Instagram Influencer Lead Qualification Actor

A high-performance Apify Actor that scrapes and qualifies Instagram influencer profiles based on customizable engagement metrics, follower thresholds, and niche relevance.

🎯 Overview

This actor takes a list of Instagram profiles and returns qualified leads with comprehensive engagement data, lead scores, and actionable recommendations. Built for influencer marketing agencies and brand partnership teams who are tired of manually vetting profiles: it filters out fake and bought-follower accounts using a view-to-follower ratio check, then hands you a ready-made lead score and contact/review/skip recommendation for every profile that passes — no spreadsheet math required.

✨ Features

• Multi-method data extraction: Uses Instagram's internal API (feed_user + web_profile_info), HTML parsing, and meta tag fallbacks for maximum reliability.
• Reel view-count metrics: Captures play_count on video/Reel posts and derives a median view-to-follower ratio — a strong signal for authentic reach.
• Intelligent lead scoring: 0–100 score based on follower fit, engagement rate, niche match, and business email presence.
• Tiered engagement thresholds: Automatically adjusts engagement expectations based on influencer tier (nano → mega).
• Strict qualification gating: Only profiles passing every filter are written to the dataset by default (onlyOutputQualified).
• Multilingual support: Parses follower counts in English, Turkish, Spanish, French, Indonesian, and more.
• Configurable throughput: Tune maxConcurrency and maxRequestsPerMinute to trade speed vs. rate-limit risk.
• Anti-detection: iPhone 14 Pro device emulation with fingerprint randomization.
• Rate limit handling: Automatic abort after configurable rate limit threshold.
• Debug tools: Saves HTML dumps and screenshots for failed extractions.

📥 Input

Input schema

{
  "profiles": ["username1", "username2", "https://instagram.com/username3"],
  "sessionId": "YOUR_INSTAGRAM_SESSION_ID",
  "minFollowers": 4500,
  "maxFollowers": 500000,
  "minEngagementRate": 1.5,
  "minViewToFollowerRatio": 30,
  "requireBusinessEmail": false,
  "nicheKeywords": ["fitness", "health", "wellness"],
  "onlyOutputQualified": true,
  "maxProfilesPerRun": 50,
  "maxConcurrency": 2,
  "maxRequestsPerMinute": 30,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"]
  }
}

Input parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
profiles	array	✅	-	Instagram usernames (without @) or full profile URLs
sessionId	string	✅	-	Instagram session cookie (supports URL-encoded format)
minFollowers	integer	❌	1000	Minimum follower threshold
maxFollowers	integer	❌	null	Maximum follower threshold
minEngagementRate	number	❌	1.5	Minimum engagement rate as percentage (e.g., 1.5 = 1.5%)
minViewToFollowerRatio	number	❌	0	Minimum median Reel view count as percentage of followers (e.g., 30 = views ≥ 30% of followers). Set to 0 to disable.
requireBusinessEmail	boolean	❌	false	Only qualify profiles with an email in bio
nicheKeywords	array	❌	[]	Keywords to match in profile bio
onlyOutputQualified	boolean	❌	true	Only write profiles that pass all filters to the dataset. Disable to inspect every profile with its skipReason.
maxProfilesPerRun	integer	❌	50	Maximum profiles to process per run
maxConcurrency	integer	❌	2	Parallel profile scrapes. Raise for speed, lower if rate-limited.
maxRequestsPerMinute	integer	❌	30	Global rate cap for Instagram page loads.
proxyConfiguration	object	✅	RESIDENTIAL	Apify proxy configuration

