That worry is not new. In fact, this reflects the fears that prompted marketers to analyze their ad tech supply chains years ago. And just as they did then, they are now looking for ways to trace this modern supply chain. A cross-industry group at the Interactive Advertising Bureau is leading the latest effort, which aims to map the commercial machine that has formed around the creator economy, including influencer marketing.

Beyond mapping fees, the group plans to identify gaps and inefficiencies in the chain, detail the standards and infrastructure needed to fix them, and provide recommendations that platforms can use to establish more unified trading processes.

Jamie Gutfreund, founder of creator marketing company Creator Vision and a member of the group, described this as a way to surface the “interdependencies” that define influencer marketing today. Media agencies, creator marketing shops, talent managers, measurement companies, and analytics providers all sit between brands and creators, and that’s before the ad tech layer even counts.

To be clear, that doesn’t automatically mean there’s a problem. But as more money is being spent on this type of content, marketers are realizing they need a clearer picture of the machine they’re funding. This is the trust and validation stage of influencer marketing.

“I don’t know if I’d describe it as a concern, but I think more and more marketers are demanding transparency about what’s going on with their influencer platforms, their agency partners, and the creators they work with,” said Lindsey Gamble, an independent creator economy expert and consultant and member of the IAB’s Creator Economy Committee.

The main reason for this is that it’s unclear how much creators actually charge, and marketers don’t know how much they should pay. Gutfreund likened the situation to a creator economy version of the Rube Goldberg system, one that is by evolution rather than design. A standardized and differentiated currency (creator equivalent of search cost-per-click) can help reduce that ambiguity. That’s where the IAB is currently focused, working on guidelines for the metrics that will underpin deals between creators and brands, the currencies that will ultimately determine how deals are made.

“Depending on how the scope of work is set and what role the platform and agency play, how creators are compensated and how third parties are compensated can be very different,” Gamble said. “Therefore, marketers are increasingly interested in understanding where their money actually goes within influencer programs and campaigns, especially when budget structures can impact the number of creators they can work with and the types of creators who can participate.”

This kind of scrutiny was inevitable once creators started getting the kind of attention marketers were chasing. Advertising spending followed suit, and a new effort began to prove that the investment was delivering real value. And the pressure will only intensify. According to the IAB, ad spending in the creator economy is expected to reach $37 billion next year, growing four times faster than the broader media market. Shining a spotlight on where that money goes will help some creators and squeeze others.

“The more intermediaries you have, the more complicated the process can be,” says Jasmine Engberg, co-founder and co-CEO of Scalable, a media company that covers businesses for creators. “Managers, agency representatives and other intermediaries can provide structure and streamline negotiations, but the more hands a deal passes through, the less a brand will know if it is spending its money wisely, especially if it doesn’t have standardized pay rates.”

Without a direct line between creators and brands, there can also be miscommunication and misaligned expectations, which can lead to poor business outcomes, she added.