Free Influencer Marketing Series
Success! Enjoy the series Part 1: How an agency took a brand from 0 to $1MM in 4 months using influencers & ads
Free Influencer Marketing Series
Success! Enjoy the series Part 1: How an agency took a brand from 0 to $1MM in 4 months using influencers & ads
Considering alternatives to Keyhole?
If you work with 20+ influencers and you’re drowning in spreadsheets, an influencer marketing platform can boost your productivity. But which one is right for you?
Let’s take a look at what Keyhole offers. Then, we’ll compare it to some popular influencer marketing tools.
MightyScout: Specializes in comprehensive tracking of influencer content and data, and accurate analytics for Instagram and TikTok.
Aspire: Provides a full-featured platform of tools including a marketplace of 1M creators across the major social platforms. Aspire offers “done for you” services too.
Influencity: Offers a multi-featured global influencer marketing solution. Its strength is finding influencers.
CreatorIQ: Offers AI-driven influencer marketing features, with a focus on discovery and campaign management.
Traackr: Known for its global database of influencers and building authentic relationships at scale.
GRIN: Designed for big-budget e-commerce brands. Best with “paid influencers.”
HypeAuditor: Provides a range of features to find and analyze influencers, invite and contract with them, manage campaigns, track some activity, and report on performance.
Keyhole is best known as a social media analytics tool. It listens for mentions containing a keyword (e.g., your brand, a competitive brand, an industry topic) in real time. It tracks and reports on the mentions. Keyhole has a limited feature set to help with influencer marketing.
For brands or agencies already using Keyhole for social media analytics, its features can also help with influencer marketing. Keyhole is not purpose-built for influencer marketing so its influencer marketing features are limited.
Here's how Keyhole can help: track influencer impressions, reach, engagements, Stories and Reels data, find more influencers by identifying who is already talking organically about your brand, find influencers who are talking about a keyword or using a hashtag, and help you evaluate influencers.
Influencer vetting: Helps you find and evaluate influencers based on their activity level and impact for a specific keyword. You define the keyword and Keyhole displays the following metrics for each influencer: number of posts shared (related to your keyword), average engagement, number of followers, impressions, exposure, domain rank (if relevant) and biographies.
Influencer account tracking: Keyhole can track influencer content for Twitter, Facebook, Instagram (including Stories) and YouTube for influencers.
Limited features: While Keyhole does offer social listening (an option for discovering fans or creators talking about a topic), vetting, and influencer tracking with some limitations, it doesn’t help with influencer outreach, influencer relationship management, campaign management, or influencer payments. It also does not have affiliate marketing features or e-commerce integrations.
Cost: Some users report the cost is high for the value. One reviewer from G2.com states: “It can get expensive very quickly if you are lucky enough to have a successful campaign that really takes off.”
The rate for entrepreneurs is $189/month, and increases for small, growing, and enterprise teams. Agency and enterprise brand pricing is by request. It is unclear if there are variable costs.
Reports: Data cannot be manipulated in the dashboards. It must be downloaded to a spreadsheet.
MightyScout, a cost-effective influencer marketing platform, is best known for its tracking, in-platform content views and analytics and custom reporting. MightyScout reliably tracks paid content and all the content most other platforms cannot (i.e., Stories, product seeding, product gifting, and influencer events).
MightyScout is best for brands and agencies that need reliable tracking, analytics and automated reporting, regardless of size. MightyScout tracks all influencer content, even the challenging ones––Stories, product seeding, gifting and influencer event content. It saves you time and helps you justify your budget and even ask for more!
With its affordable pricing, MightyScout can be an add-on to your tech stack.
Content tracking and capture: MightyScout tracks and notifies you when your influencers create new content that mentions your brand(s). It even captures elusive Stories, seeding and gifting content – the content that other platforms struggle with.
Analytics: See your influencers' content inside of the MightyScout platform and easily sort influencer content by different analytics (e.g., best cost per engagement, highest number of link clicks) to find insights, trends, and best performers.
Reporting: Instead of spending hours or days creating a report, MightyScout can do it in minutes.
Ease of use: Users quickly see value from MightyScout with its easy to learn and intuitive interface.
Efficiency and time savings: Multiple users here and here report cost savings from automating the management and tracking of influencers.
