Manual
Find influencers by keyword on TikTok, Instagram, X and Douyin
Last updated: 2026-06-10
In short
KOLens discovery starts from a keyword or hashtag, not a stale directory: it scrapes the platform's actual search results (50 videos = 5 credits), identifies the creators behind those videos, computes engagement metrics from the scraped videos themselves, and crawls every bio link to extract emails, websites and social handles. Results land in your KOL database in 2–5 minutes, filterable by followers, engagement rate, country, category and contact availability — and exportable to Excel in one click.
What it is
A discovery run answers one question: who is actually getting views for this topic right now? You give KOLens a keyword (or hashtag), a platform and a result budget; it scrapes the platform's live search results through managed Apify actors, deduplicates the authors, enriches each one (profile stats, bio-link contact crawl), and writes everything into your workspace's KOL database tagged with the keyword.
Why search beats directories
- Fresh by construction — you see who ranks for the keyword today, including creators who started last month and aren't in any directory yet.
- Metrics you can defend — engagement rate and average views are computed from the scraped videos, not self-reported media kits.
- Contacts included — the bio-link crawl harvests emails, websites, Instagram, YouTube and Linktree automatically, so the output is a contactable shortlist, not just names.
Platforms and inputs
| Platform | Input | Endpoint | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| TikTok | Keyword or #hashtag, optional region | POST /api/scrape | Region (ISO code like US/JP) localizes the feed; most mature platform |
| Hashtag | POST /api/instagram/scrape | Hashtag feed + per-author profile enrichment | |
| X (Twitter) | Keyword | POST /api/x/scrape | Keyword search, fans out per author |
| Douyin | Keyword (Chinese supported) | POST /api/douyin/scrape | Native Douyin search — rare in English-language tools |
How to run a discovery
- Open Discovery in the app and enter the keyword your customers would search — product language (“peptide serum”) usually beats industry jargon.
- Choose platform and budget: max_videos from 1–500; 1 credit per 10 results (50 videos = 5 credits). Credits are pre-charged and auto-refunded if the job fails.
- For TikTok, optionally set a region (e.g. US, JP, SG) so the search runs from that country's perspective — essential for cross-border sellers targeting one market.
- Submit and watch the Jobs page (GET /api/jobs/{job_id} if you're on the API). Typical run: 2–5 minutes including contact extraction.
- When complete, results appear in the KOLs page filtered by your keyword — or download the whole job as Excel from the job detail page (GET /api/jobs/{job_id}/export).
Note
Submissions are rate-limited to 5 per minute per account. Queue several keywords back-to-back and they run as parallel background jobs.
Looking up specific creators
Already have handles? Skip keyword search: a single-handle lookup (POST /api/kols/profile-scrape, ≈1 credit, ~30 seconds) pulls one creator's recent videos, stats and contacts. For a vendor-supplied list of 2–50 handles, the bulk_enrich_kols MCP tool pre-charges the batch and fans out lookups in one call.
Typical scenarios
- Cross-border TikTok Shop seller: search the product keyword with region=US, filter to creators with email + ≥4% engagement, export and start affiliate outreach the same afternoon.
- Agency pitch prep: run the same keyword on TikTok and Instagram, compare which platform's creators own the niche, and walk into the client meeting with a contactable shortlist.
- App growth team: search competitor brand terms to find creators who already review similar apps — warm audiences, proven format.
Advanced usage
- Search insights: every keyword can generate a free AI research report — market overview, recommended creators, content trends and audience demographics — useful before spending credits on a bigger sweep.
- Recurring pipelines: promote a proven keyword into a discovery plan so it re-runs weekly and feeds a list automatically (see Discovery plans).
- Agent-driven sweeps: via MCP, ask Claude to chain scrape → filter → list in one instruction (see MCP for AI agents).
- Hashtag-strict mode: prefix with # (e.g. #aiphonecase) to scrape that exact hashtag feed instead of broad keyword search.
Frequently asked questions
How many creators does a 50-video search return?
Typically one unique creator per ~7 videos — a 50-video search yields roughly 7–15 unique creators depending on how concentrated the niche is. Niches dominated by a few big accounts yield fewer, broader lifestyle keywords yield more.
What share of creators come with an email?
It varies by niche and tier — creators who do brand deals usually put a business email in their bio or Linktree, which is exactly what the crawl extracts. Use the require_email filter to count contactables in any result set.
Is scraping public platform data allowed?
KOLens only collects publicly visible data — public videos, public profiles and links the creator chose to publish in their bio — via managed Apify actors. No login-walled or private data is accessed.
Can I search Chinese keywords?
Yes — Douyin search is built for Chinese keywords (e.g. 美妆), and TikTok accepts any language; pair a Chinese keyword with a region like SG or MY for Chinese-speaking markets abroad.
Related
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Everything in this manual works on a free account — the homepage demo search doesn't even need one. Your first search takes about 5 minutes.
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