How to show your audience demographics in a media kit

Short answer: show the gender split as percentages that add up to 100, your audience grouped into age ranges (13-17, 18-24, 25-34, 35+), and, if it matters for the brands you pitch, your top countries or cities. Take everything from your app's analytics for the same channel and period as your other stats, and connect it to what your content is about.

Brands book a creator to reach a specific group of people. Your audience data is how they check that you can. In our work with brands at Unwrappa, the team behind Mediakitster, "is this audience our customer?" is usually the first question a brand asks about a creator. Here is where to find the data and how to present it so that it answers that question in a few seconds.

Why do brands care so much about audience demographics?

A brand's marketing budget is spent on reaching people who might buy. A creator with a large audience in the wrong age group, or in a country the brand doesn't ship to, is money spent on the wrong people. A creator with a smaller audience that looks exactly like the brand's customers is often the better deal.

That is also why demographics help small creators the most. Your follower count can't compete with bigger accounts, but "78% women aged 18-34" can be exactly what a brand is looking for.

Where do you find your audience data?

You need a professional (creator or business) account to see audience data on Instagram and TikTok. Then:

• Instagram: Insights, then Total followers. You'll see age ranges, gender and top cities and countries.
• TikTok: Analytics, then the Viewers or Followers tab, with gender, age and locations.
• YouTube: YouTube Studio, then Analytics and the Audience tab, with age, gender and top geographies.

Both Instagram and TikTok only show demographics once your account or your viewers pass a minimum size, so a very new account may not see them yet.

Which demographics should you include?

Keep it to what a brand uses to decide:

• Gender split. Women and men as percentages, from the same channel as your other numbers.
• Age. Grouped into ranges rather than an average. "25-34: 46%" says more than "average age 29".
• Location, when it matters. Top countries for international brands, top cities for local ones. A café chain cares about your city; a global app cares about your countries.

Skip anything the app doesn't actually tell you. Guesses about income or interests don't help unless you can back them up.

How should you present them?

• Use percentages that add up. Gender to 100%, age groups to roughly 100%. Numbers that don't add up look copied by hand, wrongly.
• Lead with the biggest group. "Mostly women aged 25-34" is what the reader should remember.
• Keep the same channel and period as your followers, views and engagement. Mixing your Instagram audience with your TikTok numbers confuses the picture.
• Make it visual if you can. A simple bar for the gender split and bars for the age groups are read faster than a sentence.

Connect the numbers to your content

Numbers alone say who follows you. Your introduction says why. Put them together:

• "Easy recipes for people who are new to cooking" next to "70% aged 18-34"
• "Running for beginners in Manchester" next to "most followers in Manchester and Leeds"

Now a brand can see both who your audience is and what they come to you for, which is exactly what they need to picture their product in your content.

Followers or viewers?

On Instagram, follower demographics usually describe the people who see your posts. On TikTok, many of your viewers never follow you, so the viewer data from a recent period can describe a sponsored video's audience better. Either is fine; just say which one you used, and stick with it.

Don't round in your favour

It's tempting to round 52% women up to "mostly women" or to leave out an age group that doesn't fit the brand. Don't. Brands often ask for screenshots of your analytics before a paid collaboration, and what's in your media kit has to match what the app shows. An honest mismatch costs you one campaign; a number that doesn't hold up costs you the brand.

If your audience doesn't fit a brand, that's useful too. It tells you which brands to pitch instead.

Update it before every pitch

Audiences shift as your content changes. Check your demographics every few months and always before you send your media kit somewhere. The rest of the numbers that belong next to them are in how to calculate your engagement rate and the full checklist in what to include in a media kit.

Add it to your media kit

In Mediakitster, audience has its own step: you drag a slider for the gender split and tap the age groups until they match your analytics, and the step tells you where to find the numbers. Your answers are laid out as charts in a professionally structured media kit, next to your stats, services and rates. Start with the questions; the preview is free.