What creator sourcing covers
Creator sourcing is the first stage of any creator program: finding people who could make the content you need and getting a way to contact them. It covers searching platforms, marketplaces and directories by niche, location, audience size and content style, then building a list with handles, sample posts and an email address for each candidate.
Sourcing produces a long list; creator vetting cuts it to a shortlist. The two blur in practice because good sourcing filters early, but they answer different questions. Sourcing asks who exists and can be reached. Vetting asks whether this specific person is a safe, good fit for this brief.
Where brands source creators
Three channels cover most of it. Inbound applicants come through a creator marketplace, where creators pitch you. Outbound search means browsing TikTok and Instagram by hashtag, keyword and competitor tags. Directories and databases, such as the UGC creator directory, let you filter by niche and country before opening a single profile.
Inbound is fast but skews toward people who apply to everything. Outbound finds creators already posting about your category, who tend to fit better but reply less often. Most teams run both. The channels are covered step by step in how to find UGC creators, and creator sourcing software compares the tooling.
Example
A pet food brand needs ten dog owners in the US who film in natural light. The sourcing pass searches recent posts about raw feeding and dog nutrition, collects sixty candidates, and records follower count, last post date, two sample links and an email for each. Twelve have no public contact route and are dropped.
That leaves forty-eight names for vetting, and the brief goes to the strongest fifteen.
Common mistakes
Sourcing by follower count alone. UGC is bought for the footage, not the audience, so a creator with a small following and strong filming skills is often the better buy. Look at the work before the numbers.
Building lists that go stale. Creators change niches, go quiet or change contact details. A list older than a few months needs its last post dates refreshed before anyone is emailed, or reply rates fall with no obvious cause.
How it's used
Sourcing for the pet batch is done: forty-eight US dog owners with emails. Vetting starts tomorrow, aim for a shortlist of fifteen.
Let's split creator sourcing this round: half from marketplace applicants, half from outbound search on competitor tags.