Amazon agency, in-house
hire or freelancer?
Short answer. The answer depends on how many jobs your Amazon channel needs done at once. A freelancer can run one job well, usually advertising. An in-house hire gives you control but rarely covers every skill. An agency gives you a team without building one. Here is how they compare.
The three options
side by side
A private label brand on Amazon needs five jobs done: listings and creative, advertising, inventory and fulfilment, account health, and reporting that ties them together. The real question is how many of those you need covered, and by whom.
| Freelancer | In-house hire | Agency | |
|---|---|---|---|
| How you pay | Hourly or a monthly fee | Salary, benefits and tools | Monthly fee, often plus a percentage of ad spend or sales |
| Typical cost signal | Upwork reports a median of US$30 an hour for PPC specialists | Indeed reports an average base of $70,103 for e-commerce managers in Canada | Varies with scope; most quote after an audit |
| Skills covered | Usually one | One or two, depending on the person | Several, across a team |
| Control | Medium | Highest | Medium, set by the contract |
| Risk if they leave | High: one person holds the knowledge | High: recruiting and ramp-up start again | Lower: the team carries the account |
| Best fit | A narrow, well-defined job | Amazon is large enough to fund a team | $20K+ a month and no team in place |
Salary and rate figures are averages from the sources listed at the end of this guide. Your market and the person's experience will move them in either direction.
When a freelancer
makes sense
A freelancer is a good fit when the job is narrow and you know exactly what you need: a set of new listing images, a one-off keyword build, or weekly search term management on an account where everything else is already handled.
The trade-offs are scope and continuity. Most freelancers are strong in one area, so the parts of the channel outside that area stay uncovered. Many brands hire a PPC freelancer and later find the real problem was a listing converting poorly, which no amount of bid work fixes. And when a freelancer moves on, the knowledge of your account often goes with them.
Good sign: they ask for your Business Report as well as your ad data, because they want to see conversion before touching bids.
When to hire
in-house
Hiring in-house makes sense when Amazon is a large share of revenue and you want the knowledge to live inside the company. You get full control and someone who knows the brand deeply.
The cost runs past the salary. Add benefits, the software an Amazon manager needs to work well, recruiting time, and several months of ramp-up before the hire is fully productive. The harder problem is coverage: one person who is strong at advertising, listing copy, creative direction, inventory forecasting and account health is rare. Most single hires end up covering one or two of those jobs well and the rest partly.
Many brands land on a hybrid: an in-house owner who knows the business and sets priorities, working with an agency or specialists who carry the execution.
When an agency
makes sense
An agency fits when you need several of the five jobs done at once and do not want to build a team to do them. For a brand doing $20K a month or more on Amazon, that is often the point where the gaps between jobs cost more than a management fee. Our own story started from that observation: brands were hiring agencies and getting ad managers, while the listing, inventory and account health problems sat untouched.
Three things to check before you sign with one:
- Scope. Many agencies only run advertising. If your listings need work, confirm they will do it. See what full channel management covers.
- Incentives. A fee based on a percentage of ad spend pays the agency more when you spend more. Ours is a percentage of total Amazon revenue instead, and we also publish the Conversion Gate: we will not scale spend on a listing below 2% click-through rate and 10% unit session percentage.
- Ownership. You should own your Seller Central and advertising accounts and grant the agency user access. Never share your login.
Our guide on how to choose an Amazon agency has ten questions to ask on the first call, and if you already have one, here is how to check whether it is working.
Four questions
to decide
- How much do you sell on Amazon each month? Below about $20K, management fees take a large share of the upside, and a freelancer or doing it yourself is often the better use of money. Above that, the cost of gaps starts to outweigh the fee.
- Which of the five jobs are uncovered today? One gap points to a freelancer or specialist. Three or more points to a team, in-house or agency.
- Who inside the business will manage the relationship? Every option needs an owner who reads the reports and makes decisions. Without one, even a good agency drifts.
- What does a mistake cost you? A suppressed best seller in Q4 or a stockout before a promotion can cost more than a year of fees. The higher that cost, the more coverage is worth.
If you are unsure where your gaps are, the Amazon PPC audit checklist will show you in an afternoon.
Common questions
Is an Amazon agency worth it for a small brand?
Usually not below about $20K a month in Amazon revenue. At that size management fees take a large share of the profit an agency can add. A freelancer for one specific job, or learning the channel yourself, tends to be a better use of the money until revenue grows.
How are Amazon agencies paid?
Most charge a monthly retainer, a percentage of ad spend or sales, or a mix of the two. Each model rewards something different. A percentage of ad spend rewards spending more, so ask how the agency decides when not to raise budgets.
Can I move from an agency to in-house later?
Yes, if you own your accounts. Make sure the agency works through user permissions on your Seller Central and advertising accounts, keeps campaign structure documented, and hands over reports and creative files when you leave.
Is in-house cheaper than an agency?
On salary alone it can look that way. Once you add benefits, software, recruiting, ramp-up time and the jobs one person cannot cover, the gap narrows or reverses for most brands under a few million dollars a year on Amazon.
See where your account stands. It costs nothing.
Twenty minutes on your listings and ad account. We show you where the spend is leaking and what it is worth to fix, whether or not you hire us.
- We look at your real numbers before we recommend anything
- You keep ownership of every account
- No setup fees, no annual contract
Or run the free PPC audit tool on your search term report.
More guides
The Amazon PPC audit checklist
Twelve checks to run before you raise an ad budget, with where to find each number and what good looks like.
HiringHow to choose an Amazon agency
Ten questions to ask on the first call, the red flags to watch for, and what a good first 90 days looks like.
HiringIs your Amazon agency working?
Six checks you can run yourself in Seller Central and the ad console to see whether your agency is growing the business or only managing ACoS.
Want someone to
fix it for you?
Twenty minutes on your listings and ad account. We'll show you where the spend is leaking and what it's worth to fix.