Influencer spend decisions are still mostly vibes.

The influencer marketing industry is a $250 billion marketwhere the dominant vetting methodology is still eyeballing a follower count and checking whether the creator’s aesthetic “fits the brand.”

The result: $1.5 billion lost to influencer fraud per year, and only 34% of marketers say they have a reliable process for vetting creator quality before signing. The rest are guessing — and the creators who inflate their numbers know it.

The problem isn’t just fraud. It’s that the benchmarks most teams use are flat. A 4% engagement rate gets called “good” whether the creator has 8,000 followers or 8 million — even though 4% is extraordinary at scale and mediocre for a nano. Flat benchmarks systematically mis-score both ends of the creator spectrum.

What the engine does

SpendVet is a size-aware scoring engine. You enter a creator’s stats — followers, average views, engagement rate, brand safety, niche match — and the engine returns a full breakdown: overall score, tier classification (nano / micro / mid / macro / mega), and six sub-scores (engagement, reach, fraud, safety, commercial fit, confidence).

Every benchmark recalibrates by tier. So a 5k nano with 8% ER and a 5M mega with 1.2% ER are both scored against what creators their size should be doing — not the same flat line. The nano might outscore the mega on engagement. That’s a real, defensible, useful result.

What we’re not

SpendVet isn’t a guarantee that a creator will perform. We score signal quality from public data — engagement, reach, fraud risk, niche fit — but we can’t tell you what the content will look like or whether the audience is right for your specific campaign. That’s your judgment. We’re here to make the math part faster and more defensible.

We’re also not an agency or a managed-service. The platform stays self-serve so the workflow scales with you — solo brand, in-house team, or agency vetting 50 inbound pitches a week.

Who built this

SpendVet is built by Aiden Seidell, a solo founder. Small team, intentionally lean. Email me: hello@spendvet.com. I read every reply.