Klear review 2024: Comprehensive analysis of influencer marketing software

Our Verdict

Our Verdict

Klear, formerly known as Twtrland, has evolved from a Twitter analytics tool to a comprehensive influencer marketing platform. Founded in 2011 by Eytan, Guy, and Noam Avigdor, Klear now offers advanced analytics and audience insights, making it a go-to platform for brands and agencies.

Pros

• Social reporting
• Report exporting
• Audience analysis
• Social measurement
• Competitor analysis

Cons

• Lack of transparent pricing
• Complexity for users without expertise
• The challenging process of finding influencers

4.6

Our ratings take into account a product's cost, features, ease of use, customer service and other category-specific attributes. All ratings are determined solely by our editorial team.

Starting price

$79 per month

Channels

Instagram, YouTube, TikTok

Key features

Search/discovery, Automated recruiting, Influencer relationship management, Influencer marketplace, Content review

Long before Klear became a leading influencer platform, it was known as Twtrland, a social intelligence tool designed to help Twitter users connect with new people and grow their networks. Founded by brothers Eytan, Guy, and Noam Avigdor, the company launched in 2011, prior to the rise of influencer marketing.

As influencer marketing gained traction and evolved into a significant industry, Twtrland's focus on analyzing Twitter accounts—examining reach, engagement, and network strength—proved useful for identifying influencers. However, the platform's exclusive focus on Twitter was limiting. Recognizing this, the Avigdor brothers spent three years refining their algorithms and expanding their platform to include Instagram and Facebook. In 2015, they rebranded as Klear, signifying their commitment to delivering clear insights into influencer marketing.

Utilizing advanced algorithms and AI, Klear categorized influencers into over 60,000 topic areas and provided detailed analytics on audience demographics and psychographics. Although they later incorporated campaign management, tracking, and basic competitor monitoring tools, their core strength remained in data and analytics—roots from their days as a Twitter analytics tool.

Ironically, Klear was acquired by Meltwater, a media and social intelligence company similar to Twtrland's original focus. In 2017, Meltwater sought a partnership with an influencer platform, finding a natural synergy with Klear. Over the next four years, the partnership thrived, attracting clients like Nestle, Walmart, H&M, and BMW. This success led Meltwater to fully acquire Klear, integrating it into their suite of data-driven marketing tools.

Today, Klear can be used independently or as part of Meltwater's offerings, enabling brands and agencies to develop, scale, and measure influencer marketing programs. With a comprehensive influencer database that combines first and third-party data, Klear provides clients with valuable insights at every stage of their campaigns. From discovery and vetting to collaboration, payment, and impact measurement, Klear offers a complete end-to-end experience.

Pricing

Although Klear operates as Software as a Service (SaaS) and is accessible through a subscription, Meltwater does not provide predefined service tiers. Instead, pricing is tailored to the customer's size and requirements. Meltwater primarily targets medium to large brands or agencies, making Klear likely excessive for smaller businesses.

The details

Klear’s core strength has always been its analytics. With an immense database of influencer profiles and billions of associated data points, brands can identify the most relevant content creators with the ideal audiences. This allows them to craft campaigns that effectively drive engagement and conversions. This capability has consistently attracted brands and agencies to Klear. Notably, Meltwater’s expertise in data has further enhanced Klear, providing users with an unmatched level of precision in selecting influencers for campaigns. It’s not just about choosing influencers; it’s about choosing the right audiences.

Klear’s listening feature delivers the kind of social intelligence Meltwater is known for, adding context to the data about influencers and their audiences. These "monitors" can be set up to track virtually anything, such as competitors. By adding competitors' social accounts, you can compare mentions, engagement, and follower growth. The summary provides totals across all channels, with easy-to-read graphs that visualize the data and break it down further, showing specific types of engagement for each platform. You can see the content being posted in their name, both owned and earned, discover who is mentioning them, and learn more about those individuals. Additionally, you can analyze the followers of these accounts to see the people and keywords they are mentioning, offering insights into your target audience’s interests. These monitors can also be applied to your own account for a comprehensive brand analysis.

However, the context we mentioned earlier refers to understanding influencers' audiences and knowing what content will resonate with them. This can be achieved by creating monitors for hashtags and keywords, which helps you grasp trending topics and their audiences, allowing you to tailor your campaigns accordingly.

An additional benefit of these monitors is their role in training Klear’s AI-powered Discovery algorithm. As you set up more monitors, Klear learns what is relevant and important to your brand, enhancing the results you get from the Discovery module. This module helps you find creators across major social channels like Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, blogs, and the Chinese platform Red. Similar to other Discovery tools, it works by searching for keywords and refining results with various filters. Here, filters are especially crucial: the AI evaluates relevant influencers based on their content and stats. The insights gained from your monitors about your brand's aesthetics and preferences influence the results, making filters essential for narrowing down your options.

Unless specified otherwise, your results will include a mix of vetted and unvetted creators. Vetted creators are those who have registered with Klear and connected their social accounts to provide first-party data, while unvetted creators are found through Klear’s web-scraping algorithms. Both groups offer valuable high-level metrics that quickly indicate a person’s influence. The Klear score, for example, serves as a relative measure of a creator's value compared to others rather than a definitive statement of influence. Additionally, Klear's True Reach metric accurately measures how many people actually see a creator’s content. One notable feature of Klear’s Discovery tool is the way it presents results: instead of sorting by any metrics, the list is automatically sorted by audience interest in the searched topic. For instance, a search for “keto cooking” will display influencers whose audiences are most interested in that topic first.

Alternatively, you can bypass the Discovery module entirely with Klear’s Recruit module, which offers a WYSIWYG interface for creating landing pages where potential influencers can apply. This passive recruiting tool is especially useful for popular brands and agencies. The landing pages can be customized to ask specific questions tailored to your brand or campaign. For example, if you want to find influencers who are diabetic or cook for diabetics, you can include questions like “Do you have diabetes? Type 1 or 2?” These detailed questionnaires add a beneficial layer of friction, ensuring that only genuinely interested and suitable candidates apply. This helps filter out those simply seeking easy money, as they are less likely to complete the more detailed application process.

Finally, we reach Klear's Campaign Management module, which we previously found lacking. It wasn't that it was inadequate, but it was merely passable—neither a draw for new customers nor a dealbreaker. We're pleased to see significant improvements here. Campaign creation is now more comprehensive, covering usage rights, tracking links, content approval, customizable email templates, a mood board, and product gifting. The interface has also been updated to handle the increased complexity while remaining user-friendly.

The addition of product gifting enhances e-commerce integration, currently supporting Shopify and WooCommerce. This allows creators to select their preferred style and size (or other product options) directly from the campaign interface. This information is then seamlessly transferred to the e-commerce platform, which processes it like any other order. Your existing shipping processes will handle everything without additional effort on your part. These kinds of thoughtful, small features are prevalent throughout Klear, making it easier to scale campaigns to any size you need.

In conclusion, Klear's integration with Meltwater has greatly benefited both products, particularly benefiting the customers. Klear's strength lies in its analytics, offering brands and agencies unmatched insights into their audiences. With millions of influencer profiles and billions of data points, Klear helps users find the most relevant content creators for their target audiences. The platform's "monitors" feature allows brands to track competitors and analyze engagement, providing valuable social intelligence for targeted campaigns.

Klear's Discovery module uses AI algorithms to enhance influencer identification, while its improved Campaign Management module streamlines campaign creation. With these tools and integration with e-commerce platforms, Klear enables brands to execute data-driven influencer marketing strategies that drive engagement and maximize campaign success.