📤 Output

Successful profile item

{
  "username": "fitness_influencer",
  "profileUrl": "https://www.instagram.com/fitness_influencer/",
  "followers": 125000,
  "following": 892,
  "posts": 1247,
  "bio": "🏋️ Certified Personal Trainer | 📧 collab@fitness.com",
  "externalUrl": "https://linktr.ee/fitness_influencer",
  "isVerified": false,
  "profilePicUrl": "https://instagram.com/...",
  "recentPosts": [
    {
      "shortcode": "ABC123xyz",
      "likeCount": 4521,
      "commentCount": 89,
      "timestamp": "2024-01-15T10:30:00.000Z",
      "displayUrl": "https://...",
      "isVideo": true,
      "viewCount": 38420,
      "productType": "clips"
    }
  ],
  "avgLikes": 4200,
  "medianLikes": 4100,
  "avgComments": 85,
  "engagementRate": 0.0343,
  "engagementRatePct": 3.43,
  "postingFrequency": 0.85,
  "postingFrequencyLabel": "0.9 posts/day",
  "medianViewCount": 38420,
  "viewToFollowerRatio": 0.3074,
  "viewToFollowerRatioPct": 30.74,
  "businessEmail": "collab@fitness.com",
  "nicheMatchScore": 0.67,
  "leadScore": 78.5,
  "recommendation": "contact",
  "qualified": true,
  "skipReason": null,
  "score_explanation": {
    "avg_likes_last_12": 4200,
    "engagement_rate": 0.0343,
    "engagement_rate_pct": 3.43,
    "engagement_formula": "engagement_rate = (median_likes + avg_comments) / followers",
    "follower_count": 125000,
    "tier": "macro",
    "expected_engagement": 1.0,
    "posting_frequency_per_day": 0.85,
    "posting_frequency_formula": "posts_per_day = post_count / (days_between_oldest_and_newest_post)",
    "posts_sampled": 12,
    "median_view_count": 38420,
    "view_to_follower_ratio_pct": 30.74,
    "reason_summary": "Engagement: 3.43% | Expected for macro: 1.0% | Followers: 125,000 | Tier: macro | Posts/day: 0.85 (from 12 recent posts) | Median views: 38,420 (30.7% of followers)"
  },
  "inputType": "profileUrl",
  "source": "https://www.instagram.com/fitness_influencer/",
  "success": true,
  "scrapedAt": "2024-01-20T14:32:00.000Z"
}

Failed profile item

{
  "username": "private_account",
  "profileUrl": "https://www.instagram.com/private_account/",
  "success": false,
  "error": "LOGIN_REQUIRED",
  "errorCode": "LOGIN_REQUIRED",
  "errorMessage": "Redirected to Login.",
  "scrapedAt": "2024-01-20T14:33:00.000Z"
}

📊 Lead Scoring System

Score components (0–100)

Component	Weight	Description
Follower Fit	40%	How well follower count matches target range
Engagement Rate	25%	Engagement relative to tier-adjusted threshold
Niche Match	20%	Bio keyword matches / total keywords
Business Email	10%	Has public email in bio
Verified Badge	5%	Instagram verification status

Recommendations

Score range	Recommendation	Action
70–100	contact	High priority lead, reach out immediately
40–69	review	Moderate fit, manual review recommended
0–39	skip	Does not meet qualification criteria

Influencer tiers & engagement thresholds

The actor automatically adjusts engagement expectations based on follower count:

Tier	Followers	Base threshold multiplier	Example (1.5% base)
Nano	<1K	1.0x	1.5%
Micro	1K–10K	max(base, 5%)	5.0%
Mid	10K–100K	1.0x	1.5%
Macro	100K–1M	0.67x	1.0%
Mega	1M+	0.33x	0.5%

🧮 How metrics are computed

All metrics are derived from the 12 most-recent posts returned by Instagram's feed_user endpoint.

Metric	Formula	Notes
engagementRate	(medianLikes + avgComments) / followers	Median likes are used instead of mean to reduce skew from viral outliers.
postingFrequency	postCount / daysBetween(oldestPost, newestPost)	Expressed as posts per day. postingFrequencyLabel auto-formats as posts/day, /week, or /month based on magnitude.
medianViewCount	median(playCount) across video/Reel posts only	Only posts where media_type === 2 (Reels/video) contribute. null if no videos in the sample.
viewToFollowerRatio	medianViewCount / followers	Strong authenticity signal — accounts with inflated followers typically get much lower ratios.
nicheMatchScore	matchedKeywords / totalKeywords	Bio keyword overlap. 0.5 when no keywords configured.

View-to-follower ratio filter

Set minViewToFollowerRatio: 30 to only qualify profiles where the median Reel view count ≥ 30% of followers. This is one of the most reliable signals for filtering out bought-follower accounts.

