I'm a really good judge of book covers. Literally.
I can scan a bookshelf and, within seconds, tell you whether or not I'll enjoy the book. Based ONLY on title and cover.
But I still never buy a book without reading the back cover first. The gut tells me to pick it up. The blurb tells me whether to take it home.
The most experienced influencer marketers I know pick influencers the same way I pick books.
But since we published our latest research on risk in influencer marketing, I've noticed that they are making 3 mistakes when it comes to balancing instinct and data.
Mistake #1: Treating data and gut as an either/or choice
55% of marketers say gut feeling gives them the most confidence when evaluating creators. That's more than half, openly admitting that instinct matters more than data.
But only 37% actually lead with it when making decisions.
Everyone else, it seems, defaults to metrics-first workflows. They make sure the numbers make sense (engagement rates, audience demographics, fake followers) and only use gut as a tiebreaker.
That's not the mistake. We all know data is great at telling you what a good creator profile generally looks like. Audience quality, engagement patterns, and growth trends are real signals, and you absolutely need them. They're your guardrails.
The mistake is thinking you have to pick one over the other.
Data can't tell you whether a creator is the right fit for your brand specifically. That's where instinct shines. Your intuition takes over where data can't yet reach.
They work in sequence, not in competition. The best influencer marketers I know don't choose between data and gut. They use both in that order.
Mistake #2: Keeping your instincts locked in one person's head
So gut and data work together. Great. But here's the next mistake we spotted: 75% of marketers have no documented process for evaluating risk.
Which means all that pattern recognition, the stuff your brain does after hundreds of creator evaluations, stays trapped in one person's head. You can't scale it. You can't onboard someone into your brain. (Oh, if only!) And you can't learn from it if you never write it down.
Despite what you might think, my book-judging powers aren't magic. What I am is a lifelong reader. After thousands of books, my brain pattern-matches in milliseconds. I'm unconsciously processing things like typography choices, color palettes, and whether the cottage on the hill looks cute or haunted. (I’ll enjoy both, but I need to know.)
Your gut does the same thing with creators.
Does their comment section feel real?
Is there a mismatch between their aesthetic and their audience?
Do they talk about products like a human or like a billboard?
That's expertise. But when you call it "just a feeling," you give yourself permission to ignore it, and more importantly, you make it impossible to teach anyone else.
If you don't name what your instincts are actually detecting, you can't share it with your team. And what you can't share, you can't scale.
Mistake #3: Only looking outward for benchmarks
40% of marketers said they want more guidelines and benchmarks for evaluating creators.
And they should. Platform data and industry benchmarks help you learn what "good" looks like in general. Tools like Modash exist for exactly this. We can give you numbers, even suggestions, but we can’t make the decision for you.
You’re the one who knows what’s good for your brand. Those live in your own decision history. Every creator you've said yes or no to came with a reason. You've just never paused long enough to realize it.
Here’s a small experiment:
After every creator decision — yes or no — write down one sentence about why.
Said yes because their audience comments felt genuinely engaged, not just emoji spam.
Said no because the content quality was high, but the brand mentions felt forced.
Said yes despite a lower follower count because their niche alignment was perfect.
Do this for a month. Then read back through your notes. Compare your decisions with the creator’s performance. You'll start seeing your own patterns. The instincts you've been keeping in your head? Now they're on paper. They're shareable. They're your own guidelines.
So, start writing them down. You might be surprised by how smart you already are.
Gut and data say yes. Now what?
You've found the right creators. The data says go for it. Your gut agrees. Now what?
Gabriel Gomez, Head of Social and Creators at MCoBeauty, is joining us next week, February 26, for a free session on a tactic that we don’t often hear about: co-creating content with creators.
Join to learn how to 👇
Understand when to use co-creation inside your influencer program
Decide which creators to co-create with
Pitch and negotiate co-creation
Produce more content without increasing production complexity (No Hollywood film crew needed!)
Measure whether co-creation is actually working
Can't make it live? RSVP anyway, and we'll send you the replay.
See you next time!
Eleni Zoe xx
Brand @ Modash. Say hi on LinkedIn
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The influencer marketing platform that brands use to grow and manage influencer programs in one place.
