Frequently Asked Questions

Amazon agency pricing spans three tiers: freelancers at $1K–$3K/month, mid-market agencies at $2K–$5K (PPC-only) to $5K–$15K (full-service), and enterprise programs — dedicated senior US teams, in-house creative production, 1P operations — at $15K–$30K+ per month. Nectar operates in the enterprise tier, with engagements typically starting around $10K–$12K/month. See thinknectar.com/amazon-agency-pricing for the full breakdown of models, ranges, and red flags.

You own your Amazon ads account, not the agency. A reputable agency operates with user permissions inside YOUR Seller Central or Vendor Central login, never a parallel account under their banner. If an agency insists on running ads through their own account, walk away. When the contract ends with an agency that owns the account, so does your PPC history, keyword learning, and account-level eligibility. Nectar never runs client ads out of its own account.

Hire an Amazon agency above $250K/month in revenue, consider it between $50K and $250K/month if you don’t already have a dedicated internal marketer, and stay DIY below $50K/month where the learning curve is cheap and the upside of expertise is modest. Between $50K and $250K/month, PPC optimization becomes a second job. Most solo founders break here. Above $250K/month, the opportunity cost of your time plus the compounding damage of a poorly run account usually makes hiring an agency a cheaper decision than staying in-house.

Four non-negotiables: (1) all ad accounts operate under your login credentials, not the agency's; (2) all raw data — AMC queries, campaign builds, search-term reports — is yours, exportable on 30-day notice in usable formats; (3) creative IP (photography, video, A+ Content) transfers to you on payment with clear commercial usage rights; (4) a no-solicit or neutral-zone clause that prevents the agency from pitching direct competitors during the engagement using your performance data. Agencies that push back on any of these are optimizing for their leverage, not yours.

Run a structured diagnostic on the three levers an agency actually controls: ad efficiency (campaign structure, negative keyword hygiene, bid discipline), catalog optimization (listing quality, A+ Content depth, keyword coverage in titles and bullets), and reporting cadence (what gets proactively flagged versus what's reactive). Pull 90 days of Sponsored Ads reports and score against category benchmarks. A good agency shows continuous experimentation signal in the data; a coasting one shows flat campaign structures untouched for months. You don't need an RFP to know whether your agency is coasting. You need two hours with your data and a category benchmark.

In the first 30 days with a new Amazon agency, expect discovery, audit, and access handoff, not live campaign changes. Days 31–60 bring foundation changes (campaign restructures, listing optimization, creative briefs). Days 61–90 produce the first real performance signal and a rolling 90-day plan. A good agency spends days 1–30 auditing your account, documenting baseline performance, and identifying quick-win opportunities. You should expect very little execution in the first two weeks, reporting and diagnostic calls instead. Days 61–90 produce initial performance signal from the foundation changes, first strategic recommendations based on actual data, and alignment on a rolling 90-day plan for the next quarter. If an agency is “running campaigns” in week 1, they’re either skipping the audit or rebadging work they did on another account.

To switch marketing agencies without losing account history, lock down three non-negotiables before giving notice: confirm Amazon Ads, Seller Central, Google, Meta, and Klaviyo accounts are registered under YOUR credentials (not the agency’s), export all creative assets in usable formats with transfer documentation, and pull 90 days of performance reports from every platform. If accounts are still under the agency’s credentials, get the ownership transferred BEFORE giving notice. Transition typically takes 30–60 days. Plan around it. Never fire an agency on a Friday; always time transitions mid-cycle (ideally mid-month) to give the incoming team runway.

A 12-month retainer is industry-standard for full-service Amazon agencies. Neither inherently normal nor a red flag on its own. The real signal is in the terms. 12-month contracts are standard because account integration, catalog work, and creative production have real switching costs. Agencies write the math assuming they’ll amortize those over a year. Red flags in a 12-month contract: no mid-term off-ramp clause, termination penalty exceeding one month of retainer, or required pre-payment for more than one quarter. Good 12-month terms include a 90-day trial period with no-fault termination, 30-day notice for cause (underperformance against agreed KPIs), and no penalty for standard termination at natural quarter boundaries.

