Running campaigns
Creator discovery
Creator discovery is the process of finding creators who fit a brand: searching by niche, audience, location, and performance, then shortlisting the ones worth approaching.
Also called influencer discovery, creator sourcing.
The methods that work are unglamorous. Looking at who already mentions the brand or its competitors, following the recommendations of creators who performed well, searching hashtags and sounds in the niche, and reviewing inbound applications.
The step most often skipped is checking audience against the brand's actual buyer before any outreach. A creator whose content fits perfectly but whose audience sits in the wrong country or age band is a fast way to spend a budget and see nothing.
Related terms
- Creator roster
- A creator roster is the maintained list of creators a brand works with or wants to work with, holding their contact details, audience data, rates, past performance, and current status.
- Audience audit
- An audience audit checks whether a creator's followers are real and relevant, looking for bought followers, engagement pods, and mismatches between the audience's location or age and the brand's market.
- Content pillar
- A content pillar is one of the few recurring themes a creator's content returns to, which together define what their audience expects and what a brand is buying access to.
- Outreach
- Outreach is the first contact a brand makes with a creator about working together, and the follow-up that turns interest into an agreed deal.
Distinct is the workspace where brands and creators run the work behind these terms. For brands, for creators, or back to the full glossary.