Feb 28, 2025
7 MIN READ
INFLUENCER MARKETING
INFLUENCER MARKETING
How to Find Fake Followers: The Ultimate Guide for Marketers
How to Find Fake Followers: The Ultimate Guide for Marketers
How to Find Fake Followers: The Ultimate Guide for Marketers
Aishwarya Taskar
Aishwarya Taskar
Aishwarya Taskar
Aishwarya Taskar
Content Marketer @impulze.ai
Blog in Short ⏱️
Blog in Short ⏱️
A quick glance at the highlights—perfect for when you're short on time.
A quick glance at the highlights—perfect for when you're short on time.
Many influencers buy fake followers to boost their credibility and increase their rates, but these fake accounts offer no real engagement or value for brands.
Signs of fake followers include inactive accounts, spammy comments, and a mismatch between follower count and engagement levels.
Checking engagement rates, monitoring follower growth patterns, and using tools like impulze.ai can help find fake followers. impulze.ai’s influencer report provides insights on follower authenticity and audience demographics to help brands make informed decisions.
Whether you admire them or find them overrated, there’s no denying that influencers are experts at what they do. Good influencer marketing can work wonderfully for brands looking to expand their reach, generate compelling user-generated content, or build stronger connections with customers!
But there’s a growing issue in the influencer marketing world—buying followers.
Why do influencers do this? And how does it even work?
This blog discusses how influencers buy fake followers and how to find out if an influencer has done so.
Fake Followers: A Common Practice
You might be surprised to learn that purchasing followers is a common practice, even among well-known influencers. It’s incredibly easy, with countless websites offering bulk Instagram likes and followers at low prices.
The reason is simple. An influencer’s market value largely depends on their follower count. The bigger their audience, the higher their rates. By artificially inflating their numbers, they appear more influential than they actually are, which can mislead brands looking to collaborate.
For businesses, this means being extra cautious when choosing influencers. If an influencer has a large percentage of fake followers, their engagement will be lower, reducing the value they bring to a campaign.
How To Find Fake Followers
If your brand is exploring partnerships with influencers, finding fake followers should be a key part of your vetting process. Here are some effective ways to find fake followers:
1. Recognizing The Signs:
Before reaching out to an influencer, take a closer look at their followers. Fake profiles often follow a predictable pattern, making them relatively easy to spot.
Here’s what to watch for:
Followers with no profile pictures or posts: Accounts that have never shared content or lack profile images are often fake. Also, be wary of influencers followed by an unusually high number of private accounts or those with odd, spam-like usernames.
Comments that seem irrelevant or spammy: High engagement might look promising, but take a moment to read through the comments. If you see random strings of emojis, generic phrases, or nonsensical text, those interactions are likely from bots.
Connections to ‘fan-buying’ services: Check both who they follow and who follows them. If you spot accounts promoting follower-buying services, that’s a major red flag.
2. Evaluating Engagement Levels:
An influencer’s engagement rate should align with their follower count. If they have a massive following but very few interactions, it’s a strong indication that many of their followers aren’t real.
To calculate engagement, divide the total number of likes and comments on recent posts by their total follower count. Multiply by 100 to get the engagement rate percentage. If this number is suspiciously low, their follower base may not be genuine. You can also use engagement rate calculators for Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube for instant data.
Even if their engagement rate seems normal, take a moment to review the comments. Do they sound authentic, or do they read like bot-generated responses?
3. Using a Tool To Find Fake Followers
Manually reviewing an influencer’s audience seems time-consuming. Influencer marketing tools like impulze.ai can help you detect influencers with fake followers in seconds.
Here’s how: use our influencer report.
Suppose you’re considering working with an Instagram influencer like Andrew Coates and want to check if he has bought followers. Once you click on ‘View Report’ under an influencer’s name, it’ll open up such a report.
Every report shows such a graph with four categories. Here’s what these categories mean:
Real Followers: Real followers are Instagram users with less than 1500 followers. These are usually people who use Instagram for personal purposes.
