These two routes are almost always compared on commission, whereas here a third thing moves with them, and it costs more than a percentage.
What going direct really costs
Internal time, at every step.
Finding the profiles, checking they exist, exchanging before the agreement, drafting a document, chasing, receiving the files, obtaining an acceptable invoice, triggering the payment and tracking it. Count those hours once, honestly, at the real hourly cost of the person spending them.
Below a few videos a month, that total almost always exceeds the commission you were trying to avoid.
What a marketplace removes
Three frictions, and they are rarely costed.
The search for and verification of profiles. The ordering framework, with a payment and a recourse when the delivery does not come. And the quick replacement of somebody who cancels three days before.
That last point is what costs most when going direct, because it happens at the worst moment.
When direct stops being cheaper
When the volume rises and the process is not written down.
Two or three regular creators, a permanent brief, a contract template and a payment procedure: in those conditions, direct becomes distinctly more profitable. Without them, every job starts from scratch and internal time explodes.
The threshold is therefore not a number of videos, it is the existence of a process.
The Canadian complication
It pushes that threshold higher.
Two language markets, requirements about the language of communication that depend on the province and the message, rules specific to certain categories, and transparency obligations about the commercial nature of a post. All of that is checked before distribution, with a lawyer in case of doubt.
A team working direct therefore has to carry that checking in addition to the coordination, for every campaign and every province targeted.
The reasonable answer
Start on a marketplace, move to direct with those who come back.
You first buy speed and a guarantee while you learn what works. Then, once two or three people are identified and the process is written down, direct becomes the cheapest and most stable route.
What each route costs and protects
| The criterion | The marketplace | Direct contact |
|---|---|---|
| The visible cost | A known commission | No commission |
| The hidden cost | None | Time to search and verify |
| Payment security | Funds held from the order onward | Entirely dependent on trust |
What direct contact really demands
A written framework. Without a formalised order, a deposit and proof of delivery, the commission saved turns into risk, and a single unpaid invoice cancels the gain from ten orders.
What decides, depending on the stage of the relationship
Seniority. A first order benefits from a framework protecting both sides; a relationship established for a year can be handled directly, because the trust was built elsewhere.
The model established teams practise
They do not choose.
A core going direct, the people who know the product and deliver without supervision. A marketplace for everything else: testing a format, covering a language, absorbing a peak, replacing somebody at short notice.
The two routes do not compete, they cover two different needs, and that is why the question comes back every year without ever being settled once and for all.
