Vetting an influencer’s audience for authenticity and engagement can be done effectively using the following steps:

1. Audience demographics: You should first examine the audience demographics for the influencer. This will involve looking at factors such as the geographical distribution, age range, and gender of their followers.

2. Engagement rate: An engaged audience will often result in higher conversions. Look for influencers with high engagement rates which suggests an active and participative audience base. High likes, shares, and comments indicate valuable engagement.

3. Quality of followers: Inspect the influencer’s followers to ascertain whether they are legitimate users or fake accounts. Genuine followers will have authentic profiles with unique posts, while fake followers may have bare profiles with zero or irrelevant posts.

4. Consistency in Engagement: Look for consistency in their content’s performance. Irregularity in engagement numbers can be a red flag for bought followers or likes.

5. Audience Sentiment: Analyze comments on posts for sentiment. Positive and relevant comments indicate a healthy, engaged audience.

6. Influencer Behavior: Watch how influencers interact with their audience. Timely responses and active participation can indicate an authentic, engaged audience.

Influencer marketing platforms like Flinque can help significantly in this process. They offer tools for in-depth audience analytics, helping you to accurately assess an influencer’s audience for authenticity and engagement rate. Similar platforms may also offer these capabilities, and your choice depends on specific needs and preferences for campaign workflows. The key is to making an informed decision grounded in objective analysis of audience data.