How to Vet Influencers in Singapore: 15 Checks Every Brand Should Make
Finding influencers is easy.
Finding the right influencers is much harder.
A creator may have thousands of followers, impressive-looking content and strong engagement, but that doesn't automatically mean they are a good fit for your brand.
Before investing in an influencer campaign, brands should look beyond follower count and evaluate the creator's audience, content, engagement, brand fit, reliability and potential to deliver against the campaign objective.
This process is known as influencer vetting.
For Singapore brands, it is especially important to understand whether a creator's audience is actually relevant to the local market. A creator can have a large following while reaching relatively few people who are relevant to your campaign.
In this guide, we'll walk through 15 influencer vetting checks you can use before agreeing to a collaboration.
What Is Influencer Vetting?
Influencer vetting is the process of evaluating a creator before deciding whether they are suitable for a brand collaboration.
A proper vetting process looks beyond:
"How many followers do they have?"
Instead, it asks:
Who actually follows this creator?
Where is their audience located?
Does their content fit the brand?
Is their engagement genuine?
How consistently do their posts perform?
Have they worked with competing brands?
Do they create good content?
Are they reliable?
Can they influence the audience you're trying to reach?
Can their performance be measured?
The objective is to determine whether a creator is a good investment for the specific campaign.
Why Follower Count Isn't Enough
Suppose you have two creators.
Creator A
Followers: 150,000
Average views: 3,000
Audience: Primarily outside Singapore
Creator B
Followers: 35,000
Average views: 18,000
Audience: Primarily Singapore-based
For a Singapore campaign, Creator B may be much more relevant despite having fewer followers.
This is why influencer selection should be based on quality and relevance, rather than audience size alone.
Follower count is a useful data point.
It just shouldn't be the decision.
The 15-Point Influencer Vetting Checklist
Before confirming an influencer, work through these 15 checks.
1. Check Where Their Audience Is Located
For a Singapore campaign, audience geography matters.
A creator may live in Singapore but have a significant proportion of followers overseas.
Ask for audience insights showing:
Top countries
Top cities
Audience location
Age
Gender, where relevant
If your campaign is designed to reach Singapore consumers, you want evidence that the creator actually reaches Singapore.
What to look for
The ideal audience mix depends on your campaign.
For a Singapore-only campaign, a strong proportion of relevant Singapore-based followers is generally more useful than a large international audience that cannot purchase your product.
Don't automatically reject international audiences.
Instead, ask:
Does this creator reach enough of the audience we actually want?
2. Check Audience Demographics
Location is only one part of the picture.
Look at:
Age
Gender
Location
Interests
Other available audience insights
For example, imagine you're promoting a premium skincare product to women aged 25–40.
A creator with 100,000 followers isn't automatically valuable if their audience is predominantly teenagers or consumers outside your target market.
Your target audience and the creator's audience should overlap.
3. Review Their Average Views
Followers tell you potential audience size.
Views tell you more about how much attention the creator's content is actually receiving.
Review recent posts rather than one viral video.
For example:
Followers 100K vs 40K
Recent views 4K–8K vs 15K–30K
Audience relevance Medium vs High
Content quality High vs High
Creator B may be more attractive despite having fewer followers.
Look at consistent performance, not the creator's single best-performing post.
4. Look at Engagement Quality
Don't simply calculate:
Likes ÷ followers
and stop there.
Look at the actual interactions.
Are people:
Asking questions?
Sharing experiences?
Tagging friends?
Discussing the product?
Asking where to buy?
Responding meaningfully to the creator?
Compare this with accounts where the comments are mostly:
"Nice"
"🔥"
"Love this"
The volume of engagement matters, but the quality of engagement matters too.
5. Read the Comments
This is one of the simplest checks and one of the most useful.
Spend five minutes reading comments on several recent posts.
Look for:
Positive signals
Genuine questions
Product discussions
Recommendations
Conversations between followers
People sharing their own experiences
Warning signs
Repetitive generic comments
Large numbers of irrelevant comments
Obvious engagement pods
Sudden unexplained spikes
Comments that don't relate to the content
You are trying to determine whether the creator has a real community, not simply a large public number.
6. Check for Suspicious Follower Growth
Unusual follower growth doesn't automatically mean a creator has purchased followers.
A creator may genuinely go viral.