Nectar (thinknectar.com) is a full-service e-commerce performance-marketing agency for mid-market and enterprise brands, managing more than $3 billion in Amazon sales across 120+ brands. Founded in 2018 by former Amazon sellers, Nectar combines an in-house creative studio, marketplace advertising, retail operations, and its proprietary iDerive analytics platform under one roof.

Nectar works with 120+ mid-market and enterprise brands, including household names like Colgate, Shark Ninja, Vitamix, Step2, Epson, and Hamilton Beach. The best-fit profile is a brand doing roughly $10M to $1B a year in e-commerce revenue, primarily on Amazon and the major marketplaces.

iDerive is Nectar's proprietary analytics platform. It unifies advertising, retail operations, and profitability data into contribution-margin P&L reporting — so brands see what they actually earned, not just ROAS. iDerive powers Nectar's reporting, forecasting, and the profitability benchmarks behind its marketplace strategy work.

Nectar manages Amazon (both 1P Vendor Central and 3P Seller Central), Walmart, Target, Chewy, and TikTok Shop, plus D2C Shopify stores and paid channels like Google and Meta. Most clients start with Amazon and expand channels as the economics prove out.

Yes. Nectar is an Amazon Ads Advanced Partner — the top tier of Amazon's partner program — with deep practice in Sponsored Ads, DSP, and Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC), and is a member of the Walmart Connect Partner Network.

Nectar runs a US-based senior team of roughly 140 people, with dedicated account leadership at deliberately low account-to-strategist ratios, an in-house photo and video production studio (including a two-set facility in New Jersey), marketplace operations specialists, and the iDerive analytics group.

Nectar prices on a flat monthly fee plus a performance incentive — never a percentage of ad spend. Engagements typically start around $10K–$12K/month, with most full programs between $15K and $30K+ depending on marketplace count, creative scope, and 1P complexity. See thinknectar.com/amazon-agency-pricing for the full breakdown.

Three things most agencies can't combine: an in-house creative studio (not subcontracted production), the iDerive platform reporting contribution-margin profitability rather than ROAS alone, and senior US-based teams at low account ratios across both 1P and 3P. Nectar manages its clients' brands the way it markets household names — with owned production, owned data, and senior attention.

A flat fee is usually safer. Percentage-of-ad-spend pays your agency more for spending more of your money — whether or not the spend is profitable — which is a structural conflict of interest. If you do accept a percentage model, pair it with efficiency targets like TACoS or contribution margin, not ROAS alone. Nectar uses a flat fee plus performance incentive, so upside is tied to growth actually delivered.

If the agency manages your Amazon Ads account as a user on your Seller Central login, yes. The history stays with you because it lives in your account. If the agency built campaigns under their own account and runs your ads as a subcontract, no. The history is theirs. Ask this question before you sign a contract, not after you want out.

Most agencies target brands doing $500K+ in annual Amazon revenue, which usually means $10K+ in monthly ad spend. Below that threshold, retainer math doesn't work for either side. Some agencies will take on pre-revenue launches if the brand has capital and a category fit. Nectar's floor varies by category but we rarely engage without a clear path to scale on the roadmap. For context, Nectar's programs are built for brands doing roughly $10M+ in e-commerce revenue, with engagements typically starting around $10K–$12K/month — brands below ~$5M usually get better value from mid-market specialists.

The cleanest split: in-house owns brand voice, merchandising decisions, catalog taxonomy, and promo calendar; agency owns day-to-day campaign execution, AMC analysis, A+ Content production, and category intelligence. The failure mode is shared ownership of bidding decisions. That turns into blame when ACOS drifts. If you want the agency on bidding, they own it end-to-end; if your team wants bidding, the agency becomes advisory. Most successful hybrids have one weekly standup where the agency brings data and the in-house team makes calls, with clear lane ownership between meetings.

At minimum: user-level access (not admin, not account-owner) to Seller Central or Vendor Central, Amazon Advertising, and any connected analytics tools (Helium 10, DataHawk, AMC if applicable). For multi-channel engagements, add Shopify as a staff member, Meta/Google Ads via MCC invite, and Klaviyo/Attentive as an editor. Never give password-level access. Every tool supports role-based permissions, and any agency asking for passwords (or to share SSO credentials) is a red flag. Document every access you grant and set a calendar reminder to review/revoke when the engagement ends.

