If you feel like finding quality creators for your campaigns is getting more challenging by the minute, you’re not alone. Over 87% of marketers in our survey feel it’s harder to discover that perfect-fit influencer for their campaigns.
Which is wild, right? Because on paper, there have never been more creators. Modash’s database has over 350 million (!!) influencer profiles.
What gives?
Our theory: influencer discovery isn’t broken. Or dead. Or whatever the LinkedIn bros are saying these days. It’s just evolving – in all the right ways. In this article, I unpack why finding the right influencer feels harder and how you can make it easier (and more fun!).
Let go of the creator unicorn fantasy
When you ask a marketer who their ideal creator is, they usually say something like:
- Has a 2–5% engagement rate
- Is a female between 25 and 27 years old
- Has their audience in Maplewood, New Jersey
- Is talking passionately and exclusively about their products
- Has the “sunlight through my curtains” aesthetic and no color on their walls
Yes, I am exaggerating – but you get the point. Being too rigid about your ideal creator parameters is one of the primary reasons it feels like there are no good influencers left on the internet. We call this overfitting. Leslie Belen explains:
Focus less on finding the "perfect fit" influencer and more on finding one who genuinely aligns with your brand’s values and audience. It’s easy to get caught up in the idea of finding the one influencer who checks every box, but in reality, a slightly less-than-perfect match can still yield great results if they have authentic engagement and trust within their niche.
In our survey, marketers stated that the following statements are always (or usually) true for a creator to meet their definition of “brand fit:”
- They have the right audience demographics.
- Their content aligns with our category values.
- Their aesthetic matches our brand.
- They’re in our niche or industry.
- They talk about the problems our products solve.
- They already use or love our product.
Marketers added even more criteria to the laundry list – such as having fun energy and little to no collaboration with competitors or low-category brands.
And while none of these criteria is misguided, making all of them your must-haves considerably reduces your influencer pool. Not just that:
- High-performing influencers in your niche who tick all the boxes are more expensive because you and all your competitors want to work with them.
- Your content will have that air of sameness – which gets tuned out easily – because niche creators tend to make the same kind of content.
And sometimes, chasing the perfect-fit influencer actually limits your creativity. You stop seeing creators as people and start seeing them as checklists. Listen to Kat La Fata:
Think outside the box. Where can your brand make surprise (but relevant) experiences? Sometimes you’re looking to fill such a specific box that you’re squeezing all creative, authentic juice from it.
It’s not just theory: over 62% of marketers feel they’ve missed out on interesting collaborations because an influencer didn’t meet their stringent criteria.
Marketers often hesitate to collaborate with creators outside their benchmarks because they worry the experimental influencer won’t perform well. But the truth is, unconventional creators can (and do!) deliver outstanding results.
Enter storyfit influencers!
Misfit creators can outperform The Obvious Choice™
Storyfit influencers are creators who aren’t The Obvious Choice™ but who have a fresh, unexpected take on your brand’s story. Consider a furniture brand collaborating with a mom influencer to showcase the durability of their products, especially when kids are involved.
Storyfit collaborations are unique, memorable, and emotionally rich. Such creators might not tick every box for your brand criteria, but their content stands out because it weaves your product into a fresh narrative.
According to our survey, marketers were more likely to collaborate with unconventional influencers for brand awareness campaigns (over 51%) than for conversion-focused campaigns (less than 31%).
The concern is that storyfit influencers will not perform as well as productfit influencers. After all, if you’re promoting serums, it’s best to stick to skincare influencers who talk about serums all over their feed, right?
Turns out, storyfit influencers can perform exceptionally well – over 73% of marketers in our survey said they’ve worked with a creator who overperformed despite being a mismatch on paper.
Take the case of Nacho Selma. He partnered with a creator who was younger than the company’s usual criteria, and the collaboration worked better than he could’ve imagined:
I thought there was no way an influencer could sell shapewear for older women, but it was the product she chose – and honestly, she ended up being one of the top performers in that campaign, which had several different products. It worked way better than I ever imagined!
