As influencer marketing programs grow, the systems and processes supporting them must scale effectively. A critical piece of this puzzle is payments and compliance, which can become a significant bottleneck without the right infrastructure. This article compares three common approaches to managing payments and compliance in influencer marketing:

1. Influencer marketing platform

2. Managing internally

3. Lumanu

We’ll dive into how each approach handles key challenges like vendor setup, payment tracking, tax compliance, and reporting.

What’s needed to scale an Influencer Marketing program?

Scaling influencer marketing programs requires building a robust processes across four areas:

1. Activation: Finding, negotiating, and contracting influencers.

2. Campaign Management: Managing product delivery, tracking content, and ensuring campaigns stay on brand.

3. Reporting: Measuring content and campaign-level performance.

4. Payments and Compliance: Ensuring timely, accurate payments while maintaining tax and financial compliance.

While many influencer platforms excel in activation and reporting, they often fall short in campaign management and payments and compliance. Marketing teams find that the rigid campaign workflows in influencer tools don’t support the way they work with creators across influencer, UCG, affiliate and other initiatives. When it comes to payments and compliance, influencer platforms all use third party payment providers and offer payments because it is needed by all brands they service. However, adoption is fairly low because of the fundamental way influencer platforms approached the payments problem.

This article will dive into the important elements of influencer and other creator payments and provide a side by side comparison between using an influencer platform, paying creators directly, and working with Lumanu to manage influencer payments.

1. Vendor Setup Process

Every payment process begins with onboarding influencers as vendors. This involves collecting necessary tax information via a W9, payment details, and should include a TIN (tax ID number) verification along with regulatory screenings for compliance.

• Influencer Platforms:
  Use third-party payment providers, most frequently Tipalti or Trolley, requiring each influencer to complete vendor setup via a third party. Tipalti and Trolley were built to manage business onboarding and often have issues when onboarding talent management with unique circumstances (e.g. loan out companies or custodial accounts). When influencers have issues, the process is a manual back-and-forth between the platform, the payment provider, and the influencer.
  
  

• Internal Processes:
  Influencers must navigate your company process via BILL, Netsuite, Coupa, Ariba, etc. Depending on the AP system, the process can be confusing and time-intensive, often requiring significant support from Finance or Marketing teams. Marketing does not have access to these systems which means limited visibility into the status of influencer partners.
  
  

• Lumanu:
  Built for the creator economy, Lumanu streamlines onboarding. Lumanu is a payment network which includes hundreds of thousands of U.S. and international creators. If an influencer is not already in the network, the process can be completed in a few minutes.  Lumanu’s dedicated creator support team assists influencers directly, eliminating support costs.

2. Purchase Order (PO) Requisition

Ensuring finance receives accurate invoices with correct PO coding is critical for payment approval.

• Influencer Platforms:
  Often lack finance-friendly features, requiring manual communication to create POs to support campaigns.
  
  

• Internal Processes:
  Each influencer engagement often requires its own PO, adding administrative complexity.
  
  

• Lumanu:
  Works with or without PO requirement and alongside a "No PO No Pay" policy. Supports via flexible funding and invoicing options tailored to Finance team’s needs. Because Lumanu acts as a single vendor reporting against PO level spend becomes simpler compared to internally managed process.

3. Net Payment Terms and Exceptions

Ensuring creators are paid on time, especially when net payment terms or upfront payments are involved, can be a major challenge.

• Influencer Platforms:
  Payments are processed on a weekly schedule (not in real time), causing potential delays and additional support costs. Manual processing can lead to human error.
  
  

• Internal Processes:
  Securing payment exceptions (e.g., upfront or partial payments) for individual influencers can overwhelm AP teams.
  
  

• Lumanu:
  Supports upfront campaign funding and offers same-day payouts or scheduled payments to align with your needs. Since Lumanu acts as a single vendor for all influencer payouts, an exception is often given to Lumanu to increase speed of funding.

4. Tracking and Approving Deliverables

Payment approval needs to be tied to the completion of influencer deliverables.

• Influencer Platforms:
  Require rigid workflows that may not align with processes within the Marketing team, especially when multiple groups are working with influencers, UGC creators, affiliates and live event staff.
  
  

• Internal Processes:
  Gives teams full flexibility but requires manual effort to track deliverables and initiate payments based on status tracking.
  
  

• Lumanu:
  Ability to integrate with any workflow or tool via Zapier allowing deliverables to be linked to payout creation and approval.

5. Scheduling and Issuing Payouts

Creators expect payments to arrive when promised, which can be challenging without a scalable system.

• Influencer Platforms:
  Limited ability to schedule, must pay when ready to issue payouts. Note that payments are not made in real time, they are processed on the influencer platform’s payment processing schedule which is typically once per week.
  
  

• Internal Processes:
  Finance teams pay on their schedule, often leading to delays.
  
  

• Lumanu:
  Allows payments to be sent in real time or scheduled for specific dates, ensuring creators are paid as expected.

6. Tax Compliance

Tax compliance is a non-negotiable part of influencer payments, requiring proper tax form collection, TIN validation, and 1099 filing.

• Influencer Platforms:
  Handle compliance as part of their fee (usually 2–5% of payments).
  
  

• Internal Processes:
  Teams are responsible for all tax compliance, requiring significant manual effort.
  
  

• Lumanu:
  Acts as a single vendor, handling tax form collection, validation, and 1099 filing on your behalf, ensuring full compliance. Lumanu files 1099s across our network which gives us the ability for efficiency which is reflected in total cost of payments.

7. Reporting and Reconciliation

Accurate, real-time visibility into payments is essential for both finance and marketing teams.

• Influencer Platforms:
  Offer limited visibility and basic export capabilities, often requiring manual reconciliation.
  
  

• Internal Processes:
  Finance systems rarely provide marketing teams with insights into payment activity.
  
  

• Lumanu:
  Maintains a comprehensive ledger with filtering, exporting, and programmatic access, offering both teams full visibility into payment data.

The Lumanu Advantage for Influencer Payments

When compared to influencer platforms and internal management, Lumanu offers a purpose-built solution for influencer payments that scales effortlessly:

• Simplified onboarding with a vast pre-approved creator network.

• Flexible invoicing tailored to finance requirements.

• Seamless payment scheduling and same-day payouts.

• Comprehensive tax compliance management.

• Full visibility and reconciliation capabilities.

By addressing the most challenging aspects of payments and compliance, Lumanu empowers marketing teams to scale their influencer programs without administrative headaches.