How to Choose an Amazon PPC Agency (Without Getting Burned)

To choose an Amazon PPC agency, define what success means for your account first, shortlist three or four agencies that work with brands your size, ask each for a short audit of your account, and score them on strategy, transparency and contract terms. The agency that explains its reasoning most clearly, not the one with the boldest promises, is usually the best pick.

Step 1: Define what you're hiring for

Agencies are good at different things. Before you talk to anyone, write down the answers to these:

• Your goal for the next 6 months: profit (lower ACoS), growth (more sales at a set ACoS), or launch (rank a new product).
• Your break-even ACoS per product. If you don't know it, calculate it with the break-even ACoS calculator.
• Monthly ad spend now and what you could spend if results justify it.
• Which ad types you need: Sponsored Products only, or Sponsored Brands, Sponsored Display and DSP too.
• Marketplaces: US only, or Europe, Canada, Japan, Walmart.

An agency that can't ask you for these numbers in the first call is a warning sign.

Step 2: Build a shortlist

Look for agencies that work with brands at your spend level. An agency built for eight-figure brands may hand a $10k-a-month account to its most junior person. A one-person shop may struggle with a 300-SKU catalog across five marketplaces.

Good sources: referrals from sellers you trust, the Amazon Ads partner directory (which lists verified partners), and seller communities. Treat review-site rankings with caution, since many are paid placements.

Step 3: Ask for an audit, then judge the thinking

Most agencies offer a free account audit. Give them read access or exported reports and see what they find. A useful audit names specific problems with numbers attached, such as 'these 40 search terms spent $1,900 last month with zero orders' or 'your top-of-search placement converts at half the rate of rest-of-search but gets a 150% bid adjustment.'

A weak audit is generic: 'improve keyword research,' 'optimize bids,' 'add negative keywords.' Anyone can write that without opening your account. Compare what they find to a self-check using our Amazon PPC account audit guide.

Step 4: Score each agency

Use a simple weighted score so the decision isn't driven by whoever had the best sales call.

Example: Agency A scores 4, 4, 5, 3, 4, 5. Weighted: (4×0.25) + (4×0.20) + (5×0.20) + (3×0.15) + (4×0.10) + (5×0.10) = 1.00 + 0.80 + 1.00 + 0.45 + 0.40 + 0.50 = 4.15. Agency B has a slicker pitch but scores 3, 4, 2, 4, 3, 2 = 3.05. Agency A wins clearly once transparency and contract terms count.

Step 5: Read the contract carefully

• Account ownership: campaigns must live in your Seller Central or Vendor Central advertising account. Never let an agency run ads from an account it controls.
• Notice period: 30 days is common and fair. Be cautious of 6- or 12-month lock-ins for a service that can be measured monthly.
• Fee basis: is the percentage on ad spend, total sales or ad sales? Is there a minimum? See Amazon PPC agency pricing.
• Setup or onboarding fees: what do they cover?
• Scope: are Sponsored Brands creative, DSP and listing changes included or extra?
• Exit terms: will they leave campaigns running and hand over documentation when you leave?

Red flags

• Guaranteed results ('we'll cut your ACoS in half'). Nobody controls Amazon's auction.
• Refusing to share what they change or why.
• Reporting only ACoS while ignoring total sales and TACoS.
• Pushing you to raise spend immediately without a plan for where it goes.
• Restructuring every campaign in week one, which resets the data you need.
• Vague answers to 'who will manage my account day to day?'

Step 6: Set a 90-day scorecard

Agree on what you'll measure before work starts. A fair scorecard for a profit-focused account might be: ACoS within 2 points of target by day 60, wasted spend (spend on terms with 15+ clicks and zero orders) under 10% of total spend, and TACoS flat or down. For a growth account, measure ad-attributed sales and total sales at a capped ACoS.

Give the agency 30 days to learn the account. Changes to bids and structure take a couple of weeks to show in data, partly because of Amazon's attribution window. Judge on days 60 to 90.

What the first 30 days should look like

A well-run agency follows a predictable onboarding. Ask each finalist to walk you through theirs, and compare it against this outline:

1. Week 1: access, goals and a baseline. They confirm target ACoS by product, export the last 60 to 90 days of performance, and document the current structure.
2. Week 2: quick wins. Negate clear waste, fix campaigns that run out of budget early, and correct obvious bid problems. Nothing structural yet.
3. Week 3: structural plan. A written proposal for any restructure, with reasons, that you approve before it happens.
4. Week 4: first report. Spend, sales, ACoS and TACoS against the baseline, plus what was changed and what's next.

If an agency wants to rebuild everything in the first week without a baseline, you lose the ability to measure whether they helped. If they can't describe their onboarding at all, expect a slow, reactive relationship.

How to compare two strong finalists

When two agencies score close, ask each the same scenario question: 'Our best product's ACoS rose from 22% to 31% over three weeks. What do you check, in what order?' A strong answer covers the listing and Buy Box first, then conversion rate, CPC changes, placement mix and new competitors, before touching bids. Pick the agency whose answer shows the clearer diagnostic process.

Consider whether you need an agency at all

Sometimes the selection process reveals that what you need is mostly mechanical: bids, negatives, search-term harvesting and budget pacing. In that case software may fit better than a retainer. AdSpark, for example, handles those tasks continuously and adds a weekly AI account review, while you keep control of the strategy. Read Amazon PPC agency vs software before you sign.

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