How do I use Claude to find and vet UGC creators?

What can Claude do here, and what can it not?

Claude is the best reasoning partner in this workflow: it reads a creator's captions and tells you whether they are on topic, compares twenty creators on consistency, drafts a brief, and rewrites an outreach message in your voice. What it cannot do alone is see the platforms. Ask Claude "find me fitness creators on TikTok" with no tools and it will produce plausible handles from memory, some of which do not exist. That is not a Claude problem; it is a data problem.

So the workflow is: give Claude the data, then let it think.

How do I connect Claude to the ads data?

Claude cannot browse the Meta Ad Library on its own, and its web search returns articles about ads, not the ads. The fix is a connector: Dovey's server speaks MCP, the protocol Claude uses for tools, so once it is added Claude can search ads, open an advertiser's account, count what runs and find creators as if they were its own abilities.

1. Open Claude, then Settings, then Connectors, and choose "Add custom connector".
2. Paste the address: https://api.makedovey.com/mcp
3. Sign in to Dovey when Claude asks. A free account works for search; the agent and creator lists are on a plan.
4. Start a new chat. The Dovey tools appear under the connector's name; you do not have to call them by name.

In Claude Code, it is one line: claude mcp add --transport http dovey https://api.makedovey.com/mcp.

What do I ask first?

Start with the topic your product lives in, not the product name. A creator who posts about "meal prep" is the one whose audience trusts them on your meal kit.

Find creators who are already posting about protein powder on TikTok and Instagram. Nano and micro first. Show me their median views, engagement rate and whether they have done paid posts.

Claude calls the creator search, which searches both platforms for the topic, reads each candidate's profile and last 30 posts, computes the numbers, and ranks by fit, engagement and ad readiness. The answer comes back as a grid of creators with the numbers on each card.

Those three are real, from the index on September 24, 2026. Every card links to the profile.

How do I narrow it?

Constraints go in the sentence. Claude turns them into filters:

• "under 10k followers" or "nano" sets the band
• "with a public business email" keeps only creators you can reach
• "who have done paid partnerships" keeps creators with brand experience
• "in Spanish", "on Instagram only", "at least 5% engagement"

Of those, keep the ones under 50k followers with a public email, and show me the three posts each of them made about protein.

How do I vet them?

Ask Claude to compare, and ask it to show its work:

Compare the top five on view-based engagement, consistency and views per follower. Flag anyone whose views per follower is under 1%.

Views per follower under 1%, with engagement under half a percent, is the signature of bought followers. Consistency (the share of posts within half to double their median) separates a steady creator from one viral hit. Both are computed from the posts, not from the follower count, which is the number sellers inflate.

The one signal no platform shows: whether a brand has already paid this creator and kept the ad running. Dovey reads creator handles off the Meta ads in its index, so:

Which of these creators have already appeared in supplement ads on Meta, and for how long did those ads run?

What does a creator actually say?

For a shortlist, have Claude read the transcripts:

Read the top three videos from @handle and summarize how they talk about products. Do they name prices? Do they show the product in the first three seconds?

Claude calls creator details with the read option, which fetches the transcripts (only when you ask).

How do I reach out?

Draft a first message to @handle about a 30-second video for a creatine gummy. Mention their post about pre-workout routines. Ask what they charge for one video. Keep it under 80 words.

Claude drafts; you send. Dovey never messages anyone. Ask Claude to save the shortlist to a list ("save these five to Q4 creators") and it is there in your Dovey bookmarks.

What should I not expect?

Rates. Neither Claude nor Dovey knows what a creator charges, and any number it gives you is a guess. Ask the creator. What the data gives you is what the rate should be judged against: reach, engagement, consistency, and whether brands kept their content running.

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FAQ