7 Red Flags That Scream "Don't Partner With This Influencer"
Learn to spot fake engagement, bot followers, and other warning signs before you waste thousands on an influencer partnership that won't convert.
The $25K Mistake
A beauty brand once paid $25,000 to an influencer with 600K followers. Impressive metrics, great content, professional pitch. They signed immediately.
Three posts later: 4 sales. Total revenue: $280. They ignored 7 obvious red flags.
Red Flag #1: Suspiciously Uniform Engagement
Look at the influencer's last 20 posts. Do they all have almost identical engagement numbers? Like 4,237 likes, 4,241 likes, 4,235 likes?
Why it matters: Real engagement fluctuates. Viral posts get more, boring posts get less. Uniform numbers suggest bot activity.
What to do: Natural variation should be ±30%. If it's within ±5%, investigate deeper.
Red Flag #2: Generic Comment Patterns
Read the comments. Are 80%+ of them generic phrases like:
- "Love this!"
- "Amazing! 🔥🔥🔥"
- "Great post!"
- Just emojis
What it means: Engagement pods or bots. Real audiences ask questions, share experiences, disagree sometimes.
Warning Sign
If you can't find at least 5 substantive comments (2+ sentences, specific questions) in the last 10 posts, proceed with extreme caution.
Red Flag #3: Follower-to-Engagement Mismatch
Calculate engagement rate: (Likes + Comments) / Followers × 100
Healthy Benchmarks:
- 10K-50K followers: 4-8% engagement rate
- 50K-200K followers: 2-4% engagement rate
- 200K-1M followers: 1-3% engagement rate
- 1M+ followers: 0.5-2% engagement rate
Red flag: Rates significantly below these ranges suggest bought followers or inactive audience.
Red Flag #4: Follower Spike Patterns
Use a tool like Social Blade to check follower growth history. Look for:
- Sudden spikes of 10,000+ followers in one day (likely purchased)
- Consistent drops in followers (people unfollowing after realizing content is bad)
- Growth that doesn't correlate with content quality or viral posts
Red Flag #5: Too Many Sponsored Posts
Check their last 30 posts. What percentage are sponsored or promotional?
Healthy ratio: 80% organic content, 20% sponsored
Red flag: 50%+ sponsored content
Why it matters: Audiences tune out influencers who are constant advertisers. Your sponsored post becomes just more noise.
Red Flag #6: Audience Demographics Don't Match Their Niche
A fitness influencer whose followers are 70% male 18-24 can't sell premium women's skincare. Obvious, right? Yet brands miss this constantly.
How to check:
- Look at who's commenting - do they match your target customer?
- Check follower profiles - age, location, interests
- Ask the influencer for audience demographics (if they refuse, red flag)
Red Flag #7: No Historical Performance Data
Ask the influencer: "Can you share results from past brand partnerships?"
Good response: Shares metrics (clicks, conversions, engagement rates) with permission from past clients
Red flag response: "I don't track that" or "Can't share due to NDAs" for ALL partnerships
Professional influencers track their performance. If they don't, they either haven't done many partnerships or the results were bad.
The Due Diligence Checklist
Before signing any influencer contract:
- ✓ Check engagement uniformity (should vary ±30%)
- ✓ Read 50+ comments for quality (5+ substantive comments per 10 posts)
- ✓ Calculate engagement rate (meets benchmark for their size)
- ✓ Review follower growth history (steady, not spikey)
- ✓ Check sponsored-to-organic ratio (max 20% sponsored)
- ✓ Verify audience demographics (80%+ match your target)
- ✓ Request past campaign results (if refused, walk away)
What to Do If You Spot Red Flags
1-2 red flags: Negotiate lower price or start with a small test campaign
3-4 red flags: Pass unless they can provide compelling explanations and third-party verification
5+ red flags: Run. Don't look back.
The Bottom Line
Most influencer disasters are preventable. The red flags are there—you just need to look for them. Spend 30 minutes doing due diligence to save $30,000 on a bad partnership.
Automated red flag detection
Vyrex automatically flags suspicious engagement patterns, bot followers, and audience mismatches so you can avoid bad partnerships before they happen.
Get Started Now