Both find you creators. They are not selling you the same thing, and the difference appears the day a video comes back wrong.
What you are really buying
Three different things, under two names.
A marketplace sells you access and a framework: a filtered pool, secured payment, a written trace. It sells you neither advice, nor a guarantee of result, nor anybody to review your brief.
An agency sells you work: the selection of profiles, the writing of the brief, the coordination, the approvals, and responsibility for what is delivered.
The headline price reflects that difference. A marketplace's commission pays for infrastructure; an agency's fees pay for people's hours.
When the marketplace wins
In four specific situations.
When you know exactly what you want and can write it down.
When you need volume and variety: several faces, several accents, several settings, to test in paid advertising.
When the budget per video is modest and internal coordination already exists.
And when you are starting out: it is the least risky way to learn what works for your product, before committing to heavier spending.
When the agency wins
In four other situations.
When the product is complex, technical or regulated, and the brief requires expertise.
When the campaign involves several markets, several languages or several channels, and coordination becomes a job in itself.
When you have nobody internally to review, approve and chase.
And when the stakes justify responsibility: a product launch, a national campaign, an in-store operation.
The simple marker: if your internal time costs more than the agency's margin, the agency is profitable.
The three questions to ask in both cases
They make far more difference than the price.
Who redoes it, described in the box.
Who holds the rights, and for how long. Content bought through an intermediary does not automatically imply a broad assignment: the duration, the territory, the channels and paid advertising are written down in black and white. The obligations applicable to the rights granted, to advertising disclosures and to the people filmed depend on your situation and are checked with a lawyer.
And who talks to the creator. An intermediary filtering all communication protects its position, but adds a day to every correction.
What each intermediary takes on
| Task | Agency | Marketplace |
|---|---|---|
| Finding the creator | It handles it | The brand searches itself |
| Framing the brief | It writes it | The brand writes it |
| Securing payment | Depending on the contract | Built into the flow |
| Time to start | One to two weeks | The same day |
What decides between the two
The time available on the brand's side. With nobody to steer, the agency earns its place. With someone able to read ten profiles, the marketplace costs less.
What happens in practice
Many brands recruit on a marketplace and hand complex campaigns to an agency. The choice is made per project, not once and for all.
The mixed model
That is what brands buying regularly do, and it is rarely described.
They use a marketplace for the flow: variants, tests, short formats, recurring needs.
They use an agency for the high-stakes moments: launch, multi-country campaign, operation with a retailer.
And they keep three or four creators direct, who know the brand, come back every month, and cost less because the search is already done.
That mix needs one thing to hold together: a single place where the files, the rights and the dates are stored. Without it, mixed becomes messy, and mess costs more than any commission.
Sources
Checked on 4 September 2026. Thresholds and rates change: where this guide and the official source disagree, the official source is right.
