How to find micro-influencers for your brand

Your store is live, your first orders came from people you know, and you have no money to pay creators. To find micro-influencers for your brand, search Instagram, TikTok and YouTube for small creators who already post about the problem your product fixes, check each one in 2 minutes, and send 100 personal messages a day offering a free product with no promise to post. If you send product to a handful of accounts picked by follower count, most will never post, and you will not know whether any order came from them.

Do these three things

About 5 to 6 hours a day, every day, for 4 weeks, plus the cost of 10 free products a week. Judge it after 2,800 messages.

Show the three actions in fullHide the full list

1. 1Today: write one line on who your buyers follow and 20 words they use for the problem, and start a creator sheet for accounts with 1,000 to 20,000 followers.
2. 2Every day: add 100 creators who pass a 2-minute check, and send each one a personal message offering a free product with no promise to post. Ship to up to 10 yeses a week, each with their own discount code.
3. 3Every Sunday: count messages, yeses, posts and orders by code, and change one thing.

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ChatGPT or Claude reads this guide and works through it with you.

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1. Write down who your buyers follow and 20 words to search for

Before you search, write one sentence about the creator you want, and 20 words your buyers use when they talk about the problem. A micro-influencer is only useful if your buyers already watch them, so you search by problem, not by follower count.

Write the sentence. Start from who your product is for: the person, the problem and the moment it hurts. Then fill in this line.

Creators who post for [your buyer] about [the problem], with 1,000 to 20,000 followers, who posted about it in the last 30 days, and whose followers live where we ship: [countries].

Why 1,000 to 20,000 followers. Creators this size read their own messages, often say yes to a free product, and their followers ask them real questions. Some guides call 1,000 to 10,000 "nano" and 10,000 to 100,000 "micro". You do not need the labels. Larger creators more often ask for a fee. Paying them is a different job, best done as paying per sale once you have orders.

Write 20 search words. Use the words your buyers use, not your product's words. Take them from what your first buyers told you in customer interviews, from your reviews, and from posts in the communities where your buyers talk. Mix four kinds:

1. The problem: "frizzy by day two", "dry scalp in winter".
2. The routine or moment: "wash day", "morning routine", "packing for a trip".
3. The kind of person: "curly hair", "new mum", "runner over 40".
4. What they would compare: the products your buyers tried before, by type ("sulfate free shampoo"), not only by brand.

Paste your sentence into ChatGPT or Claude and ask for 40 phrases people would type into Instagram or TikTok search about this problem. Keep the 20 that sound like your buyers.

Start the sheet in Google Sheets with these columns. Each row is one creator. It is your lead list for this guide.

Date added | Name | Platform | Profile link | Followers | Link to a post about the problem (last 30 days) | Where found | Check score (out of 5) | Email or DM | Date messaged | Follow-up date | Reply | Shipped date | Code | Posted? (link) | Says it was free? | Orders with code

• Tool: a notes app, ChatGPT or Claude, and Google Sheets.
• Time: 45 minutes, once.
• You will have: one sentence about the creator you want, 20 search words, and an empty sheet.
• It worked if: at least 10 of your first 20 searches show a creator who posted about the problem in the last 30 days.
• Common mistake: searching "beauty influencers" or "fitness influencers". That finds people who post about everything, and their followers are not your buyers.

2. Find micro-influencers on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube: 100 new names a day

Every day, add 100 new creators to your sheet from six places, in the order below, starting with people who already know you. To send 100 messages a day you need about 3,000 names a month, so finding names is a daily job, not a one-off.

The six places, in this order:

1. Your buyers and the people who tag you. Open your Instagram and TikTok notifications and your profile's Tagged tab. Anyone who posted your product, or has a few thousand followers and bought from you, goes in first. Check your Shopify customer list against Instagram for buyers who post; your first buyers often make the most honest videos. This is warm outreach, and it lasts a day or two.
2. Instagram search. Type each of your 20 words into Instagram's search bar and open the Reels and posts it shows. For every post from the last 30 days, open the account and note its follower count. Keep accounts with 1,000 to 20,000 followers.
3. TikTok search. Do the same in TikTok. Open the Videos results, then each creator.
4. The comments on those posts. Read the comments on every good post you find. Other small creators comment on each other's videos. Accounts that write "I film this too" or have their own videos about the problem go on the list.
5. Similar brands' Tagged tabs. Open the Instagram profile of 10 brands your buyers buy from, including competitors, and tap Tagged. Small creators who posted those products already make videos about your kind of product.
6. Shopify Collabs Recruiting. Collabs is Shopify's free creator app, on every plan except Starter and Retail. Go to Apps › Collabs › Get started, then open Recruiting. Search by your words, pick the social account, and sort by Audience size, smallest first. You can invite up to 100 creators in any 7 days, and invites expire after 30 days, so add about 15 a day.

