With its 2.5 billion active users, YouTube remains a powerhouse for content creators in 2024. The platform's long-form video format not only supports in-depth storytelling but also allows influencers to deliver comprehensive product reviews, driving engagement and audience connection.
YouTube micro-influencers are particularly valuable for precision-targeted marketing campaigns. These creators offer a unique combination of a dedicated follower base and high engagement rates, making them ideal for reaching niche audiences effectively.
But how do you find the right YouTube micro-influencers who resonate with your specific target audience? In this guide, we’ll share the most effective strategies for discovering YouTube micro-influencers, including leveraging advanced influencer marketing search tools like Influencer Hero, utilizing YouTube’s search filters, and applying the latest influencer vetting techniques.
One of the latest influencer marketing trends is the growing preference of brands to partner with smaller influencers over macro-influencers. Let’s go over the main reasons why you should consider partnering with YouTube micro influencers:
Micro influencers are more budget-friendly compared to their macro counterparts. A survey by Influencer Marketing Hub found that 88% of marketers reported that micro-influencers (those with 10,000 to 100,000 followers) offer a high return on investment (ROI) compared to larger influencers.
Micro-influencers have an average engagement rate of 5.7%, significantly higher than the 2.4% engagement rate seen with influencers having over 100,000 followers. This higher engagement means that their followers are more likely to interact with and act on sponsored content.
You can calculate influencers’ engagement rates with Influencer Hero’s Free Engagement Rate Calculator.
One of the major benefits of working with YouTube micro-influencers is that they offer targeted expertise that resonates with their audience. 82% of consumers are highly likely to follow the recommendations of micro-influencers in niche markets. This specialized focus enables brands to reach more relevant and interested audiences, enhancing the effectiveness of their campaigns.
Micro-influencers are perceived as more authentic and relatable by their audiences. According to a HypeAuditor study, 61% of consumers believe that micro-influencers provide more genuine and trustworthy endorsements compared to larger influencers. This authenticity translates into higher credibility and influence over purchasing decisions.
Most social media users, regardless of their age, continue using YouTube. These are some of the main YouTube audience statistics from Statista:
This widespread usage across age groups ensures that brands can effectively tap into diverse, segmented markets by partnering with micro-influencers on YouTube.
If you’re starting out with YouTube influencer marketing and want to focus on partnering with YouTube influencers, here are 7 effective ways to find the right creators:
The easiest way to find YouTube influencers is with influencer search tools. For this, Influencer Hero is one of the most complete influencer marketing tools, as you can find influencers, conduct influencer outreach and manage all of your campaigns from the same place.
To find YouTube micro influencers with Influencer Hero, all you have to do is use their Influencer Finder feature and add all the relevant filters that apply to your search.
In this case, as you want to work with micro influencers, make sure to add the number of followers from 10K to 100K maximum. You can add other useful features like location (of the influencers or audience), views, keywords, gender and more.
For each influencer, you have a detailed report that showcases the number of fake followers they have, their demographics and access to recent sponsored posts and analyze the performance KPIs (likes, comments, etc.)
Another way to find YouTube micro influencers is directly through YouTube. Here’s how you can streamline your search using the platform.
To make the search easier, start by using targeted keywords that align with your brand’s niche. For example, if you’re a skin supplements brand looking to connect with influencers who promote healthy skin, you could search for terms like “best skincare routine”, “supplements for glowing skin,” or “best products for skincare.”
Usually, the first options are creators with millions of views and subscribers. Here, you have to browse and dig deeper to find creators who are a good match for your brand.
Following our example, by browsing through the results, we found Judith Peter, a beauty and lifestyle micro-influencer with 2K subscribers and over 200K views in her channel, who could potentially be a good match.
YouTube shorts have reached daily views of over 70 billion! As these can feature music, text and filters, YouTube shorts have become competitors of reels and TikTox, making most influencers use them.
By exploring YouTube shorts you can easily find different types of influencers. This way, you can browse and find a micro influencer that might be the right fit for your campaign.
Another useful way to find YouTube micro influencers is to browse through Explore. Here you can choose whether you want to see what’s trending, or go directly to a category like music, movies, sports, etc.
You can also see “Creators on the Rise” and see the most popular content trending on YouTube. However, keep in mind that if you’re looking for something more specific searching through Explore might not be the best idea. It’s better for broader categories.
Most creators add hashtags in their video descriptions or titles to make it easier for users to find their content. So, by searching for relevant hashtags, you’ll be able to find different creators and content formats.
For example, if you’re a brand that focuses on selling travel gadgets and accessories, by adding hashtags like #travelgadgets or #travelingmusthaves, you can easily find thousands of creators.
The hashtag #travelgadgets alone has 5.4K videos and 1.8K channels.
Google allows you to broaden your search beyond YouTube’s internal search engine. Here are a few ways you can get the most out of your Google’s search when looking for YouTube micro influencers:
Google is a great free resource to find curated lists of YouTube micro influencers in specific niches. By searching for terms like “Top fitness YouTube influencers under 100K followers” or “best micro influencers in beauty on YouTube” can lead you to articles, blog posts, or directories that have already compiled potential candidates.
You can use Google’s site-specific search feature to find YouTube content directly. For example, typing site:youtube.com "healthy living tips" into Google will return results from YouTube that include videos and channels related to healthy living.
And you can easily browse the amount of followers creators have, making your search easier. This method can help you discover micro influencers whose videos might not appear immediately in YouTube’s search algorithm but are still relevant.
