Influencer marketing is predicted to grow into a $2.38b industry by 2019. In our last post, we uncovered the fact that 86% of Influencer’s posts in Southeast Asia are not compliant with Facebook’s branded content policy. So we have a long way to go before the industry becomes mature.

Today we’ll look into what kind of tools you can use to get better results from your influencer marketing campaigns. We know finding influencers that fit your brand is not always a big task but imagine if you have to manually look for 100 influencers for your next event? It could be a pain to even begin. It’s not just about matching industry but also matching the personalities to the brands or even to the brand’s values and beliefs.

Disclaimer: as usual, our suggestions are genuine, honest, and based on our personal experience as marketers. We did not receive anything from the companies mentioned, and do not intend to change our commitment to honesty in our future reviews.

As part of our online influencer company search, we have identified more than a dozen companies who offer services around influencers. These five companies here offer some form of free usage of their platform, so we are sharing them with you.

We looked at six criteria that we, as marketers, find relevant:

1. How many social platforms do they cover?
2. How easy is to find the right influencers to work with?
3. Is the tool or website user friendly?
4. What sets them apart from competitors?
5. How can we measure campaign performance?
6. How much does it cost?

Let’s get to it!

1. HYPR

HYPR is a New York based company which may be one of the oldest in a game that was already established in 2013.

Pros:

• Information about the influencer’s audience is available including gender, age and location demographics (and for the US only they  even have household income)
• They claim to be the biggest influencer database in the world, with over 10 million accounts from over 35 databases. That’s a bold statement to make, and great if it’s true.
• Covers YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
• You can build influencer lists for your campaigns.

Cons:

• Measurement features are not currently available but are “coming soon”.
• There is an account manager assigned to you, but there is no info about whether they are a marketer or a fresh grad (more common in the industry).

Best feature:

The size of the database is really appealing, especially when you don’t market in US alone.

Pricing:

You do get a 30-day free trial without your credit card info being required, after the trial they offer annual subscription packages.

BrandHero rating: 4/5

2. Scrunch

Just like HYPR, Scrunch aims to help brands connect with influencers in a well-suited partnership and claim to make data streamlined, simple and truly accurate.

Pros:

• Information about the influencer’s audience is available on paid plans.
• They profile influencers from Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and even blogs.
• Provides an estimated cost per post (USD) for each influencer.
• You can build influencer lists for your campaigns.
• You can contact influencers directly on paid plans.

Cons:

• Not designed for the Asian market and the influencers list is not as comprehensive.
• The interface is confusing.
• Engagement rates are tagged very vaguely as “Low”, “Good”, “High” and “Very High”.  

Best feature:

It gives you an idea in terms of budgeting and cost per influencer per post and allows brands to contact the influencers directly without any third party involvement.

Pricing:

Even though Scrunch doesn’t provide an audience analysis per influencer like HYPR does, it is free forever unless you decide to upgrade your plan, plans start at USD99 and go up to USD299 per month.

BrandHero rating: 4/5

3. Popular Chips

Popular Chips is a Singapore based company that claims to have created “a proprietary Influencer Search Engine and Analytics Platform that provides data-driven solutions for brands and agencies”.

But unfortunately, we will never get to try it, we’ve contacted them and tried to book a demo, although we have waited for over two weeks their team has not got back to us.

So, we did some digging on their website.

Pros:

• Provides in-depth influencer analysis for international celebrities. Example, Selena Gomez, Taylor Swift, etc.

Cons:

• Misleading text and broken links. Headline: “Singapore’s Top Instagram Influencers” but the data shows Instagram accounts with the most followers from Singapore.
• Does not respond to enquiries even though they promise to respond within 24 hours.

Best feature:

We can’t say whether Popular Chips is worth a try as we haven’t been able to talk to them directly.

BrandHero rating: 1/5

4. FameBit

FameBit, by YouTube, is a California based company for brands that want to connect with YouTube influencers.

Pros:

• Brands can launch campaigns and receive proposals for free.
• The website is easy to navigate.
• Focuses on YouTube only which is great for brands with bigger budget campaigns.

Cons:

• Relatively difficult to search for influencers.
• Does not include other social media channels.
• Paying a 10% service fee may be a bit hefty for both brands and influencers.

Best feature:

Focus on YouTube only.

Pricing:

FameBit charges a 10% service fee if both ends are happy with the campaign.

BrandHero rating: 3/5

5. Influence.co

Unlike the rest we’ve reviewed, Influence.co is a platform that allows brands to post campaigns that influencers can apply for. The company claims that they don’t run campaigns or represent any influencers on their site.

Pros:

• Free to use.
• Influencer profiles includes brands they have previously worked with.
• Provides an estimated cost per post for each influencer.

Cons:

• A complex interface.
• Only focuses on the US market.
• Lack of influencers and influencer’s audience analysis.

Best feature:

Brands will have an idea of the estimated cost per influencer per post (USD) upfront before contacting the influencer.

Pricing:

They do offer different price ranges for individuals, businesses, agencies and even influencers starting from USD4 per month.

BrandHero rating: 1/5

TL;DR

Every platform definitely has its own uniqueness and the choice between them obviously depends on the objectives for your influencer campaigns. All these tools are a guide and a stepping stone to get you started but there is no easy way, it’s just countless hours of stalking and experience being in the industry.

In our opinion, micro-influencers are on the rise, companies that provide services like this should provide a variety of options. And there is definitely a huge gap in the APAC markets as the majority of these services cater mainly to the US and European markets.

If you would like us to review more marketing tools out there, do let us know so we can save you the time and hassle.

Disclaimer: The BrandHero rating is a subjective score based purely on our personal experience. We have yet to try out all of the similar services in the market.