How to Find Instagram Influencers for Shopify (2026)

To find Instagram influencers for your Shopify store, start with the accounts already tagging your brand, then look at who posts for brands like yours, and only then search hashtags or pay for a tool.

The instinct is to open a database of millions of accounts and message strangers who have never heard of you, which is the slowest way to get a yes.

The influencers closest to your store are cheaper to work with and quicker to agree, because they already know what you sell.

Finding the accounts is the easy part, and the real work is checking whether the person you found makes posts your customers would stop to watch.

This guide is about influencers you pay for content or a post, which our piece on how to pay creators to post covers in full, while people paid only on commission are the subject of our guide to recruiting affiliates for your Shopify store.

Affilitrak can also bring creators to you through gigs they apply to, which the last section covers.

Where to find Instagram influencers for your Shopify store

These sources run from the least effort and cost to the most.

1. Your tagged posts and mentions: the tagged tab on your Instagram profile shows people who bought the product and chose to post it. Start here even if the list is short, since a customer who posts unprompted has already shown they like what you sell. Cost: your time, and an offer worth replying to.
2. The tagged tab of brands like yours: open the tagged posts of a brand that sells to the same customer without competing with you, and note who films products well for it. A creator who does good work for a similar brand already understands your customer, and that brand's posts show you the standard of their work. Cost: your time.
3. Instagram search and hashtags: search the words your customers would use for the product, and look past the most popular results to the smaller accounts that post often. Save each promising account to a collection as you go, because you will want to compare them side by side when you run the check below. Cost: your time, and more of it than the first two sources.
4. Instagram's Creator Marketplace: Meta's own tool, now called Creator Marketing Hub, connects brands with Instagram creators for paid partnerships, where your account has access to it. You still agree the price and the deliverables with each creator, and Meta does not pay them for you, so it saves the search rather than the negotiation. Cost: your time, plus whatever you agree with the creator.
5. Shopify Collabs: Shopify's own app lets you recruit through "a custom affiliate application page and direct invites", or offer your commission to creators already on Collabs through an "open access program". Shopify Collabs is free to install, and its listing says a 2.9% commission processing fee on automatic payments may apply. Cost: commission, plus that fee.
6. Creators who apply to a gig: instead of searching, you post a brief and creators apply to it, which the Affilitrak section below covers.
7. Paid influencer databases: search tools with filters for niche and audience size. They save time on the search, but not on the check that follows, so they are most useful once the warmer sources run dry. Cost: a subscription, plus everything the check below takes.

Sources 1 and 2 usually produce fewer names, but those names are far more likely to say yes.

How to check an Instagram influencer in five minutes

Finding an account takes seconds, so this is where the time goes.

• Their Reels show products in use: an account that already films products being worn, applied or unboxed is closer to what you need than one that only posts lifestyle photos, because otherwise you are guessing whether they can show a product clearly.
• Views match the follower count: compare their Reels views with their followers, and be wary of a large following with very few views per post.
• The comments read like real people: look for questions about products and replies from the creator, not rows of emojis or generic praise, and a creator who answers comments is also more likely to answer your messages on time.
• They post regularly: an account that has gone quiet for a month is unlikely to deliver on a deadline, so look at the dates on the last five posts rather than the total count.
• Past brand posts are labelled: sponsored posts should carry Instagram's paid partnership label or #ad, and a creator who skips that is a risk to your brand as well as theirs.

Mark each account yes, no or maybe as you go, and contact only the yeses.

What this check cannot tell you is whether their audience buys, and the only reliable way to learn that is a discount code unique to the creator, measured after they post.

How many Instagram influencers should you find?

Most people you recruit will not sell: across 8,687 affiliates recruited by Shopify stores on Affilitrak, about one in six ever made a sale in our data.

That is affiliate data applied to influencers by analogy, but the lesson carries: find a batch, not one perfect match.

When a program does sell, one person tends to carry it, since in stores with two or more selling affiliates the top one brings in a median 54.5% of referred orders, across 171 stores.

I would start with at least ten, for the reasons in our guide on how many influencers you need.

How to get the influencers you found to say yes

• Make the offer specific: say what you want filmed, where it will run, what you pay and when. A creator can say yes to a clear offer in one reply, while a vague one starts a conversation that often goes nowhere.
• Pay on delivery, not on a promise: a creator paid before the work has nothing left to gain from finishing it, and if a quote comes back higher than you can afford, our guide to an influencer who charges too much shows how to reshape the deal rather than haggle.
• Better still, let them come to you: a clear brief with a fixed price draws applications, which is the approach in our guide on how to get influencers to apply to your brand.

How to find Instagram influencers without searching on Affilitrak

• Creators apply to your gig: the brief goes up once and applications come in, so the search runs in reverse.
• Instagram counts for posting gigs: a posting gig is open to creators with at least 1k followers on a main TikTok, Instagram, Facebook or YouTube account, and each application shows the follower count the creator entered and a link to their profile, so the five-minute check works on every posting-gig applicant.
• You have 14 days to decide: accept or pass on each application within that window.
• The prices are published: a UGC video costs $150, and a video plus post costs $225 for creators with 1k to 10k followers or $400 for 10k+, prepaid when you open the gig.
• The post is labelled and stays up: a posting gig requires #ad and a post that stays up for at least 30 days.
• You pay when the work exists: a video-only gig pays when you approve the video, and a posting gig pays when the post link is on the gig page.
• Commission-only creators come through the marketplace: affiliates browse brands on the Affilitrak marketplace and apply to your program, and Affilitrak takes 20% of the commission you pay the affiliates who find you there.

Affilitrak brings you applicants, but it does not vet audiences or guarantee sales, so run the check on anyone you accept.

Once a gig creator's post sells, you can turn them into an affiliate, but do it after the gigs you need from them, because an approved affiliate can no longer take your gigs.

FAQ

How do I find Instagram influencers for free?

Begin with your own tagged tab, then the creators tagged by brands like yours. Both cost only your time.

How do I find micro influencers on Instagram?

Search the terms your customers use and look beyond the top results to smaller, active accounts. Then run the five-minute check before you message anyone.

Does Shopify have an influencer marketplace?

Shopify Collabs is Shopify's own app for working with creators. Its listing describes an application page, direct invites and an open access program that offers your commission to creators who use Collabs.

Conclusion

The best Instagram influencers for your store are usually easier to find than to convince, so begin with those already posting about you and work outwards.

Before you search anywhere else, open your tagged tab, because the warmest names are already there.

If you want to skip the search, Affilitrak lets creators apply to your brief at published prices.

You can install Affilitrak free and open your first gig today.