YouTube is a seventh place if your product needs a longer review, such as a gadget. Search your words and filter by "This month". Creators with 1,000 to 20,000 subscribers count.

Add one link per creator to a post about the problem from the last 30 days. You will use it in your message in step 4. If you cannot find one, they do not post about it now, so leave them out.

Put each creator in the sheet once, even if they are on three apps. Use the app with the most followers.

If you sell on TikTok Shop: creators there also ask you for free samples through the affiliate program. Pick them with the same checks in step 3. The full job is in getting TikTok Shop affiliates to post.

Leave the paid tools for later. TikTok One, TikTok's creator platform, needs your business verified before you can work with creators, and Instagram's creator marketplace checks whether your brand is eligible. Both are built for brands that pay creators. Paid creator databases such as Modash start at $199 a month, billed yearly. Search by hand until you have sent 2,800 messages.

• Tool: Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Shopify Collabs (free) and Google Sheets.
• Time: about 3 to 4 hours a day, with the check in step 3: under a minute to find each creator and up to 2 minutes to check them.
• You will have: 100 new rows a day, each with a profile link, a follower count and a post link from the last 30 days.
• It worked if: you add 100 new rows today with no repeats, and at least half came from search and comments, not from one place.
• Common mistake: using only hashtags. Broad hashtags fill up with big accounts and brands. Search the words your buyers use, then read the comments.

3. Check each creator in 2 minutes before you message them

Before you message a creator, open their last 10 posts and run five quick checks. Keep a creator who passes at least 4. This takes up to 2 minutes and needs no paid tool, and it stops you sending free products to accounts whose followers are not real or not your buyers.

The five checks:

1. They posted in the last 14 days. A creator who stopped posting will not post about you.
2. Their videos get views. On their last 10 Reels or TikToks, most have views of at least 1 in 10 of their followers. A 5,000-follower account whose videos get 150 views has followers who do not watch.
3. The comments are real. Read the comments on 3 posts. You want full sentences and questions, such as "does this work on 4C hair?". Rows of emojis and "nice post!" from accounts with no posts are a warning sign.
4. Their followers live where you ship. Look at the language of the comments, the places in their posts and the prices they quote. If they are in a country you do not ship to, leave them out.
5. Past gifts say so. If they posted gifted products before, those posts say "gifted", "ad" or "thanks to [brand] for the free product", or carry Instagram's "Paid partnership" label. A creator who hides gifts puts you at risk, as in step 5.

Write the score in the sheet. Message creators who score 4 or 5. Leave out anyone who fails check 1 or check 4, even with a high score. A creator who scores 3 can go on a "maybe" list for weeks when you run short of names.

Do not judge by follower count or by an "engagement rate" from a free website. Those numbers can be pushed up by one viral short video or by giveaways. The comments and the views tell you more.

• Tool: the app itself. Paste a profile into ChatGPT or Claude only if you want help reading comments in a language you do not speak.
• Time: up to 2 minutes a creator, inside step 2's daily time.
• You will have: a score from 0 to 5 next to every creator in the sheet.
• It worked if: at least 1 in 5 of the creators you message replies at all, a reply rate of 20%. If fewer do, your checks are letting in accounts that are not active; read the comments more closely.
• Common mistake: keeping a creator because their account looks beautiful. Pretty photos with 40 views and emoji comments will not bring an order.

4. Reach out to 100 micro-influencers a day with a free product and no promise to post

Every day, send 100 personal messages to creators who passed the check, offering a free product to try with no promise to post. Asking for nothing in return gets more yeses, and the creators who do post mean it, which is what their followers trust.

Write each message from the template. Paste 10 creators at a time into ChatGPT or Claude, each with the post link from your sheet and one true thing about that post. Ask for one message per creator from the template below. Read each one, fix anything that is not true, and send it yourself. A first line about their own post is what gets replies. With AI drafting, each message takes about a minute.

Hi [first name],[One true line about a post of theirs: what they said or showed, and when.]We make [what it is] for [people with the problem]. Could I send you [the product] to try, free?There's no need to post. If you do share it, good or bad, please say it was free, for example "thanks to [store name] for the free product".If yes, just send me your address.[Your first name], [store name]
[For email: your postal address]
Not for you? Reply "no" and I won't write again.