Multi-brand/agency features: Unique features make working with multiple brands easier and more affordable.
No automated influencer payments: You can log your payments in MightyScout but you pay influencers manually (e.g., via Venmo or Paypal).
No whitelisting or Spark integrations: If you use whitelisting or Spark ads, you’ll need to do it directly through the social media platform.
No outreach function: MightyScout does not currently offer a mass email outreach feature.
No campaign briefs: You'll need to link to an external document to provide campaign briefs.
Limited e-commerce integration support: MightyScout supports Shopify and WooCommerce only.
MightyScout is a great alternative to Keyhole that should be considered for users needing influencer content tracking, analytics, and reporting.
Discovery
MightyScout offers a look alike feature to automate the creation of influencer lists, as well as a social listening feature to find die-hard fans. Keyhole offers only social listening.
Vetting
MightyScout offers detailed demographics and audience analytics for influencers. Keyhole offers vetting based on an influencer’s social media activity for a specific keyword.
Content tracking and analytics
Keyhole and MightyScout both track influencer content, but Keyhole does not provide the easy sort functions and analytics inside of the platform like MightyScout. Keyhole has some challenges with tracking all content. MightyScout tracks content for Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok. Keyhole tracks for Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.
Reporting
MightyScout has powerful custom reporting capabilities in its platform. Keyhole requires downloading of data.
E-commerce integrations
MightyScout integrates with Shopify and WooCommerce. Keyhole does not have e-commerce integrations.
Pricing
MightyScout’s starting price is $249/month. Keyhole starts at $189/month.
Aspire is best for large-budget brands that use United States-based influencers for paid and affiliate influencer marketing. Also a fit for brands that need agency services.
Influencer discovery: Aspire offers multiple ways to find influencers including: a searchable database of 500k influencer profiles, a Creator Marketplace of 1M (where marketers publish campaign briefs and influencers apply), and image recognition AI (to find creators with your desired aesthetic). Users report high satisfaction with Aspire’s discovery features.
Campaign management: Aspire automates creator outreach, statuses, content approvals, and creator payments within the platform.
Agency services: Aspire offers “done for you” service for customers that need additional support.
Broad social media platform coverage: Aspire supports Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Facebook and Pinterest, a broad range of social media platforms compared to competitors.
High price: The price may be out of range for some brands. No trial is offered. A long-term commitment is required.
Tracking limitations: Aspire has some challenges with tracking product seeding, gifting, and influencer events accurately.
Services: Aspire offers agency services making it an attractive option for brands that need extra help. Keyhole does not offer agency services.
Discovery: Aspire’s creator marketplace and influencer database allow users to find more influencers faster. But Keyhole's social listening can identify fans who are already talking about your brand.
Influencer communication and campaign management: Aspire offers a full range of outreach and campaign management features to streamline the workload for influencer marketers making it easier to scale. Keyhole has limited campaign management features.
Pricing: Aspire’s monthly price is $2499 per Capterra, but we don’t know what tier that is for. Keyhole starts at $189/month.
Long-term contract: Users report a long-term contract requirement for Aspire. Keyhole offers monthly rates.
Influencity is best for brands that need influencer discovery, influencer vetting and bulk email outreach, but are not focused on accurate tracking, content collection, and analytics capabilities. Influencity’s database is also a fit for brands that need global influencers.
Discovery: Strong influencer search filtering capabilities for 170M influencers on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube.
Influencer relationship management: Influencity allows you to recruit by bulk email and keep track of all influencer communications and performance in one place.
Price: Influencity offers affordable entry level price points and a 7-day free trial.
Customer satisfaction: Influencity customers are highly satisfied.
Influencer tracking not automated: Users must manually input the URL of influencers' content to enable content and data to be pulled into the platform.
Affiliate payments: Influencity does not make payments to affiliate influencers.
Limitations of basic plan: At the lowest of three pricing plans, currently $168 per month you do not get access to a dedicated success manager, you can only create one list, you can analyze up to 30 influencer profiles per month, and you cannot download reports of creator profiles.
No campaign scheduling: Influencity does not allow you to schedule campaigns from within the platform.
Discovery: Influencity has a database of 170M creators globally. Keyhole customers can use social listening to discover creators who are already talking organically about the brand or relevant topics.