But sudden unexplained growth is worth investigating.
Look for patterns such as:
5K → 7K → 8K → 9K → 10K
versus:
5K → 6K → 7K → 75K
The second scenario deserves additional scrutiny.
Ask the creator or agency whether the spike came from:
Viral content
Media coverage
A platform feature
A giveaway
A collaboration
Paid promotion
The objective isn't to accuse creators of fraud.
It's to understand how their audience was built.
7. Analyse Their Recent Content, Not Just Their Best Content
Creators often showcase their strongest work in media kits.
That's useful, but you should also inspect their recent feed.
Look at the last 10–20 pieces of content.
Ask:
Is the quality consistent?
Do videos receive consistent views?
Is their storytelling strong?
Are they comfortable on camera?
Do they explain products clearly?
Do they create strong hooks?
Does their content feel natural?
A creator's average performance is usually more useful than their highlight reel.
8. Check Brand Fit
Imagine a luxury brand collaborating with a creator whose entire content style is based on bargain hunting.
The creator might have excellent engagement.
But the partnership may still feel unnatural.
Brand fit includes:
Tone
Personality
Visual style
Audience
Values
Category relevance
Ask:
Would this creator naturally talk about our product even if we weren't paying them?
If the answer is yes, that's often a strong signal.
9. Look at Their Previous Brand Collaborations
Review their sponsored content.
Ask:
What brands have they worked with?
How frequently do they post sponsored content?
Are their sponsored posts well integrated?
Have they worked with direct competitors?
Do they promote too many unrelated products?
Does the creator appear selective?
A creator who promotes:
Skincare → restaurant → crypto → supplements → fashion → mattress → insurance
in rapid succession may create a different perception from someone whose partnerships are more consistent with their niche.
Neither is automatically wrong.
But you should understand what the creator's audience expects from them.
10. Check Competitor Conflicts
Before signing a creator, determine whether they currently work with a competing brand.
Also check whether the campaign agreement requires any exclusivity.
Potential questions include:
Are they currently working with a competitor?
Have they recently promoted a competitor?
Is there a category exclusivity period?
Can they work with another brand immediately after your campaign?
This is particularly important for categories where consumers may perceive multiple brands as competing directly.
11. Evaluate Content Quality
Influencers aren't only media channels.
They are also content creators.
Look at:
Hook
Does the content capture attention quickly?
Storytelling
Does the creator communicate a clear idea?
Product integration
Does the product appear naturally?
Production
Is the lighting, sound and framing appropriate?
Editing
Is the pacing suitable for the platform?
Call to action
Does the creator know how to direct the audience toward the desired action?
If you're planning to reuse creator content in paid social, content quality becomes even more important.
12. Assess Their Reliability
This is often overlooked during influencer selection.
A creator can have an excellent audience and still be difficult to work with.
Ask about:
Response times
Content deadlines
Revision process
Approval process
Posting schedule
Reporting
Previous campaign experience
For larger campaigns, operational reliability can be just as important as audience size.
One late creator can affect:
Campaign launch
Product launch timing
Paid media
PR activity
Ecommerce promotions
13. Review Their Commercial Track Record
If the campaign objective is sales, try to understand whether the creator has previously driven measurable actions.
Depending on the platform and campaign setup, this could include:
Link clicks
Promo-code usage
Affiliate sales
Product purchases
Leads
App downloads
Don't expect every creator to have perfect conversion data.
But if you're running a conversion-focused campaign, evidence of previous commercial performance can be valuable.
14. Check Their Rate Against Expected Value
The cheapest creator isn't necessarily the best creator.
The most expensive creator isn't necessarily the best either.
Instead, consider:
Expected value ÷ total campaign cost
Your evaluation should take into account:
Audience relevance
Expected reach
Engagement
Content quality
Deliverables
Usage rights
Exclusivity
Campaign objective
Previous performance
For example, two creators may charge similar fees but offer very different deliverables and audience quality.
Always compare the complete commercial package, not simply the headline fee.
15. Ask: Would We Work With This Creator Again?
This is perhaps the most important question for an always-on influencer programme.
Don't only evaluate:
"Can this creator deliver this campaign?"
Ask:
"Could this creator become a valuable long-term partner?"
Strong long-term creators may:
Understand your brand
Produce consistently good content
Communicate well
Deliver on time
Build audience trust
Improve with each collaboration
This is one of the reasons influencer marketing can become more effective when brands build long-term creator relationships.