Hi [first name], just checking you saw this. Happy to send [the product] if you'd like to try it, no strings. If not, no reply needed. [Your first name]

Spread the 100 across four channels, because each one has a limit:

• Instagram, about 30 a day from your store's account. Instagram does not publish a daily message limit; for a new account, estimates put it at about 20 to 50 a day to people who do not follow you, and fast bursts of near-identical messages get accounts blocked. Send them across the day. If you see a warning, stop for that day, as in promoting your business on Instagram.
• TikTok, about 20 a day. Comment on their video first with something real, then message, so your name is not new to them.
• Email, about 35 a day to creators with an email in their bio. Many creators read email first. In the US, each email needs your postal address and a way to say no. If you send more than about 50 a day to people who do not know you, warm up a second domain first, so your order emails stay out of spam and your spam complaints stay low.
• Shopify Collabs, about 15 invites a day, which keeps you under its 100 in any 7 days. Edit the invite email in Collabs › Settings › Email so it sounds like the template.

Follow up once, 3 days later, and then stop. Follow-ups count toward your 100. If someone says no, mark it in the sheet and never write again.

Do not offer money yet. Some small creators reply with a rate. In a 2025 Shopify Community thread, store owners put it at free product or about $20 to $50 a post for 1,000 to 10,000 followers, and about $100 to $200 for 10,000 to 50,000. Thank them, say you only send free products for now, and offer to pay per sale instead, as in an affiliate program. Pay a fee only once a creator's code has brought orders.

• Tool: Instagram, TikTok, email, Shopify Collabs, Google Sheets, and ChatGPT or Claude to draft.
• Time: about 2 hours a day for 100 messages and follow-ups.
• You will have: 100 messages sent today, each with a true first line, each logged with the date and channel.
• It worked if: you get at least 3 yeses from every 100 messages. If you get fewer than 2 after 300 messages, rewrite the first line so it is more about their post, and check that they really post about the problem.
• Common mistake: pasting the same message to everyone, or asking for "a Reel and 3 Stories by Friday". The first gets your account blocked. The second gets a rate card or no reply.

5. Ship each yes with their own code and a note on saying it was free

Send the product within 2 days of each yes, up to a weekly cap you can afford, with a discount code only that creator uses and a short note asking them to say it was free if they post. The code shows which orders each creator brought; the note keeps you and them inside the rules.

Set a weekly cap. Multiply what one free product costs you to make and post by the number you can afford a week, from your marketing budget. Start at 10 a week. When orders from creator codes cover the cost of the parcels, add 5 a week. Your break-even ROAS tells you how much each order is worth to you.

More yeses than you can ship. Put the yeses above the cap on next week's list and tell them the date. When the list is more than 2 weeks long, offer the rest a code for their followers and a share of every sale instead of a free product, as in an affiliate program. Keep sending 100 messages a day.

Make each creator a code. In Shopify, go to Discounts › Create discount › Amount off products. Set the code to their name plus the amount, such as DANI15, and tick "Limit to one use per customer". 15% off is enough; bigger discounts teach people to wait for a sale. If the creator joined you on Shopify Collabs, you can give them a code and send the gift there instead.

Send it as a $0 order, so it is tracked like a sale. In Shopify, go to Orders › Drafts › Create order, add the product, add the creator as the customer with their address, add a discount for the full price, and create the order. Tag it "creator".

Add a tracked link too. Give each creator a link to your product page tagged with UTM parameters, such as ?utm_source=dani, for followers who click but forget the code.

Put a card in the parcel. The FTC says a brand that sends free products should ask the creator to say so in any post, tell them how, and check what they post. Saying it in the caption and in the video counts; "#collab" or "#sp" does not. On Instagram, gifted products count as branded content, so they should also turn on the "Paid partnership" label. On TikTok, the setting is "Disclose commercial content".

Hi [first name], thank you for trying [product].How to get the best from it: [2 or 3 short steps].There's no need to post. If you do, good or bad:
please say it was free, in the caption and in the video: "Thanks to [store name] for the free product"
on Instagram, turn on "Paid partnership"; on TikTok, turn on "Disclose commercial content"
tag @[your account] so we can see it
Your followers get 15% off with [CODE].[Your first name], [store name]

Check for a post 14 days after delivery. Search their profile and your Tagged tab. If they posted, thank them in a comment, write the link in your sheet, and check it says it was free. If it does not, ask them kindly to add it. If they have not posted, send one note asking how it is going. Then stop. A creator who does not post owes you nothing.

