Micro-influencer marketing platform Statusphere recently introduced expanded creator targeting capabilities that match brands with micro-influencers using over 300 specific, first-party data points—from fragrance preferences to nail treatments. The enhanced system aims to deliver more efficient, relevant matchmaking at scale in influencer marketing.

“My biggest pet peeve is that most marketing dollars go to platforms like Google and Meta when it’s real people allowing those sales to happen,” states Kristen Wiley, founder and CEO of Statusphere. “We’re building infrastructure for consumer-to-consumer marketing because we believe it’s the next frontier after social media.”

Founded in 2018 and now serving hundreds of consumer brands, Statusphere emerged from Kristen’s dual perspective as both a creator and brand manager. Running a food blog, she regularly received irrelevant pitches for products like mattresses. Later, as a marketing agency executive managing influencer programs, she encountered the opposite problem.

“I would have had to hire an entire team to manage 100 influencers, much less a thousand,” Kristen explains. “I kept asking, ‘Why is there not a platform that can do over a thousand creators posting that’s scalable?'”

The solution Statusphere developed automates the entire influencer marketing process. “We’re like Uber to Craigslist for getting a car,” Kristen says, using a transportation analogy. “Our software finds the perfect creator for you, ensures they post, review it, and follow FTC guidelines—all managed through our platform.”

At the core of this system are the enhanced creator targeting capabilities, which have recently expanded to include more detailed, lifestyle-specific data points. “We ask creators to build profiles in our platform, and from that we collect over 300+ data points that brands can match to creators from,” Kristen explains, encompassing categories like beauty preferences, dietary restrictions, and home technology usage.

This continuous expansion of targeting options comes directly from user feedback. “We typically add new profile data points based on creator and brand requests,” Kristen notes. “Once we get enough of those requests, we add them to the platform.”

The enhanced targeting addresses problems on both sides of the creator-brand relationship. “We’re constantly expanding the data points to ensure that we’re giving a good creator experience, which leads to a great brand experience,” Kristen emphasizes. “This was a pain point I had as a creator. I would get pitched products that had nothing to do with what I posted about.”

From Concept to Results: Enhanced Targeting in Action

The practical impact of enhanced targeting becomes clear through specific case studies that Kristen shares. 

One nail care brand had consistently faced rejection from creators with incompatible nail types. “We did work with a nail company that had press-on nails, and that was a big pain point for them, is that they’d reach out to creators constantly, and creators would be like, sorry, I have acrylic nails, you know, I can’t do it. So we actually could target based on who uses press-on nails for them, already getting them a much more authentic match and making those creators super excited as well,” Kristen explains.

For fragrance companies, the platform’s targeting tackles a particularly nuanced challenge. “Fragrance is a very personal thing to people,” notes Kristen. “So, asking them which type of preferences they like so we can match them with the right fragrance for them has been huge for fragrance brands working with us.”

These capabilities extend beyond beauty into categories like consumer packaged goods. As Kristen details, “CPG, we can target vegans, Halal, etc. We can talk about all sorts of dietary preferences, low-sugar diets, and different dietary restrictions.” 

She further explains that the platform tracks “how often people work out. So are they somebody who works out once a week versus four times a week,” along with “clothing style preferences” and family information like “if they’re a mom or a dad or how many kids they have and how old their kids are. We also remind creators to update their profiles regularly so their data stays up-to-date.”

Kristen explains that the system doesn’t just match creators to brands—it analyzes performance to improve future matches. “We can actually analyze from a matchmaking perspective which creators are performing best for a brand,” Kristen says. “Our software will show reports to the brand that say, ‘Hey, this demographic, this age range, is performing way better for you.’ So maybe you want to target that age range.”

Infrastructure Beyond Matching

While enhanced targeting forms the brain of the Statusphere system, its integrated fulfillment capabilities provide the muscle. Unlike platforms that merely connect brands with creators, Statusphere handles the physical movement of products. 

“Brands set up their campaign, they put in all the do’s and don’ts, they put in their product offer,” Kristen explains. “When it’s matched, the fulfillment goes out within 48 hours.”

This Amazon-like fulfillment integration speeds up the content creation timeline. “Brands actually ship a pallet of product to our fulfillment center, and then our software automatically connects with that fulfillment center and ships it out,” says Kristen. “That’s why we’re able to get content so quickly. The full cycle is about a three-week cycle from when a brand launches to when they get the content.”

According to Kristen, the enhanced targeting also creates environmental and financial benefits by reducing product waste. “There are stories of brands sending the entire line of foundations. It’s so wasteful. With better targeting, brands don’t have to be so broad with the products they send.”

She adds that even basic functionalities, such as address verification, contribute to efficiency. “Our software automatically does that whenever they claim a new collaboration because creators move, and sometimes they’re on vacation,” Kristen explains. “Just doing these little things helps to reduce product waste from happening.”

Social Search Capabilities

The enhanced targeting capabilities connect to Statusphere’s newest focus: social search optimization. As social platforms add search features, Statusphere has developed tools to help brands appear in these results.

“The super smart brands are actually using our platform to increase their social search rankings,” Kristen reveals. “74% of Gen Z is actually searching on TikTok instead of Google. So if your brand is not ranking there, they do not know about your brand.”

The targeting system allows brands to identify creators most likely to drive engagement with specific keywords. “We have also launched social search optimization features to allow brands to rank on social search, and we are seeing incredible results with a lot of our CPG brands where they’re seeing huge search lift from getting people using these keywords in a systematic way,” Kristen explains.

“I would say if a CMO is leaving with one thing, social search to me is like a hidden gem that people haven’t discovered,” Kristen advises. “And I don’t know how long it will be like this because, like the early days of Google, things change. But right now, you can get ranking on TikTok and Instagram, and both platforms are investing very heavily in search.”

The Future of C2C Marketing

For Kristen, the enhanced targeting capabilities represent one step in a larger shift in marketing. “I really do see C2C or consumer-to-consumer marketing as the next frontier of marketing,” she predicts. “Every few decades, a new category or marketing channel arises. I truly believe and am betting on that the next generation is going to be consumer-to-consumer-led growth.”

This perspective stems from Kristen’s time building influencer programs before founding Statusphere. This experience gave her insight into how influencer marketing has grown from a niche activity to a major channel. 

Now, she sees another shift happening. “I think that a huge amount of marketing dollars is going to shift to this category in the next 10 years as people start realizing that Meta isn’t the one driving all the sales, and Google isn’t the one driving all the sales. It’s actually that mom who saw another mom using a product and said you should buy this.”