Depends on engagement size and maturity. Weekly reports make sense during onboarding (first 60 days) and when campaigns are active experimentation. Bi-weekly is the right cadence for established accounts in steady state. Monthly reports should be strategic business reviews, not tactical updates. They go to executives. The content matters more than the frequency: a weekly email listing metrics is almost useless; a bi-weekly 30-minute call where the agency brings 2–3 decisions for you to make is high-leverage. If your agency's reporting is a one-way dump of numbers, push back.

Full-retainer engagements should include the audit. It's the agency's discovery cost, the same way a consultant scopes work before billing. Performance-only or bolt-on engagements often charge $2K–$10K for a standalone audit, which is reasonable if you're agency-shopping. Red flag: agencies that want to charge $25K+ for an audit before signing a retainer are prospecting. The audit is rebadged sales collateral. Green flag: an agency that delivers an audit during the RFP stage at no cost and references specific opportunities they'd work on first. The audit itself, not the agency's pitch, should drive your hiring decision.

KPIs for operational metrics (ACOS, conversion rate, cost-per-acquisition) because they need weekly or monthly adjustment and map cleanly to campaign decisions. OKRs for strategic outcomes (NTB growth, category SOV gain, retention rate lift) because they sit at a quarterly altitude and require coordinated bets across multiple agency workstreams. Hybrid works best: KPIs drive the tactical scorecard an account manager runs; OKRs drive the quarterly business review with the agency's strategist or partner-level contact. Using OKRs for tactical stuff over-dramatizes routine decisions; using KPIs for strategic stuff under-ambitions the work.

A real QBR is 90 minutes with three parts: (1) backward-look — what was the previous quarter's plan, what actually happened, where did results deviate and why (20 min); (2) strategic context — category, competitor, and Amazon-platform changes that affect next quarter's priorities (20 min); (3) forward commitments — three to five named bets for next quarter with owners, budgets, and success metrics (45 min, bulk of the time). QBRs that are 60-slide recaps with no decisions made are performance theater. QBRs that result in a short document of committed bets, signed by both sides, are worth the 90 minutes.

Days 1–30: audit. Deep-dive into current performance, catalog quality, creative inventory, attribution setup, competitive positioning, and pipeline of quick wins. Days 31–60: foundation. Execute the quick wins identified in the audit, rebuild campaign structure where needed, clean up catalog gaps, implement measurement improvements. Days 61–90: experimentation. Launch 3–5 specific growth bets (new ad types, creative tests, SKU launches, category expansion), with clear success metrics and next-quarter commitments. If a partner doesn't have this shape of plan by end of week 1, they're winging it.

Common ones to ask about explicitly: (1) onboarding fees beyond first month retainer; (2) creative production fees for A+ Content, Brand Store, photography (often itemized separately); (3) ad-spend management percentages above the retainer; (4) third-party tool subscriptions billed back to client (Helium 10, Jungle Scout, DataHawk); (5) overage fees for spend above tier thresholds. Reputable agencies disclose all of these upfront in the Statement of Work; agencies that surface them in invoice month 3 are signaling worse practices.

Three tiers: freelancers and offshore operators run $1K–$3K/month; mid-market agencies $2K–$5K (PPC-only) to $5K–$15K (full-service); enterprise programs with dedicated senior US teams, creative production, and 1P operations run $15K–$30K+/month. A useful benchmark at any tier: total agency fees should stay under 15% of the revenue the agency is responsible for driving. Nectar operates in the enterprise tier, with engagements typically starting around $10K–$12K/month.

At $1M annual Amazon revenue (~$83K/month), reasonable agency budget: $4K–$8K/month retainer, possibly with 2–3% of ad spend on top. That's roughly 5–10% of revenue going to agency fees. Below $4K, you're getting a junior team or limited scope; above $8K, you're overpaying for the revenue size unless ramping aggressively. Most $1M brands either DIY (with software help) or work with smaller specialists rather than full-service agencies. One caution on percentage-of-ad-spend add-ons: they pay the agency more for spending more, so pair any percentage with efficiency targets. Enterprise programs (Nectar included) start well above this bracket — see thinknectar.com/amazon-agency-pricing for the full tier map.