When someone posts, ask for two more things:

• A collab post on Instagram, so it shows on both profiles: they add you in Tag people › Invite collaborator.

• Permission to reuse it. Ask in writing, by email or message, whether you can use their video on your product page and in ads. That turns it into user-generated content you can show as social proof on your product page, share in your own Instagram posts, reuse on TikTok, and later test in ad creatives.

• Tool: Shopify Discounts and draft orders, Canva (free) for the card, and your sheet.

• Time: about 10 minutes a parcel, and 2 minutes a creator for the 14-day check.

• You will have: every yes within the cap shipped within 2 days, with its own code, a card and a check date in the sheet.

• It worked if: 3 weeks after delivery, at least 3 of every 10 creators who got a product have posted, and every post says it was free.

• Common mistake: sending product without a code, so you cannot tell which orders came from whom. The other is shipping 40 parcels in week one and running out of money for week two.

6. Count posts and orders every Sunday and change one thing

Every Sunday, fill in one row: messages sent, yeses, parcels shipped, posts, and orders from creator codes. Change at most one thing a week, and judge the whole routine after 2,800 messages.

Take code orders from Shopify: Discounts shows how many times each code was used, and each order shows the code on it. Ask anyone who orders without a code how they found you, and write it down. It is self-reported attribution, and it catches people who saw a post and did not use the code.

Week | Names added | Messages sent | Yeses | Parcels shipped | Cost of parcels | Posts | Posts that say it was free | Orders with creator codes | Sales from codes | "Heard from a creator" orders | Change this week

Results stay small, so count honestly. Decide with these rules:

• Fewer than 2 yeses per 100 messages: rewrite the first line of the message and check 20 names against step 3.
• Fewer than 3 posts for every 10 parcels, 3 weeks after delivery: change who you pick, not the product. Look at the creators who did post and find more like them.
• A creator's code brought 2 or more orders: send them your next product, ask to reuse the video, and offer a share of every sale. Test their video as an ad with Meta ads once you know your break-even ROAS and how much to spend on ads.
• Posts but no orders after 10 posts: watch the posts. If people ask questions and still do not buy, the problem is likely your store, not the creators: work through why no one is buying and a store with traffic but no sales.
• A post does not say it was free: ask the creator to add it the same day, and do not send them another product until they do.
• After 2,800 messages: divide the cost of parcels by the orders from codes. That is your cost per order from creators. If sales from codes cover the cost of the parcels, raise the weekly cap by 5. If codes brought some orders but not enough, keep the cap and send only to creators like the ones who sold. If posts brought no orders at all, keep the creators who posted, cut the cap to 5 a week, and put more hours into short videos of your own.

What creator posts help with next: a store with real videos from real people looks more trustworthy; a short quote from a post, with the creator's OK, makes a testimonial; and a list of creators who posted is proof when you pitch journalists or ask to be in holiday gift guides.

Once a month, add these numbers to your monthly review next to your D2C marketing plan.

• Tool: Google Sheets and Shopify Analytics.
• Time: 30 minutes each Sunday.
• You will have: one row a week and one written change.
• It worked if: you can say, without looking, which creators posted and which codes brought orders.
• Common mistake: judging by likes and views. A video with 300 views from the right people can sell more than one with 30,000 from the wrong ones.

Your micro-influencer checklist for the next 4 weeks

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Work through this list with an AI assistant

It drafts the work and keeps track of what is done.

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Step 1 · Write who your buyers follow and 20 search words

• Write the sentence about the creator you want.
• Write 20 search words.
• Start the creator sheet.

Step 2 · Find 100 new creators a day

• Set up Shopify Collabs and open Recruiting.
• Every dayAdd 100 new creators from the six places.

Step 3 · Check each creator in 2 minutes

• Every dayScore each new creator on the five checks.

Step 4 · Message 100 creators a day

• Every daySend 100 personal messages offering a free product with no promise to post.
• Every daySend one follow-up to everyone who has not replied after 3 days.

Step 5 · Ship each yes with a code and a card

• Every dayShip to yeses up to your weekly cap, each with their own code and the card.
• Every dayCheck for posts 14 days after delivery.
• Every dayAsk each creator who posted for a collab and reuse permission.

Step 6 · Count posts and orders every Sunday

• Every SundayFill in one row of the Sunday sheet and pick one change.
• After 2,800 messagesJudge the routine against the rules in step 6.

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