How to Find Brand Ambassadors: A Guide for Next-Gen Marketers

A customer posts about your product, unprompted. No sponsorship, no paid partnership—just genuine excitement. That single post ends up sparking more interest and trust than your latest ad campaign. In a world overflowing with sponsored content, authenticity reaches the target audience like nothing else.

According to a 2024 Nielsen report, 92% of consumers trust recommendations from people they know over any form of advertising. That trust is exactly what makes brand ambassadors so valuable.

Source: Instagram

They’re not hired influencers or celebrities. They’re real users—loyal customers, niche experts, or everyday consumers—who already believe in your brand and talk about it because they want to, not because they’re paid to. And because people are more likely to trust their peers than polished marketing, that kind of advocacy is incredibly powerful.

In this article, we’ll explore what brand ambassadors really are, how they’re different from influencers, and how to spot them, even when they aren’t tagging you. You’ll also learn how to uncover these hidden voices and turn them into powerful allies for your brand.

What are brand ambassadors?

They’re already talking about you.

That person who raves about your product on Twitter without being asked. The skincare enthusiast who includes your brand in their morning routine reel because they genuinely use it. The personal trainer who recommends your protein bars to clients, not because they’re paid to, but because they believe in them.

That’s what a brand ambassador looks like.

Source: Instagram

The best brand ambassador is someone who uses your product, loves it, and shares their experience with others because it matters to them. Their promotion is not transactional—it’s personal. And that’s what makes it powerful. In a world where consumers are increasingly skeptical of polished influencer content, this kind of organic advocacy feels real on all social media platforms.

Unlike influencers, potential brand ambassadors usually aren’t chasing clicks or building a content career. Many of them don’t even consider themselves “creators.” They might have small audiences, but they have high trust. Their friends, followers, or community members see them as credible, not because of follower count, but because of the personal connection.

Source: Instagram

Sometimes, ambassadors are deeply embedded in the niche they talk about. Think of a runner who reviews athletic gear after logging 100 miles in it, or someone sharing their eczema journey and the creams that actually worked. These aren’t surface-level mentions. These are stories, and they’re what contemporary marketing is built on.

Also worth noting: money usually isn’t the driver here. Brand ambassadors aren’t professionals—they’re passionate customers with day jobs. What they want isn’t always payment. It’s recognition, early access, or just the chance to build a relationship with a brand they admire.

And if you’re not paying attention, you might miss them entirely.

Why brand ambassadors are more valuable than influencers

When you're building a brand for the long haul, one-off posts and short-term partnerships can only take you so far. To truly increase brand awareness and connect with your audience on a deeper level, you need something more consistent, more authentic, and more aligned.

That’s where brand ambassadors come in.

Long-term relationships with loyal customers

An influencer might talk about your product once. A brand ambassador will keep talking about it because they actually use it.

This continuity makes a huge difference. Whether you're working with everyday customers or employee brand ambassadors, long-term relationships drive deeper trust and help you maintain a consistent voice across social media channels. That ongoing presence contributes not only to visibility but also to real customer loyalty—something a single campaign can't manufacture.

Authentic voices feel more trustworthy

Influencers often craft content around what’s trending. Ambassadors share their own stories—how your brand positively impacted their life, workflow, or community.

That’s a crucial distinction. The ideal brand ambassador doesn't just deliver a pretty photo; they offer social proof rooted in experience. Their social media posts are based on real use, not a creative brief. And that’s why people listen.

When followers feel that authenticity, they’re more likely to engage, remember, and convert. It’s not just about getting seen—it’s about being believed.

Better alignment with your brand values

Not every influencer fits your brand’s personality. Sometimes, it shows. And when a post feels forced, it doesn’t just fall flat—it can damage your brand image.

Ambassadors, on the other hand, are often already aligned with your mission. Many are building their own personal brand that overlaps with your values, whether it’s sustainability, innovation, inclusivity, or community focus. This natural overlap makes collaborations smoother and more impactful. You’re not asking them to play a role—they’re already living it.

Cost-effective and scalable engagement

Let’s talk numbers. Influencer marketing platforms can be expensive, especially if you're paying for reach alone. But reach without engagement doesn’t help you boost brand awareness in any meaningful way.

Brand ambassadors—especially those with niche audiences—often generate higher engagement at a lower cost. And because they don’t need a big payout to share something they already believe in, your return on investment grows over time.

Source: Instagram

Plus, when you activate employee brand ambassadors internally, you multiply your reach across professional networks without running paid campaigns.

Deeper advocacy and built-in feedback loops

An influencer partnership ends when the contract does. With brand ambassadors, you get to forge genuine relationships that strengthen over time. They become part of your brand story, helping you gain valuable insights, identify trends, and even receive product feedback based on real-world use.

