The TikTok Creator Marketplace is experiencing some growing pains

Recently, an employee at influencer marketing agency Sway Group reached out to a creator about striking up a brand partnership. According to the TikTok Creator Marketplace (TTCM), which Sway Group uses to contact influencers, the creator’s starting rate was listed as a modest $250.

As it turned out, the creator’s price point wasn’t anywhere near $250, Tiffany Romero, Sway Group’s president of influencer management, told Marketing Brew. After Sway Group got in touch, the creator said her range was between $15,000 and $25,000—at least 60x the rate listed on the TTCM.

Apparently, it’s a common issue—marketers working on the agency side representing brands, like Romero, as well as influencer talent managers, told Marketing Brew that the TTCM has developed somewhat of a reputation for listing creators’ rates as lower than they actually are.

Created in late 2019, the TTCM was established as a way to theoretically make it easier for brands to connect with creators. To join the TTCM, creators must have 100k+ followers and fill out an application.

While it can be a useful tool, several influencer marketers and talent managers we spoke to told us they’ve run into several issues with it, from the aforementioned pricing issues, to rumors of limited reach, to email remaining the dominant form of brand deal communications.

Money money money

On the TTCM, creators can only list their starting price. The feature lets creators list standard pricing, though TikTok did not respond to a request to clarify what that means.

The experts we spoke to had a few theories about why the pricing inconsistencies persist.. Brendan Gahan, partner and chief social officer at Mekanism, pointed out, a creator could charge a “couple grand” today, then a few weeks from now, get a manager after getting more popular on the platform, and start charging “five figures, easily.” TikTok moves fast, after all.

Danielle Wiley, Sway Group’s founder and CEO, told us that, in her experience, creators’ starting prices are higher than what they have listed on the TTCM about 75% of the time.

“There’s often a huge discrepancy,” Wiley said. For example, she noted that “someone who says they’re charging a few hundred dollars, you give them a call, and it’s more like $5,000, $10,000.”

Kayley Reed, founder of influencer talent agency Hermana, said that in her experience, she has seen inaccurate prices “every time.”

Reed, however, didn’t know that creators could update their rates in the TTCM until we spoke with her. Marissa Cordova, talent manager at Jabberhaus, also wasn’t aware.

If a creator doesn’t enter a rate—or decides not to make it visible—their price is listed as “negotiable” by default, Adrienne Lahens, global head of operations, TikTok creator marketing solutions, told us.

Lahens noted that TikTok sends “reminder messages” to creators about updating their rates “occasionally through in-app notifications,” although she did not specify the frequency at which they’re sent.