They’re here, they’re there—they’re everywhere. And they are promoting brands that aren’t yours.

Yep, we’re talking about Instagram influencers.  

Brands getting good results from influencer collaborations is no secret—and we can vouch for that from our own experience—but it’s not a guaranteed success.

You have to know where to look—and more importantly—how to look. 

So let’s go through different ways to find Instagram Influencers together. From the start, of course.

Why Look For Instagram Influencers?

Instagram influencers offer a direct line to a dedicated and engaged audience. 

In other words, they provide additional social validation for your brand, allowing you to promote your business through authentic and personalized content.

And we’re not talking just any audience—an audience of potentially 2 billion and more active users. That’s quite something.

And—since your audience will always trust influencers they follow more than they’d trust a random brand advertisement—this often results in more exposure, credibility, and potential sales.

Not to mention that the platform is probably the most popular influencer hub—with some reports saying that there’s over 10M influencers on the platform. 

Moreover Instagram influencers and brands alike are seeing the highest engagement rates and ROI compared to any other platform.

Finally, with TikTok ban potentially looming, and Instagram Reels boosting the platform’s popularity—Instagram beat TikTok this year in all metrics, including app downloads. 

Do you need any more convincing?

Types of Instagram Influencers 

Social media is diverse and segmented. And on Instagram particularly, it’s pretty difficult to list all types of influencers. There are countless. 

We can instead look at different categories through a prism of your brand’s needs and capabilities. 

Instagram Influencers by Industry

Instagram influencers can also be divided by their industry..

Not to be confused with category or niche—which is a narrower segmentation, Instagram influencers can fit into different large industires, just like businesses.

• E-commerce Influencers: Promoting mostly D2C products, often with content that involves unpacking or showcasing the product.
• SaaS influencers: Which promote digital products or services to other consumers. They typically fit different niche—such as photography Instagram creator promoting a photo editing Saas.
• B2B influencers: Pretty hard to find, these people can promote your business to other businesses in a highly competitive niche.

Here’s a little snapshot of how it looks like when an influencer promotes a SaaS product:

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A post shared by Miikka Linna (@miikkalinna)

After you make a shortlist of influencers by category, you can move onto size.

Instagram Influencers By Size

When it comes to size, Instagram influencers can be categorized by their follower count.

Over the years, marketing industry established a few different “tiers”:

• Nano-influencers (1,000-10,000 followers) offer niche, highly engaged audiences.
• Micro-influencers (10,000-50,000 followers) balance reach and engagement, ideal for targeted campaigns. 
• Mid-tier influencers (50,000-500,000 followers) have broader appeal and significant influence. 
• Macro-influencers (500,000-1 million followers) offer wide reach and are often recognized personalities.
• Mega-influencers (1 million+ followers) are celebrities with vast audiences, suitable for large-scale brand awareness campaigns. Each type provides unique advantages for brand partnerships, from authentic engagement to expansive reach.

Obviously, you’d first determine your budget and your niche before diving into the follower count. 

But according to HypeAudtior, 65% of all influencers on Instagram are nano-influencers. And they also rack up the highest engagement numbers! 

So if you’re like most brands—a smaller business looking for more awareness, you’d do well with a good nano or micro-influencer instead of splashing the cash for celebrity endorsements

Instagram Influencer by Niche

After you’ve narrowed it down by industry and size, the real challenge starts.

Among millions of Instagram content creators, you’ll have to find those that fit to your specific category. 

Sometimes it will be easy—like a lifestyle influencer promoting a product such as scented candles.

But what if you’re selling a mobile phone service? Guess it’s no problem as well: 

So make sure you look for influencers that can get you the best bang for your buck. 

Preparing to Find Ideal Instagram Influencers

The quest for finding a proper Instagram Influencer starts with proper preparation. 

Here are some of the most essential items for your checklist:

Identify Your Target Audience

Understand who you’re trying to reach with your campaign—this is where your industry and niche knowledge will come into play.

For example, if you’re selling aquariums, your target audience are aquarists and marine lovers.

That should be your starting spot when it comes to looking for a suitable Instagram influencer. 

With a quick search, we’ve found this profile:

Knowing your audience’s demographics, interests, and online behavior will guide you in selecting influencers who share a similar audience. 

Define Your Campaign Goals

Are you looking to increase brand awareness, drive sales, or launch a new product? 

Clear goals will help you determine the type of influencer and content strategy that will be most effective for your campaign.

It will also help you outline metrics on which you’d be able to arrange influencer deals.

Evaluate Influencer Compatibility

Look for influencers whose brand image and values align with yours.

Their content style, tone, and audience engagement should resonate with what your brand stands for.

If you’re a pet product brand, you’d want a content creator that showcases love and affection towards animals and doesn’t promote hunting, for instance.

Do Your Own Little Influencer Audit

Make a checklist of benchmarks you’ll pay attention to during your “influencer quest.”

Evaluate their content quality, their engagement rate, look for signs of fake engagement and users, and look for traces of previous brand partnerships.

If there’s previous work visible on their profile, you might already have a snapshot of everything listed above, which will help you align expectations from the get-go. 

Also, plenty of sponsored content might mean that the influencer lacks credibility among its followers, so pay attention to that as well. 

How to Find Instagram Influencers: 10 Effective Ways

Finding Instagram influencers can be a long, difficult process. But the following tips that we’ve gathered after years of running ads might help you. 