When you listen to your ambassadors, you’re not just boosting your brand's presence—you’re improving the product itself. That’s the kind of feedback loop that creates stronger messaging, better customer experiences, and more impactful social media accounts down the line.

How to find brand ambassadors?

The earlier you start including brand ambassadors in your marketing strategy, the better. But where do you find them? Sure, you can explore your social media profiles, look at the posts under your brand`s hashtag or your mentions, and choose.

However, there are certain nuances that might be missed when the search is done manually. For example, multiple influencers and other ambassadors tend to skip tagging brands or using branded hashtags. So while they are unconsciously promoting a particular brand without mentioning it or talking about it directly, it can be literally impossible to find their posts. Or a person may share a lot of relevant content while also receiving a ton of negative feedback. Thus, not a safe representative of a brand.

Plus, along with your brand growth, the number of people posting about it will go up as well, leading to a drop in the efficiency of the personal approach. This is where software comes in.

YouScan is a social media listening and sentiment analysis tool that is capable of solving these and other issues, as well as providing you with a ton of useful data that can help you make much more informed decisions. Let's have a look at several examples.

Dive deep into user-generated content

Glossier is an American skincare and makeup company that has managed to build an exceptionally strong brand and successful business in just a few years.

Source: Instagram

From the start, they made a big bet on user-generated content, and this approach has definitely paid off. People love posting photos of their products and sharing their impressions. But how can one find genuine brand ambassadors in such a crowded space? Social listening is the answer.

We used YouScan to collect all Glossier mentions that were posted within the past month and discover the ones that might be relevant in terms of finding ambassadors. These are some of the posts that stood out.

An Instagram user with less than 2000 followers had around 400 likes and more, as well as dozens of comments. Its author turned out to be a skincare aficionado constantly posting about skincare and make-up products, and receiving a lot of feedback from a small circle of her followers.

This profile could have been lost among many others that feature Glossier, but our software has emphasized it because it had numerous posts dedicated to Glossier products with positive reviews about them. So, its creator can be considered their brand ambassador.

It would make a lot of sense for the brand to reach out to her and build a long-term relationship with someone who is already a fan of what they do and would be thrilled to keep on using their products and talking about them.

To find posts that featured the brand but did not mention it in the text, we used Visual Insights. This feature is capable of detecting particular logos, as well as objects and scenes. One of many results was an inspirational type of image with a Glossier product and no tags or mentions of it.

Source: Instagram

When you look for brand ambassadors or influencers, for that matter, it is a good idea to be in touch with people who have audiences of different sizes. So instead of communicating and collaborating with 5 content creators with 5,000 followers, better pick someone with less, and others with more.

Another good way to find influencers and brand ambassadors is through relevant hashtags. Once you've conducted target audience analysis, all you need is a powerful tool to execute the search and keep tabs on potential customers and promoters.

Analyze demographics and embrace diversity

Oatly is a Swedish vegan food brand that has won the hearts of its consumers thanks to not only high-quality products that taste good, but also with their light-hearted and playful tone both in ads and on social media.

Representation is important for your brand's tone. Women tend to discuss lifestyle and health more often. And one might think that a food brand would win from focusing its communication strategy on women, but that would be a mistake. Men are becoming more and more interested in joining this conversation as well. So, covering all bases would be the right thing to do.

We analyzed the demographics of the Oatly mentions and found that there were posts by both female and male authors. It is definitely useful to take this into account when you plan and execute your strategy beyond promotional content, and instead of looking for female brand ambassadors only, it is a good idea to include men as well.

Source: Instagram

We used YouScan in order to have a look at content creators that were mentioning Oatly in their posts and find those that were at the top in terms of influence and engagement. It is important to point out that these columns usually have different users in them because one might reach more people but have a lower engagement level than someone else with a smaller outreach but higher engagement. 

On top of that, you can add various filters to see the top authors in terms of aspects that matter to you the most.

Pay attention to the numbers. A profile with 40,1K readers has a higher engagement level than one with almost half a million followers. This is a perfect example of the current situation on social media: huge content creators may actually be less influential than people with much smaller pages.

Geography is another filter that is full of insights. Our software has shown that Oatly was mentioned in the United States and the United Kingdom as well. Moreover, analysing trends where your audience is brings numerous advantages and inspires creative freedom.

Focus on visual insights

Even though we have mentioned that brand ambassadors are usually ordinary people without a massive following, it does not have to be that way. Brand ambassadors can be extremely popular. And they can promote your brand consciously or unconsciously. So, how do you discover influencers to promote your brand beyond traditional advertising methods (by the way, that's the YouScan's cool functionality worth trying)?

