How companies find the right creators: six routes and five checks

1. In short: choose the route by how much of the selection you want to do yourself, and choose the creator by the audience rather than the follower count.

There are several routes to creators, and none of them is best for everyone. The company can search a database itself, let creators apply to an open brief, go through a talent agency or a network, use a platform’s own marketplace, work through an affiliate network, or start with the people who already post about the brand [1, 2, 3]. The routes differ most in who does the selecting and how much work is left with the company.

Which creator fits is decided mainly by the audience. When Mediemyndigheten, the Swedish Agency for the Media, assessed which accounts address a Swedish audience, it went through language, content, profile and the language in the comments [1]. Age matters too. 79 percent of Swedes aged 15–24 follow an influencer, against 15 percent of those over 55, according to the Eurobarometer as cited by Mediemyndigheten [1]. If the campaign reaches children, special rules apply, among them a ban on direct exhortations to buy aimed at children under 18 [4].

The follower count says less than it seems. On TikTok, content can spread widely even without a large following, according to Mediemyndigheten [1], and both followers and engagement can be bought [5, 6]. Also look at how the creator has labelled earlier advertising, since the company that hires an influencer has the main responsibility for the marketing and cannot contract it away [7].

The rest of the article goes deeper. Section 2 compares the six routes in a table. Section 3 is about the audience’s country, language and age, and section 4 about the content and the rules for the product category. Section 5 covers followers, engagement and bought numbers, and section 6 earlier labelling, with a checklist. Section 7 describes the sources.

2. Six routes to creators differ most in who does the selecting and who does the work.

Figure 1 sets the six routes side by side, and they can be combined. Mediemyndigheten notes that besides agencies and networks there are many creators who handle their partnerships themselves [1].

Databases and search tools

There are tools that gather creator accounts and let advertisers search among them. Mediemyndigheten used such a tool to estimate the number of Swedish influencers, and itself points out that not all influencers are registered in the database [1]. The numbers in a search tool need to be read like other platform numbers: according to IAB in the US, delivery metrics are largely self-reported by the platforms, and independent auditing is limited [6].

Open brief and application

In an open model the company describes the campaign and lets creators sign up. TikTok’s marketplace TikTok One, for example, has three ways to bring creators into a project: a direct invitation, an open application where creators apply to the project themselves, and an invitation link [2]. Those who apply have already shown interest, but the selection and the review stay with the company, and the brief decides who applies.

Talent agency and network

A talent agency represents the creator. According to Mediemyndigheten, the agency often works exclusively with its talent, so partnerships normally have to go through the agency. An influencer network is also an intermediary, but the relationship is usually less exclusive, and the creator can have partnerships that do not go through the network [1]. The intermediary takes over part of the work but not the responsibility. Konsumentverket, the Swedish Consumer Agency, writes that a company’s legal responsibility for its marketing cannot be contracted away to, for example, influencers or intermediaries [10].

The platforms’ marketplaces

TikTok One is TikTok’s own platform for partnerships between brands and creators. According to TikTok, the advertiser can search by username or keyword and filter on, among other things, the creator’s country, language and follower count, the audience’s country, age and gender ratio, and median video views and engagement rate [8]. The payment is held by the platform and paid out to the creator once the advertiser has approved the video and it has been published [2].

Creators must be at least 18 and TikTok One must have launched in their country, and taking part in projects requires at least 1,000 followers [9]. The advertiser only sees creators and projects in the region the account is set to, and on the pages we have read TikTok does not state which countries are included [2, 9].

Affiliate networks

According to Mediemyndigheten, affiliate networks mainly offer systems that show which creator passed on a click or a purchase, and that then handle commission and payment [1]. Posts with affiliate links can be advertising that must be labelled, and TikTok counts posts where the creator earns a commission through an affiliate link or promo code as branded content [11, 12]. In a review of Instagram posts from January to July 2023 by influencers working with securities firms, Konsumentverket found posts with affiliate links that were not labelled as advertising at all [13].

