How to Hire an Amazon PPC Agency: 15 Questions to Ask Before You Sign
Most PPC agency calls are a sales pitch with a screen share. These 15 questions turn the call into an interview. Each comes with what a good answer sounds like, so you can judge the answer even if you have never run a campaign. Then score each agency on one page and see who is left.
Short answer
Before hiring an Amazon PPC agency, get five things in writing. They are the fee and its model, the minimum ad spend, the hours and who does them, proof you keep full admin access, and that Amazon bills your card for clicks. Then ask for TACoS reporting, a 30-day plan and a client reference. Walk away from fees as a percentage of total sales, agency-owned ad accounts and spend billed through the agency. For scale: WebFX publishes $975 a month up to $5,000 in spend; Evolve Media Agency charges $995 up to $10,000 and $1,995 up to $50,000.
Write Down Three Numbers Before You Talk to Anyone
PPC means pay-per-click: Amazon's Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Display ads. An agency runs them for a fee. Hiring one goes well when you know what you want before the first call, because the agency will otherwise define the job for you.
Write down three numbers. Your monthly ad spend for the last three months. Your TACoS, which is ad spend divided by total sales, ads plus organic. And your margin per unit after Amazon fees, before ad cost. If you cannot find the third, find it before you hire anyone; nobody can set a sensible target without it.
Then write the one outcome you would pay for. "Hold TACoS under 12% while growing total sales 20%" is a job. "Grow the account" is not. Bring that line to every call and ask each agency how they would hit it.
Shortlist three agencies, not ten
Pick agencies that publish a price or a minimum, so you can rule some out before a call. Three calls are enough to compare answers.
Send the same brief to all three
Ad spend, SKU count (how many products you advertise), TACoS, margin and the outcome. The same input makes the answers comparable.
Give read access only after an NDA, and only for an audit
An audit needs to see the account. Grant the narrowest role Amazon allows and remove it if you do not hire.
15 Questions and What a Good Answer Sounds Like
1. What is your fee, and which model is it?
Good answer: a number in writing and a model you can name: flat monthly, a percentage of ad spend, or a base plus a share. Example: "$1,995 a month flat up to $50,000 in spend." Weak answer: "It depends, let us get on a second call." Some agencies publish it; WebFX prints (Published, checked Oct 22, 2026) $975 a month up to $5,000 in spend, then the greater of a flat fee or 15%, 12% or 10% of spend.
2. If it is a percentage, of what?
Good answer: the exact base. Ad spend (what Amazon bills you) is the common one. Ask whether it includes DSP (Amazon's display and video ad platform) and whether it is figured before or after any ad credits Amazon gives you. A percentage of total sales is a different and much larger number; see the red flags below.
3. Is there a minimum ad spend, and what happens below it?
Good answer: a stated floor and a reason. Ours is $1,000 a month, because below that the fee is more than the ads. An agency with no floor will take an account it cannot help.
4. How many hours a month do I get, and from whom?
Good answer: a number and a name. Our $995 tier is 10 hours a month and our $1,995 tier is 20. Ask how many other accounts that person carries; if the answer is vague, ask how often they will be in your account each week.
5. Will I keep full admin access to my ad account?
Good answer: "Yes. You own the account; we are added as a user and you can remove us any day." Any answer that moves campaigns into an agency-owned account, or limits what you can see, is a red flag.
6. Who pays Amazon for the clicks?
Good answer: "Amazon bills your card directly." That is how we work. Sequence Commerce states it charges no spend-based markups. If the agency pays Amazon and invoices you, ask for the Amazon invoice every month.
7. What do you report, and how often?
Good answer: a weekly or monthly report showing ad spend, ad sales, ACoS, TACoS, total sales and what was changed and why. A report that shows only ACoS and impressions cannot tell you if ads grew the business.
8. What will you do in the first 30 days?
Good answer: a specific plan. An audit of the search-term report, a cleanup of wasted spend, a restructure if needed, and new targets for the products that matter. Our first step is a $995 audit and restructure with 10 hours of work.
9. How do you decide a target ACoS for each product?
Good answer: they ask for your margin. A break-even ACoS is your margin before ad cost as a share of price. A launch product can run above it for a while; a mature product should run below it. One target for every product is a shortcut.
10. What software do you use, and who pays for it?
Good answer: the tool by name and whether it is inside the fee. If you are paying for the tool separately, you should keep the login when the agency leaves.
11. What is the contract term and notice period?
Good answer: in writing before you sign. Month to month is common at the small end; we are month to month. Three-month minimums exist. Ask what happens to the campaigns and data when you leave.
12. What would make you tell me to spend less?
Good answer: real examples. Out of stock, a listing that will not convert, a product with no margin. An agency paid on spend has a reason never to say this, so listen for it.