• Profiles with no video posts in the sample will be skipped with skipReason: "no_video_view_data" when this filter is active.
• Set to 0 to disable the filter entirely.

🔐 Getting Your Session ID

1. Open Instagram in Chrome and log in.
2. Press F12 to open DevTools.
3. Go to Application → Cookies → https://www.instagram.com.
4. Find the sessionid cookie and copy its value.
5. Paste into the sessionId input field.

Note: Session IDs can be either URL-encoded (with %3A) or decoded (with :). Both formats are supported.

Why this is required: Instagram blocks profile and Reel data requests from logged-out sessions, so a valid sessionId is the only way to fetch the engagement data this actor scores. The session is used exclusively to make read-only requests for public profile data during your run — it is never stored, logged, or reused after the run ends. As with any tool that uses a session cookie, we recommend using a secondary/dedicated Instagram account rather than your primary one.

⚠️ Error Codes

Code	Description	Resolution
LOGIN_REQUIRED	Redirected to Instagram login	Provide a valid sessionId
ACCESS_DENIED	Rate limited or blocked	Reduce maxRequestsPerMinute, use residential proxies
PARSE_ERROR	Failed to extract profile data	Check debug HTML in the Key-Value Store

Skip reasons (present on unqualified profiles)

skipReason	Meaning
below_min_followers	Follower count under minFollowers
above_max_followers	Follower count over maxFollowers
below_min_engagement	Engagement rate below tier-adjusted threshold
missing_business_email	requireBusinessEmail set but no email found in bio
no_niche_match	None of nicheKeywords match the bio
no_video_view_data	minViewToFollowerRatio set but profile has no Reels in sample
below_min_view_to_follower_ratio	Median Reel views are under the required % of followers

🛠️ Configuration Defaults

const DEFAULT_MAX_PROFILES = 50;
const DEFAULT_MAX_CONCURRENCY = 2;
const DEFAULT_MAX_REQUEST_RETRIES = 2;
const DEFAULT_MAX_REQUESTS_PER_MIN = 30;
const MAX_RATE_LIMIT_HITS = 3;

All of these can be overridden via input. If you see ACCESS_DENIED failures, drop maxConcurrency to 1 and maxRequestsPerMinute to 15.

📁 Debug Outputs

When extraction fails, the actor saves debug data to the Key-Value Store:

• debug-html-{username}-{timestamp} - Full page HTML
• screenshot-{username}-{label}-{timestamp} - Page screenshot

Labels include: LOGIN_REDIRECT, BLOCKED_HARD, PARSE_FAIL, PARSE_ERROR.

🚀 Usage Example

Via Apify Console

1. Navigate to the Actor in Apify Console.
2. Fill in the input form with your profiles and session ID.
3. Click Start.
4. Download results from the Dataset tab.

Via API

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/seralifatih~IGLead/runs?token=YOUR_API_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "profiles": ["therock", "cristiano", "kyliejenner"],
    "sessionId": "YOUR_SESSION_ID",
    "minFollowers": 100000,
    "minEngagementRate": 1.0,
    "proxyConfiguration": {
      "useApifyProxy": true,
      "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"]
    }
  }'

Via JavaScript SDK

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: 'YOUR_API_TOKEN' });

const run = await client.actor('seralifatih/IGLead').call({
  profiles: ['therock', 'cristiano'],
  sessionId: 'YOUR_SESSION_ID',
  minFollowers: 100000,
  proxyConfiguration: {
    useApifyProxy: true,
    apifyProxyGroups: ['RESIDENTIAL']
  }
});

const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
console.log(items);

📋 Best Practices

• Use residential proxies: Required for reliable Instagram access.
• Tune concurrency carefully: Default 2 is a good balance. Raise toward 4 only with a fresh residential session; drop to 1 if you see repeated ACCESS_DENIED.
• Batch appropriately: Process 25–50 profiles per run.
• Monitor session ID: Refresh if you see LOGIN_REQUIRED errors.
• Respect rate limits: Actor auto-aborts after 3 consecutive rate limit hits.
• Use view-to-follower ratio for filtering: minViewToFollowerRatio: 30 is a very effective authenticity filter — bought-follower accounts rarely hit 30%.

📄 License

Commercial use permitted. Pay-per-event pricing on Apify.