seller
Key takeaways
- A la carte wins for one department or a small add-on; the bundle usually wins at two departments.
- Six departments bought separately from our price list total $4,380 a month, against a flat $1,500 for full service.
- Count the coordination hours too, because vendor management is a real monthly cost.
| A la carte | Full service | |
|---|---|---|
| Cheapest for one department | ||
| Cheapest for two or more departments | ||
| One owner for ads, listings and stock | ||
| Best for one-time projects | ||
| Stock alerts reach the ads team |
Example: six departments a la carte total $4,380/mo vs a flat $1,500/mo full-service plan (up to 25 ASINs, $20k ad spend).
Full service vs a la carte agency for Amazon sellers: the short answer
A la carte means you buy each department on its own: PPC from one plan, listing SEO from another, account health, inventory and brand protection as separate retainers or one-time projects. Full service means one team runs all of it under one plan, one owner and one report.
The short answer: a la carte wins when you need one department, or one department plus a small add-on. Full service usually wins once two real departments are running, because the bundle price is lower than the sum of the parts and someone finally owns how they work together.
The rest of this guide shows that point with real numbers, so you do not have to take anyone's word for it, including ours.
What each model actually includes
Labels are loose in this market. One 2026 guide from Darkroom points out that many agencies calling themselves full service in practice manage PPC and little else. So compare scope line by line, not by the name on the proposal.
A true full-service plan should cover the parts that decide Amazon sales together: advertising, listing SEO, creative upkeep, catalog and account health, inventory planning, reimbursements and brand protection. An a la carte setup covers whatever you buy, and everything you do not buy stays with your team.
- A la carte: you choose the departments, you coordinate them, you own the gaps
- Full service: one plan, one account manager, shared targets across ads, listings and stock
- Hybrid: one agency runs a core department and you add one-time projects as needed
What the market charges in 2026
Most agencies still quote after a sales call, so published benchmarks come from agency guides rather than neutral data. Treat them as rough ranges.
SupplyKick's 2026 pricing guide places full-service retainers at roughly $7,500 to $15,000 a month for brands doing $2M to $10M a year, and lists exit penalties of one to three months of retainer as something to watch for. Darkroom's guide puts PPC-only retainers at $2,000 to $5,000 a month and full service at $8,000 to $25,000 or more. Ecom Brainly describes typical contracts of 6 to 12 months.
None of these guides shows the side-by-side math of buying the same scope piece by piece versus bundled. That is the gap, so here it is with real prices.
The break-even math with published prices
PPC Spider publishes every price, which makes a clean comparison possible. Full-service Amazon management is a flat $1,500 a month for up to 25 ASINs and $20k of monthly ad spend, and includes PPC, listing SEO, account health, inventory planning and reimbursements, A+ and Brand Store upkeep, brand protection, a promotions calendar and SpiderOS access.
Here is the same scope bought a la carte from our own price list, for an illustrative brand with 12 ASINs and $15,000 a month in ad spend. These are illustrative numbers for the example, not a client result.
- PPC management, Growth plan (up to $40k spend): $1,250 a month
- Ongoing SEO (up to 25 ASINs): $950 a month
- Account health retainer: $720 a month
- Inventory planning (up to 100 SKUs): $600 a month
- Brand protection monitoring: $480 a month
- Brand Store care: $380 a month
- Total a la carte: $4,380 a month, versus $1,500 for full service
Where the math flips for smaller setups
Most brands do not need all six departments, so the honest question is where the line sits. On the Launch PPC plan at $995 a month (up to $10k ad spend), adding Store care ($1,375 total) or brand protection ($1,475 total) still costs less than the $1,500 bundle. Adding ongoing SEO ($1,945), account health ($1,715) or inventory planning ($1,595) crosses it.
On the Growth PPC plan at $1,250, any second retainer pushes you past $1,500. That matches the pattern we publish on the full-service page: most brands move to full service once two departments are running.
One-time work is different. A single listing rewrite at $360 or an A+ Content page at $600 is a project, not a department, and buying projects a la carte next to a PPC plan is often the cheapest path for a small catalog.
The hidden cost a price list never shows
Sticker price is only half the comparison. With separate vendors, someone on your side has to brief them, share data, settle conflicts and make sure the ads team knows a hero product is about to stock out.
K6 Agency suggests a simple test: if you spend more than five hours a week coordinating Amazon vendors, you are paying a hidden management cost. For example, using illustrative numbers, five hours a week at a $50 internal hourly cost is about $1,075 a month, on top of the fees.
There is also a performance cost. Ads cannot fix a listing that does not convert, and a PPC vendor with no view of inventory will keep spending on an ASIN with nine days of cover. In full service, the stock alert reaches the ads team and spend is throttled until stock is back.
When a la carte is the better choice
Full service is not the default answer. Buy a la carte when one of these is true.
- You have a strong in-house team and only one gap, usually PPC or listings
- Your ad spend is above $20k a month but you only need advertising, so a PPC plan fits better than an Enterprise full-service quote
- You need a defined project: a launch, a reinstatement, a Store build or a batch of rewrites
- Your catalog is tiny and sales are low, so any monthly retainer outweighs the upside
- You sell above 25 ASINs or across 1P and 3P, where full service becomes a custom Enterprise scope anyway
Checklist: how to decide this week
Run these five steps before you sign anything with anyone. Each one takes under an hour.
- Founder or ops lead: list every Amazon task done in the last 30 days and who did it. Metric: count of tasks with no clear owner.
- Ops lead: price each department you need a la carte, using published plans, and add the total. Metric: monthly sum versus a full-service quote for the same ASINs and spend.
- Marketing lead: log the hours spent briefing and chasing vendors for two weeks. Metric: hours per week, multiplied by your internal hourly cost.
- Finance: in Seller Central Business Reports, pull total sales and ad spend for 90 days. Metric: TACoS, so any agency can be judged against a clear baseline.
- Founder: read the contract terms side by side. Metric: initial term length, notice period and any exit penalty in months of fees.
Contract terms that change the answer
A cheaper monthly fee can still cost more if the contract locks you in. Compare the initial term, the notice period, who owns the ad and Seller Central accounts, and whether you can step down to a single department later.
PPC Spider plans run on a 90-day initial term, then month to month with 30 days notice. Fees are flat retainers, never a percentage of ad spend, and you own every account and the SpiderOS login. You can start with one department, such as PPC management, and move to full service when the math above says it is time.
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