Amazon PPC Management Services Compared! (Agencies Vs Software Vs Freelancers)

If you have to read one FBA article in 2023, I suggest you complete this one because it's packed with years of experience, and secrets.

Amazon advertising can make or break your FBA business. Thus, it’s paramount to work with the right Amazon PPC service provider that understands the current cosmos of Amazon, and can implement marketing strategies that aligns with your needs.

For the most part, Amazon sellers are either outsourcing PPC to agencies, software tools or utilizing a freelancer or in-house talent.

And having worked for Amazon marketing agencies, launched my own B2C brand, and tested couple of Amazon advertising softwares, I’m going to share with you the pros, and cons of each, and what’s the best form to manage Amazon ads.

Before we compare these PPC service providers in detail, I want to preface this article with the increased competition on Amazon, and the CPC inflation as a result.

Competition on Amazon

Selling on Amazon in 2023 is no easy feat, and unlike how many ads you’ve seen served on Youtube by FBA Gurus who don’t sell on the marketplace, the reality of the matter is that it’s getting more competitive and no sings of it slowing down in the future.

So much of that competition is the increased number of new sellers, ranging from small businesses to renowned brands.

According to a study by Marketplace Pulse, Amazon was projected to add 665,000 new sellers in 2021. And if that current rate continued throughout 2022, we’re looking at 1,824 new sellers joining everyday or a total number of 665,760 new sellers joined. In addition to the existing 6.3 million Amazon sellers worldwide.

This too is evident in Amazon ad business which grew 25% in the third quarter to $9.5 billion in 2022, and accounts for $31 billion in revenue (revenue reported in 2021).

For Amazon sellers, this CPC inflation is plain as day once you look at your own CPC history. See the example below for one of the brands I’m managing.

Now that you know you have to spend big to play, let’s look at who should you hire to manage your Amazon advertising.

Amazon PPC Agency

Amazon PPC agencies are a great solution to many sellers but not all. For sellers who can afford them.

A lot of Amazon PPC agencies charge a % of total sales which can hurt the seller returns, especially when they’ve got to bear all of the costs of running an FBA business.

The other major downside with Amazon marketing agencies is underdelivering, and overpromising.

A Good Amazon PPC agency charge premium for their services, and rightfully so because it requires a lot of capitol to hire great talent. Also, the benefits of hiring a marketing agency is you get to have multiple people working on your account which’s especially important if you’re looking for a full-service provider.

If you’re a large brand, and need help with setting up coupons, submitting deals, and dealing with listing issues, a full-service agency is likely the best option here. Though, that alone isn’t enough to hire one.

It all boils down to how effective they can run ads to increase your topline revenue while help ensure great returns. And that’s a collaboration that needs to be established by both the agency, and the Amazon seller.

I created the table below to help you vet a good agency from the bad and layout the characteristics, and deliverables you should expect from hiring one.

Amazon PPC Software

Without mentioning names, I’ve tried couple of Amazon software tools that swear by their AI magic, yet I’ve yet to see one that’s merely good let alone able to scale an account.

These tools simply sell Amazon sellers on the idea of having their time back because their exclusive AI is able to manage their ad-spend better than a human. That’s Simply Not True.

There’re good semi-automatic Amazon tools that can help sellers make bidding, budget, changes in bulk, though you still need a human brain to assess the data which’s CUSTOM to every account, and make a strategy accordingly.

If you’ve tried some of these Amazon PPC softwares, I’m sure you’ll be familiar with the following issues:

These issues can hold Amazon products that have potential from become Amazon Choice & Best-Seller products.

Discover the pros, and cons of using Amazon PPC tools:

Amazon PPC Manager

Hiring an Amazon PPC Manager is another affordable option. Though, the more experienced the ad manager, the higher they’ll likely charge premium for their services.

What’s most important is the ad-manger’s experience, and character.

When I say character & experience, I mean this for example. Imaging a scenario when you’re already a best-seller, and the best use of your dollars is to play defense instead of offense.

To allocate ad-spend towards other products that can be scaled OR simply cut back on ad-spend than just spend money for the heck of it (% of organic revenue / profitability).

For large brands, sometimes it’s cost-efficient to hire an in-house Amazon ad-manager via Linkedin Or Indeed as that might yield more benefits.

Some of the benefits of hiring an In-house ad manager is:

Bottom Line

Amazon advertising can be used as a life raft, a sailboat, or a yacht, it all depends on who’s the captain of your ship.

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Amazon advertising can be time consuming thus outsourcing PPC is likely the case for most busy sellers. However, finding and working with the right Amazon marketing partner will be key for your brand to fail or thrive on the biggest e-commerce marketplace.

I hope the above comparisons and tips will help you learn more about Amazon PPC management tools and service providers. And what to look for when hiring one.

Wondering if your Amazon PPC provider is spending your money wisely?

Contact me today for a free account audit that will uncover a lot of things advertising related including spend allocation, concentration, organic sales and rankings…etc.

Before you bounce, feel free to check out this guide about Amazon bundling AND Amazon PPC cost best practices.

Lastly, if this guide added value to you as an Amazon seller or digital marketer, feel free to say let me know in the comment section so I can keep more golden gems like this coming in every week.

Cheers & keep scaling!