13. Will you look at the listing, or only the ads?
Good answer: they will tell you if the listing is the problem. Every click lands on the product page. If the main image, bullets, price or reviews are weak, more ad spend makes the problem more expensive.
14. Can I talk to a current client at my size?
Good answer: a name and permission to call, at a similar spend and category. Case studies on a website are chosen by the agency; a phone call is not.
15. What will you not do for this fee?
Good answer: a clear list. DSP, listing rewrites, creative, launch work. If the answer is "everything," the hours have to come from somewhere.
How to use the answers. Take notes in the agency's words, not yours. A specific answer has a number, a name or a date in it. For example: "10 hours a month," "your account manager is the person on this call," "the first report lands on day 30." A vague answer has none of those: "we are very hands-on," "we use a proprietary system," "it depends on the account." Vague is not always bad on the first call, but it should turn specific in the written proposal.
Pay most attention to questions 5, 6, 7 and 12. The first three protect your money and your data whatever happens. The last one tells you whose side the agency is on when the right move is to spend less. An agency that has never told a client to cut spend has either been lucky or has not been looking.
Four Answers That End the Call
The fee is a percentage of total sales
A share of all your sales, including organic sales the ads did not drive, is a fee on your whole business. For example, at $100,000 a month in sales, a 5% fee is $5,000 whether ads did the work or not. A percentage of ad spend or a flat fee ties the cost to the job; our Amazon agency cost calculator compares the models.
You will not have full access to your ad account
If campaigns are built in an agency-owned account, or you are given a view-only role in your own account, leaving the agency means losing history and structure. You should own the account and add them as a user.
They do not report TACoS
ACoS alone can look great while the business shrinks: cut spend on everything but your best keywords and ACoS falls while sales fall too. TACoS shows whether ads are growing total sales. If the sample report has no TACoS line, ask why.
Ad spend is billed through the agency
When the agency pays Amazon and invoices you, a markup can hide inside the invoice. Some agencies do this for convenience. If so, ask for the Amazon invoice each month and compare. The cleaner setup is Amazon billing your card directly.
Smaller warnings worth a follow-up question
A guaranteed ACoS or ranking. No stated hours. A contract longer than three months on a first engagement. A sample report built only on impressions and clicks. A sales lead who will not be on the account. No answer to question 12.
Score Each Agency Out of 30
Score each line 0, 1 or 2 after the call. Zero means no answer or a red flag; one means a vague answer; two means a specific answer in writing. Any red flag from the section above is an automatic stop, whatever the total. Use the same sheet on us.
From First Call to a Signed Scope
Run three calls in one week
Same brief, same questions. Answers are easier to compare while they are fresh.
Ask for a written proposal with the fee, hours, term and scope
If the proposal is different from what was said on the call, the proposal is what you will get.
Start with an audit or a short first term
A paid audit shows how the agency thinks before you commit to a retainer. Ours is $995 one time with the restructure included; others offer free audits. Either way, read it closely.
Set a 90-day check
Agree on the TACoS and total sales numbers you will judge at 90 days, in writing, before the first invoice.
Keep your own copy of the data
Download the search-term and campaign reports monthly. If you part ways, you keep the history.
When You Should Not Hire a PPC Agency Yet
Your ad spend is under $1,000 a month
Any fee is larger than the ads it manages. Run Sponsored Products yourself with Amazon's console or low-cost software and our free PPC strategy guide.
You have a few products and a few hours a week
If you can read a search-term report, software that costs a few hundred dollars a month does most of the bid work. Hire when spend or catalog size outgrows your time.
The listing does not convert
Fix the main image, bullets, price and reviews first. Ads multiply whatever conversion rate the page already has. Our listing copy is $495 and the listing audit is free.
You do not know your margin
Without it, nobody can set a target. Work it out first; it takes an afternoon with your Amazon fee report.
You are low on stock
Ads on a product about to run out burn spend and can hurt ranking when it goes out of stock. Restock first.
About the Author
Ian Smith
Founder, Evolve Media Agency
Ian has run Evolve Media Agency since 2017 and has spent more than a decade in ecommerce, building and selling his own brands and producing listing content, video and ads for Amazon, Shopify and TikTok Shop brands. He writes every page on this site himself and the prices quoted for Evolve are the prices you pay.
Hiring a PPC Agency Questions
What questions should I ask an Amazon PPC agency?
How do I vet an Amazon PPC agency?
What are red flags when hiring a PPC agency?
What should an Amazon PPC agency report?
Should an agency pay Amazon for my ad spend?
How much should an Amazon PPC agency cost?
When should I not hire a PPC agency?
How does Evolve Media Agency answer these questions?
Run the 15 Questions on Us First
Book a free 30-minute call and ask every question on this page. Bring your ad spend, SKU count and margin. If your numbers say you do not need an agency yet, we will say so and tell you what to do instead.