Influencer marketing platforms can put thousands or even millions of profiles at a marketer’s fingertips. Behind those profiles sits data on follower counts, engagement, content and audiences, all designed to help brands decide who might be suitable for a campaign.
But do you know where that information comes from?
Some influencer databases rely heavily on data collected from publicly available social media profiles. This can be useful for understanding an influencer’s visible presence, but problems arise when brands use that information to make decisions it was never designed to support.
So before relying on an influencer database, brands should understand where the data comes from, what it represents, how current it is and what information may be missing.
What Is Scraped Influencer Data?
Scraped influencer data is information collected from publicly accessible social media profiles, posts and other online sources.
Depending on the platform and collection method, this can include:
- Follower count
- Public likes, comments and other engagement
- Posting frequency
- Content and category signals
- Other publicly observable profile information
Platforms can organise and analyse this information to make large numbers of influencers easier to research.
That has genuine value. The limitation is treating publicly visible information as though it provides everything a brand needs to decide which influencers to work with.
What Are the Limitations of Scraped Influencer Data?
Scraped data can provide a useful snapshot of an influencer’s public presence. There are several things brands should understand before relying on it.
1. Data can become outdated
Social accounts change constantly.
An influencer can gain or lose followers, change their content focus or experience very different engagement from one period to another. Data collected previously may therefore no longer represent what is happening when a brand is ready to launch its campaign.
Brands should consider both when the data was collected and how frequently it is refreshed.
2. Public data does not show campaign performance
An influencer may have strong follower numbers and visible engagement, but those metrics alone do not tell brands how they have performed when working on previous campaigns.
Campaign performance adds another layer of context. When a platform has a record of an influencer’s previous campaign activity, it can use those results to build a better picture of their performance and reliability.
3. Some influencer data may be estimated
Not every number displayed by an influencer marketing platform necessarily comes directly from the influencer or social platform.
Some audience characteristics and other metrics may be inferred or estimated using available information and modelling.
That does not automatically make an estimate unusable. It does mean marketers should know whether they are looking at observed, estimated or verified information before deciding how much weight to give it.
Scraped Data vs First-Party Influencer Data
The main difference between scraped and first-party influencer data is where the information comes from. Scraped influencer data is collected from publicly accessible sources, while first-party data comes from direct platform, influencer or campaign activity.
| Scraped/Public Data | First-Party Campaign Data | |
| Where does it come from? | Publicly accessible social activity | Influencers who connect their social media accounts to the platform |
| What is it useful for? | Understanding an influencer’s public presence | Adding context about previous content performance |
| What about their campaign performance? | Public data alone does not create a campaign-specific performance record | Performance can be recorded as influencers participate in campaigns within the platform |
| What should brands check? | How current the data is, where it comes from and whether metrics are inferred | What has been validated and how the information was collected |
One does not necessarily replace the other. For brands, the important question is whether they know which type of information they are using to make each decision.
Why Does Influencer Data Quality Matter for Influencer Marketing?
The quality and source of influencer data can affect who gets considered for a campaign and how confidently marketers can evaluate them.
Consider two different questions:
- “Does this influencer look suitable for my campaign?”
Public profile information can help answer this. Marketers can review their content, following, visible engagement and the topics they typically cover.
- “How has this influencer performed in campaigns?”
That requires information built through actual campaign participation. When influencers take part in campaigns within a platform, their performance can become part of its own record and provide additional context when they are considered for future campaigns.
This becomes particularly useful when several influencers appear similarly suitable based on their public profiles.
What Is First-Party Influencer Data?
First-party influencer data comes from influencers who have directly joined and participated within a platform’s own ecosystem, rather than profiles collected solely from publicly accessible sources.
As those influencers participate in campaigns, the platform can also build its own record of campaign performance. Over time, this provides additional information that can help inform how influencers are evaluated for future campaigns.
How AtisfyReach Uses First-Party Influencer Data
AtisfyReach has first-party data because influencers join the Atisfy ecosystem directly through Atisfyre, where they create their profiles and connect their social accounts. As they take part in campaigns, AtisfyReach also builds a record of how they actually perform.
This gives us more information to work with than what is publicly visible on an influencer’s profile alone. Campaign performance can provide additional signals around how an influencer has performed and their reliability in general.
When allocating influencers, AtisfyReach can use this information alongside the requirements of a campaign to allocate who is the best-fit for the brand, what they could be expected to deliver, and how the campaign budget can be used efficiently.
Book a free demo to see how AtisfyReach can support your next influencer campaign.