Influencer relationship management: Influencity offers bulk email outreach and communication from within the platform, enabling you to keep all communications in one place. Keyhole does not offer influencer outreach features.
Tracking: Though limited, Keyhole has the more automated tracking features. Influencity requires manually entering the content URL in its platform.
Contract length: Neither tool requires a long-term contract.
Pricing: Influencity and Keyhole both spell out pricing on their website. Do ask if there are any variable costs for Keyhole.
CreatorIQ (CIQ) is a premium-priced platform for large enterprises. It includes a full range of features for influencer marketing, including: discovery, influencer relationship management, campaign management, Shopify integration, influencer payments, and custom reporting.
Customer support: This high-touch and attentive service provider gets high support ratings from its customers.
Strong integrations: CIQ supports 7 social media platforms, and numerous e-commerce and marketing and advertising tools.
Private influencer marketplace: With CreatorIQ, you can create a private marketplace of influencers through your brand’s portal.
Discovery: CIQ’s private network of 15M influencers is on the smaller side compared to some competitors.
High price: The price is steep at $36k/year per Capterra.
Tracking limitations: CreatorIQ can track most content but has limitations tracking and content capture for product seeding, gifting or influencer events.
No trial: CreatorIQ does not offer a free trial and requires a long-term contract, making it a higher-risk purchase.
Social platforms: CIQ supports 7 social media platforms. Keyhole supports 4.
Discover: CIQ has 15M creators in its database. Keyhole does not have a database, but its social listening feature can be used to discover creators that are already fans of the brand and/or talking about relevant topics.
Influencer relationship and campaign management: CIQ is a premium, full-featured influencer marketing tool offering bulk influencer emails that can be personalized. Campaigns can be launched and managed, including tracking and reporting from the platform. Keyhole does not offer influencer relationship management or campaign management.
Support: CreatorIQ users are delighted with its support. Some Keyhole users report slow response times.
Influencer vetting: CIQ offers influencer audience insights and demographics for evaluating influencers. Keyhole can show you influencers who are already sharing content about a keyword.
Integrations: CIQ reports an integration with Shopify. It may have more integrations that are not shown on its website. Keyhole does not have e-commerce integrations.
Pricing: CIQ has premium pricing that can make it inaccessible to smaller brands and budgets. Keyhole has accessible pricing listed on its website. Note, some reviewers have mentioned the pricing is high and may be related to account activity.
Large, enterprise brands with a large budget for influencer marketing software. Traackr has deep experience with beauty brands.
Full-featured: Traackr is a feature-rich platform with discovery, influencer audience evaluation, relationship management, campaign management, and custom reporting options.
Tracking: Traackr is a stronger tool for influencer tracking and content capture. Although some users report delays for unregistered influencers.
Social media platforms supported: Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Twitch, and Snapchat.
Payments: Traackr enables payments to influencers.
Affiliate support: Traackr has features to help you manage and track affiliate influencers.
E-commerce support: Traackr integrates with Shopify.
Team orientation: Traackr makes it easy for team members to work together.
Pricing: Traackr’s pricing starts at $20k/year for small teams and a long-term commitment is required.
Ease of use: Users report the platform is hard to learn and hard to use.
Discovery: The database of only 13M influencers is relatively small compared to some competitors’ databases.
Traackr is another premium, full-featured influencer marketing platform that helps with influencer marketing from end to end.
Whereas Keyhole is a social analytics tool with some features that can help with influencer marketing such as social listening (for finding influencers who are already talking organically about your brand or related topics) and tracking of influencer content and reporting.
Purchase risk: Both platforms require a long-term commitment. Keyhole does not offer a free trial. Traackr does offer a free trial.
Pricing: Traackr minimum pricing starts at $20k per year. Keyhole has tiered pricing starting at $189 per month for entrepreneurs.
GRIN is best for large-budget DTC brands who want an all-in-one solution for paid collaborations, and who need a Shopify integration.
Scalability: GRIN helps brands scale their influencer marketing efforts. If manual processes are the limitation to growing your influencer marketing program, a tool like this helps you work with more influencers without hiring more staff.
Comprehensive features: GRIN offers features for nearly all phases of influencer management from discovery to final reporting.
Excellent customer support: GRIN users gush about their customer support.
