spent $12k on a creator with 200k followers and got 3 conversions, here's what I check now

Q4 X campaign for a DTC skincare brand. Creator's profile looked great: solid engagement rate, consistent posting, 200k followers. We got three sales.

Dug into the replies and found the same 18 accounts responsible for over half the engagement on every post. Textbook engagement pod. The like timing was wrong too: steady drips over 48 hours instead of a natural first hour spike. And 80% of the audience was in Southeast Asia for a US only brand.

Now I score follower quality and topic fit against the brief before budget goes out. Not bulletproof, but way better than eyeballing a profile.

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Hrushikesh_1187•about 1 month ago•1

The 48-hour drip pattern is the tell most people miss. Organic engagement spikes hard in the first hour then tapers naturally steady drips over two days is almost always pods or purchased engagement.

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