Hiring an Amazon agency can affect far more than your advertising performance. The right partner can improve how you manage Amazon, while the wrong one can lock you into expensive fees, poor communication, and weak execution.
Before signing a contract, brands need to understand what they actually want an agency to manage, what the relationship will cost, and how success will be measured.
1. Decide what you actually need an agency to manage
Amazon agencies do not all provide the same level of support. Some manage the entire Amazon operation, while others focus only on advertising, PPC, or specific projects.
Full-service Amazon agencies
A full-service agency acts as an outsourced Amazon team. It may manage advertising, catalog optimization, SEO, logistics, customer service monitoring, supply chain planning, and Amazon DSP.
This model makes sense for established brands that want to hand off most day-to-day Amazon work. The trade-off is that the agency needs deep access to your business and depends on your internal teams for information and decisions.
Specialized Amazon agencies
Specialized agencies focus on a narrower part of the channel, such as Sponsored Ads, DSP, PPC, or conversion optimization.
This can work well when your operations and catalog are already in good shape but your team lacks the expertise to manage complex advertising programs. The risk comes when advertising decisions are disconnected from inventory, pricing, or product availability.
Project-based consultancies
Project-based agencies work on defined deliverables rather than managing your Amazon account indefinitely. A project might involve optimizing a group of ASINs, building an Amazon Store, creating A+ Content, or auditing account health.
This model suits brands with capable internal teams that need outside expertise for a specific problem. Once the project ends, your team takes responsibility for ongoing optimization.
Before speaking to agencies, define the gaps you actually need them to fill. Paying a full-service agency to solve a problem your internal team already handles is unnecessary.
2. Make sure your brand is ready for an agency
An agency can improve a functioning Amazon operation. It cannot fix every underlying business problem.
Before handing over an account, make sure you have control of your Amazon access, understand your margins, and have a reliable performance baseline.
Keep control of your Amazon accounts
Your agency should never become the owner of your core Amazon assets.
- Keep Amazon Brand Registry under your company's account.
- Give agencies individual user accounts instead of sharing administrator credentials.
- Grant only the permissions required for their work.
- Make sure campaigns and other advertising assets sit inside your own Amazon account.
This matters when the relationship ends. You should be able to remove an agency's access without losing your account, campaign history, creative assets, or data.
Know your actual margins
Revenue and ROAS do not tell you whether your Amazon business is profitable.
Calculate your landed COGS, Amazon fees, break-even ACoS, target TACoS, and expected operating margin for your core ASINs before the agency starts making budget decisions.
You also need enough working capital to support inventory if sales increase quickly. A successful advertising program can create a new problem if your inventory cannot keep pace with demand.
Establish a 90-day baseline
Pull your Amazon performance data before the agency takes over. This gives you a fixed reference point instead of allowing the agency to define its own starting position.
Track metrics such as:
- Conversion rate by ASIN
- Organic versus paid sales
- Average order value
- Customer lifetime value
- Current advertising performance
- Revenue and unit sales
The source research recommends using the previous 90 days of Amazon reporting to establish this baseline.
3. Ask who will actually manage your account
The person selling you the agency's services may not be the person managing your account six weeks later.
Ask exactly who will own your account, how many accounts they manage, and which specialists will work alongside them. A vague answer about a "team" should prompt more questions.
The research suggests asking about the account director's workload and the number of accounts assigned to the PPC strategist.
Ask these questions before signing
- Who is my primary account owner?
- How many brands does that person manage?
- Who handles PPC, DSP, catalog, and operational issues?
- How often will we meet?
- Who makes decisions when performance changes quickly?
- What happens when my account needs urgent support?
You are not only buying expertise. You are also buying access to the people responsible for applying that expertise to your account.
4. Find out how the agency measures growth
A strong Amazon agency should be able to explain where your growth comes from, not just show you a better-looking dashboard.
One useful test is to ask how the agency separates branded and non-branded advertising. Branded campaigns can generate strong ROAS because they capture shoppers who already intended to buy from you.
Ask whether the agency tracks:
- Branded versus non-branded spend
- Organic versus paid sales
- TACoS
- Incremental sales
- New-to-brand customers
- Profitability by product or campaign
If an agency focuses almost entirely on ROAS, impressions, or revenue without discussing profitability and incrementality, dig deeper.
