Why the stakes are higher
Amazon increasingly runs on advertising, and this completely changes what a partner is worth to you. Amazon’s advertising business has grown into one of the largest in retail. More sellers keep bidding on the same keywords, which means the cost of visibility keeps climbing.
This pressure lands squarely on your margin per unit. Placement, which used to come from relevance, now has a price attached, and every extra dollar of the ad spend comes out of the same contribution margin, which funds your growth.
A partner who can’t control ACoS while protecting your margin ends up costing more than the retainer itself.
Across all the 50+ accounts we manage, a rising cost per click is the most common reason why a healthy catalog suddenly looks flat. What matters here is the margin, which is measured against a controlled advertising cost of sales (ACoS). A partner who can’t control ACoS while protecting your margin ends up costing even more than the retainer itself.
What are the main types of Amazon agencies?
Amazon agencies fall into a few models, and the right one depends on your revenue and how much you want to run in-house. Choosing the right agency starts with knowing what each model actually delivers. Match that model to your pain point before you compare anything else.
The table below compares the four common models, where each wins and the trade-off. Think of this table as a map of who owns what.
| Model | What it is | Where it wins | The trade-off |
|---|---|---|---|
| PPC-only agency | Runs your Amazon advertising only | Ad spend is your main issue and listings are solid | Nobody owns listings, SEO, or account health |
| Full-service agency | Runs ads, listings, SEO, creative, and profit tracking | You want one team accountable for growth | Higher fee than a single service |
| Freelancer or contractor | One person handles part of the account | Budget is tight and scope is narrow | Rarely covers the full scope for a growing catalog |
| In-house team | Employees run Amazon internally | You have steady volume to justify salaries | Hiring risk |
The more aspects of your account you want handled, the closer you move to full-service Amazon management. Once your annual Amazon revenue exceeds $1 million, full-service is the better option, because a single person can’t keep listings, ads, and account health moving at the same time.
PPC-only vs full-service
An Amazon PPC agency runs your advertising. The process involves:
- Campaign structure
- Bids
- Keywords
- ACoS
A PPC-only agency is best when your listings and Amazon SEO are already strong and advertising is the one area where you’re falling short.
A full-service Amazon agency runs advertising plus:
- Listings
- SEO (the work of ranking your listings in Amazon’s organic search results where shoppers click without an ad)
- Creative
- Account health
This is typically done all under one team.
Choose a full-service Amazon agency when your organic rank, creative, and account health all need work at once. It’s also the better route for established brands that want profitable growth, as ads and listings move together. Splitting these two services will slow results.
Agency vs in-house vs freelancer
This choice is primarily about cost, control, and depth, with cost driving most of this decision.
An in-house hire gives you the most control and highest fixed cost. A freelancer is cheaper, but rarely covers the full service scope that established brands need in order to grow profitably.
How much should an Amazon agency cost?
Amazon agency pricing follows four models, and each one creates a different incentive. The model you pick decides whether the agency is rewarded for your results or your spending. As such, it’s important to understand the incentive before you read the price.
The table below shows each pricing model, how it works, and the incentive it creates. Weigh the incentive against how you want the spend to be managed.
| Pricing model | How it works | The incentive it creates |
|---|---|---|
| Fixed retainer | Fixed monthly fee, set by scope | Protects margin, since the fee doesn’t rise with ad spend |
| Percentage of ad spend | Fee is a share of your ad budget | Spends more of your budget, whether or not it pays |
| Percentage of revenue | Fee is a share of sales | Chases revenue, even at a thin margin |
| Hybrid | Base fee plus a percentage | Mixed, depending on how the percentage is weighted |
Our take is that a fixed retainer aligns the agency with margin, since the fee holds steady whether the spend goes up or down. A percentage-of-spend fee pulls the other way, rewarding a bigger budget.
This is why Olifant Digital prices as a fixed retainer with no percentage-of-spend fees. Our retainers start at $2,000 per month which includes our daily Amazon PPC management with custom pricing based on catalog complexity. Each engagement is also backed by our 60-day money-back guarantee on management fees.
Agency vs in-house: What do the numbers say?