So let’s check them out. 

1. Sign Up Top Growth Marketing’s List 

Okay, this is more of a cheat code.

But since we’re already working with a large number of influencers to promote our clients’ brands, we can put your name out there, too. Free of charge. 

You just sign up here and someone form our team will connect you to an Instagram content creator that aligns with your brand.

There are no secret fees or anything. We just want to help the people who keep our brand partners happy.

2. Check if Someone Mentioned You

From time to time, Instagram users will mention your brand organically. 

Say they bought from you accidentally, saw an ad, or someone recommended your brand to them. They might heap praise on your brand, saying why they love it—and it will all be natural.

Here’s how you do it. It’s simple—you just replace the “#brand” with your brand name:

Finding good content like this can be rare, especially if you’re a new and still small. But one of the best ways to take advantage of someone promoting your brand on Instagram.

What can you do? You slide into their DMs and make them an offer they can’t refuse—compensation, plus the opportunity to promote their content from your own brand account.

Sounds like a good deal, no? 

If you’re not sure you should approach this, feel free to ping us for helpl.

3. Look for relevant hashtags

Another simple yet effective strategy is to just dive into the hashtags your target audience loves. Or a hashtag of something that’s buzzing in your industry. 

Whether it’s #EcoFriendlyBeauty or #TechGadgetsUnboxed, these tags can unveil gems hidden within the vast Instagram landscape. 

Here’s one example of different hashtags depending on the category:

E-Commerce Category	Hashtag 1	Hashtag 2	Hashtag 3
Fashion	#FashionInfluencer	#OOTD	#SustainableFashion
Beauty	#BeautyGuru	#SkincareRoutine	#CrueltyFreeBeauty
Tech Gadgets	#TechInnovator	#GadgetReview	#LatestTech
Fitness	#FitnessMotivation	#WorkoutGear	#HealthAndWellness
Home Decor	#InteriorInspiration	#MinimalistHome	#DIYHomeDecor

This method isn’t just about finding influencers; it’s about discovering those who are already part of the conversation and potentially ready to be your brand ambassadors.

4. Snoop Through the Explore Feed

Explore feed contains all the beauty of Instagram’s algorithm. 

We’re saying this because you can “game” your Explore tab to become your personal library of niche-relevant influencers.

How? Just try to view and engage with content or content creators that are relevant to your niche through the Explore feed.

Selling yoga mats? Why don’t you like a post of an influencer doing yoga that showed up on your Explore feed. Next thing you know, you’ll see more of this content. Keep engaging.

This can help you find and get in touch with many interesting creators. 

5. Ask Google For Help

Sometimes the best way is the simple way. 

Considering that:

1. Most content creators have “niche” + influencer listed in their Instagram bio
2. There’s tons of articles online listing influencers in various categories

…There’s a huge opportunity for you to find your perfect influencer by simply Googling them.

How? Try by typing “[niche] + influencer” and the search engine page will show you top results—with Instagram profiles often being among the top.

Here’s what we got for the “sustainable clothing + influencer” query.

And this is the bottom half of the first page!

6. Some are Already Your Fans

Believe it or not,  sometimes your next influencer partnership hides among your brand’s followers.

These individuals have discovered your products or services on their own and genuinely appreciate what you offer. Thus, this makes them prime candidates for collaboration because their endorsement comes from a place of genuine affection and credibility. 

Take the time to scour your brand mentions, tags, comment sections, or—if you’re ready to roll up your sleeves—go through your follower list. 

You might find influencers who are already engaging with your brand and are ready to formalize their support! 

Engaging with these already-interested influencers can yield more authentic and enthusiastic collaborations. And we say that from experience.

7. Leverage Available Instagram Influencer Data 

By this, we mean there are already dedicated lists of Instagram Influencers that you can use during your research. 

Hype Auditor, for example has a list of top 1000 Instagram influencers that updates in real time and that you can always look into for some quick wins.

Various influencer data platforms like Influencer Marketing Hub are doing the same, while every designated marketplace has some form of influencer data you can leverage.

And while we’re at it…

8. Use Influencer Platforms

Sign up for platforms that connect brands with influencers.

These services are made only to help you find the right match based on your campaign goals and target audience—for a fee. 

You might’ve heard of brands like Insense,  Impact, Upfluence, and others that are the most notable in the niche.

Bonus: Shopify launched Collabs, a dedicated platform where you can find influencers if you’re selling on the platform. Pretty cool.

9. Make an Instagram Dedicated Influencer Ambassador Program

Build it and they will come.

Create a structured program to attract Instagram influencers to your brand. 

You can do this by offering incentives and building relationships with ambassadors who align with your brand values for long-term collaborations.

10. Ask Around (On your social media, in your circle, etc)

Don’t underestimate the power of your network. 

Ask your social media followers, industry peers, or personal connections for recommendations on influencers who might be a good fit for your brand.

Sometimes, you are a direct question away from sealing the best Instagram influencer deal. So don’t forget to ask.

The Search Starts Now

By now, you realize that finding Instagram influencers to promote your brand is a multifaceted process.  

However, it all boils down to identifying individuals who embody your brand’s values, engage authentically with their followers, and can seamlessly integrate your offerings into their narrative. 

Remember, successful influencer collaborations are built on genuine connections and shared values—-and finding creators that understand that will bring more than just conversions.