Creator Search: find the creators already winning in your niche
Type a niche and Hermoso reads the TikTok, Instagram and YouTube posts travelling right now, then hands you a ranked shortlist of the real people behind them, with their public contact details.
Finding creators usually starts with a directory of people who signed up for brand deals. That tells you who wants to work with brands. It does not tell you who your customers are watching this month. Creator Search starts from the other end: the posts.
How it works
- Type a niche. A category, a topic or a hashtag: matcha, calorie tracker app, #cleanbeauty.
- Hermoso reads the posts. It runs a few versions of your search on TikTok, Instagram Reels and YouTube, live.
- Posts become people. Everyone who keeps showing up gets a row with their post count in the niche, median views, engagement per view and followers.
- You get a ranked shortlist. The score weighs reach, engagement and consistency, so one lucky viral post does not crown anyone.
Contact details on the card
The top creators come back with what they publish on their own profiles: a business email, phone and category from Instagram business and creator accounts, the link in their bio, and any email written into a TikTok bio. So the list is ready for outreach, not just for browsing.
Keep your lists
Heart a creator and the whole card, stats and contact included, saves into a named collection in your swipefile: Matcha creators, Holiday seeding, Already contacted. Lists sync across your devices, and your AI agent can read them too.
Why start from posts instead of a directory
A directory is a list of people who raised their hand. Posts are proof of what an audience is watching right now. When you start from the posts you find the creator with a modest following whose last ten videos in your niche all did well, which is often a better partner than the big name who posted about your category once.
That is also why the score uses median views rather than the best video. A creator who is consistently watched in your niche is worth more to a brand than one who got lucky once.
Reading the shortlist
- Posts in the niche tells you how often they make content about your category, not just about everything.
- Median views is what a typical post of theirs does in the niche.
- Engagement per view shows whether people react, not just scroll past.
- Followers gives a sense of size, and it matters less than the three above.
What to do with the shortlist
- Send product. Pick the creators whose audience looks most like your customers.
- Find your UGC style. Watch how the top creators hook a viewer, then make that style your own with video cloning.
- Run partnership ads. Approve a creator for Instagram partnership ads and boost their post from your own ad account.
Where to find it
In the web app, open Ad Spy + Creators and choose Creator search. In the Studio, just ask: find me creators for my skincare brand. From Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor, find_creators runs the search, save_to_swipefile keeps the shortlist and generate_text drafts the outreach.
A quick note on messages: Instagram and Messenger only let a business reply to someone who wrote first, so outreach goes by email, the bio link or a comment on their post. The card gives you each of those the creator has published.
The full rundown, including how the score is calculated, is on the Creator Search page.
Questions people ask
Which platforms does Creator Search cover?
Organic TikTok, Instagram Reels and YouTube. For paid ads, Ad Spy searches the ad libraries.
Do creators need to sign up to appear?
No. Hermoso reads public posts, so anyone winning in the niche shows up whether or not they are on a marketplace.
Where does the contact information come from?
Only what creators publish on their own profiles: the business contact fields on Instagram business and creator accounts, the bio link, and an email written into a bio.
Can Hermoso message creators for me?
It drafts the outreach and gives you the email or link. Instagram and Messenger only allow a business to reply to someone who messaged first, so cold direct messages are not possible there.
How is a creator's score calculated?
Median views on their posts in the niche carry half the weight, engagement per view where the platform reports it carries a third, and the share of the niche's posts that were theirs makes up the rest. It is a ranking aid for building a shortlist, not a rate card.
Can I save creators into lists?
Yes. The heart on a creator card saves the whole record, stats and contact included, into a named swipefile collection that syncs across devices and that your AI agent can read.