Before making the final decision, run the numbers, because the base salary is only the start. The cost of hiring an in-house employee also includes:
- Benefits
- Software
- Overhead management
A senior Amazon operations specialist in the US costs about $100,000 to $160,000 a year once you factor in the full load. The base salary is usually the smallest line in that total, which is exactly why the hire looks cheaper on paper than it turns out to be in practice.
This also excludes the time component. To recruit an Amazon specialist can take months, and a new hire needs onboarding and a learning phase before the account improves. Then, should this person resign, you need to cover the gap until the next one is ready to take over. These costs are invisible, but cut into your Amazon revenue.
How to choose an Amazon agency: Criteria that separate good agencies from bad ones
Once the model and budget are clear, use the checklist below to judge the agency:
| Criterion | What to look for |
|---|---|
| Proof | Named clients and specific numbers, rather than just logos so that you can verify the results before you trust them |
| Pricing-model fit | Favor a flat retainer, which holds the fee steady, instead of scaling with your ad spend |
| Staffing seniority | Confirm who touches your account on a daily basis, since senior account managers protect the rank and ACoS that juniors put at risk |
| Reporting transparency | Ask for reporting on ACoS, TACoS, and margin as per a set cadence that you agree to upfront |
| Margin tracking | Check that they track ACoS and TACoS since sales totals alone hide margin problems |
| Scope fit | Ensure its services address your pain points, whether this means ads only or full Amazon brand management |
| Communication cadence | A set rhythm, such as a weekly call, so the decisions don’t stall |
Most of these criteria relate to whether an agency can move advertising cost of sales (ACoS) and total advertising cost of sales (TACoS) in the right direction.
Published benchmarks for both metrics are easy to find and easy to misread. An average pulls together products that have different margins, price points, and levels of competition, so the number it produces doesn’t describe anyone in particular.
What counts as healthy depends on your account. ACoS should sit comfortably below your product’s gross margin, and TACoS should fall as your organic rank improves. You should judge any agency against your own numbers and not against the marketplace average.
How do you check an agency's proof and case studies?
A wall of logos isn’t proof. Neither is a claim like “significant growth". These give you nothing to verify unlike full case studies with figures you’re able to question.
Work through these case studies for named clients in your category and size. Ekster’s Amazon results, for instance, show $688,406 in annual Amazon profit, which is a number that can be traced unlike a claim like “impressive returns”.
Then, request an audit of your own account before signing anything. How the agency reads your listings tells you far more than how it presents someone else’s.
What questions should you ask before hiring an Amazon agency?
The six questions below are the ones that separate agencies, because each answer reveals a habit, rather than an intention. Pay attention to vague replies at this stage. Broad answers tend to become vague reporting once the work begins.
| Question to ask | What a good answer shows |
|---|---|
| Who runs my account day to day? | A real answer should give you the name of the person responsible and their seniority, not a link to the team page |
| How do you report profit and ACoS? | Whether it reports against margin or hide behind sales totals |
| What is your pricing model, and what happens if I cut the spend? | Whether the fee tracks your budget or stays flat |
| What is your client retention rate? | A higher number means that clients stay because the results hold and not because the contract makes leaving difficult |
| Do you guarantee any part of your management fee? | Whether the agency is willing to carry some of your downside risk |
| How often will we talk? | A set cadence, such as a weekly call to keep the decisions moving, instead of a monthly report |
What are the red flags to avoid when choosing an Amazon agency?
Some patterns predict a bad engagement, so you should watch for them early. Each of these carries a direct consequence for your accounts as the table illustrates:
| Red flag | What it means for your account |
|---|---|
| Bait and expand scope (e.g., “We’ll start with PPC and add strategy later.”) | Listings and rank drift while you wait |
| Percentage-of-spend pricing | Agency will likely suggest increasing your ad budget, regardless of whether it will pay off |
| Junior staff on your account | Beginners learning on your listings cost you rank and drives up ACoS |
| Vanity-metric reporting | Reports that are built on impressions and sales hide margin and TACoS problems |
| No guarantee or long lock-ins | All the risk sits with you |
| Tactics violating Terms of Service (e.g., incentivized reviews or search-find-buy schemes) | It puts your entire account at risk and can get your account suspended |
How we meet agency selection standards at Olifant Digital
We manage more than $100 million in annual client revenue and 98% of our clients stay with us. Here’s how we meet the bar this guide sets:
- Senior account managers with at least seven years of experience run your account (and they’re in it daily).
