Bigger creators, worse results
Went into this thinking reach mattered most. Went after a couple of accounts with solid followings, figuring more eyes meant more signups.
The results were flat. Turned out the audience was broad but not particularly interested in what we were building. A much smaller creator, tightly focused on the exact niche, brought in fewer views but far more people who actually stuck around.
Made us rethink the whole approach. Reach was never really the variable that mattered. Relevance was.
Still feels counterintuitive every time a bigger number looks more impressive on paper. That’s part of why we’ve been building matching around relevance instead of reach, using data to help founders find the creator whose audience actually fits, instead of just chasing follower count.
What would be a no-brainer for you?
For realll bro
This matches what I'm seeing with my own product (rental management for small self-managing landlords). It's such a tight niche that a big real-estate account would be mostly noise for me — the people I need are watching some 8k-subscriber landlord on YouTube who explains rent spreadsheets, not a property influencer with 500k followers.
The no-brainer for me: let me paste my landing page URL and get back a shortlist of creators whose audience actually overlaps with it — with some evidence of the overlap, not just follower counts and engagement rate. I don't have budget to test blind, so the pitch that would get me to pay isn't "access to creators," it's "we already did the relevance filtering, here are the 3 worth your money." Pay per booked collaboration, zero subscription until something converts.
Bonus if I could see what a creator's audience actually converts on — a creator who's sent traffic to other B2B/SaaS tools before is worth 10x one who's never sold anything to their audience.
thanks a lot for your input, Lando, I can assure you we will take it into account! the no brainers for you: when you fill your details, you already have to put your url so other creators can explore it, and as so do, you are getting matched with creators that fit YOU. once you are in, yo can apply and talk to them (we don't care about follower count. for us is: type of deal, audience -in your case real-estate, and much much more). You don't need a budget test it, because, for the moment it's free. To sum up: aproov was born in the exact idea you propose: "here you have your top 3 creators worth your money, or what you can offer. To be honest, for the moment, we don't have creator in your niche (real estate), we will look to incorporate someone soon for you, so for the moment, you can explore the platform and if wished, try a creator (we have someone from LinkedIn that could, just could, fit you). Have I answered anything? I hope so. again, thanks a lot for your input.
Love to try your sevices and provide genuine feedback. all the best
love you to try it, help distribute your product and hear ALL your feedback/request. don't hesitate to dm me (you even have a "feedback" button on the landing page. all the best to you too!
so true. niche over reach. congrats
exactly. thanks juliano
here to answer anything
the "bigger number looks more impressive on paper" line is the trap, it's so hard to argue for the smaller creator in a room. and yeah, flat results from a big broad audience is a lesson that only really lands after you've paid for it once.
The no-brainer would be evidence of audience-to-problem fit before I ever talk to the creator: 3 sample posts where their audience asked about the problem, plus a suggested offer/test. Follower count is a proxy, but repeated pain language in the replies is the real signal.
It depends on what you’re selling and who you plan to sell it to. If you’re selling adult diapers for the elderly, you don’t need an influencer.
of course. but if you do need one for your product, bigger doesn't mean better