, and you will have a good chance of going viral with several authentic pieces of content.

Here are some things to keep in mind when finding and reaching out to TikTok influencers:

• Reach out via email – influencers actually prefer receiving a detailed email rather than a direct message.
• Don’t give them strict borders on what they can do or can not – let them show their own voice because otherwise, the sponsored content won’t resonate with their audience.
• Don’t go into details. Just share your influencer marketing campaign’s main goal and the message you want them to convey. Once they show interest, explain more about the nature of the collaboration, and answer any questions they might have
• Get permission to reshare and repurpose their content for marketing across TikTok and other social platforms.

Specify your deliverables at the start of the collaboration and be clear about your expectations from them.

To wrap up

From everything you have read before, you probably think that finding your ideal influencer can be complicated, but trust us, it is worth it!

If you feel like you’re exhausting your manual options and still can’t find TikTok influencers for your brand, schedule a meeting and let us do the work instead of you. Not only we will find TikTok influencers that are a perfect match for your business, but we can also reach out to them to pitch your offer and spark conversation.

So there you have it – your complete guide on finding influencers on TikTok and spicing up your influencer marketing.

Is it complicated? Yes.

Difficult? It can be.

Worth it? Absolutely!