A Simple Influencer Vetting Scorecard
You can turn the 15 checks above into a simple scoring system.
Score each creator from 1–5.
Audience relevance
Singapore audience
Demographic fit
Average content performance
Engagement quality
Content quality
Brand fit
Previous partnerships
Reliability
Commercial potential
Long-term potential
Then calculate the total.
For example:
45–55: Strong candidate
35–44: Worth further evaluation
Below 35: Consider alternative creators
This isn't a scientific formula.
It's simply a way to prevent a creator's follower count from dominating the decision.
What Information Should You Ask an Influencer For?
Before confirming a creator, ask for a media kit or creator profile containing relevant information.
Ideally, request:
Audience
Total followers
Audience location
Age
Gender
Other available demographic insights
Performance
Average views
Average reach
Engagement
Recent campaign results where available
Content
Previous brand collaborations
Relevant examples
Platform statistics
Commercial
Rates
Deliverables
Usage rights
Exclusivity
Turnaround time
The exact information available will vary by platform and creator.
Red Flags to Watch For
No single red flag automatically means you should reject a creator.
But several warning signs together deserve attention.
🚩 Extremely high follower count but consistently low views
🚩 Large amounts of generic engagement
🚩 Audience doesn't match your target market
🚩 Frequent unexplained follower spikes
🚩 Excessive sponsored content
🚩 Poor-quality previous brand collaborations
🚩 Multiple direct competitor partnerships
🚩 Consistently missed deadlines
🚩 Refusal to provide reasonable campaign information
🚩 Promises of guaranteed viral results
Be particularly cautious of anyone promising:
"This video will definitely go viral."
No legitimate influencer strategy can guarantee virality.
Don't Automatically Reject Creators With Small Audiences
Influencer vetting shouldn't become a search for the creator with the biggest numbers.
Smaller creators can be highly valuable when they have:
A highly relevant niche
Strong audience trust
Consistent content performance
High-quality storytelling
Strong community interaction
A clear connection to your target customer
For some campaigns, relevance can be more valuable than scale.
Don't Evaluate TikTok and Instagram Creators Exactly the Same Way
Different platforms have different content dynamics.
For TikTok, you may place greater emphasis on:
Video views
Content performance
Watchability
Hooks
Shares
Discovery
For Instagram, you may consider:
Reels reach
Stories
Saves
Shares
Profile activity
Audience demographics
The exact KPIs should depend on your campaign objective and platform.
Influencer Vetting for TikTok Shop Campaigns
If you're running a TikTok Shop campaign, your vetting process can become even more commercially focused.
Consider:
Previous affiliate activity
Product-category relevance
Content performance
Audience location
Product demonstration ability
Ability to create conversion-focused content
Previous sales performance where available
A creator who is excellent at entertainment content isn't automatically excellent at selling products.
For TikTok Shop campaigns, you want creators who can combine:
Attention + trust + product communication + action
Influencer Vetting for Product Launches
Product launches require an additional layer of evaluation.
Ask:
Can the creator explain the product?
A creator may be entertaining but not particularly good at product education.
Can they generate excitement?
Launch campaigns often need strong hooks and storytelling.
Can they meet deadlines?
Launch timing is usually fixed.
Does their audience overlap with the target customer?
Reach is especially important when you have a limited launch window.
Can they create different content from your other creators?
A portfolio of creators is more useful when each creator brings something distinctive.
How an Agency Can Help With Influencer Vetting
For brands managing a small campaign, influencer vetting can potentially be handled internally.
But the workload increases quickly when you're evaluating dozens or hundreds of creators.
An agency can help with:
Creator discovery
Audience analysis
Shortlisting
Campaign fit
Rate negotiation
Creator communication
Content management
Reporting
The value isn't simply having access to more influencers.
It's having a repeatable process for identifying the right creators.
How Confetti Approaches Influencer Selection
At Confetti, influencer selection shouldn't start with:
"How many followers does this person have?"
It should start with:
"Is this creator relevant to the campaign objective and target audience?"
Creator selection can take into account factors such as:
Audience relevance
Content quality
Platform
Category fit
Campaign objective
Creator style
Expected performance
Budget
This helps brands build creator campaigns based on fit and performance potential, rather than simply selecting the biggest available names.
