Choosing an Amazon PPC agency is one of the biggest decisions a brand owner makes on Amazon. The right agency turns ad spend into profitable growth and better organic rank. The wrong one quietly spends more every month while blaming the market. Most agencies sound the same on a sales call, so the only way to tell them apart is to ask specific questions and listen closely to the answers.
We run Amazon advertising for 60+ brands and manage $3M+ in monthly ad spend, so we have sat on both sides of these conversations, including taking over accounts from agencies that did not work out. Here are the questions we would ask if we were hiring.
1. Who will actually manage my account day to day?
Many agencies put a senior strategist on the sales call and hand the account to a junior or a freelancer after you sign. Ask for the name and role of the person who will touch your campaigns, how many accounts they manage, and whether you can speak to them directly. A good answer is specific. A vague answer ("our team") is a warning sign.
2. Is the work done in-house or outsourced?
Outsourced work is not automatically bad, but it adds a layer between you and the person making decisions, and it often means turnover. Ask whether bid management, keyword research and reporting are done by employees, and where accountability sits when something goes wrong.
3. How do you set targets: ACoS, TACoS or profit?
This is the most important question. An agency that only targets ACoS will cut spend until growth stops. One that only targets sales will buy revenue at a loss. Look for an agency that sets targets per product based on margin and goal (launch, rank, profit or defense) and tracks TACoS, total ad spend as a share of total sales, to see whether ads are actually lifting the whole business.
4. What will you do in the first 30 days?
Ask for the onboarding plan. A strong answer includes a full audit (structure, search terms, wasted spend, placements, budgets), a rebuild plan organized by goal, quick wins like negating proven waste, and a clear reporting cadence. If the answer is "we'll launch some campaigns and see," keep looking.
5. How do you structure campaigns?
You do not need to be an expert to evaluate this. Listen for separation of discovery and performance campaigns, clear use of match types, a process for harvesting converting search terms into exact match, and protection of your branded terms. Ask how they prevent your own products from competing against each other in the same auctions.
6. Can you show real results from real accounts?
Ask to see actual Amazon Ads dashboard screenshots, with dates and before-and-after numbers, not just percentages on a slide. Anyone can claim "300% growth." Real screenshots with real date ranges are much harder to fake. On our Amazon PPC page we show original dashboards, including an account where ad sales grew from $14,304.05 to $28,911.90 while ACoS fell from 25.08% to 11.79%.
7. How often do you optimize, and what does that mean?
"We optimize weekly" can mean anything from a thoughtful review to changing three bids. Ask what specifically happens: search term reviews, negatives added, bid changes based on conversion data, budget reallocation, placement adjustments. Ask how they handle days when a top campaign runs out of budget by noon.
8. What does your reporting look like?
Ask for a sample report. It should show ACoS, TACoS, ROAS, spend, sales and search share trends, with written commentary on what changed and what is next. Dashboards without explanations put the analysis work back on you.
9. Do you work on listings too, or only ads?
Ads send traffic; listings convert it. If your main image, title, price or reviews are weak, no bidding strategy will fix it. An agency that can also improve listings and A+ Content, or at least flags conversion problems honestly, will get more from every dollar. Ask what they do when a product is not ready to advertise.
10. How do you use Sponsored Brands, video and Display?
Sponsored Products drive most sales for most brands, but a complete strategy uses Sponsored Brands for brand defense and Store traffic, video for discovery, and Sponsored Display for retargeting and competitor defense where it pays back. Ask how they decide budget across these, and what they would test first for your catalog.
11. Who owns the account, data and campaigns?
You should own your Seller Central and advertising accounts, all campaign history and all creative. The agency should work through user permissions you grant and can revoke. Be cautious of anyone who wants to run ads from their own account or keep campaign structures if you leave.
12. What are the contract and exit terms?
Ask about notice periods, minimum terms and what happens to your campaigns if you part ways. Good agencies keep clients by performing, not by locking them in.
Red flags to watch for
- Guaranteed results, specific ACoS promises or guaranteed rankings before they have seen your account.
- No real screenshots, only percentages and logos.
- A sales pitch focused on spending more rather than spending better.
- Reluctance to say who will manage your account.
- Requests to move ads into an account they control.
- Reporting that is only automated charts with no commentary.
Green flags
- They ask about your margins, inventory and goals before talking strategy.
- They are willing to tell you a product is not ready to advertise.
- They show original dashboards with dates.
- They have verifiable reviews and partner credentials.
- They explain their process in plain English.
How to run the evaluation
Shortlist two or three agencies. Give each the same information and ask for a short audit or review of your account. Compare not just the recommendations but the quality of their questions. The agency that understands your business best in the audit stage is usually the one that will manage it best.
If you want a benchmark, we offer a free Amazon ads audit with a clear list of where spend is leaking and a 90-day plan. You can also check what clients say on our reviews page (rated 4.4 on Trustpilot) and learn how we work on our Amazon PPC agency USA page.
What a good answer sounds like: an example
Ask an agency, "What would you do in our account in week one?" A weak answer is generic: "We'll optimize your campaigns and reduce ACoS." A strong answer references your account: "Your auto campaigns spent heavily on searches that never converted, so we would negate those first. Your branded terms are not protected, so competitors are taking clicks on your name. And two of your products are bidding against each other on the same keywords." The second agency has actually looked, and that is the habit you want managing your money.
Questions about fit, not just skill
- Do they work with brands of your size and in your category?
- Do they work with brand owners only, or also resellers who might compete with you?
- Can they support other channels, such as TikTok Shop or Walmart, if you expand?
- How do they communicate: a shared channel, email, scheduled calls?
How to compare proposals side by side
When proposals arrive, put them in a simple table: who manages the account, what happens in the first 30 days, how targets are set, what reporting looks like, what results they showed with real screenshots, and the exit terms. Fees matter, but compare them only after you know what each agency will actually do. The cheapest proposal that sets targets on spend rather than profit is usually the most expensive in the end.