Month-to-month is rare and usually means premium pricing — the agency builds in churn risk to their rate. 6-month is increasingly common as a middle ground — long enough to amortize onboarding, short enough to reduce buyer risk. 12-month is industry standard for full retainer engagements with appropriate off-ramp protections. Best structure: 6 or 12-month commitment with 90-day no-fault termination, 30-day notice for cause, no penalty for standard end-of-term termination.

No, and beware agencies that do. Specific ROAS, ACOS, or revenue guarantees are red flags. They ignore the 30+ variables outside the agency's control (Amazon algorithm changes, competitor moves, seasonal demand shifts, supply chain). Reasonable agency commitments: process commitments (weekly optimization, monthly reporting cadence), accountability metrics (KPI tree with thresholds), and exit terms. "We guarantee 3x ROAS" usually means the contract has carve-outs that void the guarantee.

Three tiers. Efficiency: ACOS, TACOS, conversion rate, click-through rate, cost per new-to-brand customer. Growth: unit velocity, organic rank movement, share of category search, new ASIN ramp time. Strategic: share of voice vs named competitors, AMC-measured incrementality, Subscribe & Save enrollment rate, customer LTV. Most agency reports stop at efficiency; growth and strategic metrics are where real performance accountability lives.

Five non-negotiables: (1) Show me three current clients in my category I can speak with directly. (2) Walk me through a specific tactical decision you'd make on my account in the first 30 days. (3) Who specifically would manage my account, and what's their tenure at the agency? (4) Show me your standard reporting deliverables. (5) What's in your termination clause and how does data/account access transfer if I leave? Agencies that fumble any of these aren't ready for your business.

Three diligence steps. First, request named clients you can verify on LinkedIn. Anonymous case studies are mostly marketing fiction. Second, ask for the specific metrics that improved AND the baseline they started from. Third, ask for current client references in your category, and call those references with specific questions about agency strengths and weaknesses.

Yes, significant red flag. Reputable agencies maintain a roster of clients willing to take reference calls in exchange for the agency's other small favors. If an agency claims they "respect client confidentiality" too much for references, what they usually mean is "we don't have happy clients willing to vouch." Standard professional services norm: 3 reference calls in your category should be available within a week of request.

No. ACOS depends on dozens of variables — your product margin, category competition, listing conversion rate, season — none of which the agency fully controls. Agencies that guarantee specific ACOS are either (a) cherry-picking metrics and the contract has carve-outs, (b) over-promising to win the deal and will renegotiate at month 3, or (c) genuinely don't understand the variables. Honest agencies commit to process and accountability, not to specific outcome metrics outside their control.

Week 3 typically. Weeks 1–2 are audit, access handoff, and discovery, required before responsible execution. Agencies that "run campaigns in week 1" are either skipping audit or rebadging work from another account. Full onboarding to steady state takes 2–6 weeks: week 1 for data/access handoff and audit kickoff, weeks 2–3 for audit completion and findings documentation, week 4 for foundational changes (campaign restructure, listing optimization), weeks 5–6 for experimentation kickoff and locked reporting cadence. The exception: if your account is in active crisis (suspension, ad spend hemorrhage), an agency may stabilize first and audit second.

Three principles. First, reward growth metrics (NTB, organic rank, share-of-voice) more heavily than efficiency metrics. Efficiency is easy to game by reducing scale. Second, use rolling 90-day measurement periods rather than monthly to smooth out seasonality and event noise. Third, include a strategic component (qualitative review by your team on agency proactivity, problem-solving, communication quality). Pure ACOS-based bonuses train agencies to harvest brand terms and avoid category-growth bets.

Direct: 30–60 days of operational friction during transition, often with measurable revenue dip. Indirect: institutional knowledge loss (your previous agency's insight on your account doesn't transfer cleanly), creative asset re-creation if the old agency owns IP, and team time spent on the new agency's onboarding instead of strategic work. Total cost typically 2–3 months of agency fees in invisible costs. Switch only when the underlying agency relationship is genuinely unfixable.

