the spreadsheet isn't the enemy. it's just doing ten jobs it was never built for.
most influencer marketing runs on instagram in one tab, a creator's profile in another, and a sheet with more tabs than anyone remembers. it works, right up until someone leaves, a client asks a question, or two people email the same creator.
job by job
where the sheet holds up, and where it doesn't.| the job | instagram + a sheet | influencer searcher |
|---|---|---|
| finding creators | search, hashtags, the explore page, and whoever the last one followed. slow, but you do find people. | filter 35,000 instagram creators we've checked by niche, country, size and engagement. or keep browsing instagram and tiktok exactly as you do now, with the engagement numbers on the profile. |
| checking they're worth it | eyeball the likes, do the engagement maths by hand, or paste the handle into a free calculator. | engagement calculated for you, plus how their sponsored posts perform, usually the number that changes your mind. |
| knowing who they've worked with | scroll their grid and hope you spot the #ad. gifted posts often aren't labelled at all, so you simply won't see them. | their brand history in a list: which brands, paid, affiliate or gifted, and when. checked by a person, not guessed from a caption. this is the bit a sheet genuinely cannot do. |
| building the list | copy the handle, paste it in, type the follower count, paste the link, repeat forty times. this is where the evening goes. | one button on the profile. the stats come with it. |
| getting it signed off | share the sheet and hope they don't edit the wrong cell, open the tab with your margins on it, or read the note where someone called their brand boring. or rebuild it in slides the night before. then chase the reply. | send a link to a client, your boss, whoever signs it off. no account needed. they approve or reject each creator and say why. your rationale sits next to each name, and you can push back on a rejection. |
| outreach | copy each email out of the sheet, paste into gmail, personalise, send, tick the column. sometimes. | email the approved names from your own gmail or outlook. you're still the sender, replies come to you. |
| not contacting the same person twice | a "contacted?" column that's only as honest as the last person to update it. | the workspace knows who's already been approached, and by whom. coming |
| avoiding a conflict between clients | somebody has to remember that this creator did a campaign for the competitor last spring. | flagged on the profile, before you put them in front of the wrong client. coming |
| when someone leaves | the sheet stays. the context leaves with them: why that creator was rejected, what they charged, who they are. | notes, rates and history sit against the creator, so the next person inherits the reasoning rather than the rows. |
| cost | free, plus a few hours a week per person. | free to start. £49 solo, £149 team, £349 agency. cancel in one click. |
where the sheet still wins
it's free, everyone already knows how to use it, and it will bend into any shape you need at two in the morning. if you run two campaigns a year, a sheet is genuinely the right tool and we'd rather you kept it than paid us out of guilt.
the case for moving is narrower than most software companies would admit: it's worth it when more than one person touches the list, when a client has to approve it, or when you need to know what a creator did before you found them. that's when a sheet starts costing more than it saves.
and you don't have to abandon it. export whenever you like and take everything with you if you leave. free, at every tier, including the free one. importing what you've already got is coming
try it against your current sheet.
send us a live brief and we'll build the shortlist alongside however you'd normally do it. if ours isn't better, you've lost twenty minutes and gained a shortlist.