# How to Find TikTok Influencers by Niche With Data

To find TikTok influencers by niche with data, collect the top videos for your niche's keywords and hashtags, extract the creators behind them, then score each creator on follower count, median views and engagement rate from their recent videos.

[![apidojo](/blog/authors/apidojo.png)**Apidojo** *15+ years of experience in data retrieval.*](/blog/authors/apidojo/)

**12 October 2026** Published

**3 min** Read

![Cover card reading 'How to Find TikTok Influencers by Niche With Data'](/blog/covers/find-influencers.png)

**To find TikTok influencers by niche with data, collect the top videos for your niche’s keywords and hashtags, extract the creators behind them, then score each creator on follower count, median views and engagement rate from their recent videos.** apidojo’s TikTok actors on Apify handle both steps at $0.30 per 1,000 posts, so a 50-creator shortlist costs a few dollars.

Follower count alone is a poor guide: a creator with 20,000 followers can outperform one with 500,000 in your niche. This guide builds a shortlist from evidence, step by step. The trend-monitoring setup it builds on is in [how to monitor TikTok trends with an API](/blog/tiktok-scraping/monitor-trends/). Once you have a shortlist, [how to track competitors on TikTok](/blog/tiktok-scraping/track-competitors/) uses the same data to watch them over time, and [how to analyse TikTok comment sentiment](/blog/tiktok-scraping/comment-sentiment/) checks how their audiences react.

## Step 1: Find Creators Through Your Niche’s Content

**Start from content, not names: search your niche’s keywords and hashtags, sorted by likes, and collect the creators behind the top videos.** Each video result carries a `channel` object with the creator’s username, follower count and bio ([Apify](https://apify.com/apidojo/tiktok-scraper)).

```
from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN")
run = client.actor("apidojo/tiktok-scraper").call(run_input={
    "keywords": ["sourdough recipe", "bread baking"],
    "sortType": "MOST_LIKED",
    "location": "US",
    "maxItems": 1000,
})

creators = {}
for v in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    ch = v["channel"]
    creators.setdefault(ch["username"], ch)
print(len(creators), "creators found")
```

The search method itself is covered in [how to scrape TikTok search results](/blog/tiktok-scraping/scrape-search-results/).

## Step 2: Filter by Size

**Filter the list to the follower range your budget and goals fit.** The tiers below are the ones commonly used in influencer marketing.

| Tier | Followers | Typical strength |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Nano | 1,000 to 10,000 | Close community, low cost |
| Micro | 10,000 to 100,000 | Niche authority, strong engagement |
| Mid-tier | 100,000 to 500,000 | Reach with focus |
| Macro | 500,000 to 1 million | Broad reach |
| Mega | Over 1 million | Mass awareness |

## Step 3: Score Creators on Their Recent Videos

**Collect each shortlisted creator’s last 20 to 30 videos and compute median views and median engagement rate, which show what a sponsored post is likely to get.** Medians resist one viral outlier.

```
import pandas as pd

shortlist = [u for u, ch in creators.items() if 10_000 <= ch["followers"] <= 500_000][:50]
run = client.actor("apidojo/tiktok-profile-scraper").call(run_input={
    "usernames": shortlist,
    "maxItems": 30 * len(shortlist),
})
df = pd.json_normalize(list(client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items()))
df["er"] = (df["likes"] + df["comments"] + df["shares"] + df["bookmarks"]) / df["views"] * 100

scores = df.groupby("channel.username").agg(
    followers=("channel.followers", "max"),
    median_views=("views", "median"),
    median_er=("er", "median"),
    posts=("id", "count"),
)
scores["views_per_follower"] = scores["median_views"] / scores["followers"]
print(scores.sort_values("median_er", ascending=False).head(20))
```

The engagement rate formula and 2026 benchmarks are in [how to calculate TikTok engagement rate](/blog/tiktok-analytics/engagement-rate/), and profile collection in [how to scrape TikTok profiles and their videos](/blog/tiktok-scraping/scrape-profiles/).

## Step 4: Check for Red Flags

**Before contacting anyone, check for signs of bought or inactive audiences.** Listed below are the 5 red flags.

-   **Very low views for the follower count**, such as 200,000 followers and 1,500 median views.
-   **Engagement that’s suspiciously high or uniform** across every video.
-   **Generic, repetitive comments** like strings of emoji from unrelated accounts; read them with [how to scrape TikTok comments and replies](/blog/tiktok-scraping/scrape-comments/).
-   **Sudden follower jumps** with no viral video to explain them.
-   **Off-niche content**, which means your audience overlap is smaller than it looks.

## What Does Influencer Research Cost?

**The workflow above, 1,000 search results plus 30 videos each for 50 creators, collects 2,500 posts and costs $0.75 at $0.30 per 1,000 posts.** Comment checks on the finalists add $0.30 per 1,000 comments (Apify, [Apify](https://apify.com/apidojo/tiktok-comments-scraper)).

## The scrapers behind this

-   [TikTok Scraper Profiles, videos, hashtags, music and locations; 460 posts/sec measured $0.30 / 1K posts](/scrapers/tiktok-scraper/)
-   [TikTok Comments Scraper Comments, likes and replies from video URLs; 100–200 comments/sec $0.30 / 1K comments](/scrapers/tiktok-comments-scraper/)

## Questions people ask

### What is a good engagement rate for a TikTok influencer?

By views, around 4% is average in 2026; see [how to calculate TikTok engagement rate](/blog/tiktok-analytics/engagement-rate/).

### Can you find TikTok influencers by country?

Yes, set `location` on the search step and check creators' bios and languages.

### Can you see an influencer's audience demographics?

No, demographics are private to the creator; ask them for a TikTok Studio screenshot.

### Where do you start?

At [how to scrape TikTok data in 2026](/blog/tiktok-scraping/how-to-scrape-tiktok/).

## More on monitoring TikTok with data

-   [How to Monitor TikTok Trends With an API Build a TikTok trend monitor for hashtags, sounds and keywords: Python code, the growth signals that matter, alerts and costs.](/blog/tiktok-scraping/monitor-trends/)
-   [How to Track Competitors on TikTok Track rival TikTok accounts weekly: posting volume, median views, engagement, top posts, formats and follower growth, with Python.](/blog/tiktok-scraping/track-competitors/)
-   [How to Analyse TikTok Comment Sentiment Export TikTok comments, split them by language, score sentiment with VADER, weight by likes and find what people talk about.](/blog/tiktok-scraping/comment-sentiment/)
-   [How to Build a TikTok Dataset for AI and Research Collect TikTok captions, subtitles, comments and engagement as JSON Lines for AI and research, and know the rules that apply.](/blog/tiktok-scraping/ai-research-dataset/)

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