What Questions Should I Ask Before Hiring an Amazon Marketing Agency?
Hiring an Amazon agency is not like hiring a contractor who builds something you can inspect. You're trusting someone with your most important sales channel — and the difference between a great agency and a mediocre one can be hundreds of thousands of dollars per year.
The problem is that most agencies sound the same on a sales call. Everyone has case studies, everyone mentions ACOS, everyone promises results. The questions below are designed to cut through the pitch and reveal what you're actually getting.
For each question, we've included what a strong answer sounds like and what a weak one looks like. You'll know quickly.
The 12 Questions to Ask
This is the most important question you can ask. The person selling you is almost never the person running your account. You need to know who that is.
"Your account will be managed by [Name], a senior strategist with 4 years on Amazon. Here's their background, and yes, let's set up a call so you can meet them before you decide."
"You'll have a dedicated account manager assigned after onboarding." (Vague, no name, no way to evaluate who that person is.)
Anyone can cherry-pick a standout result. Ask for recent, typical examples from brands similar to yours. If they hesitate, they don't have them.
They share anonymized case studies with specific numbers: ACOS before/after, revenue change, conversion rate improvement, and a timeline. They're comfortable showing you average results, not just best-case.
"We've helped brands grow 300%..." with no specifics, no timeline, no context on the brand's starting point.
A structured agency has a documented onboarding process. A disorganized one improvises. The answer tells you everything about their systems.
"Week 1: full account audit and baseline measurement. Week 2: campaign restructure and listing audit. Week 3–4: initial optimizations live, first check-in call with data." Specific weeks, specific deliverables.
"We'll get to know your brand and start making improvements." No timeline, no deliverables, no process.
A good agency can give you benchmarks based on your current ACOS and category. They should ask about your margins before answering this.
"At your current 34% ACOS with your margin profile, we'd target 22–24% within 60–90 days. Here's how we'd get there: negative keyword harvesting in weeks 1–2, bid optimization in weeks 3–4, structural campaign cleanup through month 2."
"We'll optimize your campaigns and get your ACOS down." (No number, no timeline, no explanation of method.)
This is non-negotiable. Your campaign history, keyword data, and account structure belong to you. Some agencies use sub-accounts that you lose access to when you leave.
"Everything is in your Seller Central account. You own all the campaigns, all the data, and we work inside your account — not our own. If you leave, we do a documented handoff."
"We manage through our platform, but we'll export data for you if needed." You do not own the history. Walk away.
Generic reports are a sign of generic management. A good agency's reports include what changed, why, what it did to performance, and what's next.
They share a real anonymized report. It includes performance trends, specific actions taken, results of those actions, and clear next steps with owners and timelines.
They describe the report verbally without showing you one, or the sample report is just a data export with no narrative or recommendations.
Amazon changes things constantly. An agency managing 50+ accounts sees these changes in real-time across their whole client base. They should have a defined process for staying current.
"We monitor Amazon seller forums, our SPN communications, and internal signals across our book of clients. When something changes, we brief the team and push updates across accounts within 48 hours. Here's an example of a recent change we caught early..."
"We stay up-to-date on Amazon best practices." That's not an answer. That's a platitude.
Three months is reasonable for initial commitment. Twelve months with no performance exit clause is a red flag. An agency confident in results doesn't need to trap you.
"We ask for 3 months minimum to show meaningful results. After that, it's month-to-month. We also include a performance clause — if we miss the benchmarks we commit to, you can exit early."
"Our standard contract is 12 months." Without a performance exit clause, this is a lock-in regardless of results.
Amazon SPN membership means Amazon has reviewed and approved the agency's capabilities. It's not a guarantee of quality, but it's a meaningful bar that many agencies don't meet.
"Yes, we're an SPN-certified agency. Here's our listing: [link]. SPN also gives us direct Amazon support access, which helps when there's an account issue."
"We're in the process of applying" or confusion about what SPN is. Non-SPN agencies aren't necessarily bad, but it's worth noting.
This is a bandwidth question. An account manager running 30 accounts can't give your brand real attention. The number tells you whether you'll get strategic thinking or task execution.
"Our senior strategists carry a maximum of 10–12 accounts. Your account manager will also have a support person for execution so they're focused on strategy."
Evasive answer, or a number above 20. At 20+ accounts per person, you're getting process execution, not strategic thinking.
Crisis response is when agencies prove their value. Ask for a specific example of a problem they solved for a client, how fast they caught it, and what they did.
"We monitor account health dashboards daily. For suppressions, our SLA is same-day response. Here's an example: [specific client situation, what happened, how they fixed it, how fast]."
"We stay on top of account health." No monitoring specifics, no response time commitment, no example.
This one flips the dynamic. A good agency will ask for your current ACOS, margins, revenue, category, and account history before making any projections. A bad one will skip the homework and pitch anyway.
They ask for view-only Seller Central access (or specific metrics), want to understand your margins, ask about your category and competitive position, and say they need to look at the actual account before quoting.
They pitch a generic proposal without looking at your account. If they're not curious about your specifics, they're running a template — not a strategy.
How to Use These Questions
Don't fire all 12 at once in a sales call — that comes off as an interrogation. Pick the 4–5 that matter most for your situation and work them into the conversation naturally. The best ones to always ask: #1 (who manages my account), #5 (who owns the data), and #12 (what do you need to assess my account).
Before you start interviewing agencies, it's worth running the ROI math first so you know what improvement to demand. Our post on whether an Amazon agency is worth the cost walks through exactly how to calculate it for your account. And for a clear picture of what agencies actually charge, see the Amazon agency pricing guide.
Pay as much attention to how they answer as to what they say. An agency that gets defensive, vague, or evasive on legitimate business questions is showing you exactly what working with them will be like.
A confident, good-faith agency welcomes these questions. They've heard them before and have clear answers. That's the one you want.
If you're working through this evaluation process and want to see how SellTru answers these questions — we're happy to go through every one of them on a call. No pitch deck, no pressure. Request the free audit and we'll start there.
Ask Us These Questions
Request a free account audit and put SellTru through this checklist yourself. We'll show you what's wrong with your account, what we'd do about it, and give you clear answers to every question above.
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