The comments section is a focus group you didn't pay for.

Follower counts and engagement rates are useful, but they flatten a creator into a single number. The comments under their videos tell you the thing those numbers can't: what kind of relationship they actually have with their audience.

Read a creator's recent comments before you book them. Are people replying in their own words, asking questions, tagging friends, arguing about the details? Or is it a row of emojis and little else? One is a community that listens. The other is a following that scrolls.

It matters for your campaign because a creator whose audience talks back is a creator whose recommendation carries weight. When they mention your product, people ask where to get it. On a quieter account, the same mention lands and disappears.

We see this on Burst campaigns often. The videos that move a brand aren't always the ones with the most views. They're the ones where the comments show people genuinely engaged with what was said.

Before you weigh a media kit, spend five minutes in the comments. It's the cheapest research you'll do.