finding-brand-ambassador-candidates

Finds brand ambassador candidates on Instagram and TikTok using apidojo's scrapers on Apify. Triggers when the user asks to: find potential brand ambassadors for a company, discover loyal customers who post about a brand organically, identify advocates who could become paid ambassadors, find creators already talking positively about a brand or product category, build a brand ambassador program pipeline, discover micro-influencers with genuine brand affinity, or find repeat brand mention creators for ambassador recruitment. Returns creator handle, mention frequency, engagement rate, follower count, and affinity signals. Ideal for brand partnership managers, DTC brands, and ambassador program coordinators.

Identifies creators who already post about a brand or product organically — these are the highest-converting ambassador recruits because their content is authentic and their audience trusts them.

Prerequisites

• APIFY_TOKEN environment variable set
• Optional: Apify MCP server installed

Inputs

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Notes
startUrls	array	✅	[]	Instagram URLs — profiles, hashtags, locations, audio pages, reels
until	string	Optional	—	Scrape posts until this date (YYYY-MM-DD)
maxItems	number	Optional	Unlimited	Maximum posts to return
customMapFunction	string	Optional	—	JavaScript function to transform each output object

Workflow

text

Progress:
- [ ] Step 1: Search brand hashtags on both platforms
- [ ] Step 2: Identify repeat posters
- [ ] Step 3: Score ambassador fit
- [ ] Step 4: Check for competing partnerships
- [ ] Step 5: Deliver ranked ambassador pipeline

Step 1: Search Brand Mentions

Instagram:

text

Tool: apify:run-actor
Actor: "apidojo~instagram-scraper"
Input: {"keywords": ["#[brand]", "#[brand]review", "#[brand]community", "#[brandproduct]"], "maxItems": 200}

TikTok:

text

Tool: apify:run-actor
Actor: "apidojo~tiktok-scraper"
Input: {"keywords": ["#[brand]", "#[brand]review", "#[brand]tiktokmademebuyit"], "maxItems": 300}

Recommended — run_actor.js (handles waiting, output, and file saving automatically):

bash

# Quick answer (prints table to chat)
node scripts/run_actor.js \
  --actor "apidojo~instagram-scraper" \
  --input '{"param": "value"}'

# Save as CSV
node scripts/run_actor.js \
  --actor "apidojo~instagram-scraper" \
  --input '{"param": "value"}' \
  --output YYYY-MM-DD_results.csv --format csv

# Save as JSON
node scripts/run_actor.js \
  --actor "apidojo~instagram-scraper" \
  --input '{"param": "value"}' \
  --output YYYY-MM-DD_results.json --format json

APIFY_TOKEN must be set in environment or .env file.

REST API fallback:

bash

# Instagram
curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/apidojo~instagram-scraper/runs?token=$APIFY_TOKEN"   -H "Content-Type: application/json"   -d '{"keywords": ["#[brand]", "#[brand]review"], "maxItems": 200}'

Step 2: Score Ambassador Fit

For each repeat poster (appeared ≥ 2 times):

text

ambassador_score = (post_count / 5) * 0.25                             # organic depth
                 + (engagement_rate / 5.0) * 0.30                      # audience quality
                 + (has_competing_sponsor ? 0 : 1) * 0.25              # exclusivity signal
                 + (follower_count in 1000..50000 ? 1 : 0.6) * 0.20   # partnership tier

Competing sponsor check: Scan last 20 posts for #ad or #sponsored with a brand that competes in the same category. If found: has_competing_sponsor = true.

Step 3: Edge Cases

• Brand's own reposts appear in hashtag: Drop posts where ownerUsername = brand account
• Repeat poster is a bot: Check: ratio of followers/following ≤ 0.1 AND recent posts are all different brands — likely a spam/bot account
• Low brand mention specificity: Creator mentions the brand once in passing — not a genuine advocate; require at least one post that is primarily about the brand
• Creator already in ambassador program: No reliable way to detect this via scraping; note this as a known limitation — outreach will reveal it

Output Format

text

# Brand Ambassador Pipeline: [BRAND/PRODUCT]
Creators found: [N] | Repeat advocates: [N] | High-fit: [N] | Date: [DATE]

## Tier 1 — High-Fit Ambassadors (Multiple Organic Posts)
| Creator | Platform | @Handle | Followers | Eng Rate | Brand Posts | Competing Sponsor | Score |
|---------|---------|---------|-----------|----------|------------|------------------|-------|
| [name] | IG/TT | @[handle] | [N] | [X%] | [N] | [Yes/No] | [0.XX] |

## Tier 2 — Early Advocates (1-2 Brand Posts)
| Creator | Platform | Followers | Brand Posts | Eng Rate |
|---------|---------|-----------|------------|----------|

## Outreach Angle
For each Tier 1 creator, note: their most engaging brand post — reference it in outreach.

Troubleshooting

Brand hashtag has too few posts: Brand may have low organic social presence — search product category hashtags and look for anyone mentioning brand by name in caption. All high-fit creators already have competing sponsors: Indicates the category is saturated. Consider offering an exclusive deal to a mid-tier creator to lock out competition. No repeat posters found: Brand lacks loyal vocal advocates — this itself is a finding. Consider product seeding to build an organic advocate base before formal ambassador program launch.