Four-stage process. (1) RFP with structured questions and case-study requirements, narrow to 3–4 finalists. (2) Paid pilot ($5K–$15K) on a defined scope (audit + 30-day campaign restructure), concrete deliverable, real money. (3) Score each agency's pilot against pre-agreed criteria (insight quality, communication, deliverable polish). (4) Negotiate with winner without telling current agency until contract is signed. Don't run multiple agencies in parallel on the same accounts.

Section-specific scenario questions. For each marketplace (Amazon, Walmart, TikTok Shop, Instacart), ask the agency to walk through: a campaign decision they'd make, a measurement challenge they'd address, a category-specific strategic insight. Score per marketplace, not aggregate. Most agencies that claim multi-marketplace coverage are deep on Amazon and shallow elsewhere. The per-marketplace scoring surfaces this clearly.

At $5M+ Amazon revenue, in-house economics get competitive. A senior Amazon manager at $130K + analyst at $80K + tools at $24K/year = $234K loaded cost vs $180K–$300K for agency at the same scale. The math favors in-house if you can attract that talent and your needs are stable. The math favors agency if you need flexibility (growing/shrinking team), specialized expertise across marketplaces, or you can't compete for the talent. Hybrid (small in-house team + retained specialist agency) is increasingly common at $20M+ revenue.

Operational changes (campaign restructure, listing optimization) show measurable results in 30–45 days. Strategic changes (creative refresh, category expansion, new ad types) show results in 60–90 days. Sustained year-over-year growth measurement requires 6+ months. Agencies that promise 30-day transformative results are usually overcompressing. Early gains often come from cleaning up obvious account issues rather than from genuine strategy. Manage expectations on 90-day cycles.

Days 1–30: Discovery + audit + quick wins. Deliverables: account audit document, baseline KPI documentation, list of immediate fix opportunities, kickoff meeting facilitation, access setup. Days 31–60: Foundation changes. Deliverables: campaign restructure, listing optimization for top 20 ASINs, creative briefs for A+ Content refresh, measurement infrastructure setup. Days 61–90: Experimentation. Deliverables: 3–5 specific growth bets launched, measurement results from 60-day changes, rolling 90-day plan for next quarter.

Yes, and required. A reputable agency uses month 1 for: deep account audit (campaign structure, listing quality, competitive positioning, attribution setup), baseline KPI documentation, identification of quick wins vs strategic bets, and team relationship establishment. Skipping audit means making changes without understanding why your account is performing the way it is. Agencies that compress this to a week are operating on assumptions.

Three categories. Operational health: account health metrics maintained or improved (ODR, IPI, account status). Efficiency: ACOS and TACOS within agreed bands. Strategic: 1–2 named experiments launched with success criteria defined. Avoid promising specific revenue lift in 90 days. Honest agencies won't commit to that without category benchmarks and account history. Better to commit to process metrics and let efficiency/growth metrics follow naturally.

No. Give user-level access with appropriate permissions. Admin or account-owner level access lets the agency add/remove other users and modify account settings. User-level access lets them perform operational work without account control. Every major platform supports role-based permissions. If your agency requests admin access "to make work easier," that's a red flag, easier for them, riskier for you.

Six audit areas. (1) Account health: status, performance metrics, policy compliance. (2) Campaign structure: portfolio organization, ad group logic, keyword targeting. (3) Catalog quality: listing optimization, A+ Content depth, image quality. (4) Creative inventory: what assets exist, what's missing. (5) Measurement infrastructure: attribution setup, reporting frequency, KPI definitions. (6) Competitive positioning: where you rank vs category benchmarks.

Depends on contract terms. Without explicit IP transfer language, the agency typically retains ownership of work product they created, even though you paid for it. Best practice contract language: "All creative assets including but not limited to photography, video, A+ Content, Brand Store designs, and ad copy created during the engagement transfer to Client upon payment, with full commercial usage rights and unrestricted modification authority." Audit your existing agency contracts for IP language now.