- Pricing is a fixed retainer that starts at $2,000 per month and gets adjusted for catalog complexity with no percentage-of-spend fees anywhere in the structure.
- Every engagement carries a 60-day money-back guarantee on management fees.
- You get a weekly call and dedicated Slack channel.
- Execution runs on our in-house platform, Olifant AI, and our data scientists review account metrics daily.
The method shows up in the results. For example, Balanced Tiger reached 171% revenue growth alongside a 50% ACoS reduction, and Elite Jumps grew revenue 124% in three months with a 51% lift in conversion rate.
Who shouldn’t hire an Amazon agency yet?
Hiring too early will waste the retainer and stall the account. This is why it’s essential to fix these fundamentals first.
An agency is the wrong move for brands that are currently in the following stages:
| Stage | Why an agency is the wrong choice | The better solution |
|---|---|---|
| Under $100,000 a year on Amazon | Retainer takes too large a share of thin sales | Use a freelancer or self-manage until the volume grows |
| Gross margin under 15% | No room to fund ads or fees | Fix pricing and cost first |
| A single SKU | Agency fee is large relative to the work needed | Hire a specialist |
| Brand Registry not set up | Key advertising tools are locked | Enroll before hiring |
| Results needed inside 90 days | Pressure for fast results invite bad tactics | Fix the listings yourself first |
Final thoughts
Choosing an Amazon agency is less about finding the best one and more about finding the one that addresses your pain points. It's important to match the model to what your Amazon account truly needs.
Also, look at how the agency gets paid (whether it’s a flat fee or tied to your ad spend). The latter will just make you spend more.
As for who runs your account and reporting, there should be no room for vague answers. Insist on reporting built around ACoS, TACoS, and margin instead of total sales that flatter everyone who’s involved.
Then, do one thing that brands usually skip: ask for a site audit of your own account before signing anything. An hour of an agency's thinking tells you more than a year of case studies. Plus, it costs you nothing but the time it takes to read it.
If your Amazon revenue has outgrown one person, and you want senior account managers in your account daily, a flat retainer that doesn’t rise with your ad spend, and a 60-day money-back guarantee behind the work, get your free marketing plan. We’ll show you where the margin sits in your account.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need an Amazon agency yet?
The point where it's clear that you need an agency is when Amazon has outgrown the hours anyone in your business can give it and the account still needs several skills at once, rather than more effort. You don’t need an agency while the listings, images, or pricing still need basic work since these are fundamentals that an agency will amplify rather than repair.
Can I switch Amazon agencies without losing my rank?
Yes, you can do that without losing your rank if the handover is managed properly. In such a case, your campaign history, keyword data, and account access all stay with you because they live in your Seller Central account rather than with the agency. Rank tends to slip when an incoming team rebuilds every campaign in the first week instead of reading what’s already working.
What does an Amazon agency need from me to get started?
You need to provide Seller Central or Vendor Central access at the right permission level, your product cost and margin data, and one person who can approve changes without waiting on a committee. Margin data is the one most often left out, and it’s the main reason some agencies report on sales totals instead of profit. Without this information, no one can tell you whether an ACoS of 25% is healthy for a given product.
Who owns the campaigns and creative if we part ways?
Everything you build in your Seller Central or Vendor Central account stays with you. This includes campaign structures, keyword history, and listing content. What is worth clarifying before you sign is anything that’s created outside the account, such as image assets, A+ Content source files, and external reporting dashboards. Ask whether those transfer to you, and get the answer in writing.
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Alex is the founder and CEO of Olifant Digital, where his team manages over $100M in annual client revenue across 50+ e-commerce brands. He sets the agency's strategy and methodology, audits client accounts, and reviews the team's work to make sure every brand is on track to hit its growth and profitability goals. He also leads team training, so the performance data and lessons from across all accounts shape how every account manager runs their clients.
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Mike reviews every Amazon article on this blog for strategic and technical accuracy before it publishes. As Director of Amazon Growth at Olifant Digital, he sets marketing strategy across client accounts and personally audits PPC at every stage of growth. He brings 8 years of daily Amazon operations across 7 and 8-figure brands including Beauty by Earth, Ekster, and Bullstrap, the kind of hands-on depth most agency directors delegate away.