Influencers: These are other influencers who follow Andrew.
Mass Followers: Mass followers are Instagram users with more than 1500 followers.
Suspicious Followers: impulze.ai’s machine learning algorithms scan and process millions of profiles to look into the profile characteristics and can differentiate and predict a bot profile. This category shows the followers that our algorithm identifies as ‘suspicious.’
Check for a high percentage of suspicious followers to spot influencers with fake followers. You can also use the graph in this report to check for unusual follower growth.
A healthy social media following grows steadily over time. Influencers gain followers through regular content creation, engagement, and collaborations. If an account suddenly gains thousands of followers overnight with no viral post to explain the spike, chances are those followers were purchased.
The report also shows the credibility score of an influencer at the top of an influencer report. See this score to quickly figure out the quality of an influencer’s audience.
The credibility score is an aggregative metric derived from analyzing the follower growth pattern and the types of followers (real, mass, suspicious, and influencers) of the influencer. A credibility score of 80% and above is good; you should consider working with such an influencer.
Apart from this, the influencer report shows other insights about audience demographics which can help you figure out if the influencer would be a good fit for your campaign.
Final Thoughts
Collaborating with influencers who buy followers may not be the best investment and could impact your brand’s credibility. If you’re considering working with influencers, scrutinizing follower authenticity, engagement levels, and growth patterns can help separate real influence from artificial hype.
impulze.ai’s influencer report can help you be thorough while analyzing influencers. Use our 14-day free trial to see how the app can help you find fake followers and choose the right influencers.
Whether you admire them or find them overrated, there’s no denying that influencers are experts at what they do. Good influencer marketing can work wonderfully for brands looking to expand their reach, generate compelling user-generated content, or build stronger connections with customers!
But there’s a growing issue in the influencer marketing world—buying followers.
Why do influencers do this? And how does it even work?
This blog discusses how influencers buy fake followers and how to find out if an influencer has done so.
Fake Followers: A Common Practice
You might be surprised to learn that purchasing followers is a common practice, even among well-known influencers. It’s incredibly easy, with countless websites offering bulk Instagram likes and followers at low prices.
The reason is simple. An influencer’s market value largely depends on their follower count. The bigger their audience, the higher their rates. By artificially inflating their numbers, they appear more influential than they actually are, which can mislead brands looking to collaborate.
For businesses, this means being extra cautious when choosing influencers. If an influencer has a large percentage of fake followers, their engagement will be lower, reducing the value they bring to a campaign.
How To Find Fake Followers
If your brand is exploring partnerships with influencers, finding fake followers should be a key part of your vetting process. Here are some effective ways to find fake followers:
1. Recognizing The Signs:
Before reaching out to an influencer, take a closer look at their followers. Fake profiles often follow a predictable pattern, making them relatively easy to spot.
Here’s what to watch for:
Followers with no profile pictures or posts: Accounts that have never shared content or lack profile images are often fake. Also, be wary of influencers followed by an unusually high number of private accounts or those with odd, spam-like usernames.
Comments that seem irrelevant or spammy: High engagement might look promising, but take a moment to read through the comments. If you see random strings of emojis, generic phrases, or nonsensical text, those interactions are likely from bots.
Connections to ‘fan-buying’ services: Check both who they follow and who follows them. If you spot accounts promoting follower-buying services, that’s a major red flag.
2. Evaluating Engagement Levels:
An influencer’s engagement rate should align with their follower count. If they have a massive following but very few interactions, it’s a strong indication that many of their followers aren’t real.
To calculate engagement, divide the total number of likes and comments on recent posts by their total follower count. Multiply by 100 to get the engagement rate percentage. If this number is suspiciously low, their follower base may not be genuine. You can also use engagement rate calculators for Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube for instant data.
Even if their engagement rate seems normal, take a moment to review the comments. Do they sound authentic, or do they read like bot-generated responses?