Many YouTube micro influencers also have active presences on platforms like Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and Facebook. By searching for influencers on these platforms, you can find YouTubers that might not appear easily in YouTube searches.
Often, influencers can have a smaller following on one platform and a significant presence on another. Like Hannah Harrel, a US beauty and fashion influencer that has 791K followers on Instagram where she shares her outfits and high quality photos, and 123K subscribers on YouTube where she focuses on sharing tips, advice and tutorials.
By making a cross social media strategy it is easier to find more options of micro influencers that might not have well-established YouTube channels but have in other platforms.
If you have a shortlist of YouTube influencers that you feel are the right match for your campaign, you can find influencers with similar profiles and niches by using Influencer Hero’s lookalike feature.
This feature allows you to find similar creators while adjusting the search ensuring they have good engagement rate, the right amount of followers (in this case between 10K-100K), location, etc.
Let’s say you’d like to partner with a creator similar to Leah Halton (829K subscribers) who is a beauty influencer focused on doing makeup tutorials and sharing tips. In that case, you can go the Influencer Finder feature and add their channel handle or name:
To make the search more specific, you can select the option of the number of followers (10k-100K) and there are different options of influencers similar to Leah Halton but with smaller channels.
Joining influencer communities and forums can be a more passive yet valuable strategy when looking for YouTube micro influencers.
Influencer communities and forums often attract micro influencers who are passionate about specific niches. And due to the fact that they are still growing their channels many of them go to these forums to ask for advice.
In forums like Reddit, you can explore subreddits like r/YouTubers, r/SmallYoutubers or r/Influencer marketing that are useful to identify potential creators.
If you’re new to influencer marketing, and you’re not sure where to start or how to set your campaigns for success with the right KPIs, partnering with an influencer marketing agency can be a problem-solver.
These agencies have expertise in finding and managing all influencer campaigns, from outreach and negotiation to well–established collaborations.
Popular influencer marketing agencies include:
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The cost to hire a YouTube micro influencer varies depending on factors such as the influencer’s niche, engagement rate, and the scope of the campaign.
On average, hiring a YouTube micro influencer costs between $200-$5,000.
In the table below, you can see an overview of influencer rates depending on the platform and their following size.
In the case of YouTube influencers regardless of their following number, you’ll see that they tend to be more expensive than Instagram and TikTok. The main reason is that YouTube videos tend to be lengthier and require more work.
Now that you’ve found a couple of micro influencers you’d like to work with, it’s time to ensure they are the right fit for your campaign. How can you do this? To vet influencers, you need to cross check the following:
The first step is to assess whether the influencer’s content aligns with your brand’s values, products and overall message. Review their videos to see if they consistently create content that would naturally integrate with your campaign.
For example, if you’re a gym apparel brand and you want to work with fitness influencers, focus on those whose channel aligns with your brand and your product. In this case, those influencers who are constantly sharing “Get Ready with Me” or workout tutorials for the gym are ideal as they can naturally promote your product.
This is what GymShark does. YouTuber Naomi Kong is well-known for her fitness routines and tips. She has a paid partnership with GymShark, where she shares gym routines while wearing GymShark’s sets.
One of the most important factors when analyzing influencers, regardless of their size, is the quality of their followers. In other words, ensure they don’t have filled numbers with bots and fake subscribers.
So, how can you make sure that they don’t have fake followers? With a Free Fake Follower Scanner.
Influencer Hero’s Fake Subscriber Scanner, you can check the quality of influencers subscribers. You’ll get a full report on the influencers subscribers, their growth and key audience metrics.
If you don’t target your key audience, then all of your influencer marketing efforts will be in vain. When analyzing potential influencer collaborations, make sure that they have the exact audience you’re looking for.
This is one of the main reasons why brands often choose to work with influencers. And, in the case of micro influencers, they have even more segmented and specialized audiences providing in most cases a high ROI.
When checking the demographics make sure that the influencer you’re working with has a relevant audience in terms of location, age and gender. It may happen that the influencer is located in your country, but their audience is from another country which won’t have the impact you need.
For example, if you’re a US skincare brand looking to send products to US influencers, when analyzing demographics you need to ensure that most of their audience is in the U.S. as well.
Evaluate the production quality of the influencer’s videos. High-quality visuals, clear audio and well-edited content reflect professionalism and attention to detail, which are essential for impactful campaigns.
Additionally, it’s useful to review the influencer’s previous collaborations to see how they performed. Look for case studies, testimonials, or even direct communication with the influencer about past campaigns.
Metrics like view count, engagement rates and conversion data from previous partnerships can provide insight into their potential effectiveness for your campaign.
When finding and vetting YouTube micro influencers, a key factor is their engagement rate. The engagement rate indicates the level of interaction an account's posts receive relative to its follower count.
The engagement rate varies depending on influencers size. In the case of YouTube micro influencers, the average rate is between 0.19% to 0-49%.
You can calculate the engagement rate by using the following formula:
ER = (Total likes + total comments) / followers x 100
You can also streamline this process by using Influencer Hero’s Free YouTube Engagement Rate Calculator.
Micro-influencers, with their targeted niche focus and highly engaged audiences, offer significant benefits such as cost-effective marketing, authentic endorsements, and specialized expertise. By carefully analyzing content relevancy, credibility, key demographics, and performance, you can select influencers who not only align with your brand’s values but also deliver impactful results.
Whether you use influencer search tools like Influencer Hero, conduct thorough searches across social media platforms or work with influencer marketing agencies, these methods will streamline your search and ensure you partner with influencers who can elevate your brand’s presence on YouTube.
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