How Do Reimbursements Work for Brands and Influencers?

THIS FEATURE CANNOT BE USED FOR REVIEWS ON AMAZON

Tomoson complies with Amazon TOS and doesn’t allow use of the reimbursement feature if you are asking for an honest star review on Amazon.

We are seeing brands using the marketing goals Social Deal, Content Distribution, Unboxing, or Product Post if you’re looking to drive traffic to an Amazon listing.

What Are Reimbursements?

Reimbursement are an alternative to coupon codes. Reimbursements use Tomoson’s escrow system to offer free products to micro-influencers in exchange for honest feedback.

Reimbursements benefit both brands and influencers.

Pros for Brands

• Reimbursements can be used across any marketplace or platform, such as Shopify, Walmart, Houzz, etc..
• Less steps to manage, when compared to coupon codes (no generating, no uploading, and no wondering if they are used up or still floating in cyberspace).
• No worrying about potential abuse like single-use coupon codes, which could potentially be shared with anyone.

Pros for Influencers

• Typically micro-influencers see higher-end products being offered using reimbursements.
• Tomoson escrow funds are paid out to influencers much faster now thanks to reimbursements. In the past it was one day a week, but now escrow funds are released Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

How Do Reimbursements Work?

When a brand approves an influencer to participate in the campaign, the brand must put the exact price of the product into Tomoson’s escrow system. No more. No less.

For example: I’m a brand and I want influencers to purchase my “Motorized Longboard” product on Walmart.com. The price of the product is $100 at Walmart.com, therefore that is the price that will be reimbursed to the influencer.

After the influencer successfully completes and verifies their campaign tasks, the brand has up to seven days to inspect and approve the tasks. The escrow funds are released to the influencer’s Paypal account after the brand approves the tasks. 

If the brand does not approve the tasks within the inspection period, the funds are automatically released to the influencer after seven days. If the brand rejects the influencer’s tasks, the influencer must fix and verify the tasks again. The brand will then have another seven days to approve the tasks.

Do Reimbursements Cost Influencers Anything?

The influencer initially pays for the product with their own money. The influencer is then reimbursed for the full price of the product after their tasks have been approved. Tomoson’s escrow payments are released to influencers on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.

Note: If there are additional taxes and shipping charges where the brand’s product is purchased (example: Walmart.com), the influencer will be responsible for those fees and can’t be reimbursed for them by the brand.

Do Reimbursements Cost Brands Anything?

The brand must pay the influencer for the full price of the product. There is also a 9% escrow fee to cover Tomoson’s merchant fees.

Where Do Brands Find and Create Reimbursement Campaigns?

Brands create a campaign and set FEEDBACK as their marketing goal:

When brands get to the section about SHIPPING, select “Verified purchase required by micro-influencer”:

After making the selection mentioned above brands will see the reimbursement breakdown:

Brands are not charged at this point. Brands are charged the amount shown ONLY when they approve an influencer for their campaign. Then the funds are charged and added to Tomoson’s escrow system. The funds are released to the influencer after brands approve the tasks that the influencer completed, or after the seven day inspection period has passed.

Where Do Micro-Influencers Find and Apply For Reimbursement Campaigns?

The easiest way to find reimbursement campaigns is to:

1. Go to Campaigns and click on the FREEBIES tab

2. Click on the FILTER icon to open the filters. Then select FEEDBACK as the campaign type and click the green filter button: 

3. This provides influencer’s a short list of campaigns that have one of the following delivery method icons: Reimbursement (two arrows icon), Coupon Code (Tag icon), Message (Envelope icon). Influencer’s know that a campaign is a reimbursement if they see the “Reimbursement” icon, or the text that says "Product Cost Refunded".

Note: All reimbursements are FEEDBACK campaign types and FREEBIES. They can’t be social deal campaign types at this time.

4. It’s really easy to know when influencers are applying for a reimbursement campaign. When clicking APPLY, they receive a giant notification that looks like this: 

This reminds influencers that they will have to front the money until their tasks are complete and approved.

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