25 Questions to Ask an Amazon PPC Agency Before You Hire

The best questions to ask an Amazon PPC agency are the ones that make them explain how they think: how they set target ACoS, what they check when performance drops, who will actually work on your account, and what happens if you leave. Below are 25 questions grouped by topic, with notes on what a good answer sounds like.

Send the questions in writing before the second call. Written answers are easier to compare and harder to blur with a good presentation.

Strategy and approach

1. How do you set target ACoS for each product? Good answer: from margin and break-even ACoS, adjusted by product lifecycle and goals. See break-even ACoS.
2. How do you balance profit and growth? Good answer: they ask about your goals and may set different targets for launch, growth and mature products.
3. Our best product's ACoS rose 9 points in three weeks. What do you check first? Good answer: listing, Buy Box, price, reviews and conversion rate before bids.
4. How do you structure campaigns? Good answer: a clear, consistent structure with a reason for it, such as separating research and performance campaigns and isolating top keywords.
5. How do you handle branded keywords? Good answer: separate campaigns, separate reporting, and a view on when brand defense is worth paying for.
6. How often do you review search terms, and what rules do you use to harvest or negate? Good answer: at least weekly, with specific thresholds.
7. How do you approach new product launches? Good answer: a phased plan with an explicit higher ACoS during launch and a date to reassess.

Team and capacity

1. Who will manage my account day to day, and what's their experience?
2. How many accounts does that person manage?
3. Who covers when they're away?
4. Will I have direct contact with the person making changes?
5. How often will we meet, and who attends?

Capacity questions matter more than they seem. A skilled manager with too many accounts will default to the minimum: a monthly bid pass and a report. Ask for a straight number of accounts per manager and compare it across agencies.

Tools and process

1. What software do you use for bids, search terms and reporting?
2. How often are bids changed, and by whom or what?
3. Can I see a log of every change made to my account?
4. Do you use dayparting or placement adjustments, and how do you decide?

There's no single right tool, but you want an agency that can explain its process and show you a change history. 'Our proprietary system handles it' without detail is a weak answer.

Reporting and measurement

1. What's in your monthly report? Can I see a sample?
2. Do you report TACoS and total sales, or only ad metrics?
3. How do you separate the impact of your work from seasonality and promotions?
4. What does success look like at 30, 60 and 90 days?

A good report shows spend, sales, ACoS, TACoS, and what changed and why. Our guide to Amazon PPC client reporting shows the structure strong agencies use.

Access, ownership and contract

1. Will campaigns live in my advertising account? Good answer: always yes.
2. What level of user access do you need? Good answer: a user invite with the needed permission level, never your password.
3. What's the fee at my current spend, and at double and four times? See agency pricing.
4. What's the notice period, and what happens to campaigns when we part ways? Good answer: 30 days, campaigns stay running, and you get documentation.

Questions to ask their references

Reference calls are only useful if you ask pointed questions. Try these:

1. How long have you worked with them, and what was the account like when they started?
2. Tell me about a month when results were bad. How did they communicate it?
3. Do you know who works on your account, and has that person changed?
4. Have they ever recommended spending less?
5. What would you change about working with them?

The 'recommended spending less' question is especially revealing for agencies paid on a percentage of spend. An agency that has told a client to cut budget on unprofitable campaigns is putting results ahead of its own fee.

Questions about other channels

If you sell on Walmart or plan to, ask whether the agency manages Walmart Sponsored Products and how its approach differs from Amazon. The auctions, reporting and attribution differ, so 'we do the same thing on Walmart' is a weak answer.

How to score the answers

Put each agency's answers in a simple table and rate each section from 1 to 5. Here's an illustrative comparison:

Agency B is out. A and C tie on total, so look at what matters most to you. If your account is complex and you're worried about attention, C's stronger team score wins. If you need a sharp strategist for a turnaround, A's strategy score may be worth the capacity risk, provided you can confirm the manager's workload.

Questions about the first 90 days

Finally, ask each agency to describe its first 90 days on your account in writing: what happens in week one, when the first report arrives, when any restructure would happen, and what they expect to have improved by day 90. Compare the plans side by side. A specific, dated plan is a good sign. A plan that promises big results but can't say what happens in week two is not. Keep the written plan; it becomes your scorecard if you hire them.

Answers that should worry you

• 'We guarantee a 30% reduction in ACoS.' Nobody controls the auction or your competitors.
• 'We'll need your Seller Central login.' Use a user invite instead.
• 'Our reports focus on ACoS.' ACoS alone can hide shrinking sales.
• 'We rebuild every account from scratch.' Sometimes needed, but not before they understand what's working.
• 'We'll get to know the account and decide.' Fine for details, not for basic process questions.

A question to ask yourself

After the interviews, ask: was most of what they described strategic, or mechanical? If the core of their pitch is bid adjustments, search-term harvesting and budget monitoring, that work can be automated. AdSpark, for example, runs those tasks continuously and logs every action. You may only need an agency, or a freelancer, for the strategic layer. Our comparison of DIY vs hiring help can help you decide.

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