Casting for evidence, not for follower count

Follower count is the easiest number in the brief to defend and the least connected to whether anything sells. It survives because it is simple, not because it works.

The creator economy has produced a strange procurement habit: brands buy audience size the way you would buy media impressions, then act surprised when the response looks nothing like the reach.

What we look at instead

• Comment substance. Not volume. Whether people are discussing the thing or performing engagement. Thirty real questions beat three thousand fire emojis.
• Repeat audience. Whether the same people keep coming back, or each post finds a new crowd that never returns.
• Category adjacency. Whether they already talk about the problem your product solves, before anyone paid them to.
• Search pull. Whether their name generates branded search, which is the cleanest signal that attention converted into intent.
• Previous brand work. How many partnerships in the last six months, and whether their audience visibly tired of them.

The big account problem

The largest creator in a category is usually the most expensive and the most crowded. Their audience has seen every competitor pass through. What you buy is reach into a room where your category has already been discounted.

What good casting looks like

Usually several mid-sized creators with genuine authority and one wildcard from outside the category who will make the work interesting. Briefed properly, credited properly, paid properly, and given enough latitude that the post sounds like them rather than like your brand guidelines read aloud.

Then measure it honestly

Branded search lift, direct traffic, code redemption, and the shape of the comment section. Not reach. Reach is what you bought, not what you got.