We chose Gucci as a case study and used our logo search feature to find posts that included the brand but did not have any tags. Visual Insights helped us do that.

Source: Instagram

One of many detected posts was from a famous TikToker from Thailand with over 1 million followers. In it, she is wearing a Gucci top, but the brand is not tagged, and the hashtags do not mention Gucci either. And even though the purpose of the post had nothing to do with the fashion powerhouse, it is a perfect example of someone being an organic brand ambassador with great performance metrics on her post.

Obviously, details matter. So, the more filters you choose, the better. This is an example of a post that would never be found manually. Meanwhile, a woman in the photo is promoting Gucci by wearing their glasses and demonstrating them.

Tools to help identify and manage ambassadors

A successful brand ambassador program doesn’t start with a mass email campaign or a flashy influencer deal. It starts with listening closely. If you want to boost brand recognition and build long-term relationships with genuine fans, you need the right tools to help you find brand ambassadors and manage those relationships with a large customer base.

Here’s a breakdown of the most important tools modern marketers rely on for ambassador marketing—and how to use them effectively.

Social listening platforms: Spotting the best brand ambassadors before they raise their hand

The most authentic ambassadors are often already promoting your brand online. They’re posting about their experiences, sharing product photos, or recommending you in comment sections. The challenge? Many of them don’t tag you or use your branded hashtags.

That’s where social listening tools come in.

Source: YouScan

With a tool like YouScan, you can monitor all kinds of social media posts—tagged or not—across platforms. It helps you uncover micro-ambassadors by analyzing both text and images. YouScan’s Visual Insights feature, for example, can detect your logo in photos even when you're not mentioned explicitly.

Source: Instagram

Have you ever heard of social audiences? Well, now you have! This is the YouScan's platform in-depth capability which allows collecting social media data based on specific characteristics of the authors of posts. Cool, isn't it?

This is what makes social listening tools eat monitoring for breakfast when we talk about recruiting ambassadors and creating a powerful ambassador community.

CRM and community platforms: Turning engagement into structured programs

Once you’ve identified new ambassadors, CRM tools and community platforms help you effectively communicate and stay organized. These tools are especially helpful for recruiting brand ambassadors and tracking their progress as they engage with your campaigns.

They also let you segment your brand advocates based on loyalty, activity level, or geography—an essential step in running a successful brand ambassador program.

Ambassador program dashboards: Managing campaigns at scale

As your program grows, manually managing dozens of ambassadors just isn’t realistic. Ambassador marketing software helps streamline everything from onboarding to performance tracking. These dashboards provide a single view of your program, including who’s most active, who needs support, and which content is performing best.

Some platforms even allow you to customize what your brand ambassador program offers—whether it’s early access, discount codes, branded merch, or performance-based rewards.

UGC and content monitoring tools: Finding the stories that matter

Not every ambassador is trying to be one. Some just love your product and talk about it naturally. Social media monitoring tools help you collect those posts, understand which stories are resonating, and decide which content is worth amplifying.

Source: YouScan

This is especially useful when you’re running product launches or event-based campaigns and want to track organic traction.

Brand ambassadors in a nutshell

As ad fatigue grows and paid reach becomes harder to sustain, brand ambassadors are emerging as one of the most trusted and cost-effective ways to boost engagement and grow brand awareness. Their content feels personal, their voices are authentic, and their loyalty is earned, not bought.

If you’re looking to find and activate ambassadors with real influence and genuine enthusiasm, social media listening tools like YouScan can help you spot them before anyone else does.

Want to see how it works? Explore a demo and discover who’s already advocating for your brand.

FAQs

How do I find an ambassador for my brand?

Start by monitoring social media posts and conversations around your brand. Look for users who mention you positively, share content consistently, and already align with your brand values. Social listening tools like YouScan help uncover these potential ambassadors, even if they don’t tag your brand directly.

How do I reach out to brand ambassadors?

Reach out personally through a direct message, not transactionally. Let them know you’ve noticed their content, explain why you value their voice, and suggest ways to collaborate. Focus on building a relationship first—whether through exclusive access, product previews, or content features—before discussing formal partnership terms.

How much does a brand ambassador cost?

It depends. Many brand ambassadors don’t expect monetary compensation, especially if they’re existing fans of your brand. Some may value perks like free products, early access, or community recognition. Others—particularly those with established audiences—may request payment or performance-based rewards. What matters most is that the offer feels fair and authentic.

How to recruit a brand ambassador?

Recruiting begins with listening. Identify potential ambassadors through social listening, UGC monitoring, or CRM segmentation. Once identified, reach out with a tailored message that reflects their interests and audience. Offer value, outline what your brand ambassador program offers, and make it easy for them to say yes.