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’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. Once you have a shortlist, how to track competitors on TikTok uses the same data to watch them over time, and how to analyse TikTok 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).

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.

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, and profile collection in how to scrape TikTok profiles and their videos.

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.
• 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).