seller
Key takeaways
- An ad agency for Amazon must manage ads alongside listings, stock and margin, not ROAS alone.
- Flat retainers keep the agency focused on profit instead of spending more of your money.
- Ask every agency how it sets ACoS targets and what happens when stock runs low.
| General ad agency | Amazon specialist | |
|---|---|---|
| Sets ACoS from product margin | ||
| Tracks TACoS and organic rank | ||
| Throttles ads when stock runs low | ||
| Fixes listings that block conversion |
PPC Spider uses flat retainers only: PPC from $995/mo, full-service from $1,950/mo.
What an ad agency for Amazon actually manages
Amazon is a search engine where every click lands on a product page with a price, reviews and a buy button. The agency's job is to buy the right clicks at a cost your margin can carry, then make sure those clicks turn into sales that lift organic rank.
Day to day that means building campaigns by intent, setting bids and budgets, harvesting search terms that convert, negating the ones that waste money and reporting on what the spend actually returned. Good agencies also watch the things that quietly break ads: a listing that stops converting, a lost Buy Box or a product about to run out of stock.
- Sponsored Products for keyword and product targeting
- Sponsored Brands and Brands Video for brand discovery
- Sponsored Display for retargeting and competitor placements
- Amazon DSP and Streaming TV for reach beyond search
- Search term harvesting and negative targeting
- Reporting on ACoS, TACoS, organic share and profit
General ad agency vs Amazon specialist
Many brands start by asking their existing Google or Meta agency to take on Amazon. It feels efficient, but the skills transfer less than you would expect. On Google, the agency controls the landing page. On Amazon, the landing page is a listing competing with sponsored rivals on the same screen, and conversion depends on price, reviews, images and stock as much as on the ad.
Amazon also ties advertising to organic rank. Sales from ads feed the ranking algorithm, so a well run campaign lowers the cost of future sales. A general agency that reports only ROAS will miss that effect and often cut the campaigns that are building rank.
A specialist ad agency for Amazon knows the auction, the placements, the Search Query Performance data in Brand Analytics and how stock levels change what you should spend. That knowledge is the difference between buying traffic and building a brand on Amazon.
Ads only or full service?
There are two kinds of Amazon agency. A PPC or ads agency runs advertising only. A full-service Amazon agency runs ads together with listings, creative, account health and inventory.
An ads-only agency is the right choice when your listings already convert, your images and A+ Content are strong and your team keeps stock healthy. You keep control of everything else and pay only for advertising expertise.
If any of those pieces is weak, ads hit a ceiling fast. No bid strategy fixes a listing that does not convert, and spend is wasted when a best seller is two weeks from stocking out. That is when full service usually returns more for the money, because one team owns the whole funnel.
How Amazon ad agencies charge
Pricing models shape behaviour, so understand them before you compare numbers. There are three common models.
- Percentage of ad spend, usually 10 to 20 percent: the agency earns more when you spend more, whether or not the spend is profitable
- Percentage of sales: the agency earns more on revenue even when margin falls
- Flat monthly retainer: you know the cost before you sign, and the agency has no reason to inflate spend
What PPC Spider charges
PPC Spider publishes every price and uses flat monthly retainers only, never a percentage of ad spend. Amazon PPC management has four plans: Launch at $995 a month for up to $10k of monthly ad spend, Growth at $1,250 for up to $40k, Scale at $2,200 for up to $120k and Enterprise on a custom quote above that.
Full-service Amazon management starts at $1,950 a month on Core, for up to 25 ASINs and $20k of monthly ad spend. Growth is $3,100 for up to 75 ASINs and $60k, and Scale is $4,750 for unlimited ASINs and up to $200k, including DSP and Streaming TV management.
Amazon DSP and Streaming TV is also available on its own from $1,100 a month for media budgets from $10k to $30k. Every plan has a 90-day initial term, then runs month to month with 30 days notice.
Questions to ask every ad agency for Amazon
Use the same questions with every agency you speak to, including us. A good partner answers each one clearly, without a slide deck.
- How do you set ACoS targets: from each product's margin, or from a flat number?
- Do you report TACoS and organic share of sales next to ad metrics?
- How often are bids and budgets reviewed, and what triggers a change?
- What happens to ad spend when a product is close to stocking out?
- Who runs my account day to day, by name and role?
- Do I keep ownership of my Seller Central, Ads account and data?
- What is the exact monthly price, and what is not included?
- What does the first month look like, week by week?
Red flags to watch for
Most bad agency relationships show warning signs before the contract is signed. Walk away if you see more than one of these.
- Prices only revealed after a sales call
- Fees tied to ad spend with no profit target
- Reports full of impressions and ACoS but no TACoS or profit
- Campaigns paused before replacements are live
- Long lock-in contracts with no month to month option
- Guaranteed rankings or guaranteed ROAS
How a strong Amazon ad agency starts
The first weeks tell you whether the agency is diagnosing or just reselling a template. Week one should be access and audit: Ads, Seller Central and the cost data needed to work out margin per product. Weeks two to four should rebuild campaigns by intent, remove wasted search terms and fix the listings that drag conversion down.
One rule matters more than any other: nothing should be paused until its replacement is live. Switching off campaigns that carry rank, even messy ones, can cost months of organic position.
- Week 1: access, audit and margin per product
- Week 2: campaign plan with profit-capped ACoS targets
- Weeks 3 to 4: rebuild by intent, waste removed, listings fixed
Why brands choose PPC Spider
PPC Spider is an Amazon and marketplace growth agency that runs every account on SpiderOS, its own platform for profit per product, live reports and 24x7 ads automation. Target ACoS is set from each product's real margin, so bids are capped at the point where a sale stops being profitable.
When stock runs low, the alert goes to you and to the ads team, who throttle spend on the affected ASINs until stock is back. You keep ownership of every account and of the data, and the SpiderOS login is yours. If you want to see where your current spend is leaking first, start with the free Amazon audit.
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