It is estimated that 49% of all Instagram influencers have used fake followers at some point, which also contributes to fraudulent engagement rate numbers. This has a negative impact on the success of a partnership, as well as a brand's reputation.
Since 2019, brands worldwide have lost $1.3 billion due to this type of influencer fraud. Your best ally to combat this is AI, which plays a key role in detecting fake followers and engagement, as it analyzes large-scale patterns to identify them.
AI tools applied to influencer marketing analyze behavioral patterns to identify bot-related activity, as well as machine learning algorithms to distinguish between authentic and fake engagement in social media.
AI-powered tools are the new MVPs of influencer marketing strategies, but how did they earn that title, and what is their role? We’ll explore it here.
Machine learning algorithms are the brains behind this whole operation. Their job is to recognize patterns of irregular activity (fake followers and engagement), and then use them as a reference when analyzing profiles of content creators.
For this, the AI model is trained on large datasets, which is possible because social media platforms have a huge amount of users. This way, it learns how to identify bots from real users and recognize their presence in influencer profiles, also detecting fake engagement.
Natural Language Processing (NLP) is, in short words, the area of computer science that focuses on analyzing and understanding human language.
This AI-Tool is used to detect user interactions and determine if they are human or not, which is essential for identifying bots and fake engagement.
It can highlight spam patterns, irrelevant content, and unnatural interactions, for example, allowing brands to differentiate between genuine audience engagement and automated responses.
AI is also used for image recognition, which detects fake profiles. A lot of bot profiles have stolen or stock images as their profile photos, so with the help of AI-driven facial recognition and reverse image searches, it identifies bot networks across multiple accounts.
In theory, a person could do this task, but keep in mind that the AI tool can do it in batches of thousands per hour, while it would take a whole day for a human to go over a couple of dozen profiles.
Fake followers aren't just annoying for users who see social media filled with bots, but they also have a negative impact on influencer marketing campaigns.
If you partner with influencers that have a high rate of fake followers, you are just paying for an illusion. Sure, the posts or UGC might get traction, but they will mostly be from bots, so they aren't real potential clients for your brand.
With our free Instagram engagement rate calculator, you can estimate the real engagement rate of an influencer, while also analyzing if the amount of fake followers that they have is average or high (which is an indicator to avoid collaborating with them).
Fake followers will never turn into customers for your brand, because they aren't real. So when you partner with an influencer because they have a large following, but at least 40% of them are bots, then you can expect a low ROI.
This limit in the ROI goes beyond conversions. To measure success through ROI you have to take into account other indicators based on the campaign's goals, such as earning followers or brand awareness, but fake followers can't help you with any of that.
When designing an influencer marketing campaign, you have to carefully select the content creators that you are working with. In this new digital landscape, you must avoid partnering with influencers who have a high rate of fake followers.
It can affect the trust that your clients have in your brand and the credibility of the whole collaboration. People will question if the influencers' opinions can be trustworthy, given that they are buying followers, which is seen as unethical.
Meta platforms, such as Facebook and Instagram, are the ones that have the most penalties for the use of fake followers. For example, if the post was shared mutually by the influencer with bots and by your brand's account, then your business can receive sanctions.
We know that the fight between Meta and the bots seems like an endless game of tag, but 2025 may be the year in which Meta fights back. Some users associate this with the failure of fake profiles promoted by Meta itself in 2024.
We always recommend to check and spot the fake followers in your brand’s accounts, and remove them to prevent penalizations.
Over 76% of marketing agencies and 52% of influencers are already using some form of AI to analyze data, scale their outreach campaigns, and create content. But there are more ways that AI-powered tools can be helpful for your brand’s marketing campaigns, and here we will explore them.
Humans can identify bots and fake followers based on generic usernames, missing bios, missing or generic profile photos, and generic posts, but AI will do it automatically and much faster, being overall more effective.
Using AI-Powered tools doesn't mean that there isn't human work behind it. Influencer marketing platforms, such as Influencer Hero, combine these tools with manual work, to avoid AI-related mistakes while also enhancing productivity.
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AI tools provide data-based analysis, which will give you a better insight into the numbers behind the campaign (in different KPIs and ROI, for example). Then, you can use these facts to improve the current campaign or future ones.
Using AI-powered tools helps a campaign to scale, by analyzing profiles on large batches and choosing the perfect fit influencers, for example. It also allows for greater customization for your brand's needs.
AI tools automatize repetitive tasks, optimizing workflows. These tools will help you to save time and money by offering a more effective resource allocation.
AI is advancing with giant leaps, but it looks as if in 2025 and onwards it will lean towards ensuring social media integrity, which also affects what's to come in marketing strategies.
In this article, we explored how AI tools are used for fake account detection,and this will only improve in the future. As machine learning algorithms get more refined, they will see a boost in productivity for identifying the bot account patterns, helping to combat fraudulent activity in social media and tell when someone bought fake followers.
All social media companies already have their version of AI-powered fact-checking functionality, but without leaving aside human opinions on the matter. This is important for marketing because if an ad with an influencer is not disclosed as such, it can be flagged as unethical selling content and affect the credibility of the brand and the content creator.
This reduction will help to ensure greater accuracy when detecting fake profiles. This is crucial to prevent accounts that are not actually bots from being wrongly reported and influencers from having their reputation damaged.
AI tools used in marketing empower brands by providing accurate analysis based on reliable data. Thanks to this, brands can make data-driven decisions, achieving more successful campaigns and fruitful collaborations with influencers.
AI-powered tools have changed the game for influencer marketing and its strategies, but one of its biggest improvements is the detection of fake followers and engagement.
This is a lifesaver for brands that collaborate with content creators, as the presence of fake followers is so large that it is almost impossible to detect manually, and harms the success of a campaign.
As AI tech continues to advance, it will refine its capabilities to identify fake followers, improving accuracy. However, some challenges such as bias still require human presence, so you can't overlook that while partnering with an agency or platform.
There isn’t just one reason for influencers to buy fake followers, but the main one is that it helps them to appear more popular, and attract brands for partnerships. They believe that a higher follower count can improve their possibilities of being seen by businesses, but in reality, micro and nano influencers -with a smaller follower count- have higher engagement rates, which does catch the attention of brands.
Yes, to detect fake followers in real-time, AI-powered tools can analyze engagement patterns, follower behaviors, and content interactions. By using machine learning algorithms and data analytics, these tools quickly identify suspicious activity and bot accounts.
No, fake followers exist on all social media platforms, including Twitter, TikTok, YouTube, and Facebook. AI-driven solutions help detect fraudulent activity across multiple platforms to ensure authenticity in digital marketing.
Brands can manually check influencer engagement rates, follower growth patterns, and audience demographics. Red flags include sudden spikes in followers, generic comments, and a mismatch between engagement and audience size.
AI significantly reduces fake engagement, but as fraudulent tactics evolve, AI tools must constantly improve. While no system is 100% foolproof, combining AI detection with human oversight ensures more accurate results.
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