Influencer payments: Organizing and making influencer payments through GRIN is a helpful feature.
Integration with Shopify: Many customers mention the seamless integration with Shopify through GRIN as a strength.
Outreach and communication with influencers: GRIN users appreciate the ability to set up communication sequences with influencers including integrated Gmail inboxes, and the organization provided through the influencer relationship management features.
Discovery features concerns: Some customers are not impressed with GRIN’s newer discovery features.
Tracking: Some users report challenges with accurate tracking of content produced via affiliates and product seeding campaigns. GRIN can track content for paid influencers.
Long-term contract required with no free trial: Some customers report being stuck in a long-term contract with GRIN that they want to end.
Learning curve: Some users report GRIN has a learning curve, especially for those new to influencer marketing platforms. Features and analytics can be overwhelming, requiring time to figure out and use effectively.
Limited integrations: While GRIN offers integrations with major e-commerce platforms, users report the integration options are limited compared to other influencer marketing platforms.
Discovery: Influencer discovery is not a strength for either tool.
Tracking: Both Keyhole and GRIN have similar tracking limitations.
Purchase risk: GRIN requires a long-term commitment with no trial. Keyhole does not require a long-term commitment.
User reviews: Keyhole customers love it for its social media listening features and analytics. It is typically not thought of as an influencer marketing platform, although it has some features that can help.
GRIN customers don’t love the discovery features, but they are impressed by the automation after influencers are selected: the outreach and campaign management features.
HypeAuditor is best for small to midsize brands who need a discovery tool above all else, but who will also benefit from the additional features built into the price. For brands that need to track Stories, HypeAuditor is not a fit.
Influencer discovery: Users love the searchable database of 154M creators for finding talent.
Influencer analysis: After filtering the database for influencers, HypeAuditor helps you analyze them using features like Audience Overlap, Quality Score, and Audience Authenticity.
Shopify integration: Shopify users benefit from the integration which allows them to track influencer conversions and access sales data.
Campaign organization: Store your contracts and pay influencers all from one platform.
Tracking: HypeAuditor does not track Stories, a potential deal breaker for conversion-focused brands.
No commission payments: HypeAuditor does not offer commission payment functionality for influencer affiliates.
Small TikTok database: Multiple users reported the number of TikTok influencers in the database is too small.
Team functionality lacking: Lack of multi-user functionality prevents team members from seeing what other team members have done.
Price is high: While initial pricing appears to be low, multiple users report the price to be high as you scale compared to competitors.
Discovery: HypeAuditor offers the database of 154M creators for influencer discovery. Keyhole offers social listening as a method of discovery--may not be scalable.
Content tracking: HypeAuditor does not track Stories. Keyhole does track Stories.
Affiliate marketing: Keyhole and HypeAuditor do not offer features to support affiliate marketing.
Purchase risk: HypeAuditor and Keyhole both do not require a long-term commitment.
Customer reviews: Overall, HypeAuditor users offer praise for its influencer analytics and ease of use. Some mention billing issues and lack of support for TikTok and Twitter.
For Keyhole, users note the influencer monitoring feature for tracking and analyzing influencer activity for their brand or campaigns.
Selecting an influencer platform requires homework. Even if you have an unlimited budget, don’t assume the higher-priced platforms have what you need.
We’ve laid out five steps to help you make the best decision.
Identify objectives:
Identify your unique requirements:
What is/are the most important pains for you to solve:
The above baseline information will help determine what features and capabilities are essential, and which you’ll have to evaluate more closely such as:
User interface/ease of use:
Customer support and resources:
Transparent pricing:
Scalability:
Customer feedback:
Success stories:
In an industry with no one-size-fits-all solution, it’s important to identify your biggest pain points and requirements and match them with the tool (or tools) that best meet your needs.
If your strategy includes product gifting or seeding campaigns, you’ll need a strong campaign management and tracking tool–-one that tracks when each influencer has posted––or not––and pulls in data and content for you, without asking creators to send you their content.
No tracking tool is more reliable than MightyScout.
So you can get rid of spreadsheets. You can collect all the influencer content without having to screenshot Stories on the weekend. You can use the content to fuel your ads. And, finally have a reliable model to grow your brand or agency–without needing additional staff.
Get started for free today. Or, schedule a call now to see how it works.