Do the engagement math
Add average likes and comments, divide by followers. On Instagram, accounts under 10k usually land around 2.5–6%, 10k–100k around 1–3.5%, and big accounts under 2%. Far below that? Most of the audience isn't showing up.
Look for staircase growth
Check follower history on Social Blade. Real growth is a ramp. A jump of tens of thousands in one month, with no viral post to explain it, usually means a purchase.
Scroll their followers
Open the follower list and scroll for 30 seconds. Lots of handles like
anna.4471829, no profile pics and zero posts are bots.Read the comments, not the count
Real fans ask questions and mention specifics. "Nice pic 🔥" on repeat, emoji-only replies and "DM us to collab" are pods and bots.
Compare views to followers
For video creators, real audiences watch. If videos reach only a few percent of the follower count, the rest are decorative.
Check who they follow
Someone with 50k followers who follows 30k accounts probably grew with follow-for-follow, and those followers don't care about the content.
Comments vs. likes
Normal is roughly 1–5 comments per 100 likes. Thousands of likes with almost no comments suggests bought likes. Huge comment counts with few likes suggests a pod.
Watch for drops
Sudden follower losses happen when platforms purge fake accounts. A drop right after a spike is a big tell.
Ask for insights screenshots
Audience location, age and reach from their own analytics. Real creators send them in a minute. If they stall, that's your answer.
Or skip steps 1–8
Paste the numbers into ShouldIHire and get a free Hire Score in about a minute.