What is Escrow?
Holding the brand's budget with a neutral third party until the agreed work is delivered.
Escrow means the brand's money is set aside and held before work starts, and only released to the creator once delivery is confirmed. It removes the classic standoff — the creator won't work without assurance of payment, the brand won't pay before seeing work.
For affiliate deals it's unusual and valuable: most networks pay on net-30+ terms and creators carry the risk of non-payment for weeks.
PayTandem holds the upfront in escrow using separate charges and transfers, releases it on delivery (or an auto-release date), and freezes it if either side opens a dispute for an arbiter to settle.
Related terms
See it in a real deal
PayTandem is an escrow-backed affiliate marketplace with first-party tracking built in.