For brands running ongoing campaigns, the strongest creators can also become part of a longer-term creator network.
Explore Confetti's Influencer Marketing Services →
A 10-Minute Influencer Vetting Process
Don't have time to analyse every possible creator in detail?
Start with this quick process.
Minute 1–2: Check audience
Is the audience in the right country and demographic?
Minute 3: Check recent views
Are their recent posts consistently performing?
Minute 4: Read comments
Does the audience appear genuine?
Minute 5: Review recent content
Is the quality appropriate for your brand?
Minute 6: Check brand collaborations
Are they promoting relevant brands?
Minute 7: Check competitors
Any obvious conflicts?
Minute 8: Evaluate content style
Can they communicate your product effectively?
Minute 9: Review commercial terms
Are deliverables and costs reasonable?
Minute 10: Make a shortlist
Classify the creator:
Strong fit / Consider / Reject
For larger campaigns, follow this with a deeper audience and performance review.
Influencer Vetting Checklist
Before approving an influencer, ask:
Audience
☐ Is their audience relevant to our target customer?
☐ Do they reach enough Singapore-based consumers?
☐ Are their demographics appropriate?
Performance
☐ Have we reviewed their recent content?
☐ Are their views reasonably consistent?
☐ Does their engagement appear genuine?
Content
☐ Is the content quality suitable for our brand?
☐ Can they communicate our product naturally?
☐ Does their content style fit the campaign?
Brand safety
☐ Have we reviewed recent content?
☐ Have we checked previous brand partnerships?
☐ Are there competitor conflicts?
Commercial
☐ Are the deliverables clearly defined?
☐ Are usage rights clear?
☐ Are exclusivity requirements clear?
☐ Is the overall cost reasonable for the expected value?
Operations
☐ Are they responsive?
☐ Can they meet the campaign timeline?
☐ Can they provide the required reporting?
Long-term
☐ Would we consider working with this creator again?
If you can't confidently answer these questions, don't rush into the collaboration.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you vet an influencer?
Start by evaluating their audience, location, demographics, recent content performance, engagement quality, content quality, brand fit, previous partnerships, reliability and commercial potential. Follower count should be only one part of the evaluation.
How can you tell if an influencer has fake followers?
No single metric proves that an influencer has fake followers. Look for multiple warning signs, including unusual follower growth, very low content views relative to audience size, suspicious engagement patterns and irrelevant comments. Requesting audience insights and reviewing historical performance can provide additional context.
What should brands look for when choosing influencers?
Brands should look for audience relevance, content quality, genuine engagement, platform suitability, brand fit, reliability and evidence that the creator can achieve the campaign's objective.
Is engagement rate important when vetting influencers?
Yes, but engagement rate shouldn't be considered in isolation. The quality of engagement, audience relevance, content performance and campaign objective are also important.
Should Singapore brands only work with Singapore influencers?
Not necessarily. The right creator depends on the campaign. However, if the objective is to reach Singapore consumers, brands should verify that the creator actually reaches a meaningful Singapore-based audience.
Is a micro-influencer better than a macro-influencer?
Neither is automatically better. Micro-influencers may offer highly relevant niche audiences, while larger creators can provide greater scale. The right choice depends on the campaign objective and target audience.
Should brands ask influencers for their analytics?
For professional campaigns, it can be reasonable to request relevant audience and performance insights, particularly when evaluating whether the creator reaches the intended audience.
How many influencers should a brand vet before selecting one?
There is no fixed number. For larger campaigns, evaluating a broader pool of potential creators can help brands compare audience relevance, content quality, performance and commercial terms before building a final shortlist.
The Right Influencer Isn't Always the Biggest Influencer
Influencer marketing works best when the creator, audience, content and campaign objective are aligned.
Before signing a creator, look beyond the follower count.
Ask:
Is this the right audience?
Is the engagement genuine?
Does the content perform consistently?
Does the creator fit our brand?
Can they communicate our product effectively?
Are they reliable?
Can this partnership generate measurable value?
And perhaps most importantly:
Would we want to work with this creator again?
A rigorous vetting process can help brands spend their influencer budget more intelligently — and build a creator network that becomes more valuable over time.
Looking for the right influencers for your next campaign?
Talk to Confetti about your influencer marketing campaign in Singapore.