3. Using a Tool To Find Fake Followers
Manually reviewing an influencer’s audience seems time-consuming. Influencer marketing tools like impulze.ai can help you detect influencers with fake followers in seconds.
Here’s how: use our influencer report.
Suppose you’re considering working with an Instagram influencer like Andrew Coates and want to check if he has bought followers. Once you click on ‘View Report’ under an influencer’s name, it’ll open up such a report.
Every report shows such a graph with four categories. Here’s what these categories mean:
Real Followers: Real followers are Instagram users with less than 1500 followers. These are usually people who use Instagram for personal purposes.
Influencers: These are other influencers who follow Andrew.
Mass Followers: Mass followers are Instagram users with more than 1500 followers.
Suspicious Followers: impulze.ai’s machine learning algorithms scan and process millions of profiles to look into the profile characteristics and can differentiate and predict a bot profile. This category shows the followers that our algorithm identifies as ‘suspicious.’
Check for a high percentage of suspicious followers to spot influencers with fake followers. You can also use the graph in this report to check for unusual follower growth.
A healthy social media following grows steadily over time. Influencers gain followers through regular content creation, engagement, and collaborations. If an account suddenly gains thousands of followers overnight with no viral post to explain the spike, chances are those followers were purchased.
The report also shows the credibility score of an influencer at the top of an influencer report. See this score to quickly figure out the quality of an influencer’s audience.
The credibility score is an aggregative metric derived from analyzing the follower growth pattern and the types of followers (real, mass, suspicious, and influencers) of the influencer. A credibility score of 80% and above is good; you should consider working with such an influencer.
Apart from this, the influencer report shows other insights about audience demographics which can help you figure out if the influencer would be a good fit for your campaign.
Final Thoughts
Collaborating with influencers who buy followers may not be the best investment and could impact your brand’s credibility. If you’re considering working with influencers, scrutinizing follower authenticity, engagement levels, and growth patterns can help separate real influence from artificial hype.
impulze.ai’s influencer report can help you be thorough while analyzing influencers. Use our 14-day free trial to see how the app can help you find fake followers and choose the right influencers.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you know if an influencer is credible?
How do you know if an influencer is credible?
How do you know if an influencer is credible?
What is the best platform to find influencers?
What is the best platform to find influencers?
What is the best platform to find influencers?
Do influencers use fake followers?
Do influencers use fake followers?
Do influencers use fake followers?
What is the best fake followers checker?
What is the best fake followers checker?
What is the best fake followers checker?
How to detect fake influencers?
How to detect fake influencers?
How to detect fake influencers?
How can you tell if a follower is real or fake?
How can you tell if a follower is real or fake?
How can you tell if a follower is real or fake?
Is impulze.ai free?
Is impulze.ai free?
Is impulze.ai free?
Author Bio
Author Bio
Aishwarya Taskar
Aishwarya Taskar
Aishwarya Taskar is a full-time writer. She has studied journalism and marketing. In her free time, she loves watching films and spending time with animals. You can learn more about her here.
Aishwarya Taskar is a full-time writer. She has studied journalism and marketing. In her free time, she loves watching films and spending time with animals. You can learn more about her here.
We Also Recommend To Read
Find, analyze, and contact influencers from a database of over 250 million profiles.
Find, analyze, and contact influencers from a database of over 250 million profiles.
Find, analyze, and contact influencers from a database of over 250 million profiles.
14-Day Free Trial. No Credit-Card Needed
Join over 15000+ SocialiQ users who have installed this free Chrome extension to search, analyze, save, and contact influencers directly on TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram.
20K+ Active Users
May be Later
Join over 15000+ SocialiQ users who have installed this free Chrome extension to search, analyze, save, and contact influencers directly on TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram.
20K+ Active Users
May be Later
Join over 15000+ SocialiQ users who have installed this free Chrome extension to search, analyze, save, and contact influencers directly on TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram.
20K+ Active Users
May be Later