Is your Amazon
agency working?
Short answer. You can check in an afternoon using your own data. Look at what has changed in the ad account's History tab, whether total sales and TACoS moved rather than ACoS, how much ad revenue comes from your own brand name, which search terms spend without converting, and who actually has access. If the agency's report and your own numbers disagree, trust your numbers.
Why is it hard to tell
if an agency is working?
Most agency reports lead with ACoS, and ACoS is easy to improve without growing anything. Three patterns come up again and again when sellers describe agencies that disappointed them.
- Collecting demand you already own. Ads on your own brand name convert well and cost little, so they pull the blended ACoS down. The report looks strong while the business stands still.
- Cutting spend to make the numbers look efficient. Lower spend usually means lower ACoS. If your goal was growth, a cleaner dashboard is the wrong result.
- Attention that fades after onboarding. The first month brings an audit and a rebuild. After that, changes slow down and the monthly report carries the relationship.
None of these show up in a report the agency writes. All of them show up in data you already own: your Business Reports, your search term report and the change history in your ad account.
Six checks you can
run in an afternoon
Pull the last 90 days, and the same 90 days a year earlier if you have them, so seasonality does not fool you.
Check 01
Open the History tab on your top campaigns
In the Amazon Ads console, open a Sponsored Products or Sponsored Brands campaign and select History. It lists changes to settings, bids and budgets with dates. Look at your five highest-spending campaigns. A run of changes in month one and very little since suggests the account is on autopilot. A long list of bid changes with no clear direction is a different problem. Ask the agency to explain the last ten changes and what each was meant to do. A good manager can answer that in plain words.
Check 02
Compare total sales and TACoS, not ACoS
Take total ordered product sales from Business Reports and total ad spend from the ad console for the same dates. Ad spend divided by total sales is your TACoS. If spend went up and TACoS went up while total sales stayed flat, you are paying for sales you would probably have had anyway. If TACoS fell and total sales grew, advertising is doing its job, whatever ACoS says.
Check 03
Split branded from non-branded ad sales
Download the search term report and filter for search terms that contain your brand name. Add up the ad sales on those rows and compare them with the total. Branded campaigns are worth running to defend your listing, but they mostly collect demand you created elsewhere. In one account we audited, $160 of ad spend produced $9,000 in sales, every dollar of it on the brand name. That reads as an ACoS under 2% and says almost nothing about growth. Growth shows up in non-branded terms.
Check 04
Find the spend that never converts
In the same report, sort by spend and filter for search terms with no orders over the last 30 to 60 days. Most accounts we audit lose 30 to 40% of their ad budget to search terms that never convert. A well-managed account has those terms negated within weeks. If the same non-converting terms have been spending for months, nobody is reading the report. Our free PPC audit tool does this sort for you from the report file.
Check 05
Check the listing work you are paying for
If the agency's scope includes listings, ask for a dated list of what it changed: images, titles, bullets, A+ content, backend search terms. Then open the live pages and check. Track unit session percentage for your top ASINs in Business Reports, under Detail Page Sales and Traffic. Ads send shoppers to the page. If conversion has not moved, more ad spend only makes a weak page cost more.
Check 06
See who actually has access
In Seller Central, go to Settings, then User Permissions. In the Amazon Ads console, go to Administration, then Account access and settings, then Users. The names there tell you who is really working on your account, which may not be the person from the sales call. Check that nobody holds Admin access they do not need. Editor is enough to manage campaigns.
What do the results
tell you?
| What you find | What it usually means | What to ask |
|---|---|---|
| ACoS down, total sales flat | Spend was cut to look efficient, or branded terms are carrying the average | Which goal are you optimising for, and why this one? |
| Spend up, TACoS up, total sales flat | Ads are buying sales that would have happened anyway | How much of the new ad revenue is non-branded? |
| Few changes after month one | The account is running on automation or not being looked at | Walk me through the last ten changes and why |
| Plenty of bid work, conversion flat | Advertising is being tuned on a listing that does not convert | What would you change on the listing before raising spend? |
| Same dead search terms spending for months | Nobody is reading the search term report | When did you last add negatives, and which ones? |
| Unfamiliar users or wide Admin access | Work is being passed to people you have not met | Who does the day-to-day work on my account? |
One pattern alone is a conversation. Three or four together, with answers that stay vague, is a decision.
Should you fire
your Amazon agency?
Be fair to the agency first. Some results sit outside its control: a product with weak reviews, a category flooded with cheaper copies, repeated stockouts, or a price the market will not pay. Ask yourself whether you agreed the goal at the start. Growth and efficiency pull in opposite directions, and an agency told to grow while being judged on ACoS will disappoint you either way.
If the goal was clear and the checks above still look poor, give the agency 30 days with specific requests in writing: the negatives you expect added, the listings you expect fixed, and the TACoS trend you expect to see. If they cannot explain their changes in plain words by then, move on.
Leaving is simpler when you own everything. Download your reports, remove the agency's users from both Seller Central and the ad console, and keep the creative files. An agency that runs ads from an account it owns makes that much harder, which is why we never do it.
We built our own model around these checks. We are paid a percentage of total Amazon revenue, organic and advertised, so ad sales on your own brand name that replace organic sales earn us nothing, and we publish the Conversion Gate: no scaling spend on a listing below 2% Sponsored Products click-through rate and 10% unit session percentage.
Common questions
How long should I give an Amazon agency before judging results?
Savings from cutting wasted search terms usually show within the first few weeks. Listing changes, organic rank and TACoS take longer, typically a few months. If nothing has moved after 90 days, including the agency's own explanation of why, it is time for a direct conversation.
Can I see what changes my agency made in Amazon Ads?
Yes. Open any Sponsored Products or Sponsored Brands campaign in the Amazon Ads console and select the History tab. It lists changes to settings such as bids, budgets and status, with dates.
What is a good TACoS for an Amazon brand?
There is no single number. It depends on your margin, your category and whether you are launching or defending. Watch the trend: TACoS falling while total sales rise means advertising is building the business. TACoS rising while total sales stay flat means you are paying for sales you may have had anyway.
How do I remove an agency's access to my Amazon account?
Remove the agency's users in two places. In Seller Central, go to Settings, then User Permissions. In the Amazon Ads console, go to Administration, then Account access and settings, then Users. Download your reports first, so the history stays with you.
See where your account stands. It costs nothing.
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Or run the free PPC audit tool on your search term report.
More guides
How 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.
HiringAmazon agency, in-house hire or freelancer?
How the three options compare on cost, skills covered, control and risk, and a simple way to decide.
AdvertisingThe 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.
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