Customers and followers who already post

The last route starts with the people who already talk about the brand. TikTok describes a tool in TikTok One, in global beta, for finding existing videos about a brand and getting the creator’s permission to use them in ads [3]. As soon as the company gives something back, the post can become advertising. Payment can be goods, trips and services [11], and agreements can be implied [10]. On posts about a company’s PR packages, Konsumentverket writes that responsibility has not been tried in court, but that it cannot be ruled out that the Marketing Act applies [10].

3. The right audience means the right country, the right language and the right age, and it can be checked before first contact.

Country and language

A Swedish creator does not necessarily have a Swedish audience. Mediemyndigheten points out, for example, that the market figures from IRM, which measures the Swedish advertising market, lack data on Swedish influencers who address a global audience [1]. When the agency selected accounts that mainly address a Swedish audience, it made an overall assessment of the accounts’ language, content, profile and the audience’s visible interaction, for example the language in the comment sections [1].

A company can do the same review itself on the creator’s account. On a marketplace such as TikTok One, the audience’s country, age and gender ratio are also available as filters and in the creator’s profile [8].

Platform and age

Where the audience is depends on age. According to Nordicom’s Mediebarometern 2025, as cited by Mediemyndigheten, 20 percent of the population use TikTok on an average day, but 70 percent of 15–24-year-olds. Among 65–85-year-olds, Facebook is the largest, at 60 percent [1]. According to the 2025 Eurobarometer, 43 percent of Swedes follow an influencer, but the share is highest among the youngest [1].

When the audience is young

Mediemyndigheten notes that children and young people make up a large part of the audience [1]. If the marketing is likely to reach children, the advertising label must be suitable and clear for a child. The company may not direct exhortations to buy at children under 18, nor urge children to persuade their parents to buy [4]. TikTok’s rules for branded content also forbid creators to exhort children to buy [12]. A creator with a young audience therefore does not suit every product or message.

When the creator is under 18

The creator’s own age matters too. Under the Children and Parents Code, a person under 18 is a minor and may not personally take on obligations, beyond what follows from law or certain specific conditions [14]. TikTok One requires creators to be at least 18 [9]. The article does not go into how agreements with creators who are minors should be made.

4. The content has to fit both the creator’s own tone and the platform’s rules for your product category.

Mediemyndigheten describes how partnerships usually work. The advertiser gives guidelines on, for example, the message, tags and the number of posts, but the creator often has some room to adapt the content to their own tone. The content should ideally feel relevant and natural to the followers, which the agency calls a central factor for engagement and credibility [1]. So look at the creator’s latest posts before you get in touch. TikTok gives the same advice in TikTok One: watch the creator’s recent organic and sponsored videos to judge style, quality and how well they fit the brand [8].

Size is also a question of content. According to a large influencer network, as cited by Mediemyndigheten, the trend is towards niches and communities around a shared interest, where smaller profiles can hit exactly the right target group, while larger creators are used for reach [1].

The product category can close a platform completely. Under TikTok’s branded content policy, in force from 31 August 2026, branded content for among other things alcohol, gambling, financial services such as loans and insurance, over-the-counter and prescription medicines, vitamin supplements and dating apps is not allowed in Sweden [12]. So check the product category against the platform’s rules before you choose a creator.

5. The follower count says less than who follows and how they react, and both followers and engagement can be bought.

Followers

The follower count is the number you see first, but it says little about how far a single post reaches. TikTok is, according to Mediemyndigheten, largely a recommendation- and interest-based medium, where content can spread widely even without a very large following [1]. The follower count is still tied to the money: according to IRM’s figures for 2022, 44 percent of influencers’ sponsorship revenue went to those with more than 100,000 followers and 8 percent to those with fewer than 10,000 [1]. Follower figures also change all the time [1].

Engagement

Engagement shows how the audience has reacted. According to Mediemyndigheten, campaigns are followed up on, among other things, engagement rate, which is based on likes, comments and shares [1]. In TikTok One, creators can be filtered and sorted by median video views and engagement rate, and TikTok suggests that the advertiser looks at how followers, views and engagement have developed over time to judge how consistent the results are [8]. We have found no independent benchmarks for a good engagement rate, so the article gives none. Compare creators on the same platform and within the same topic instead.