Reputable agencies use enterprise password management (1Password Business, LastPass Enterprise) for credential storage, role-based access provisioning so account managers see only their assigned clients, MFA on all client-facing platforms, and access audit logs for compliance. Less reputable practice: shared spreadsheets with credentials, individual analyst accounts without segregation, no MFA. Ask: walk me through how my Seller Central credentials are stored and who at your agency has access.

4–8 clients per account manager is healthy for full-service retainers. Above 10 clients per AM, attention dilution starts hurting account performance. Below 3 clients per AM, the agency is over-resourcing (you're paying for capacity you don't get). Junior AMs typically handle higher client counts (8–12) under senior AM oversight; senior AMs typically handle fewer (3–5) larger accounts. Ask explicitly during agency evaluation.

Some, in three forms: (1) 90-day trial period built into a 12-month contract with no-fault termination; (2) shorter 30-day pilot focused on specific scope (audit + optimization plan only); (3) project-based work as a try-before-retainer. Very few agencies offer "free trial". The time investment to start is too high to give away. If "free trial" is offered, evaluate carefully. Usually the agency is lead-starved.

Four-stage formal process satisfying audit requirements. (1) Internal stakeholder alignment on scope and budget before vendor outreach. (2) Structured RFP with weighted scoring rubric across criteria (capability, fit, cost, references). (3) Finalist presentations with cross-functional evaluation panel (marketing, finance, legal). (4) Negotiated MSA with clear SLAs, IP terms, data security provisions, and termination clauses. Total timeline: 90–120 days from RFP to signed contract.

Standard 90-minute agenda: (1) introductions and team structure on both sides; (2) goals and success criteria for the engagement; (3) communication cadence and tools; (4) data and access handoff plan; (5) audit timeline and deliverables; (6) immediate priorities and quick-win opportunities; (7) risk areas the agency wants to flag; (8) open questions and next steps. Agencies that don't run a structured kickoff are improvising.

Six categories. (1) Brand assets: logo files, brand guidelines, photography, video, A+ Content modules. (2) Product information: SKU list, COGS, margin structure, packaging specs. (3) Historical performance: 12 months of advertising reports, sales reports, key metrics. (4) Competitive context: who you consider competitors, what differentiates you. (5) Strategic context: business goals, growth targets, constraints. (6) Compliance/legal: IP documentation, contracts with related parties, regulatory considerations.

Standard practice: pull 12+ months of historical data from Amazon Ads, Seller Central, Google Ads, Meta, directly from your accounts via permissioned access, not via your manual export. The data analysis informs the audit and baseline documentation. Agencies that ask you to "send us your reports" are signaling they don't have efficient data extraction processes.

Sometimes, but watch for ambulance-chasing. Honest agencies share specific, evidence-based findings about what wasn't working ("Your campaign portfolio has 47 ad groups with overlapping keywords; standard practice is 15–20 with clear intent separation"). Less honest agencies broadly criticize the previous agency to make themselves look better. Look for findings tied to specific data and specific corrective actions, not vague criticisms.

A thorough onboarding questionnaire covers 60–120 questions across categories: business context, product details, competitive landscape, brand positioning, customer personas, marketing history, technology stack, team structure, success metrics, risk factors. Length reflects depth. Agencies needing 20 questions typically can't customize their approach to your business. The questionnaire's purpose: surface assumptions before they become problems.

Standard: 90 days post-engagement to fulfill any final deliverables, then full deletion of client data from agency systems with deletion confirmation provided in writing. Some categories require longer retention for legal/regulatory reasons. Best practice contract language: "Agency will retain client data only as required for active engagement and will delete all client data within 90 days of engagement termination, providing written confirmation of deletion." Without this clause, your data may live in agency systems indefinitely.

Hybrid is standard at mid-size and larger engagements. One named account manager as primary contact for day-to-day, with specialist team members (PPC analyst, creative lead, AMC analyst, designer) accessible as needed. Single point of contact across all functions is unrealistic for accounts with sophisticated needs. No individual covers PPC + creative + AMC + ops at expert level. Agencies that promise "single point of contact" for full-service engagements are either understating their actual delivery model or under-resourcing the work.