5. Ask how they handle problems outside advertising
Amazon performance can change because of issues that have nothing to do with bids or targeting.
Listings can be suppressed. Products can go out of stock. Accounts can face compliance problems. A competitor can make changes that affect your listing. Amazon can also change its policies or systems.
Ask the agency who handles catalog suppression, account health, listing hijacks, suspensions, and appeals. The research specifically recommends asking whether the agency has a defined compliance process rather than simply opening generic Seller Support tickets.
If your agency only manages advertising, establish who owns these issues internally before you sign.
6. Understand how the agency charges you
Amazon agencies generally use a few different pricing structures, and each creates different incentives.
The source research identifies percentage-of-spend models as a potential conflict because the agency earns more when your advertising budget increases.
Negotiate a fee cap
If your contract includes a percentage of sales or advertising spend, consider negotiating a maximum monthly fee.
This becomes particularly useful during Prime Day, Q4, or other periods when sales can increase because of higher marketplace demand rather than additional agency work.
7. Do not ignore the contract
A good agency relationship can still become difficult if the contract gives the agency too much control.
Look for a reasonable exit clause
Avoid committing to a long contract without a clear way to leave. The research recommends an initial 90-day onboarding period followed by a 30-day termination notice.
The exact terms will depend on the agency, but you should know:
- When you can terminate
- How much notice you need to give
- Whether there are early termination fees
- What happens to campaigns and assets after termination
- How data will be transferred back to your team
Make sure you own your assets
Your contract should state that your brand owns the campaigns, data, creative assets, A+ Content, videos, keyword history, and other work created for your account.
Most importantly, advertising campaigns should be built inside your own Amazon advertising environment. Otherwise, leaving the agency could mean losing access to years of campaign history and optimization data.
8. Watch for these agency red flags
Some warning signs only become obvious after the relationship starts. Keep an eye on them during the first few months.
Vanity metrics replace business results
The agency talks about higher ROAS, impressions, or clicks while your profitability declines and TACoS increases.
Reports contain numbers but no analysis
You receive an automated report every month without an explanation of what changed, why it changed, or what the agency plans to do next.
Communication drops after onboarding
During the sales process, senior people attend every meeting. After signing, responses become slow and your account is handled by people you have never met.
These are all signs that the service you were sold may differ from the service you are actually receiving.
9. Consider Xneeti if you want a more transparent agency model
Xneeti takes a different approach from traditional Amazon agencies by combining managed Amazon advertising with AI-powered optimization.
The company uses a flat monthly fee of $999-$1,999 rather than charging a percentage of ad spend. Its offering includes Amazon DSP and Sponsored Ads optimization, AMC integration, creative production, and a dedicated account strategist.
That pricing model can be useful for brands that want predictable agency costs as their advertising budget grows. Xneeti also includes AMC capabilities for its clients, covering areas such as path-to-purchase analysis, new-to-brand performance, and audience overlap.
Xneeti may be a good fit if you want:
- A fixed monthly agency fee rather than a percentage of ad spend
- Managed Amazon DSP and Sponsored Ads
- AMC analysis included in the engagement
- A dedicated account strategist
- AI-based campaign optimization
- In-house creative support
The model is less suited to very small accounts that lack enough spend or conversion volume to generate useful DSP signals. Its flat fee can also become less cost-effective for very large accounts.
Final checklist before hiring an Amazon agency
Before signing, make sure you can answer "yes" to these questions:
- Do we know exactly what we want the agency to manage?
- Do we control Brand Registry and our Amazon accounts?
- Have we calculated our real margins and break-even TACoS?
- Do we have a 90-day performance baseline?
- Do we know who will manage our account?
- Can the agency explain how it measures incremental growth?
- Do we understand the pricing model and its incentives?
- Have we negotiated a reasonable exit clause?
- Do we retain ownership of campaigns, data, and creative assets?
- Do we know what happens when inventory, catalog, or compliance issues arise?
The best agency is not necessarily the one promising the highest sales growth. It is the one whose capabilities, incentives, communication model, and contract structure make sense for the way your Amazon business actually operates.