Bought followers and fake engagement

Both followers and engagement can be bought. TikTok’s guidelines count buying or selling followers or engagement as spam and do not allow trade in services that artificially boost engagement. If TikTok detects accounts or content with inauthentic metrics, fake likes, followers and other inflated signals are removed [5]. According to IAB in the US, fake followers, bots and engagement manipulation persist, and independent auditing of the platforms’ numbers is limited [6].

Authorities have treated bought numbers as misleading. In the Netherlands, the consumer authority ACM in 2021 forced the online store behind a well-known Dutch influencer to stop using fake likes and followers. The company had bought 98,000 followers and 27,000 likes between 2018 and 2020, which according to ACM misled consumers [15]. We have found no Swedish authority source on bought followers, nor independent sources on how to recognise them. Vendors’ rules of thumb give no method and are not repeated here. Ask for statistics directly from the platform rather than for screenshots.

6. Look at how the creator has labelled earlier advertising, because the responsibility for the next post lies with your company.

The company that hires an influencer has the main responsibility for the marketing and cannot contract it away, not even for parts the creator makes on their own initiative. Influencers and intermediaries can share responsibility in parallel [7]. Breaches cannot be undone afterwards, and Konsumentverket writes that a working review of advertising is therefore important [10]. The creator’s earlier labelling therefore belongs in the selection.

The shortcomings are common. In April 2026, Konsumentverket sent supervisory letters to some 40 influencers and advertisers after spot checks on TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and Snapchat. The agency found that very many influencers run hidden advertising, and that both advertisers and the influencers’ own companies risk legal action [16].

So go through some of the creator’s earlier partnerships. The industry recommendation of January 2026, issued by Sveriges Kommunikationsbyråer, Sveriges Annonsörer (now Brand Marketing Sweden) and IAB Sverige, suggests labels such as “Reklam från X” (advertising from X), “Marknadsföring från X” (marketing from X) or “Betalt samarbete med X” (paid partnership with X), and advises against “i samarbete med” (in collaboration with). The label must be visible at once, and if it is placed in a text it should open the text. The platforms’ own labels are not always enough [11]. Konsumentverket writes that advertising posts should be labelled with the word “reklam” (advertising) [10]. If earlier partnerships lack a label, or it sits far down in the text, that is something to raise before the contract is signed.

Figure 2 gathers the checks from sections 3 to 6.

7. About this article: authority sources for the actors and the rules, the platform’s own pages for the tools.

The article was compiled in October 2026 from published sources, read on 15 October 2026. The description of the intermediaries comes from Mediemyndigheten’s 2026 report, and the rules from Konsumentverket, the Children and Parents Code and the industry recommendation on advertising labels. Every source is tagged by what it is. “TikTok” marks TikTok’s own pages, which describe TikTok’s own service and rules. “Independent” marks authorities, legal text, industry bodies and the Dutch consumer authority.

What is not covered

The article does not rank the routes and names no vendors apart from TikTok One, which, in TikTok’s own words, serves as the example of a platform’s marketplace. Other platforms’ similar services were not part of the review. The article gives no benchmarks for engagement rate or prices, because we have found no independent ones. It does not cover how Swedish law views bought followers or how agreements with creators who are minors should be drawn up, because that requires a legal assessment. The text on laws and authority guidance is a summary, not legal advice.

Limitations

TikTok’s pages on TikTok One do not state which countries the service is available in, so we cannot say whether it can be used in Sweden. Mediemyndigheten’s description of networks and niches rests partly on an interview with an influencer network, and its figures on revenue by follower count are for 2022. The Eurobarometer and Nordicom figures are cited via Mediemyndigheten’s report. The ACM case is Dutch and from 2021. The tables in Figure 1 and Figure 2 are partly our summary, and we have not measured how many people search for the topic.