A major part of this is finding the right influencer for your brand. It’s not as simple as finding an influencer with a large following and signing them on. In fact, the number of followers is only a small factor that determines a campaign’s success. 

An even more important factor is who the followers are and what they like. 

This article explores the importance of influencer audience demographics and how marketers can find them. 

Let’s explore this in depth. 

What is the importance of influencer audience demographics in influencer marketing?

Here are six reasons influencer audience demographics are important for building successful campaigns. 

• Influencer audience demographics help marketers choose a creator best suited for their brand
• They help tailor an influencer marketing campaign to a creator’s audience
• Influencer audience demographics help maximize ROI on marketing campaigns
• Audience demographics play a crucial role in protecting a brand’s reputation
• With granular influencer audience demographics, brands can penetrate new markets 
• They help prevent influencer fraud

1. Influencer audience demographics help marketers choose a creator best suited for their brand

According to Harvard Business Review, the follower-brand fit is one of the top five factors that determine the success of an influencer marketing campaign. To maximize the ROI, brands have to choose creators that have a following aligned with their campaigns’ target audience. 

But even too much fit can be a problem. For instance, picture an influencer who talks exclusively about sneakers. If a sneaker brand works with the influencer, its material will compete with other content from the influencer. Research suggests that brands get optimal results when around 9% of an influencer’s followers(Harvard Business Review) are interested in what the sponsor brand is selling.

2. They help tailor an influencer marketing campaign to a creator’s audience

Different audiences have different preferences; what may work for gen z professionals in the US may not work for millennial parents in India. To reach an influencer’s audience, brands have to understand who they are. 

With a granular understanding of an influencer’s audience, marketers can create content that will resonate well with them. With this information, they can also tweak factors like campaign timings, offers, and discounts. 

For instance, people from the US and Europe tend to go holiday shopping during December and sales tend to dip right after Christmas. But this trend is less visible in South Asian countries. With influencer audience demographics, marketers can target customers when they’re most likely to make their purchases. 

3. Influencer audience demographics help maximize ROI on marketing campaigns

Influencer marketing is expensive, even if it delivers good results. A single Instagram post can cost anywhere from a couple of free products to $10,000. 

In most cases, the influencers' rates increase with the number of followers. So by working with influencers with few followers, marketers can keep the costs low. But if these influencers have an audience perfectly aligned with the brands’ target audience, they can get high conversion rates and ROI. 

4. Audience demographics play a crucial role in protecting a brand’s reputation

The history of marketing is filled with unknown cultural differences destroying products and brand reputations. Campaigns that may be a hit in one location can create expensive product recalls or long-lasting damage to reputation in another. Detailed audience demographics information can help brands avoid such situations. 

5. With granular influencer audience demographics, brands can penetrate new markets 

Brands that may not have a presence in certain countries or cities can penetrate the market by working with influencers who have a large following from the location. Brands can also use influencer audience data to launch products for a demographic they have never connected with before. 

6. Knowledge of audience demographics help prevent influencer fraud

While influencer fraud is decreasing, a 2022 survey suggests that 64% of marketers are worried about it (The State of Influencer Marketing 2023: Benchmark Report - Influencer Marketing Hub). Audience demographic data can help marketers identify fake followers and engagement and avoid scams to a large extent. 

What demographic metrics can you find out about an influencer’s followers?

The age group of the audience

While influencers will have followers from diverse age groups, most creators cater to very specific age groups. This information can help marketers tailor their campaigns to specific age groups. 

Marketers have long known that different age groups and generations have different values and respond to different things. For instance, millennials and gen z audience care more about a brand’s politics (Forbes - I Don’t Like Your Politics: How Political Views Can Hurt (Or Help) Your Business) than the generations before them. 

While it may look like a very simple data point, the age group of an influencer’s audience can help marketers create campaigns that click. 

Are the audience men or women?

Gender demographics of the followers are another piece of audience information that most social media platforms offer. Organizations that release products targeted towards a single gender will get better results if the influencers they work with have a following largely of the same gender category. 

Brands also need different approaches to reach men and women. For instance, Facebook had a largely male audience, while most Snapchat users were women. 

Follower regions

The location of followers is another easily available data point regarding an influencer’s followers. It can help marketers leverage local influencers with followers from specific countries or cities. 

Location information can also help marketers prepare to offer the best experience to their customers. For instance, if you’re selling a product to customers in Sweden, you should be able to deliver it on time and accept payments from the location. 

Follower activity

Different social media platforms offer different levels of insights into follower activity. For example, Instagram and Twitch show when an influencer’s followers are active, while Twitter can offer insights into the purchases followers have made recently. 

Follower activity can be a useful parameter to launch campaigns and target audiences. 

Income and net worth

Income and network parameters, while valuable, are rarely offered by social media platforms. Twitter is an exception here, showcasing an influencer's average household income and net worth. 

Once again, these parameters can help marketers choose influencers and build campaigns. 

Steps to find influencer audience demographics

There are different ways to find out influencer audience demographics. Here are a few: 

Through manual search 

Manual search will not be effective, and it's not practical at scale. But if you’re looking for influencers, you can make a very broad list of creators you can narrow down later with better data. 

Here’s how you can find influencer audience demographics through a manual search: 

1. Go through content with the least and most engagement 

As a general rule of thumb, you can assume people who have engaged on content with little engagement to be loyal followers. 

2. Open profiles of people who are commenting on or reacting to different posts 

You can also just scroll through the names or profile pictures of people who have engaged with different posts if you don’t want to waste time.

3. Check their age group, where they are from, their income brackets, and other information

By looking into followers’ profiles, you should be able to get a very rough picture of their demographics. 

By asking influencers to send their audience demographic data

You can get a fairly good idea of their demographic data with screenshots from the app. But it requires a bit of trust between the influencer and the marketer since screenshots are fairly easy to manipulate. Another hurdle is that major influencers may not respond to such requests unless you have a working relationship with them or approach them through an affiliated agency.  

Of course, this method requires considerable effort and resources, particularly if you want to keep the information updated on your end. 

How to find influencer audience demographics through a creator discovery tool

There is no dearth of tools to help you find influencer audience demographics. You can find follower demographics for a single influencer, or you can find influencers who have a specific demographic of followers. 

Here’s how you can find influencer audience demographics through a creator discovery tool: 

1. Find a suitable influencer discovery tool

Ensure you get authenticated data from social media platforms and not just publicly available information. 

2. Search for the influencers in the influencer database

Search and find the influencers whose audience you want to understand. 

3. See if the demographics align with your target audience

Check if the influencer's followers are largely composed of your target audience. 

4. Talk to the influencer 

Concrete data is very important in building campaigns. But influencers themselves can help you read between the lines. They may have worked on campaigns and promotions and may be able to guide you on the strategy. 

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From intelligently curating a list of possible influencer partners, understanding the quality of engagement, and tracking and assessing a partnership's impact, insightIQ hands you the data so you're not shooting off in the dark with your IM campaigns.

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