For Alice Arruda, the outperforming creator was an influencer who didn’t match the brand aesthetic or age requirement:
This specific creator didn’t have much fit with us – she was much younger than our ideal persona, and her content and profile didn’t scream luxury (which is one of the key words we use to brand Hoomy). But her audience was highly engaged, and clearly trusted her opinion and the products she promoted.
Influencers outside your usual niche can bring a fresh lens to your products – whether it’s a creative use case or a unique style that resonates with your audience in unexpected ways.
In short, storyfit influencers not only expand your creator pool but also drive conversions. Then, what stops marketers from collaborating with them?
4 Best practices to level up your influencer search (ft. Storyfit Creators)
Marketers know the magic of storyfit creators: a whopping 91.2% of marketers in our survey said they’re open to experimenting with unconventional influencers.
Let’s break down what’s holding marketers back from collaborating with storyfit creators – and how you can steer clear of those same pitfalls.
1: Regularly reassess your definition of the ideal creator
We’ve already discussed why you should loosen your creator criteria. But let’s not forget that influencer marketing evolves faster than Taylor Swift changes outfits. As the industry shifts, so should your definition of the ideal creator.
And yet over half of the marketers in our survey said they only reassess their criteria when someone truly exceptional comes along.
And hey, I’m all for ✨serendipity ✨ but you have to be a bit more proactive. Take a page out of Fiorella Picado’s playbook: she reassesses her evergreen criteria for an ideal influencer every quarter.
Maybe you already discuss your influencer marketing reports on a quarterly timeline – in that case, add this item to your meeting agenda. Evaluate whether the type of creators you’re looking for is still relevant, and if you can change things up a bit. Ask questions like:
- Can we broaden our age parameters for shortlisting creators?
- Is there a new niche or style we can experiment with?
- Are we being too stringent about brand aesthetics?
As Fiorella suggests, the goal isn’t to land the perfect fit – it’s to find several good fits:
Don't focus on finding one complete perfect fit. Instead, focus on finding several good fits. Often, the perfect fits will not perform as you expect, and you will be surprised at who does.
2: Set aside budget and resources to test storyfit creators
Most marketers would be open to collaborating with storyfit creators – but only when they magically fall into their laps, their budgets align, it's a brand awareness campaign, and Mercury is not in retrograde.
Conversely, less than 36% of marketers in our survey say they partner with unconventional creators for every campaign. Do you think they’re winging it, or do you think they set aside a chunk of their budget to test new creators?
As I mentioned earlier, you need to be more proactive in finding, hunting, and basking in the magic of storyfit creators. This means:
- Setting aside budget to test new storyfit influencers
- Working to find storyfit creators instead of waiting for them to come to you
If you’re nervous about testing new creators that aren’t a product fit, apply this tip from Joshua Weidling: partner with a few storyfit creators on campaigns for which you already have a bunch of your well-performing, long-term influencer partners.
I used to be very strict about audience demographics and making sure the content was a fit. Now, for campaigns that already have a good base of influencers that are performing consistently, I'm much more open to testing.
This way, you reduce the risk and experiment with unconventional creators. Win-win.
3: Learn how to find storyfit creators
Setting aside a portion of your budget and energy to test new storyfit creators is a great start. But how do you find them?
You can take three approaches:
- Tap into category entry points (CEPs): moments in a creator’s life when your product is super relevant or timely. Think of a home decor brand partnering with a gaming creator when they’ve moved to a new office. Even if the gaming influencer has never talked about home decor before, at this point in their life, your product would make perfect sense.
- Find creators who have a relatable/aspiring identity: creators who represent your ideal customer profile (ICP) perfectly – your audience relates to and looks up to them. For example, a travel creator who is vegetarian partnering with a protein bar company to show people how they can get their protein intake no matter where they are in the world.
- Partner with influencers who have a unique content style: these creators stand out not because of their niche or relatability, but because of their charm and style. They have out-of-the-box ideas to show your products in an entirely new light. For example, a filmmaker partnering with a water bottle company to present the product in a fresh context (see this example in action!).
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The best way to meet-cute these storyfit influencers is to spend time in spaces where your audience already hangs out. Allow Fernanda Marques to explain:
Instead of hunting for influencers based on metrics alone, step into the world of your audience. If you’re marketing anime products, hang out in anime spaces. If it’s food, scroll foodie TikTok. Get to know how your ideal customers talk, joke, share, and consume.
As always when searching for influencers, including storyfit ones, you need to do a vibe check and a data check. Alice explains how she does both:
I’ve learned to trust my intuition more, and to align it with data. And no, those two things aren’t enemies! You need to have a certain subjective lens when looking at the results of your strategies, and try to go beyond what’s on the surface of your spreadsheets. It’s about connecting the data with the context around you: what people are looking for and when they actually need your brand.
In your vetting process for storyfit influencers, your three non-negotiables are reach, relevance, and resonance.
- Reach: your quantitative layer. Ensure your unconventional creator has a low percentage of fake followers, a decent engagement rate, the right content formats, and benchmark average views.
- Relevance: tell your brand’s story to the right people. Check if your storyfit influencer’s audience demographics include your target customers and how their previous collaborations feel.
- Resonance: when your creator has the ability to inspire people to action. Evaluate how naturally a creator can promote paid partnerships, what their comment section looks like, if they are confident on camera, etc.
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You can easily check reach and relevance using Modash. The in-depth influencer analysis gives you insight into a creator’s audience and performance (compared to benchmarks), and you can even view their past sponsored content at a glance.
Resonance, on the other hand, must always be checked manually. Go to an influencer’s profile and browse their content for yourself. Eyeball the comments, check how often the creator responds, and see what their camera presence feels like. Vetting their profile can be time-consuming, but it’s worth the effort. Bakhtawar Shahzaib says this also helps you spot fake engagement:
When evaluating influencers, it's crucial to analyze their comments section. Some influencers may have engagement groups which means they interact with fellow influencers to artificially boost engagement. Look for authentic comments from their audience to gauge genuine interest and connection.
4: Trust your gut
Sometimes, partnering with storyfit influencers can mean sitting in some emotional discomfort. After all, testing inside your usual niche and going with The Obvious Choice™ influencer feels safe because you already know what to expect.
Venturing outside often means taking a risk (even if it’s minimized). It can be intimidating, but Senith Berhane says trusting her gut is the biggest change she’s made to the way she finds influencers:
Before, I was super focused on the checklist: niche, follower count, engagement rate, all that. Now I care way more about voice, POV, and how someone tells a story. I’ve learned that the best creators aren’t always the most polished – they’re the ones who know how to connect.
Lee Drysdale also encourages marketers to advocate for the influencers they feel would be the right fit for a collaboration, even if it isn’t a traditionally safe bet:
Test, test, test, and trust your gut! I've always been asked in interviews, “How do you know who to work with?” Sometimes it truly is just a feeling. Don't be afraid to stand up for who you think will work for a campaign even if someone else hasn't heard of them.
That feeling you get about a creator is reliable – you’ve built it through years of vetting, chatting, collaborating, and learning. Trust it, don’t suppress it just because it’d be safer. Yes, it’d be risky, but also rewarding.
It’s not the lack of creators, it’s the excess of criteria
The reality of influencer discovery today is that your next high-performing creator may not resemble your typical pick. They might be younger than your ideal match, outside your immediate niche, or tell your brand story in a completely new way.
These unconventional storyfit creators break the mold – and that’s exactly why they work so well. By loosening your influencer search criteria, testing more intentionally, and trusting your intuition (while still relying on data), you’ll have a much wider pool of influencer talent.
But don’t wait for them to stumble into your inbox or appear on your FYP – go out and find them using Modash. You can apply your non-negotiable filters, use AI search, and discover your first (or next) storyfit influencer in no time.
Take Modash for a spin at no cost for 14 days.
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